Aerial in black and white

R's and my friend Wilhelm visited us at training some weeks ago to take more photos with his analogue cameras. He has a blog where he uploads his pictures along with information from the camera that can be found here.

So for the first time R and I tried to both climb the silks. I know that partner silks are possible and done by a lot of people, but we just gave it a go and climbed one silk each! So much fun to both be there at the same time!

When this photo was uploaded someone commented that it looked like we were playing some kind of vertical Twister and I couldn't agree more, but Twister i fun. I think much of the partner things I have done feel a little like Twister where two bodies have to share a small space and cooperate in the movement.

When I started out doing acro things with R it could sometimes feel a little awkward to move around like this but after a while at elast I got used to it and are now trusting R and myself a lot while doing bot aerial and acro yoga.

This photo captures the joy of acro yoga and partner acrobatics!

I think this is the best photo of me in the collection! It captures how it really feels when aerial is done the right way - like a weightless flying!

I like the pictures a lot and think they make both me and R look good, so I wanted to include this photo that shows how it looks in between the great photos where we resat and discuss what we can do differently. In circus there is a lot of trying, failing, resting and evaluation before reaching results!

Circus games! Let's play!

At the Höstglöd camp I organized some circus games and I wanted to share some game ideas!

I first got contact with circus games when I visited the British Juggling Convention, although I had played some games at Greentop as well. At the Swedish juggling convention there was also some games, and the rest are just silly ones that I have come up with, sometimes together with others in the juggling club Phire at Luleå University of Technology.

So here are my list of silly games, general game ideas, some games grouped after discipline and some thoughts on organizing the games.

So many props - so many possible games!!!

Ellinor's list of silly circus games

Poi and club fighting game (Hogwarts game)
Rules: Each participant takes a poi in one hand and a club in the other hand. Then while spinning the poi the aim is to use the club to hit others pois so that they stop spinning. When someones poi stops spinning (for any reason) that person is out. This game can be done either as a gladiator game or as a duel game.
Winner: The last person with a spinning poi.

Trivia: I call this the Hogwarts game because me and J invented it as a battle between Hufflepuff (I was wearing a Hufflepuff shirt) and Slytherin (J had green poi), and in the magical battle the poi is the spell and the club is your magic wand!

Diabolo with the nose

Rules: A race where the participants race by putting their diabolos on the ground and making it roll forward only by using their nose.
Winner: The first person to cross the winning line

Club thrust
Rules: The participants stand on a line and have one club between the legs with the handle poiting forward. Then they put the other club on top of the handle of the first club and make a thrust motion with their hip so that the club flys forward. This game just looks ridiculous.
Winner: The persons who's club flies the furthest.

Pass the juggling ball
Rules: This game is done in teams where each time lines up along a lin. The first person in the team then out a juggling ball under the chin and tries to give it to the net person in the line, who pass it on to the next and so on. If they drop they have to start over from the last person who had the ball.
Winner: The team where the last person gets the ball first

Club crown gladiator
Rules: Everybody puts three clubs in a triangel so that the handle is always under the "body" of the next club. Then they put this "crown" on their heads and walk around, trying to knock down other people "crowns".
Winner: The last person with a crown.

People playing the crown game gladiator at Swedish Juggling Convention 2015

Crash in the air game
Rules: This game is quite the opposite of club passing and done in pars. The pairs stand with equal distance between them and trow their clubs/balls/other and make them crash in the air. If they crash, they are on to the next level and one person takes a step back and they throw their objects again. If their objects meet and crash in the air, they are on to the next level, but if they miss, they are out.
Winner: The pair that can make two objects crash from the furthest distance.

Gesture game
Rules: This game is played in pairs. The leader shouts a word, for example "Hello" (or candy/pain/driving/fotball/Churchill and so on) and then say "3,2,1 pose". On "pose" everyone has to do a pose that they think about when they heard the word. If the two participants in the pair made the same gesture, the are on to the next round, but if they made different gestures, they are out. For example for the word "hello", the pair could do either hand shake gesture or weaving gesture or something else as long as both people in the pair do the same.
Winner: The last remaining pair.

Everything or nothing
Rules: This game can be done with many different things, like coins, grapes, fruit or something else. Every participant bets three of the decided thing. Then the game is to juggle the things the longest. If you drop, you are out and has to put your "balls" eg coins/fruit in a bowl and the winner wins the whole bowl!!
Winner: The last woman/man juggling.

I have played this game once with coins at the BJC and there was an impressive amount of coins for the lucky winner. For Höstglöd camp I made this as the last game to use up all the remaining dried banana crisps, so every participant got 3 crisps to bet into the game, and the winner got all of them!

Rings and heads game
Rules: This game is played in pars; one thrower and one catcher. The throwers line up nehin a line and the catchers stand opposite them. Then the throwers are going to throw the rings so that their catcher can catch it on their head. If they make it, they are on to the next round and the remaining catchers take some steps backward and the game is on again. If the catcher miss the ring, the pair is out.
Winner: The last remaining pair!

Unicycle gladiator game at the British Juggling Convention 2014

General game ideas that can apply to almost every discipline

Since there are always different people with different skills here are three general ideas that can be applied to almost any skill.

Simon says 
Rules: In this game, the leader gives instructions to the participants to do different tasks, but starting some of them with Simon says. If the task starts with Simon says, then the participants should do the task, but if the leader just say the task then the participants should NOT do the task. If someone do the task anyway, or forgets to to the task when they should, they are out.
Winner: The winner is the last participant left.

This can be done in different disciplines such as juggling, diabolo, devil stick and so on, but also is acrobatics and acroyoga. Make sure everyone knows what the leader means with all the trick names, and don't pick too difficult tricks to start with. In the beginning it is not fun to be out just because you failed the trick but did it right according to Simon.

Endurance game
Rules: Endurance game is simply an endurance challenge about who can do something the longest? If it gets to easy, then add some challenge like "continue to do it while making a turn/sit down/one one leg".
Winner: The winner is is last woman standing!

Endurance game ideas: 3-ball juggling, 4-ball, 5-ball... devil sticks propeller/helicopter

Gladiator game
Rules: The aim of the gladiator game is to  do something, but at the same time crash it for the others! For example riding the unicycle, but at the same time crash/poke others so that they fall of their unicycle.
Winner: The last participant doing the thing!

Gladiator game ideas: unicycle, balancing a club in the hand/leg/face, hula hooping, poi butterflys, jumping one one leg holding the other, propeller with devil sticks

This ball passing could be turned into a game as described above with moving further and further away from each other.

Juggling and circus game ideas

Juggling

• Endurance juggling
• Simon says juggling
• Juggling fight
• Club balance endurance
• Pirouette game
• Passing in pairs and move further and further away from each other

Trow and run game
Rules: Trow a juggling ball/club/ring as far as you can, but you need to run after it and catch your own object.
Winner: The one that run the furthest.

Diabolo

• Thow back and forth in pairs and move further and further away from each other

Skipping rope
Rules: First everybody trow the diabolo up in the air and then doing one skipping jump with the sticks and string before catching it. Then everybody does two skips and so on. If you dont do the required number of jumps, or fail to catch the diabolo, you are out.
Winner: The person that can make the most skips while the diabolo is in the air.

Hit the box
Rules: Everybody are standing behind a line and trying to trow thir diabolo in a box. If their diabolo are in the box, they are on to the next round when the box is moved further away from the participants. After a while you can have a person running around with the box to make it even harder.
Winner: The last person hitting the box when everybody else is out

People doing juggling club fighting game at BJC 2014 (unknown photographer)

Poi

• One handed butterfly endurance

Devilstick/flower stick

• Propeller endurance
• Helicopter endurance
• Propeller/helicopter gladiator
• One handed tick-tock gladiator

Acrobatics

• Handstand endurance 
• Handstand against the wall endurance
• Headstand endurance (maybe with some tasks after a while)
• Simon says acrobatics

Yogamat walking game
Rules: All the participants starts behind a line on their rolled yoga mats (the need to be tied together with a rope or something). Then they walk towards the finishing line a little like you would walk on a walking globe.
Winner: The first person to cross the finishing line

Don't touch the ground game
Rules: This game is played in teams of three persons that compete in who will cross the finishing line first. To get there there is going to be one person flying and two basing. The bases are not allowed to move when the flyer is on top of them, meaning that the bases must take turs so that the flyer can "climb" forward without touching the ground.
Winner: The team whose flyer first crosses the finishing line.

Aerial games

• Climb p a rope the fastest
• Hang in a rope/other aerial equipment endurance

The climb the rope game is included because in most Swedish school gyms there are like 5 ropes (that are not aerial ropes but for training purposes) that the participants can climb.

In the hanging endurance competition, make sure everyone is hanging low and in a safe way so they don't hurt when they let go.

Club balance endurance game at British Juggling Convention 2014

Some thoughts on organizing the games

For the games to be entertaining to watch and not have too much waiting time here are some organization things to think about.

• Organize some sort of price and a designated prize giving person or point

They could be big prices or just candy, but having a prize makes it more of a competition! It is good if there is someone responsible for handing out the prices at the side of the games so the winner knows where to go. At Höstglöd the prize was either banana snacks or a cookie, so it doesn't have to be fancy.

• Nice competition music 

Something upbeat or just Eye of the Tiger!

• Have a premade list of what games to include

It might be obvious, but plan the games ahead. Try to have a nice mix between juggling, diabolo, acrobatics, techinical games, silly games, games that everyone can join in to and so on.

• Announce upcoming games so that people have time to get the required equipment (if any).

• If things gets too easy for the participant, make it harder

Either try one of these or let the audience decide something they want to see.

Ideas to make it harder: Turn around, one one leg, with closed eyes, start walking around, faster, slower, switch sides/hands/partner/equipment, go down to the knees/sitting/lying down.

Let the games begin!

Some theories why the monodisciplinar seems to increase in the circus world

I have noticed that lately I have read and heard quite a lot about monodisciplinary shows, and by that I mean specialized shows with only juggling or only acrobatics and so on. To explain my thoughts about this, I will start with the different disciplines of circus.

When I went to circus school, I learned that circus consisted of the following five disciplines:

• Juggling and object manipulation
• Aerial
• Acrobatics
• Equibrilistics and balance
• Clowning

Later, I found out that some people also include

• Partner acrobatics
• Ring master

These different disciplines are all very different and give different dimensions to the circus, as well as a great variety. They all had their place.

But lately and especially in new circus I have noticed that there are many shows with only one or maximum two of these disciplines. There are acrobatic shows, juggling shows and balance shows.
Here are some of my ideas of why:

Maybe this has come from small groups that want to explore their discipline deeper, and in order to do that it takes some acts to show the different possibilities within the discipline.

It could also be that people with one specialization meet other people with the same specialization and then decide to make a show together. I think it is much more likely to meet people in your own specialization than someone from a totally different field.

One other explanation could be that it might be easier to "break free" from "traditional circus" by doing it monodisciplinary as it even more underline the differences between traditional and new circus.

It could be easier to sell a show to a venue if it resembles more to other forms of performance that are usually monodisciplinar, like dance or theatre. Because then it is easier to label it as "juggling performance" in the program.

Do you have any ideas of why the monodisciplinar shows has seemed to have increased?

Tilde Björfors has written a lot of interesting things on this topic in her circus research on this link: 7 Dimesions and 7 disciplines (In Swedish).

In the club at uni we did a monodisciplinar show last winter as there where only object swinging, manipulation and juggling in the club at that time. We did a high light video:

2014 summary - The year of circus shool, festivals, performances and artist development

The new year has started with a lot of snow i Luleå, and I am back studying for the exam period next week.

This blog is almost a year old now, and I wanted to make a post that sums up my circus year.

2014 was the year when I really decided to dig deeper in my interest in circus, and I think I have learnt so many things and met so many nice people. I have done physical circus, practice and attended the Greentop Circus in Performance course, and watched a lot of circus performances.

The best circus thing of the year
The best circus thing of the year was the Greentop Circus in Performance course at Greentop, Sheffield. The course really focus on how to perform, but I learnt many new skills as well. I tried aerial for the first time, and broaden my knowledge and skill of the other disciplines. The fact that I was going to the course was the reason I started this blog, so if you are interested there are many blog posts about this. The CIP course also gave me many new friends! I would really recommend this course.

From my tight wire act

Best equipment bought
The best new equipment of this year are the LED juggling balls. I really like juggling with them when they glow, and I performed my first solo juggling act with them. There is this special feeling with the glow from LED equipment.

I terms of the most useful thing, it was the cheap ballet shoes I got for tight wire walking. They saved my feet and made it possible to practice more.

The LED juggling balls

Skills achieved that I am most proud of
I learnt so many new skills this year so here are some that I am extra proud of

• Get down to sitting and the stand up again on tightwire
• Starting to learn to keep two diabolos
• Learnt an aerial silks drop
• Stabilized the four ball fountain and opend a door for more four ball tricks
• Performance and clowning skills in general
• Continued to develope partner poi tricks

Thank you Gemma for teaching me this aerail silks position

Best two performances of the year

The graduation shows for the CIP course was the best performance of the year. I did two group dances, assisted others in their acts, did a group juggling act with painters theme, an areal duo act with tourist theme and a maintenance worker themed solo tight wire act. The good thing with this performances was that I really felt how I had evolved throughout the course, and performed not only with skill but also with character. It also felt good to show all our family and friends the show that we out up together as a team. I am so proud of how we made this show together!

Juggling with my painting friends in the graduation show

The other best performance was in the club's winter show where my friend and I did our partner poi performance with fire in front of an audience for the first time. This time I like that we have this trust and sense of each other that I think just comes with time.

Act performed most times
During the year my poi friend and I have made our partner poi chorography Europa so many times. We did it at the Luleå Work Fair Banquet, at the beach at the Meidival week at Gotland, with fire at the club's show and many more times. On the contrary of what many might think, I am not getting tired of the act, but just more excited about it!

Here we are just about to start performing Europa

The year of festivals
For the fist time, I went to a juggling convention: BJC in Darton. It was wonderful to juggle in the gym, participate in the games, look at the shops, attend work shops, see the shows, renegade, fight night and gala show! It was awesome!

At the beach at Medieval week in Visby at Gotland together with the friends from the spinning club

We also went to the medieval week at Gotland. We saw so many fire performances, sang, dances, looked at the market, looked at peoples awesome costumes, ate nice food and hanged out at the beach at night (with some fire). The medieval week is like a mix of everything, and we got to know each other more as a group.

I was watching this club balancing game at the BJC

The year of seminars, circus festivals and consortiums
I also learned a lot more about circus when I attended the Umeå contemporary circus festival and DOCH's Women in Circus Consortium. I attended seminars, lectures and discussions about circus. It is difficult to learn about these things alone in Luleå, and I loved to listen to all the discussions and thoughts.

Shows and performaces watched
This year, I have goten so inspired by all different forms circus can appear in. I have seen many different types of shows and work, and as many was to approach and explore circus. After the CIP course, I learnt that circus is a mix of ideas, skill and how you present them. I enjoyed all of the performances and cannot pick one that I prefer more than the other.

So here is the list:

Sailors and Mermaids cabaret at Greentop

Gala show of BJC

Many fire performances at Medeltisveckan including
Nordegravar performance and vegetable show - Trix
Glimtar - Pyrox
Gofar - Girls on Fire
Myten om Martebo - Pax
Shows at "Magikergränd"

A photo from the Girls on fire show

Many shows at Umeå Contemporary circus festival including
An afternoon of Foen
La Soirée - many artists (at least three times because I worked as a voulonteer)
Glitch - Johan Wellton
Flown -Pirates of the Carabena

Underart by Circus Cirkör in Gothenburg

Knee Deep - Circus Casus in Piteå

Magic and juggling show at Chistmas at Liseberg

Shows and extracts at Women in Circus Consortium
Beta testing - Gyonides Project
Eat it - Ruby rose
I shit diamonds - Stacy Sacks
Circus Hall of Femmes - many different artists that where all women


I think 2014 has been a wonderful circus year! I hope you had wonderful circus years as well and that 2015 will be a good one!

Aerial work

I have been doing a lot of aerial the last days. Yesterday, I did a ropes and silks workshop and today afternoon we had supervised aerial practice. My biceps really hurt and I am worried that I might soon catch a cold, so I didn't go to tonights beginners aerial class.

During the workshop we mostly focused on the basics, which I as a former figure skater now never can be trained enough. We did some experimenting with the Russian climb: big, small, straight or bent leg and with a twist. The teacher encouraged us to explore and invent our own versions, and I like how the course and everything is going towards inventing, create and explore your own things.

In the morning we had performance and we are now creating work for the show. Our group had been a little stuck, but at least we had less problems today than last time. We found that when we where doing different kind of games or exercises is was so easy for us to come up with ideas, but now when we can create freely we tend to make things a little bit to complicated when the key seems to be to keep everything as simple as possible.

In the evening there were the parcour class, where I tried hand spring for the very first time. I also did some more assisted back flips. I am still very bad at this but I wasn't even half as scared as I was last week which is a huge step forward for me.

Aerial and silks

This morning when I came to Greentop the rigging ladder was up, and they were rigging up some old new silks for the aerial day. Almost everyone wanted to do aerial, and since there are so many different aerial equipment we had to chose our first choice and second choice. Surprisingly, we are very evenly divided between the equipment: static trapeze, rope, silks, aerial hoop, static cloud swing and straps. I think it will be good with such a variety in the show.

The rigging ladder from another day when they were rigging.

Aerial classes are now turning out a little bit different as time moves closer to the show. The teaches divide their time between the different equipments, and in between we have practice time. I get along well with the other girl who chose silks, and we also listen to the rope instructions since rope and silks have some things in common. 

There was some "new" (at least to us) silks there today to replace the old ones. This new ones where so much springier, thicker so it was difficult to grab all of them at the same time and not slippy at all. My first climb in them was like climbing in sand that just fell down no matter how much I pushed them away to climb upwards. At least I will get stronger by using them. They also told by that doing drops wouldn't hurt as much with the springier ones, but I didn't try it out today.

Aerial class with silks in the foreground and static cloud swing in the background. On the left there is a trapeze and on the right there is a rope.

 We also did some creative exercises to start thinking about our routines for the show. I feel that I need a strong performance and theme since I cannot just rely on technique in silks since I still consider myself as quite a beginner. I still haven't decided what to chose as a theme yet.

The cradle (?)

 I learned some new moves today, and some better techniques to go to positions I already new. As you can see on the photo I wore new leggings that had a more cotton surface to make it less slippery, and I actually didn't fall down as much as last week. Maybe it is placebo effect, an actual effect or just the face that I have gotten stronger. I spent quite a lot of the practice time messing around to see what tricks that went well together and that could be possible combinations for the show.

Split!

After all this aerial I am very tired in my shoulders and arms so I will rest them tonight. In areal, I definitely feel that it was the arm strength that I lacked to be able to do everything, but it feels better every week.

Aerial practise and choreography

I think I have become a lot better at climbing the silks that for my first time three weeks ago. In the aerial class the day before yesterday we did our assessments tasks which was spotting someone and then do a trapeze routine.

My trapeze routine was quite simple, but I am still happy with my performance and the feedback I got from the teacher. I did the trapeze moves gazelle, angel, reverse angel, candlestick, mixed grip straddle, up to sitting, balance, lamp post, coffin, birds nest.
This picture is a screen shot from the movie of me going into this position, but I think I have become a lot better at climbing the silks that for my first time three weeks ago. In the aerial class yesterday we did our assessments tasks which was spotting someone and then do a trapeze routine.

My trapeze routine was quite simple, but I am still happy with my performance and the feedback I got from the teacher. I did the trapeze moves gazelle, angel, reverse angel, candlestick, mixed grip straddle, up to sitting, balance, lamp post, coffin, birds nest.

Finally I mastered a nice silks position

On Wednesday afternoon we had aerial choreography. Unluckily, I was unable to participate for a very funny reason. I was jumping and dancing around at lunchtime, and just when my foot was in the air a diabolo from one of the other students flew in under my foot. When I landed I hit the diabolo and strained my ankle, so then I decided to rest to not risk the rest of the course.

So instead I took a lot of notes in the choreography lesson. I have some experience of choreography from dance and figure skating that I practiced when I was younger, so it was interesting to hear how this teacher thought about it.

We discussed different starting points for a choreography, like space, context, character, equipment, budget, duration, music, theme, safety, costume, narrative, solo/duo/group and so on. We also talked about the importance to know who is in charge of making different decisions when making the choreography. Sometimes the buyer want to make them, sometimes there is a director and sometimes the artist. Then we did some exercises in tempo, when they did the same series of aerial moves but in different tempos.

Watching an exercise in aerial choreography class

Chorepgraphy top tips

• Be present and do the moves worth watching
• Have a clear ending and a clear end
• Don't be afraid to use the ground as well as the air in aerial performance
• Choreography doesn't have to be complicated, just clear
• We like patterns
• Don't be afraid of repetition
• Try to vary the tempo pf the moves from static holding to flowing moves
• Don't be a slave to the music
• Try to create contrast in speed, shape, pace
• Audience see shapes, not moves
• Slowness and still points give confidence to the performance

And most important of all:

• Audience don't remember tricks, they remember moments. Create great moments!