Review - Pink on the inside - exaggerated macho juggling and pink tricks

It is extremely rare to see juggling shows in Luleå, but some time ago it was possible to see the one man juggling show "Pink on the inside" by David Eriksson in Luleå, with a following panel discussion about gender afterwards.

Since I have seen many other juggling shows, my first reaction was "oh no, not another apple juggling think" when he picked up his apples to juggle. But it was some new things to it, but the first half of the show I must say that I thought he was mostly annoying in a weird way that I have a hard time pointing out. But I got some flashbacks from my childhood when I went to the summer cabarets at Liseberg with the Swedish magician and comedian Carl-Einar Häckner, since their styles somewhat reminds of each other.

At the panel discussion afterwards I got the feeling that I was not the only one that felt strangely annyed by the first half, so it might have been good that there was no break so that we had to stay and get the effect of the transformation to the pink side that came later.

Picture from Umeå Teaterförening

The show consisted of both a lot of juggling but also a lot of "tricks", that sometimes were very highlighted and sometimes just extra decoration. It must have taken a lot of time to set up the stage and I am impressed by the number of things that just magically seemed to be a the right place at the right time. I also really liked the backdrop that consisted of toilett paper rolls, mostly because I really like when everyday objects that everyone can relate to are cool to use in circus shows.

Picture from pitfestival.no

From the panel discussion I think my opinion about being macho is along the lines that it is ok to be macho, but there should be no value in it like it is today where you might be perceived as less manly if you are less macho. I think it should be equally ok to be macho as not to be for both genders.

Picture from Cirkulart

For the show, I think it was a very current theme, but sometimes a little bit too exaggerated, but I do recommend to see it both for the juggling and for the discussion afterwards.

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!

Analog acro yoga photography at Medieval picknick

Some weeks ago there was a Medieval picknick with the SCA club Frostheim. I dressed up in my jester costume, played some nyckelharpa, talked to nice people and learnt some viking chess resembling game.

We also managed to do some acro yoga on a sheep skin, which was captured on a very nice analog photo.  It is a little more than a year now since I tried acro yoga for the first time, and when I look back I can really see the development and things that seemed impossible then are easy now, and that is one of the things I like the most with circus!

The fact that my flyer is more than double my age also proves that almost anyone can start doing acro yoga!

Medieval days in Luleå - workshops, fire perfomance and midnight sun!

Every summer the Medieval club Frostheim arranged the fantastic event of the Medieval Days at the open air museum Hägnan, close to the World Heritage of Gammelstad in Luleå. It was an amazing location with old buildings bathing all night in the midnight sun.

Together with Phire I hosted a jester and juggling workshop twice a day to let both children and adults try some equipment. I sometimes think that the parents think it is as fun as the children, but need an excuse to start picking up things and trying them. 

Cleaning after circus workshop. Photo by Robin Forsman

The poi with the colorful tails was always popular, as well as the spinning plates. Among the 9-12 year olds quite many had tried the diabolo before and was able to pick up some new understanding and skills of that. Some years ago I did not enjoy teaching as much as practising myself, but this time it was very fun to teach and spread circus to people that maybe otherwise would not ave had a try. I think it is important to let people try juggling and circus sin order to raise both the status and appreciation of circus skills.

When I was not holding workshops I was enjoying the other things the Medieval days offered. I looked at amazing handcrafts, listened to music, watched people's great costumes and clothes and talket to all the nice people. I watched heavy fighting, attended dance workshops and played nyckelharpa to another dance workshop. One night we had some spontanious acro yoga workshop!

The other nights we were having barbecue, singing songs, listening to the band, trying out medieval drinks, dancing, and talking in the big house to escape the mosquitoes.

Doing acroyoga performance with Riia. Photo by David Granberg

The last evening Phire had a fire show that was among one of the best we have done together so far. I did an acro yoga routine, a fire fan dance and a partner poi choreography and was very happy with all of that. 

I some ways I was more nervous for this fire shows since the audience had seen many other fire shows before and could actually compare more fair than the general audience. I was also worried that the fire would not give the same effect in the sun, since the sunlight never disappears, but it turned out just fine and it was nice to not freeze while performing. The fact that one of the best jesters in Sweden was in the audience would maybe have made me nervous, but since we had been hanging out during the week I was surprisingly relaxed about that. I often think that since I dont judge people that are not as silled as me, people more skilled than me probably don't judge my performances either.

Fire fan dance. Photo by Kristina Espmark

Performing together really does a lot in getting closer as a group as it both puts some pressure and stress, and require a lot of cooperation. Being a part of a group has really helped me to move forward in circus skills, expand my comfort zone and doing circus with great people!

 

Group photo with all performers from Phire! Photo by Phire

Stockholm Juggling Weekend 2016 -reunite with friends and playing juggling games!

I am back after a long time with no see, but there has been quite a lot of juggling!

I spent the summer working in Göteborg which made it possible to go to Stockholm for Stockholm juggling weekend, a small juggling convention co-arranged with the Swedish national unicycle championships.

I also had a reunion with my friend from the time at circus school at Greentop, who came all the way from Ireland to visit the convention. She said it was cute that the convention was so small, but that it was nice because you got to talk with everyone, as we were just about 20 participants.

Jugglers practising at Stockhom Juggling Weekend! Photo by Rebecca.

I spent the days mostly passing clubs since I really like to do that but too seldom I have someone to pass with. I tried Brunos nightmare, and almost learned Roundabout. I took some time to get my head around it but after a while it got better, but I both want and need to practise them again.

I am always happy that people have the patience to teach me things, and I think in juggling (and maybe most things) it is a lot of  "pay it forward" when it comes to teach people new things. When I started learning how to pass clubs I always felt bad because I was always the one dropping but now I am more confident with just trying new things over and over again to learn them.

Practising Roundabout. Photo by Rebecca

When I was not juggling I watched some unicycle competitions with unicycle hockey being the funniest! At the evenings we watched juggling videos lying at a crash mat eating crisps.

I would say that the best things with conventions are all the juggling games! Maybe I appreciate them even more since I usually dont have enough jugglers around in Luleå to be able to play them. We did Jolleyball, Gladiator, and a (for me) new game that was like gladiator in teams, and of course some regular games!

Juggling fight! Photo by Rebecca

Preparing for Riga after a nice start in Luleå!

I have now moved back to the north of Sweden! It is so nice to back and continuing my studies and meeting all my old and new friends at the university circus club Phire!
I started my first full day in Luleå with creating a staff routine with my partner poi partner E that we then performed in the evening at the dinner for graduates from Luleå University of Technonogy!

Back to a snowy Luleå University of Technology

We went to a martial arts room with mirrors and since we had such a short of time we did a speed version of our usual method for creating choreographies. We also practised our old partnerpoi choreography and it went on without any mistakes at all. It seems like I will never forget how to do it!

We also played around with our encore with some special poi that involved glasses and water that was supposed to look like champagne.

A blurry picture when I still have the nice hairdo and clothes from the LED show at the graduation dinner.

Later at night at the venue I met up with the rest of Phire to do some fire mingle before the stage LEDshow. It feel so nice to be back! Luckily this was just before the cold hit Luleå so it was not too cold, and we wore our medieval clothing made from thick wool.

I am not sure which one I like the most from fire mingle or stage show. During fire mingle there is a lot of room for improvisation and interaction, but in the choreograph there is other possibilities to create things that needs some planning and practising.

Phire is doing fire mingle before the show! 

The days after the fire show it got really cold. I was a little bit unused to this after some time at the Swedish west coast in the south.

Now I am preparing for going to Riga on Thursday to attend the Nordic Baltic Circus Network workshop in how to work with objects. I am so excited to go there and develop my understanding, get inspired and meet other circus artists!

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!

The anti climax with the cancelled christmas performance

Last weeks I have been so busy with practising and preparing for the opening ceremony for "Chrstimas Town Gothenburg" (Julstaden Göteborg). But due to the storm Helga that hit the west coast of Sweden last week it was cancelled, and it was like a relive but also somewhat disappointing since we had spent so much time doing choreography, practising, building fire equipment, clothes, transportation, and late evening freezing fire practises. We got to know each other as a group and make a good show that no one got the chance to see.
But the good thing is that I have learned quite a lot from the process of making the show as well since this was probably the biggest show I have been involved in. The show itself only lasted for five minuets, but since we were eight fire artists we made some nice group syncronized choreography that displayed torches, dragon staff, single staff, double staff, partner poi, fans, snake poi and the single staff again. A lot of time was spent to coordinate us and make sure that the switches and lightening of the new equipment could be done in a safe and smooth way.

Another thing that has been really awesome with this project is that we have had a dedicated leader that has used this project as a reference project in her studies for a "cultural projects manager". She has done a great job managing everything and since she was also reflecting on how we were doing she made us conscious on what was happening in our group and how the project was going, which was very instructively.

Cuisine et Confessions - inviting the audience to join them in the kitchen around their favourite food

Some weeks ago I saw Cuisine et Confessions with 7 Fingers with some friends that had never seen contemporary circus before.

The show had already started when we got in; the artists were on stage messing around with some kitchen tools and things and it made a nice ambience. They already started to make some contact with the audience by asking things, making my friend prove that she could break an egg with just one hand and talking about food.

The interactions with the audience was the thing that made this show stand out compared to other contemporary circuses I have seen. It proved that interaction with the audience can be made even if we were seated in an old theatre, and they did it both by talking to us, come out to us and letting people up on stage.

After the show 7 fingers were inviting us to share some food with them

The show consisted of some big numbers with seamless transitions in between, and both were very good. The solo numbers were accompanied by the artist talking about their memories and relations to different kinds of food, which gave this show a very personal touch. This personal touch, the food theme and the interaction with the audience made the performers seem very human and "real", as an opposition to other circus shows where the performers sometimes feel like humans from another world.

The pace of the numbers with the small things in between gave the show good dynamics. Sometimes it is very focused on one performer or one thing, but in the big group acrobatic numbers there are so much going on that I could watch it again to see all the things I didn't this time. Not all the performers had a solo number, and it is not a bad thing but I somehow came to expect them to have that and found myself waiting and wondering if the show was really over when all the performers didn't made a solo.

My friend who had never seen contemporary circus before were both amazed by the circus skills, and surprised that there were so much "theatre" in it. The interaction made us involved and the playfulness took away the prejudices of "seriousness and deep subjects" that some people might expect from contemporary circus.

I really liked this show and I would recommend it for both people that are new to contemporary circus as already interested ones, as it is a friendly show that connects with the audience around a theme that is very personal so everyone can relate to it.

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:

Trying to overcome some fear of acrobatics at Balance Camp in Gagnef

In the middle of august I attended Balance Camp in Gagnef. Balance Camp is a camp that focused mainly on balance activities and unicycling, but when I registered for which workshops to attend I decided to pick acrobatic ones since I really want to learn some of that. The biggest obstacle is that I have some mental fear of doing acrobatics, but I decided to try to face that fear and learn some new things.

During the two days I did floor acrobatic, air track and trampoline. I also spend quite a lot of time trying to learn to do a back flip with some helpful spotters, and some lindy hop inspired back flip throws. I tried to jump with unicycle for the first time, and did some slack line walking. In the mornings we did SUP (stand up paddling board) on the river. During the air track class I almost learnt how to do a hand spring!

Since the weather was so nice everyone where out at the camp practising or watching others practise, and there was opportunities to practice the things learnt in the workshops or just using the equipment. There where trampolines, air track, crash mats, slack lines, SUPs, trial track for unicycling, juggling equipment, and indoor practise hall and a big grass field.

During the camp I tried to do things that I don't normally do and trying to overcome the fear of rotating with the head moving up or down. I must say that even though I am still quite afraid of doing acrobatics, I am a little less afraid now. I figure skating I learned the importance of trust in yourself when doing things, and this trust is definitely needed in acrobatics as well and I am slowly working on building that. 

Discussing how to improve our partner acrobatics back flip. Photo borrowed from Unitwins Facebook page

There where many unicyclist attending the camp and on Saturday evening there was an informal flatland competition that was nice to watch, both because it was the first unicycle competition I have watched and some of Sweden's best unicyclist where competing.

If you are considering going to Balance Camp an upcoming year I would recommend it. The camp was very organized with a lot of information on the website, mail and on the site, easy registration, home cooked food and nice sleeping rooms. The workshops were good and there was a lot of both equipment and space at the facility, which was a farm next to Dalälven river, as well as nice people that would share their skills.

Balance Camp website (In Swedish)

A summary of summer circus activities

It has been silent here for a while and a lot has passed since last time. As always, there is a lot to tell on the different subjects but for now I will just make a list of circus related things I have attended since last time, and hopefully they will turn into links and content.

• Attended the Swedish Juggling Convention 2015, this year held in Linköping
• Attended a mini circus festival arranged by Karneval in Malmö
• Watched the 20 years celebration show "Borders" by Cirkus Cirkör
• Performed at the graduation dinner at uni
• Held a week long circus course at a camp for children
• Helped to hold another circus course for children at a family summer camp
• Went to Balance camp in Gagnef

I have also juggled in parks, improved the club passing after having the chance to actually practise with people, gotten a raised interest in acrobatics and tried juggling volleyball for the first time. Burned my feet after being unused to be bare foot, and crushed my nails after catching hard thrown clubs.

After a summer of travelling, circus and meeting friends I have now moved back to Göteborg, Swedens second city by the south west coast to do a half year long internship, so now I am looking for circus things to do, as well as just juggling at home over my bed.

The best thing about Göteborg is that compared to Luleå the possibilities to see circus is a lot higher!

Jolleyball, or juggling volleyball in Slottskogen park in Göteborg

Looking for the perfect set

We are soon going to place an order for new juggling equipment together in the juggling club. As always, I have been thinking a lot about if I need or want to add something to the collection of circus stuff I own. 

Lately, I have been going back to juggling quite much again, so I decided to get juggling rings. I have never really practised consistently with rings because I move on directly from balls to clubs when I was learning. But since the gala show at BJC when I saw a girl do a nice ring juggling number I ave had this feeling that I at least want to try it out myself.

The spring is hitting Luleå record early this year, and the day light is coming back! That is really nice, but LEDpoi doesn't work very well it midnight sun during summer, so I decided to get flag poi. I am actually not a huge fan of flag poi, but these ones are quite good and defenitley better than my "scarf" poi. I really learned a lot with them, but since I started to stall a lot I feel very restricted when using them so I hop the flagpoi will be ok, but still look nice in summer.

Since last time I wrote here I have been slightly obsessed with learning German. Lets see for how long that obsession will last? 

The process - what does it give to a work of art to see the process behind?

Lately I have been thinking about the process behind all the circus work I have done. Usually people just see the finished product and not the process behind.

Yesterday our friend came to take some photos of me and E when we did our partner poi performance, so make a school project in media. I have had a glimpse of some photos, and when I see them they look awesome. But we are actually in a classroom in school, and I had borrow my friends poi since mine where broken and I also borrowed E's dress at this photo.

A photo from yesterday

When we had a master class in Visby during the medieval week, one word of advice we got was that "you are really good, but people donät understand how good you are". I think this is a sign that most people don't know about the long process of learning tricks, practising them, putting them together and the performing them. Compared to other art forms, less people know about what happens before and after that glimpse of circus that they see.

At the festival of contemporary circus in Umeå I saw a show by the partner acrobats Henrik Agger and Louise Bjurholm, where they presented Louise's master thesis by having a show that basically showed how they prepared, warmed up, and did a performance, and what they did after. To me, I really liked to see how they practised and prepared, and their work together. I had already seen their performance in Cirkus Cirkör's "Wear it like a crown" and I actually enjoyed it even more when I saw the work behind.

We have been trying to be more known at uni by practising in corridors during lunch time. To me, this has been almost more difficult than performing on stage, because I am not used to showing the process behind. I don't know how I feel about people watching me practice, which means that they will sometimes see me fail, drop balls, get angry, get happy, stick things for the first time, and so on. I don't know if I would like to show this side or not.

Since it is interesting to see the process, when is the best time to show it? I think I want to see the finished art product before I see the process. It is not fun to see the directors cur before you have seen the movie without it.

What do you think about seeing the process behind work that you see?

How do you feel about showing the process of your own work to others?

Maybe architecture is frozen circus?

It was a long time ago since I wrote about architecture in this blog, and one reason for that might be that here in Luleå I am so used to the city that I don't think about what architecture there might be here. I am now doing a course in form, function and shape in architecture, and one of your tasks is to look around Luleå to find different elements of shape.

This house was our choice for "asymetric in balance". Even though the house in asymetric,  it feels stable with the domination of the right tower.

 This was our choice for "lines with an upward feeling". This is the Norrbotten's theatre. At the right, you can see a woman on kick sled.

This is the city hall of Luleå. I think it kind of reassembles of the UN building and other building of power.

I think that many of the elements of shapes and lines I study in this architecture class can be applied to circus. In circus there are also lines, shapes and contrast. Goethe said that "Architecture is frozen music", but maybe architecture is frozen circus?

Club passing again!

Today at the juggling club there was a girl who could do club passing!

It feels great to try out some club passing again, since I really enjoy doing circus things together with other people. That what I liked with synchronized skating and bugg (a Swedish swing dance) as well - the joy of doing things together!

Doing things with others also motivate me to practice skills so that I can teamwork even better with them!

LED juggling - infinity trace of light

I just had to try out what LED juggling would look like. Infinity.
I love the trace of light that comes from LED props.

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!