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!

My 2015 circus resumé!

Another year of circus has passed! I realized that I have not blogged as much as last year, but that is because I have been doing so much circus!

Here is a resume and some reflections on what I have been up to 2015.

Going back to juggling and visiting SJC in spring

In spring, a new member in the circus club had the patience to practice club passing with me. I already liked circus things that could be done in couples, and club passing in no exception. This also motivated me to practice juggling on my own.

Photo credits: Simon Dunder (who also filmed Evelinas and my partnerpoi choreography). Here we are doing a partners weave.

Together with my partnerpoi partner I visited the Swedish Juggling Convention in Linköping, which was very small compared to the BJC, but I got to now many nice people there. I performed my worst performance ever at the SCJ opening show, woth a poi flying off stage. It was awful when it happend because it was one a the few times where the audeince almost only consist of other circus people but now it is just a funny story to tell.

Phire doing a Phire performance for Luleå Jujtsu club 5th years anniversary

I performed quite much with Phire, and realized that I was going to miss them so much when I was moving to Göteborg.

Performing partner poi with Evelina

A summer of teaching circus

During the summer, I was teaching a lot of circus: one at a children's camp in Vänersnäs next to the biggest (and coldest) lake in Sweden and one at a family camp in Pieksämäki in Finland.

Me and my circus teacher companion at the childrens summer camp

Spending so much time teaching made me reflect both on how I did to learn things, how to teach circus and how to make an interest for circus.

Doing acrobatics at Balance Camp

Starting the gymnastics and finding new circus friends in Göteborg in autumn

In the end of summer I attended Balance Camp in Gagnef where I picked all the acrobatics workshops I could. That inspired me to sign up for a beginners class for adults in gymnastics at Göteborgs cheer och gymnastik to learn some basic gymnastics. I also got to know new friends in Göteborg from SJC, and from the open training that are held every Wednesday night in a gym in central Göteborg. I tried acro yoga for the first time.

Photo Credit: Stefan Lindkvist People attending my juggling workshop at Höstglöd camp

Winter - practising for the Christmas celebration opening fire show

I attended the Höstglöd alternativ art's camp outside Alingsås and spent one weekend doing a lot of different things. I met more poi spinners and got very inspired in their different workshops i stalls and expression with tools, as well as workshops in stage fighting, acro yoga, fire jam, massage and other things!

Together with Vindla eldkonst I made a duo fire show for the lightening of the Christmas tree in Vänersborg, and started to do some fire fans again and made a nice partnerpoi choreography.

I also got involved in creating a opening fire show for the Christmas celebration of Göteborg, which has been very interesting as a project. I did chorography planning in a small group, did choreography i parts together with the others, bought and built equipment, had late night fire trainings and a wonderful time. I learnt a lot about how to make a big project as a group and how to build equipment for the show. Too bad the show was cancelled because of the storm Helga, but we made a film of the show instead!

Circus performances I attended

• 7 fingers - Cuisine et Confessions
• Karavan circus festival: children's performances, Circo Eia, Cia el Crue and Jay Gillian
• Cirque Inextremiste - Extrêmités
• Cirque Alfonse - Timber
• Cirkus Cirkör - Limits
• SJC shows

Among these ones, I must say that Cuisine et Confession was my favourite because of the joy and big involvement of the audience! That is a tradition from "old" circus that really makes circus different from other art forms such as dance or theathre and I liked how Cuisine et Confessions involved and played with the audience.

I hope there will be as much circus in 2016!

Happy New Year!

5 degrees by Twisted feet - dance about global warming that needs more things in between its big innovative dances

Twisted feet is a Gothenburg based dance company that had their premier of their latest production "5 degrees" this Thursday, which I attended. Since I have seen many of the dance company Bounce's shows I had really high expectations to "5 degrees", especially since it aspired to build bridges between dance and global warming.

During the indtroduction speeches at the bar upstarirs many of them praised the face that this was a bigger project that included school shows and even an app for education about global warming, as well as this dance show.

I think that it is indeed a brave subject to take on for a dance show, and it is explained in the show when a boy finds a rubrics cube from the future that talk about global warming. The rubics cube is talking with a prerecorded voice, and answered with big movements from the dancer. For each degree there are some dances and also a set location that sets the mood of the dance.

The dances are very innovative in my eyes with position of the dancers, rythm and patterns. There was a lot of energy in the dances and the timing with changes of which part that will be in the spotlight are very good. The dances are very different from each "degree" (and location) and adds variety. All the dances are big group dances with all the dancers on stage.

The show uses a lot of technical help in innovative and new ways, from the voice and rubrics cube to let the audience be underwater with the help of blue lasers.

Twisted feet's "5 degrees". Picture borrowed from fotoscenen.se

"5 degrees" aims very high, but I think that the theme is overly explained in the show. The pace is too slow when the boy is talking to the rubrics cube, and I would have wished for more dance in between the big dance acts, both to give the show more dance and less words and to add even more variation, maybe with some duos or solos? Now there are to sharp edges that makes too sharp contrasts and not enough with dynamics. The big dance numbers could have stand out even more with some company from other dances around them.

The scenography with book shelves and wallpapers doesn't bring much to the show, but it takes time to move them out from the stages. I think the show could have done as good without them.

The lack of pace with the talking parts seems even longer since it was not clear to me who these parts where aimed at. Since it was in English, children younger than maybe 13 would have had difficulties to understand the information, and anyone old enough to understand English know at least this basic things about global warming that the voice were telling us.

Because of this, my favourite parts was in a windy mood, with two dancers that looked like the where caught by the wind. The mood was enhanced with hanging fabrics to create the feeling of being up in the sky.

I think it was too much talking an not as much dancing, with some lack of dynamics. The big dances with all the dancers were very good and innovative, but needs to be accompanied with better things in between.

Twisted feet's "5 degrees"

Choreography and directions: Twisted feet
Script: Christoer Brocker and Twisted feet
Clothes: Majli af Ekman
Scenography: Torulf Wetterot
Dancers: Mona Namer, Marco Whilborg, Johnny Nguten, Marcel Gomes, Denny Hultén, Anna Näsström, Pawel Pablo Krupa, Daniel Koivunen, Mia Hellberg and Felix Iljeh.

Twisted feet homepage

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:

The ultimate colors for juggling balls set

We have all seen them: These really professional jugglers that has like 9 white clubs and do amazing things. To me, having white props, black clothes and enter a black stage will give me some prejudices about what style of juggling the juggler will do.

I will soon order LEDballs, and last time I bought juggling balls I was thinking a lot about what colours to get. I was practising five ball flash quite a lot so I wanted the balls to have different colours so I could check that I caught the balls in the right hand. I wanted six, and they only had six colours, so I ended up with one in each colour. I still don't like that pink one.

So now I am buying LED-ball to use at performances, so I here are some suggestions if you like to have different colours when you juggle.

Don't get me wrong, I like when they are all in the same colour too.

3 balls
2+1 makes it possible to enhance special trick such as jugglers tennis.

4 balls
3+1 is one possible combination, but 2+2 is also an interesting one. 3+1 allows monochrome three ball if you want that, but 2+2 allows to have 2+1 with both chosen colours.

5 balls
I felt that it was difficult to fins some good combinations. with five balls, I don't see very often that any accent balls are needed. Maybe 4+1? 2+3 is also a good combination, because the both monochrome three ball is possible and also 2+2.

6 balls
I was thinking that maybe 2+4 would be a nice combination, because I can imagine that it would look nice with one accent ball in each three ball column when juggling? Also this makes many other good combinations for 4 and 3 ball patterns possible.
Also 4+1+1 is an interesting one, because it allows a three ball pattern with 3 different colours.

I wrote this article when I was thinking about what to buy considering LED juggling balls. At the end, I decided 6 balls, 4 green and 2 white like the northern light. It is going to be a nice juggling winter, and since I live in the northern part of Sweden there will be a lot of darkness to juggle in!

That is my thoughts on choosing ball colours for juggling sets. If you have thoughts about this it would be interesting to hear yours!

English and Swedish grocery stores comparision

Now when I am not on the circus course I can already feel that I need to eat considerably less food. Still, I need to eat something and the other day I was thinking about some differences between English and Swedish grocery stores.

Diary products

Sweden has a lot of diary and many kinds of yoghurt and "fil", and they are almost all packed in 1 liter packages. In Sweden, different kinds of Tetra Paks are used for milk and there are no plastic containers at all for milk. For both "fil", yoghurt and milk there are different options of fat percentage.

In England there are many kinds of yoghurt and they are all very sweet, and packed in potions. I have only found one type that is called "pouring yogurt" that resembled a little bit to the Swedish ones except that it was very sweet. There are also so many "0% fat" yoghurts which are unusual in Sweden. But the English ones are so much sweeter and almost always has some kind of fruit taste.

Another thing I noticed was that there are so many kinds of sweetened types of milk and different kind of "milkshake" type drinks in England. There are "chocolate bar milk" like Mars milk and many other. In England there was also possible to buy smaller packages of milk. In Sweden it is possible to buy 3 dl but not always, and then you have to buy 1 liter.

Deodorants and toothpaste

In England it seems to be common with those spray deodorants that looks like small hairspray bottles. This type exists in Sweden but in general I think the roll on versions are the most common ones, but here in England it seems to be the opposite.

When I bought toothpaste i saw that all the toothpaste tubes were packed in paper boxes, which they never are  in Sweden. In this case, it think it is a waste because you will just throw the box away directly anyway, and its the plastic tube that protects the toothpaste anyway?

Fresh vegetables

About the same, but the prices are generally lower in England. They also have a lot more pre-packed vegetables than in Sweden.

Biscuits and cereals

Oh so many biscuits and crisps and things there are in England! And so many cereals! The variety are so much bigger in England.

Alcohol

In Sweden, alcohol is sold by the state monopoly Systembolaget, so every time I go abroad it just feels unusual for me to see a whole line full of wine in a normal grocery store. Small convenience stores seems to sell a lot of alcohol considering how much of the shop it takes up.

Packing

Swedish grocery stores will not give away their plastic bags for free, but will charge about 1-2 SEK (~10-20 pence) each. They are made of stronger plastic than the English ones though. In Sweden you can always choose between paper bags and plastic bags, and the paper bags are bigger than the American ones you see in movies and they have hand grips.

At least among Swedish students this makes people avoid plastic bags if they can fit there things in their bags or they will bring other fabric bags so they don't have to pay for the plastic ones, and it is also environmental friendly.

In England, plastic bags are included in the prize, and they are smaller and weaker than the Swedish ones. Often in English food stores they will actually also ask you if they can help you packing, or not ask and help you anyway which is nice of them.

In England there was a long conveyor belt in front of the cashier where I could fit all my things. The I walked to the other side and packed each product directly after it had been scanned. I would pack all my things and then pay.

In Sweden, there are two conveyor belts; one in front and one behind the cashier, and sometimes it is not possible to fit it all at the same time. The after the product has been scanned, it continues to another conveyor belt on the other side. I prefer the English version, since sometimes the conveyor belt after the cashier is to strong and will damage fragile things like fruits or things packed in paper. In Sweden you pay before you start packing your products, and the conveyor belt on the other side of the cashier can usually split in two halves so that two customers can pack at the same time.

Shopping carts and baskets
In England, the shopping carts I have seen are quite shallow and will not fit as much as the Swedish ones, which seem gigantic in comparison. In some English grocery there are metallic shopping baskets, but I have never seen that in Sweden where there are only the plastic ones.

Self check outs
In England, it is very common with the self checkout stations, where you place your basket one one side and pack your things on the other side. The packing works like a scale where you need to put your things after you have scanned them. No special sign up or member club card is needed to use the self check outs.

In Sweden there are not common at all with self check outs, but some store will offer you to bring around a scanning machine so you can scan and pack directly when you take the product from the shelf. To do this you always have to sign up in advance to the stores member club and cannot be used if you are not a member.

Four person juggling routine creation and thoughts about cooperative acts

The day before yesterday our schedule said supervised acrobatics practice, but none of the jugglers nor me are taking specializing in acrobatics. Instead, we managed to create a four person juggling act! I am very proud of it and I liked how we could cooperate in such a good way. It definitely needs some more practice to make it smooth but as we practiced yesterday and today we have already become a lot better. I hope it will fit into the show, but our juggling teacher seemed like he liked it, so as long as the director likes it. I hope he will be positive because he has asked the teachers to make some bigger group performances this year.

When I spoke to a friend who did the same course last year, he said "I wanted to do doubles trapeze, but there was no flyer who wanted to work with me. They all wanted to be by themselves". I think cooperative acts are underestimated, because in group acts there is more than "just" a skill: It is the cooperative work and connection in the group. I think that in a cooperative act there is more about the relation between the performers, while in a solo acts it is more about the relation to the object. And human relations almost always win over objects.

Another reason that I like cooperative acts are that I can easily see and understand that there is a lot of determination, work and cooperation between the performers, and that is a skill I value highly. To me it is more impressive to see a group of people doing something of medium difficulty together, than to see one person doing something more difficult alone. Of course I understand that it takes a lot of time to master object manipulation or aerial, especially since I am interested in circus, but everyone has some personal experience how hard but wonderful it can be to work together with someone else.

Creating things and acts together can sometimes be hard, and sometimes it is a lot easier than doing it alone. I think we created our juggling routine very time efficiently and surprisingly smooth. We are all very different in skill level and how we usually perform juggling, but in this case our differences helped us. To me, I was happy to see how my juggling friends were especially good at finding transitions between the tricks that I hadn't though about. It is a lot harder to come up with new ideas alone simply because noone force you to do it and there is only your own limits, but as a group we had to find solutions that worked for everyone. Sometimes it means compromising and sometimes it means exploring new areas.

From my own experience, it can be scary to put so much time and effort in creating something together with someone because it also means trusting the other person a lot and spending a lot of time with them. But during shows it feels so nice to share the excitement, preparation, performance and joy with someone else.

The act I am most proud of is a cooperative act with poi together with my friend and poi partner.
And I feel so alone doing poi without the other poi spinners in Luleå.

I am so proud of a partner poi routine Evelina and I did together. It also happens to be Evelina's birthday today, so Happy Birthday Eve!

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!

Switching back and forth from work, studies and hobbies

At the birthday party I talked to a friend who said he had given his circus interest a proper go for the last five or six years, and worked as a self employed circus artist. He said that during his studies circus was always his biggest interest, but when he started working with circus he suddenly found that he had no hobby anymore.

My friend M and I had a poi photo shoot in December in Luleå, showing how much we love poi spinning.

I was interesting to hear his story because I am now doing the same thing: I am turning my hobby into something I do full time. Now when I do circus all day, I must do something else as a hobby. And happily, as you blog readers might have realized when i visited London, architecture suddenly become my hobby. I didn't realize this until I had this talk at the party, but now my hobby (circus) and studies (civil engineering and architecture)  has switched place.

I am dancing in front of the UFO cottage at the Three Hotel i the small village Harads, proving how much I love architecture.

I am so happy that architecture has become my new hobby because it means that I in some way really like architecture and engineering and that it is not just something I studied to get a stable income in the future. It also makes me feel more motivated to maybe continue my studies because then I will do the same thing as I did when I came here: turn my interest into something I do full time. I can tell you from this experience that it is wonderful to do that. .