Author: arronsparks

I'm a friendly Winter Mountain Leader, based in the Highlands. I feel most alive up high, playing in cold places. I love being out in the Scottish winter hills.

Shifting Goals

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Warning: This post is a bit of an ego boost, sorry! 

I don’t think I’ve ever subscribed to the “I’ve just flashed X number of objects” of approach to juggling. I’ve never set up a camera and spent 35mins trying one trick that’s probably too hard for me, I did today…

When I started juggling (10 or so years ago) juggling 7 clubs was a big deal. Very few could even blag it and even fewer performed it consistently on stage (this hasn’t changed yet). A well known juggling book* has this to say about The Seven Club Cascade, “…it is highly unlikely the more than one or two readers will ever have the actual experience of driving this pattern”. Funny how such statements date so quickly.

The love it or hate it the WJF should be partly credited to the rise of more 7 club jugglers.

And this makes you wonder what’s possible….

*Guess the juggling book

Dr. Seuss ‘If I ran the circus’

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I love circus books. I love Dr. Seuss. So when I was given ‘If I ran the circus‘ by Dr. Seuss I was excited!

Unlike a lot of books aimed to be read by children Dr. Seuss books are fun to read! The plots aren’t mind numbingly predictable and the vocabulary is nicely varied. But the thing that always made them stand out to me was the superb illustration. The amazing colours, characters and even the lettering made Dr. Seuss books a joy to read.

‘If I ran the circus’ is no different, as you might imagine it’s a brilliantly surreal take on traditional circus (I’d guess mostly heavily influenced by Barnum & Baileys). Elephants on stilts, a walrus who can stand on one whisker, a juggling dot “Who can juggle some stuff, You might think he could not” and many more amazing attractions feature in ‘Circus McGurkus’ which the book centres around.

It’s a fun book, perfect for any youngsters learning to read or possibly any circus performers looking for some inspiration! 

Attitudes

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Below is one of my favourite TED Talks.

 I think circus is slowly starting to get the idea and power of the Internet, slowly changing its attitude. 

Juggling has been on the net with a global community for many years now, it was far ahead of other circus disciplines in its embrace of the ‘WWW’. I suspect that is partly due to the personalities involved and the relative ease to describe tricks in photos, words and numbers (the close and now obvious link with Maths and Juggling) as opposed to the more difficult to descride acrobatic/physical circus disciplines.

But the rest of circus is catching up, there are now straps artists sharing moves, routines and ideas online with a global community. 6 years ago that didn’t happen. 

The more people investing time and passion in a given subject means the more the subject grows and develops. Not just in terms of technique but also artistic approach. But this only happens if artists are willing to show their work to the world. Share their new knowledge and let others help develop it. it’s a scary thing to do. It leaves you feeling exposed and vulnerable. But gives you and others a chance to grow.

Technology is changing the world as we breath, it’s making sharing stupidly easy. And that’s a great thing.

 

World Circus Culture Movie needs funding

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This film has been in the making for a while and now it’s near completion.

World Circus Culture, follows five circus acts from different countries as they rehearse and compete at the “Academy Awards” of circus competitions, the Monte Carlo Circus Festival. Through these personal stories, the film will open peoples’ eyes to the true culture, art, business, and history of circus on an international scale as never seen before.

They’re are looking for a bit more support, have a look here for more info on how you can help.

http://worldcircusculturemovie.com/

Parkour before parkour

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Parkour has risen in popularity over the last decade or so but as many know it’s not really a new art form. Before the tun of the last century John Higgins was a professional jumper bringing breathtaking jumps to the masses. In this video Mr. Higgins (54 years old at the time) shows of some of his skills and inventive stunts.

You can read a full article about Mr Higgins entitled ‘The Champion Jumper of the World’ by Oswald North first published in The Strand Magazine and reprinted in Charlie Holland‘s book ‘ Strange Feats & Cleaver Turns‘.

There is also some information about Higgins here (including reports of him jumping over a car and even hourse and cab).

Lab:time

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I applied for the first round of Lab:time funding, looking for help developing ideas for a show. I received Lab:time funding for one part of my proposal, ‘Explore light trails with jugging’ and was allocated £750 and access to the Creation Studio at Circus Space.

The hardest part of the process was coordinating a date that worked with Circus Space, myself and the participants.

I spent a couple of fun, yet intense days working with Howie Bailey a VJ (and with the help of Jon Udry, a fellow juggler). 

Lab:time allowed me the luxury to explore and develop an idea that I was certain would produce useful results. Not having the pressure of a deadline or end client to please allowed time to investigate different techniques that may have been overlooked in a different environment.  

I’d strongly recomend applying to Lab:time if there is an interesting idea relating to circus lurking in the back of your mind. If there’s not, then get thinking!

Related links:

Video of the Week – Taschen Book

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After my rant from this post I thought I’d post something a little more helpful on the subject of circus history.  Released by world famous publishers Taschen, ‘The Circus 1870-1950’ book should be on the (reinforced!) shelves of anyone remotely interested in circus history.

Read more about the book here and buy it for cheap on Amazon.

Or if you like supporting local shops do that, go out of the house into daylight (more likely rain) and have a lovley conversation with an actual human (although my experience of local book shops is a little more like this).

*Note in the video above the clips of Lottie and Francis Brunn, cool eh?!

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