So the countdown begins, in one month till Beta Testing premiers at the Roundhouse in London. If you’re curious you can book tickets here.
And here’s a lighthearted video we featured in, made by the street team from the Roundhouse.
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.
Trust
Here is a video created by BuzzFeed and Cirque Du Soleil: Why trust is worth it
This is hardly a ground breaking concept and the tricks chosen don’t really scream ‘trust moves’ to anyone who has a working understanding of acro and it’s potential.
Perhaps the video feels a little cheesy because the text is spoken about the performers and not by them (possibly the accent and rhythm of the voice over just grates on me) it is still a bit of a style change for Cirque (with a capital C). Not a video I would straight away associate with their athstetic.
The video also doesn’t match the style or artistic choices for the show it is advertising, Totem. Not that it should, just interesting that it is a different approach to promotion from the normal ‘reporter in a harness on stage’ that we are all so used to seeing featured in the ‘and finally’ item on TV news. Perhaps this is the future of circus advertising?
Aesthetically it’s a move away from bad 1980s graphics and toward 1990s Calvin Klein adverts. But perhaps that’s just BuzzFeed having some artistic influence on the video?
Interesting collaboration anyhow.
Damien Walters – loop the loop
Video of the week – Knot circus
Interview: Kathy Hinde – Sound Designer for Logic of Nothing
Beta Testing Video
Our latest video from our show
BETA TESTING – CREATION WEEK 6
We spent 5 days in the theatre space at Jacksons lane last week, working towards an invited showing of a close-to-finished Beta Testing at the end if the week. Nice to reflect that just under a year ago we were there working toward our initial showing, which spurred us on to apply to the Propellor Prize.
The first couple of days seemed particularly tough, first working days back after Christmas with little true creativity to be had. It was more of a case of slotting various bits we had already made together and looking at the technical constraints and transitions.
Howie came to work with us on Wednesday, walking through his superb visuals and custom cueing system which allows us to run much of them show on stage. The constant reach for self reliance is a habit I have inherited from studying and obsessing the most successful classic variety acts. Something I will have to let go of at some point down the line but for now I cling to it like a clingy thing, possibly a sloth which has just had a double espresso from Prufrock. As it turned out the marvellous Jules of Jacksons Lane 2.0 helped us out with a few extra lighting states and cues.
Matt devised a cunning way of dropping in a scree which made us all very happy and even worked in the showing, unlike most of Matts hair brained ideas – talking of which, Jon Udry was on top juggling form despite seemingly spending most of his time on luxury cruses in the Caribbean.
The showing went pretty well and we got some valuable feedback and new ideas, it seemed like the audience enjoyed it and some showed interest at the possibility of booking it in the future, watch this space_ We were happy with the results and are looking forward to making some changes for our official premier of <Beta_testing> in April.
Exciting times.
Video of the Week – Quintuple Somersault
Flying trapeze artist Han Ho Song from the National Circus of Pyongyang, North Korea pulling a Quintuple (5) somersault in Germany. :-0
Merry Christmas
Video of the week – Class of 64
According to YouTube: “New Year 1963-64. Graduates of the All-Russian Workshop for Stage Artistic. Parts of their acts. Performers: Kolmogorov brothers, Bukhtiyaroiv & Ozernov, Rzhavinski & Danilkin. Teachers: Lev Maslukov and Tamara Abramova”
BETA TESTING – CREATION WEEK 5
The 5th of 9 weeks of residency awarded by the Propellor Prize and our first in the Creation Studio at Circus Space National Centre for Circus Arts.
I’ve been lucky enough to use the Creation Studio for a few previous projects so it feels comfortable to be in the space. For a project like Beta Testing it’s perfect; good size, light, sound and WiFi. What more could a juggler ask for?
We spent 3 days recapping material we had produced up till now. It was our intention to work on a new scene as well, focusing on juggling all the furniture in the show. Unfortunately we got a little sidetracked relearning and cleaning previous work, we had a showing at the end of the week and wanted to present some close to finished material so we side tracked a little.
Mid way though the week we had a photoshoot in a functioning school science lab, it was a cool location to shoot on, if not a little strange. Jon reverted to a cheeky school boy in front of my eyes, strange what architecture and memory does to us all. Matt took one for the team putting some free (thanks to the monger on the right in Dalston market) fish in his mouth.
Back in the studio the chair juggling turned out to be pretty demanding and a little scary at times, we thought it would be pretty straight forward to create a slightly classic style act with furniture but this time we were a little ambitious.
Matt and Jon managed a brief cascade, while it may not be the most inventive thing we’ve come up with it certainly adds a different dynamic to the show, I hope we can work it in.
We also worked on a short everyday object duet with Jon and Matt, it promises to have a different feel to other bits in the show. It was fun for me to be outside eyes.
On the penultimate day we had a showing for some of the staff at Circus Space. The showing itself went well- we’ve produced a new 20 mins, add that to the material we already had and we are well on track to our premier in April.
However the next day was supposed to be spent working on more chair juggling but after a full week and focus of a showing it was pretty difficult to get back to making and throwing.
But with the vast majority of creating time over we’re happy and excited with what we have. Next up we have a private showing at Jacksons Lane, email me if you are interested in attending.
Video of the week – Sven Hopla TEDxBristol
Another circus artist giving a TED talk, this time focusing on something close to our heart, failure. http://lifesbestsword.wix.com/svencircus
Cirque du Soleil Clown Interview
Thanks to our new Tumblr account we stumbled upon this interview with Cirque du Soleil clown/character John Gilkey from A Fool’s Idea.
The interview covers a lot of ground, focusing around John’s history and thoughts on Clown and his career.
If you’re not familiar with Gilkey’s work you can see one of his numbers below.
Video of the Week – Fingers
I’ve been interested in finger dexterity for a while, it directly relates to my job. So I enjoyed this new finger dance video that’s doing the rounds. The idea is not new- finger dances have been around for a while but it’s nice to see things moving in different directions. Also worth a look is Greg Irwin’s finger ballet/fitness (video below).
An average day 2
A year ago I recorded an average November day, here’s an update…
I’m currently touring with Smashed in France so things are a little more hectic than my average London days -mainly lots of traveling and very few good coffees to be found. 
My 16th of November 2013 was reasonably standard for a touring schedule, perhaps a little heavy on the travel side:
7:00 Get up
7:15 Taxi to train station
8:06 Train 1.5 hours
9:45 Coach 2.5 hours
11:20 Car pick up – drive to hotel
11:35 Hotel – Juggling in my room, read.
13:00 Lunch in a local restaurant
14:00 Hotel – emails & rest
16:00 Theatre – juggling practice
19:00 Meal local restaurant
20:00 warmup & set
21:00 Show
23:00 Hotel – sleep
I wonder how my day will look in a years time…
101 Lessons
‘101 Things I Learned in Film School ®‘ by Neil Landau & Matthew Frederick is a beautifully concise book which caught my eye when browsing the Tate Modern gift shop. I thought it would be nice exercise to go through the book and apply some of the lessons to circus. I’ve picked and adapted 39 lessons which I think could easily be applied to circus performance.
1) Start strong
Prompt intrigue
Suggest the central theme
Revel back story
2) Start late
Cut the first 30 seconds of a piece.
3) Show, don’t tell
4) Three stages of show making
Pre-production – meetings, fundraising, planning etc
Production – rehearsing
Post-production – selling the show etc
5) Audiences want to be as close to the action as possible.
6) Conceal the action.
Creates curiosity and intrigue
7) Story telling -> Beginning – Middle – End
- Act 1 – Establish the problem
- Act 2 – Complicate the problem
- Act 3 – Solve the problem
Establish • Complicate • Solve
8) Practice the perfect pitch.
High concepts can be explained in one sentence.
9) A good title says what the show is.
10) Create memorable entrances.
11) Create a show on different scales.
12) Every scene must revel something new.
13) What can the human eye process?
14) Set rules early, clearly and simply.
15) If it can be acted why do it with circus?
16) Make the setting a character.
17) Define the relationship to the 4th wall.
18) Beware working with children & animals.
19) Have a plan but enjoy the detours.
20) Signs of novice circus.
It’s a dream, all black costumes, sequins, bare feet, m
Amely sound track,
21) Leave breathing room.
Both theatrically and practically.
22) Place figures in uncomfortable proximity.
23) Ensure everyone is making the same show.
24) Have some show stoppers.
Big tricks, tear jerkers, hilarious jokes etc.
25) Every show is drama, conflict and suspense.
26) Dig deeper.
Do fewer things better.
27) Good writing is good rewriting.
Write->leave->revisit->rewrite->repeate
28) When you receive a no write back thanks.
29) Different spaces, venues, audiences might be better for a different kind of show.
30) Rhythm / Tempo
Larger pace created by the show / pace of scene or act
31) Don’t cast by looks.
32) Actions speak louder than words.
33) If you want to make circus, see circus.
34) Work in the trenches.
Take less than ideal gigs, learn around your subject / ultimate goal.
35) Let it go already.
Make->assess->move on->repeat
36) Play well with others.
37) Make it shorter.
38) Don’t over use cliches or coincidences.
39) “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
BetaTesting_BigBalls_Progress
Beta Testing – Creation Week 4
The 4th of 9 weeks of residency awarded by the Propellor Prize and the second week in a row at La Breche. For the last four days myself, Jon and Matt were joined by video visual specialist Howie Bailey. I’ve know Howie for 14 years, from the days when he was a professional Yo-Yoist and juggler. More recently I’d worked with him in his current line of work on two Lab:Time projects, investigating various projection techniques with juggling.
We spent the fours days reworking the routine, optimising it to be seen with the live projected visuals. We spent hours running the routine, over and over. We would do a run through, Howie would give notes and make changes to our choreography or his programming, and then we’d run the routine again. A rather efficient if not exhausting feedback loop, in total carried out around 60 times.
Lauren from The Production Shed joined us for the last couple of days to see what we’d been up to and On the 3rd day we did an informal showing for some local students. The showing was a great chance to test the piece and gain some valuable feedback and answer some questions. The final morning was spent running sections of the routine so we could film them. Then in the afternoon we spent some time changing the size of the space so we could be confident of performing the piece in different spaces.
The two weeks we spent in La Breche were extremely challenging and tiring, spending all our waking hours creating, juggling, discussing and watching the occasional episode of Bear Grylls. But our residency also felt massively productive, exciting and inspiring. We created a collaborative piece that we are proud of and look forward to performing it in Beta Testing and hearing what you think.
Video of the week – Slackline Worldcup 2013
Beta Testing – Creation week 3
We find ourselves in Cherbourg at La Breche one of the best buildings setup for circus creation in the world. We have our own space – a permanent big top and the mission of creating a tight routine set to music, pretty far from what we were working on in the previous weeks – all spoken word.
Myself and Jon had a few days head start on Matt, working on some raw new patterns which would then make more exciting when Matt arrived. As a plan it seemed to work out pretty well and we now have the sketchings of a 5 minuet routine. We’ll try and smooth it out in the next few days while we work with visual artist Howie Bailey on some projections which will compliment the piece.
CircusGeeks.co.uk 
You must be logged in to post a comment.