This week is the last one on the course before we specialize, so we have had a lot of assessment to fullfill.
In manipulation class I was "Harry Potter's Swedish cousin" who waved my wand to my diabolos. In equbrilistics class I walked between Big Ben and Sheffieild Hallam University High building with a lot of wind, and once I fell down and "died".
Todays acrobatics class also contained an assessment and we did a water themes group performance to the song "Under the Sea". We also started to do some exercises for flips which was really fun.
In the evening I went to a dance show in Sheffield city Hall. I got really inspired and just was to burst out in dancing.
torsdag 13 mars 2014
måndag 10 mars 2014
Game is good, play is better in clowning class
Today, we had another full day of clowning. I had no idea what to expect from the clowning classes that are compulsory in the course, but they are getting better and funnier now compared to the first class I think. It is both frightening and fun to do clowning, but sometimes you just feel stupid, boring or vulnerable. It sounds like a cliché, but the clowning classes actually helps you find out more about yourself since we have nothing to "hide" behind, and in our clowning classes we don't use any costumes or props or other things.
Some good things that you get better at in clowning class is to always be positive, give it another try and to learn to try to sens the subtile sens of how other people are feeling or thinking, and then try to follow them.We have also learned to be enthusiastic and never reject other people ideas, how crazy they might be.
List of things our techer likes to say:
Game is good, play is better
Clowns are not gold medal winners
Game is good, play is better
Clowns are not gold medal winners
Clowns alway go for another try
What I have learned from this is: To be a clown is to dare to fail.
We actually did an exercises when we were suppose to hide under a blanket, the pop out and try to surprise the audience, and then just wait for the fun to die and the do something about it. The exercises was about to try to be funny, but fail and then try to solve it.
Our clown classes basically consistes of five hours of playing silly games, improvising and speaking nonsens. It is a fun way to start the week!
In the evening I went to the new parcour course, at is was very fun to run, jump and roll around, but to do these thing on the concrete seems far away at this point. Then I did trapeze beginners class but I forgot my phone at home, so there are no picture. Thats is really a shame since I learned a nice move called "the unicorn".
What I have learned from this is: To be a clown is to dare to fail.
We actually did an exercises when we were suppose to hide under a blanket, the pop out and try to surprise the audience, and then just wait for the fun to die and the do something about it. The exercises was about to try to be funny, but fail and then try to solve it.
Our clown classes basically consistes of five hours of playing silly games, improvising and speaking nonsens. It is a fun way to start the week!
In the evening I went to the new parcour course, at is was very fun to run, jump and roll around, but to do these thing on the concrete seems far away at this point. Then I did trapeze beginners class but I forgot my phone at home, so there are no picture. Thats is really a shame since I learned a nice move called "the unicorn".
söndag 9 mars 2014
Circus Space in London gains status as "National"
Article from The Guardian:
Acrobatic artists find new status as London circus school goes national
Directors hail victory for campaign to keep world-class talent in UK as London centre leads renaissance in big top skills.
A quote from the article:
" British tightrope walkers, acrobats and trapeze artists are to be given the same recognition as the country's leading troupes of musicians and dancers. Circus Space, the training centre in London's East End, is being elevated to "national" status by the government in a move to show that "circus arts" are being taken seriously."
" British tightrope walkers, acrobats and trapeze artists are to be given the same recognition as the country's leading troupes of musicians and dancers. Circus Space, the training centre in London's East End, is being elevated to "national" status by the government in a move to show that "circus arts" are being taken seriously."
I like this since it means that circus slowly is getting more and more recognition as an art form. I recommend to read the article.
The Moor Market and street dance
Yesterday I walked down to town. First I visited the main library of Sheffield and the Grave Galleries, where I watched ther exhibition about Polish artists the fled to UK duting the second world war. It was mostly quite heavy oil paintings. One thing I really like with the exhibition was the informative signs next to every painting, and the text on each was a good length but still contained some interesting information about the work. In some museum there are no or little information, or just too much. I also saw the rest of their exhibitions.
Then I went to see the Moor market. It was a nice market area that was number 7 on VisitSheffield.co.uk top visitior attractions. It was a nice, sunny Saturday with many people walking around, and I liked the atmosphere of the area.
There was some street dancers performing in the streets, and they both were really good at dancing and to enjoy themselves. After some time I realized they promoted their one night only show on Wendsday at Sheffield City Hall and I had already planned to go there together with some other students from the CIP course.
Inside the actual Moor Market was a mixtore of food and other stalls where you could find almost anything.
 |
| Some art in the stairs of the main library. |
There was some street dancers performing in the streets, and they both were really good at dancing and to enjoy themselves. After some time I realized they promoted their one night only show on Wendsday at Sheffield City Hall and I had already planned to go there together with some other students from the CIP course.
Inside the actual Moor Market was a mixtore of food and other stalls where you could find almost anything.
In the evening I went to Greentop to see the Cabaret "Sailors and Mermaids". It was fun to see some performances that could inspire us to our final CIP course, and the average level of the acts was good. One of our areal teachers did a performance and I liked to see how she did a very nice areal hoop performance
torsdag 6 mars 2014
The flying teapots and fire spinning
It is already week five of the course. I am really getting used to do this and I really like going to Greentop every day.
I have had a beginning of a cold this week so this Monday I didn't go to beginners evening trapeze class. instead, I went for Sheffield University juggling club "Flying Teapots" juggling practice session. It was very nice to see a room full of enthusiastic jugglers and object manipulators. I learned some new nice devil sticks moves and also some new poi moves ("the wrong weave" and "the antispin vetruvian man").
In poi, I have reached the point when it can sometimes be difficult to know what to learn next or where to head next, but there were some really skilled and nice poi spinners there that I talked to. I have never been to any juggling conventions but now I understand how you can learn a lot from them!
After the practice session we headed to West Park to do some fire practice. I had brought my fire poi from Sweden so after I had watched the other people I also had a go. My poi was burning a lot more than usual, and I don't know if it was because it was hot in the air or if it was the paraffin fuel that was different.
At the end A did some fire breathing. It looks really cool, but I think I will never dare to do it.
When I first started doing poi, I don't know if i was even aware that it was possible to do fire spinning. I had been doing poi for many years (hmm summers) when I tried fire for the first time with the jester club in Luleå, and I was really scared of the fire.
Now, I quite enjoy spinning with fire, but I still have a lot of respect for it. I like the sound of the flames when they move through the air, and still get a little adrenalin when I do it, even if it is not as much as when I was less used to fire spinning. It was a good evening.
I have had a beginning of a cold this week so this Monday I didn't go to beginners evening trapeze class. instead, I went for Sheffield University juggling club "Flying Teapots" juggling practice session. It was very nice to see a room full of enthusiastic jugglers and object manipulators. I learned some new nice devil sticks moves and also some new poi moves ("the wrong weave" and "the antispin vetruvian man").
In poi, I have reached the point when it can sometimes be difficult to know what to learn next or where to head next, but there were some really skilled and nice poi spinners there that I talked to. I have never been to any juggling conventions but now I understand how you can learn a lot from them!
After the practice session we headed to West Park to do some fire practice. I had brought my fire poi from Sweden so after I had watched the other people I also had a go. My poi was burning a lot more than usual, and I don't know if it was because it was hot in the air or if it was the paraffin fuel that was different.
At the end A did some fire breathing. It looks really cool, but I think I will never dare to do it.
When I first started doing poi, I don't know if i was even aware that it was possible to do fire spinning. I had been doing poi for many years (hmm summers) when I tried fire for the first time with the jester club in Luleå, and I was really scared of the fire.
Now, I quite enjoy spinning with fire, but I still have a lot of respect for it. I like the sound of the flames when they move through the air, and still get a little adrenalin when I do it, even if it is not as much as when I was less used to fire spinning. It was a good evening.
måndag 3 mars 2014
Choosing props for this week's manipulation class
I our manipulation classes we have until now had the opportunity to try many different juggling props just to get a feel for them. For this week's manipulation class we must make a difficult decision: We need to choose two props or "areas that we want to practice more. I think it is good to first broaden you skills by trying everything, and then go deeper into what you find interesting.
I know that not all my family and friends are so into manipulation as I am so here is a list and short explanation of all the props when have had the opportunity to try during our manipulation class (but of course there are many more not listed in this list).
Clubs are... clubs. They are more difficult to juggle because you have to control the spin so it makes the number of rotations in the air that you want. They can be used for club swinging almost like poi.
Rings have some possibilities that balls and clubs doesn't have; for exapmle you can catche the on you head or other body parts. They can have one color or different colors on the two sides, and are usually made of plastic. The typical size of a juggling ring is 32 cm in diameter.
Cigar boxes where real cigar boxes in their early stage. They are about the size of four pocket books glued together. They are not "thrown" as balls, but it like you are letting them move in a quite strict vertical motion up and down.
Diabolo is an hourglass shaped yoyo-resembling thing that are spun on a rope between two strings. Then, the diabolo is thrown and caught on the string and sometimes on the sticks. The diabolo can be made of either rubber, plastic, metal or even wood, but the center part where the string lies are almost always made of metal in modern diabolos. The sticks can be made by coal fibre, metal or wood.
Juggling hats have the advantage that they can be caught on different body parts.
In contact juggling there are no or very little throws. In contact juggling the juggler manipulate the ball so it looks like it is floating or isolating, or like it is controlled by some magic power.
Poi is a manipulation tool that looks like a ball attached to a string. Then you hold one of these in each hand and swing them around your body in different patterns.There is a branch of poi that is called contact poi that has similarities with contact juggling.
Devil sticks or flower sticks consists of one bigger stick that is manipulated with help of two other small sticks, one held in each hand. The difference between devil sticks and flower sticks is that devil sticks are hourglass shaped while flower sticks are straight and narrower.
Scarves fall down very slow in the air which gives another effect when juggling with scarves.
Hoola hoop is a big hoop that is either swung, spun or hooped around the body.
Spinning plate is a plate that is spun on a stick and then manipulated, twisted or thrown.
On the mat from left to right: Juggling hats, isolation hoops right to the right of them and the boxes for the crystal contact juggling balls.
In the first box from left to right there are diabolos and some poi, the a box of clubs and another box with various juggling equipment like scarves and rings.
On the floor in front of the boxes there are juggling rings with balls, and in the rings to the right there are some crystal contact juggling balls.
In front of the rings there are three colorful juggling cigar boxes.
I think I will chose "juggling in general" (which means balls... I think) and diabolos as the areas I want to develop more. I want to choses juggling so I can continue to do my five balls exercises and then maybe do some juggling passing. I think passing balls or clubs are very interesting because I haven't had anyone to practice this with before and I didn't know any patterns. I want to choses diabolo since I am working on my two diabolo spinning and I want to be able to do a two diabolo trick. I used to do a lot of diabolo when I was younger so it is very nice to refind the joy of doing diabolo again.
I know that not all my family and friends are so into manipulation as I am so here is a list and short explanation of all the props when have had the opportunity to try during our manipulation class (but of course there are many more not listed in this list).
Balls, rings and clubs.
List of props we have tried in manipultaion class:
Balls
Balls are what most people typically thinks about when they are thinking of juggling. They can be made of different materials such as fabric and leather and be "constructed" in different way in the same was as there are different "football constructions" where the pieces not necessary look like you just cut an orange in four pieces. They come in all sizes, colors and weights. A typical juggling ball weights about 100-200 g.Clubs
Clubs are... clubs. They are more difficult to juggle because you have to control the spin so it makes the number of rotations in the air that you want. They can be used for club swinging almost like poi.
Rings
Rings have some possibilities that balls and clubs doesn't have; for exapmle you can catche the on you head or other body parts. They can have one color or different colors on the two sides, and are usually made of plastic. The typical size of a juggling ring is 32 cm in diameter.
Cigar boxes
Cigar boxes where real cigar boxes in their early stage. They are about the size of four pocket books glued together. They are not "thrown" as balls, but it like you are letting them move in a quite strict vertical motion up and down.
Diabolo
Diabolo is an hourglass shaped yoyo-resembling thing that are spun on a rope between two strings. Then, the diabolo is thrown and caught on the string and sometimes on the sticks. The diabolo can be made of either rubber, plastic, metal or even wood, but the center part where the string lies are almost always made of metal in modern diabolos. The sticks can be made by coal fibre, metal or wood.
Two diabolos and sticks from first person view
Hats
Juggling hats have the advantage that they can be caught on different body parts.
Contact juggling
In contact juggling there are no or very little throws. In contact juggling the juggler manipulate the ball so it looks like it is floating or isolating, or like it is controlled by some magic power.
Poi
Poi is a manipulation tool that looks like a ball attached to a string. Then you hold one of these in each hand and swing them around your body in different patterns.There is a branch of poi that is called contact poi that has similarities with contact juggling.
Staff
Staff is a staff that is spun in different patterns around the body. It has similarities with contact juggling.Devil/flower sticks
Devil sticks or flower sticks consists of one bigger stick that is manipulated with help of two other small sticks, one held in each hand. The difference between devil sticks and flower sticks is that devil sticks are hourglass shaped while flower sticks are straight and narrower.
Scarves
Scarves fall down very slow in the air which gives another effect when juggling with scarves.
Hoola hoop
Hoola hoop is a big hoop that is either swung, spun or hooped around the body.
Spinning plate
Spinning plate is a plate that is spun on a stick and then manipulated, twisted or thrown.
On the mat from left to right: Juggling hats, isolation hoops right to the right of them and the boxes for the crystal contact juggling balls.
In the first box from left to right there are diabolos and some poi, the a box of clubs and another box with various juggling equipment like scarves and rings.
On the floor in front of the boxes there are juggling rings with balls, and in the rings to the right there are some crystal contact juggling balls.
In front of the rings there are three colorful juggling cigar boxes.
I think I will chose "juggling in general" (which means balls... I think) and diabolos as the areas I want to develop more. I want to choses juggling so I can continue to do my five balls exercises and then maybe do some juggling passing. I think passing balls or clubs are very interesting because I haven't had anyone to practice this with before and I didn't know any patterns. I want to choses diabolo since I am working on my two diabolo spinning and I want to be able to do a two diabolo trick. I used to do a lot of diabolo when I was younger so it is very nice to refind the joy of doing diabolo again.
Juggling balls?
söndag 2 mars 2014
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.
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 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. .
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. .
Prenumerera på:
Inlägg (Atom)