Flow/Circus; a rebuttal.

(for the original article by my good friend, Ben Drexler – flowartsinstitute.com/i-am/

Dear Ben,

It was both a pleasure and a sad moment for me to read your article proclaiming yourself as a Flow Artist. The sadness is not for the proclamation – I’m very happy you have found something that defines you, for all I think you have done it for the wrong reasons – but for your misguided view of one of the loves of my life: Circus. 

Firstly, I’d like to address your comments about circus artists in particular– not really with reference to how you feel they look down on Flow Artists (which is very much a 2 way street, I must add) – but rather your unfortunate statement – ‘I’ve yet to see any of the tech spinners who’ve embraced circus as their savior take up any of these elements of performance as noble goals‘. I can only guess that you are using an entirely US-centric model, as you couldn’t be more wrong about the rest of the world. Of course there are many who strive simply to be as technically able as possible, with no regard to performance, but I really do believe you need to get out there and explore a much wider world than you have done to this point.

As a long-term member of the circus convention community, I also find your claim that the Flow Arts community is in some way more friendly and more open genuinely laughable – I actually laughed aloud in disbelief reading it. I was made very welcome on my travels in the US at Flow Festivals, and for that I am eternally grateful, but I have felt an equal warmth across the world at circus festivals, cabaret and variety conventions, as well as in completely removed fields (in a sense) such as dance, theatre and music. Open sharing and peer-led workshopping are as old as the hills and to claim some sort of exclusivity on them is mind-boggling. Once again, it’s clear that there are some in our fairly sizeable community who judge only on technical ability and celebrity, but that is unquestionably present in the Flow Arts too.

Finally, I would also question your equating ‘Circus’ with ‘traditional circus or Cirque du Soleil’ – as if these were the only two options. To me that implies you have no real understanding of the art form beyond a personal view and were I to be uncharitable and unprofessional would give me cause to ignore your opinion as I could any uneducated audience member. However, as a trained performer and experienced circus artist I prefer to meet ignorance with debate and information, and a clear belief that my work is a two-way thing in which my audience is as important (if not more so) as that which is presented. This extends to my written work too, so for starters I’ll direct you to have a read of the wiki entry for contemporary circus – wiki/Contemporary_circus . As an artfrom it is growing exponentially with ballooning audiences, and it is now being taught worldwide to a hugely expanding student base.

It seems to me that you have been unlucky in your circus experiences and that this has led you to label yourself accordingly – I really encourage you to expand your horizons and see the progressive artistic and educational work that is being made today by what is in the majority a highly skilled, open, friendly, international community. In time I hope that it will change your mind about circus!

I look forward to sharing some circus (and some flow) with you again soon.

Yours sincerely

Rob

What’s next?

What have we learned in the last few days?

• The three main parties in UK politics are happy to lie to win votes and to admit to it. Let’s not forget that one…
• Some Yes people are accepting, some are sore losers. Some No people are gracious, some are sore winners. Personally I’m not a fan of the ’45’ idea, I think it feels divisive and that won’t help us grow together towards an eventual Yes. I’d like an investigation into electoral practises (purdah not least among them) but I’m not convinced at all by the vote-rigging idea.
• There are loads of things that point towards an eventual Yes – regretful No’s, the demographic of No, the raft of bad news and establishment smackdowns conveniently made public since September 19…
• The Yes movement is alive and kicking – if anything it is more energised than before, with amazing plans and strategies for a fairer society. And somehow, for me at least, it feels like a little more time spent planning (the intricacies that were lumped in together by BT as ‘uncertainties’) might not be so bad if it can convince a few more folk that we can actually do it fairly smoothly.
• No voters are coming out of the woodwork. This is great – it means we can engage, rather than just wondering who this silent majority are.

Better Together has already been outed as an laughable proposition – both the Conservatives and Labour have immediately turned their attention to the ‘more important’ issue of what to do with a woken up and angry England, and in doing so have immediately begun a punishment plan for  Scotland for having the cheek to want a referendum. I’m very sad and not a little enraged that one of their main techniques over the past year has been to turn that anger on the Scots by accusing us of being rabid nationalists everso loudly in the media. One of my personal goals is to spend a lot of time talking to those south of the border to convince them we are trying to make a better society, and that we believe the best way to do that is from an independent country.

From the huge explosion in support for the Yes parties since Sept 18 it seems like our Westminster parliament will have a very different make-up come May next year, which should force yet another re-think by those in power. I don’t think they can take too many of those without being exposed to the world at large as power-hungry, control-obsessed tyrants – and a tyrant or tyrannical establishment only lasts as long as it can control the flow of information.

What am I doing about it? I’ve joined the Scottish Greens. I’ll probably vote SNP in the next general election (my first ever tactical vote). I’m writing a lot more and have some ideas in the pipeline to make a micro-media outlet. And I’ll be pouring some time back into my work and family as they both need some nourishment to grow over the next few months.

Cameron and co, we are coming…

Referendum reflections; day 1

How do I feel?

Devastated, distraught, down. Angry. Hopeful?

The first three are, I think, pretty natural reactions to ending up on the losing side of a campaign that you have poured your heart into, especially one as emotive as this. I’ve had many friends tell me not to be sad, but unfortunately there is no way I can get to that without a lot of time and space.

Angry is a bit more complicated. It’d be oh so easy to be angry at the majority No vote – after all, it’s superficially a vote to keep Trident, to support the corrupt Westminster government, to endorse inequality and austerity and warmongering and to condemn our poorest to foodbanks through neglect among many other horrendous outcomes. But all I can find for these people (some of whom are friends and family) is frustration. Frustration that they either went for total heart over head – ‘How can we abandon our friends/colleagues/family in the rest of the UK?’ – or wholly bought the line that ‘no matter how bad it is now, it’ll probably be worse with Yes’. The time to counter those arguments is sadly now gone.

My anger is reserved for the politicians and media who have spent the past 2 years (and particularly the past 2 weeks) bullying the voters in Scotland. I used to love the BBC and the Guardian, yet this campaign has made me deeply mistrust even these supposedly liberal/impartial bodies. I guess I was naive to think that more than a handful of journalists might prefer news reporting over personal/editorial slants.

It’s pretty easy to say that the Yes media were equally biased – and yes, on the whole they were. But as I pointed out elsewhere in the campaign, a few small websites versus the entire Media pack is no contest. You had to dig to get Yes propaganda or have particularly vocal Yes friends, whereas you just need a TV or a news website or paper to be confronted with ‘Yes vote equivalent to voting in Hitler’ or similar rubbish. For the majority of voters, this is still how they get information – as I said, no contest.

I’m not suggesting that the ‘scare’ stories were entirely without legitimacy, but they were drowned under personal attacks and threats of reprisal from big business, financial markets and political process. Alongside that, any attempt to engage the legitimate concerns were invariably met with accusations of lies or a refusal to debate. What is that if not bullying on a national level?

I hope the anger will fade with time – I sincerely believe that a majority of No voters marked their box confident that they were doing the right thing for the people of Scotland and further afield; that to fight and change the system from within is the correct path. But I’ll add a proviso, inspired by my great friend and colleague, Phyllis Martin. No voters, you must work to make this Scotland better than it is now, not just rest on your laurels and think that nothing needs to change.

Hopeful? Not yet. I need a little time to let the hurt fade first. I have plans to involve myself in the Scottish Greens, who I think have emerged from this campaign with dignity and increased status. I will sign the petition to try to force Clegg, Cameron and Miliband to uphold their pledge (link below), though sadly I have very little faith here. I think that left-leaning citizens across the UK have been inspired by the campaign, but to those who have offered this inspiration as a way of comforting distraught Yes voters I would say this:

Don’t let this momentum go – we’ve taken it to a natural pause, and you’ve watched with interest. You’ve seen that grass-roots work makes a difference. You’ve seen that the mainstream politicians can be rattled by a campaign based on hope and fairness. Get out there and make sure that it’s not a one-off. We have a general election in less than 8 months, and those in charge of this deeply flawed system need to know that we reject their ways.

Yes to change.

petition link: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/promise-for-Scotland

My Yes (for Scotland and beyond)

A small preface – I have chosen not to directly use facts and figures in this article, nor links to other work as that is easy to do elsewhere, and I am happy to provide those in response to any queries. This is mostly about how I feel inside, and why it’s pushed me to a yes.

I wrote at length 3 or 4 years ago about the struggles I was having accepting the global and national situation I found myself in; about my inability to reconcile the reality of what people want and need with the imposed desires of our elite. Banks, media tycoons and politicians as a ruling class, with every decision that mattered on a global scale based on what is good for big business and big money. Illegal wars that we all marched against but that still took place; and a huge, unfathomable refusal to accept that we are forever changing our planet in a direction that could easily lead to our extinction and the mass destruction of most of what we consider beautiful and worthwhile.

Why would you do that? Why wouldn’t you try to make a change?

The reason we just seem to let it happen is that in our current political climate you literally cannot make a seismic change according to the system we have both nationally and globally. It has been carefully set up over hundreds of years to support and promote the elite, with a lovely pretence that everyone is looked after and given equal opportunity – we’re all in this together, after all. The cold reality is that when the rich fuck up, they get a taxpayer funded safety net, and literally every citizen pays to keep them afloat. While the standard of living has been raised for billions, it is at the expense of everyone else. The poorer part of our society is denigrated and abused, and pushed further and further into a state of ludicrous inequality. The occasional commoner is allowed to join the elite to make it look like we live in a meritocracy, and some people genuinely do work their own way to the top, but as is pointed out by the Occupy movement, the 99% are kept well in their place. 

And yet somehow, by some stroke of fortune, we have a chance to change a small part of the world. I can only think that David Cameron truly believed that the No campaign would win by such a large margin that we would never ask again if given this opportunity. It’s pretty clear that he underestimated the power of social media to create a grass roots movement that doesn’t listen to a hugely no-leaning mainstream press, but that instead investigates, debates, shares and above all believes that we can make a better society than one that caters to the whims of a very, very exclusive club. 

My Yes is not one based on nationalism – I have lived in 4 countries long enough to speak their language, and travelled to nearly 30 more with as open a mind as I could manage. It is simply ludicrous to say that one country is ‘better’ than another, and the majority of Yes campaigners are not considering their votes along these lines. Of course there are some, even many idiots in the campaign, but I defy anyone to find a group of 2million+ that is entirely filled with nice guys.

My Yes is not one based on fear – or at least not the fears that Better Together would have us shrink back from. An independent Scotland will be less of a terror target than a warmongering UK, will not instantly turn into an impoverished country with no work, will not panic about losing Eastenders, will not collapse into a black hole of despair whenever the oil inevitably  runs out, and above all will not accept it when the elite says ‘we are going to crush you if you don’t agree with us’ – for that is what the threat of the fleeing billions is – a warning from those in charge in the only language they know – money. And yet Scotland is almost universally recognised as being overexposed to the financial sector, as being a country with incredible renewable resources, as an incredibly culturally rich nation, and as one that – even without offshore oil – has a very healthy GDP. 

My Yes is not based on certainty either – I’m not sure about the currency we will use. But we will use one, and it will be fine. I’m not sure how fast we’ll be allowed into the EU or NATO (assuming we want to be), but we’ll cope, however long it takes. I’m not sure what funding for the arts will look like and so don’t really know what my work situation will be like, but I’d prefer to see positive change for many and hope that my work is valued in a new society. I’m not sure how the rest of the UK and the world and no-voting Scots will react – in fact I’m already hugely torn and upset at how a huge number of Scots, English, Welsh and Northern Irish people are essentially calling me and my fellow Yes campaigners traitors for even thinking of getting off the UK train – but I’m prepared to debate and share and talk and write and try my hardest to persuade people of our good intentions. 

My Yes is definitely not based on dreams that from Friday we will live in a beautiful social democratic utopia – in fact I’m 100% sure that if we vote Yes on Thursday, that is when the hard work starts of turning all of these ideas and hopes into some kind of workable reality, and it will only intensify after the actual parting of ways. 

In another article I wrote about the definition of success I gently mocked the somewhat hippy ideal of blindly following Ghandi’s vision of ‘You must be the change you want to see in the world.’ But I find myself at a crossroads in my country’s history believing exactly that – a Scotland that remains tied to a hugely unequal UK would still be a wonderful place to live, with incredible opportunities for me and mine. However, an independent Scotland is something that we have the chance to mould into a beacon of change, that can light the way away from the political and social structures that have brought us this far and that have improved life for so many, but that are now outdated and are actively hurting billions in their efforts to maintain the status quo. 

It won’t be easy – many people will switch off their political engagement after a Yes vote, others will try to gain power into the new country to make it follow the same old rules, and yes, we will be a tiny flicker of light with every chance of being snuffed out. But given this opportunity, how can we even contemplate refusing it? My yes is from my head for the millions of people who can and should directly benefit from an independent Scotland, and from my heart for the future I want to help build. 

A Circus ‘Diet’

This is not about what you put in your mouth. This is a way to train, developed in it’s entirety from the teaching of the amazing Matt Hall, the Juggle Sensei. Having seen him on stage a couple of times previously, I first met Matt properly in 2006 at the Sydney Juggling convention where he outlined this technique (and some others, such as pyramid training) for me and a few others in the class. We’ve only hung out a few times since, but his approach to circus and to life in general are always inspiring for me. Thanks, Matt 🙂

I’ve used this spreadsheet method several times now for a bunch of different disciplines and have taught it to many others, but it only occurred to me in a frivolous face-post that it could be considered a diet – something that makes you better (or has a specific aim) through restricting the things that you eat (practise). Often it has the very foodie side effect of not getting to have (practise) the fun treats, simply because it takes up time that you would otherwise spend playing or in less structured training. It’s totally not for everyone as we all practise differently, but I like it very much when I’m in need of some structure in my circus training. One thing to note is that it’s not really a beginner tool – you could use it after not very long on your chosen path, but it’s hard without a teacher. It’s more aimed at people with some solid knowledge who really want to make the most out of training time.

I use it for two main outcomes:

• to train tricks/sequences to performance level.
• to polish up things I think I should be better at!

I aim to make my whole diet last between 45 mins and 1hr 15mins. If it’s shorter I feel like it’s not enough, and longer than that gets very boring when I’m doing it for the 20th time… This tends to be between 8 and 12 tricks, with a reasonably comprehensive warm-up. So how do you create your own personal diet?

First thing – choose what you want to do. Are you aiming for a specific trick or tricks? Do you want to clean up something, be it some base level movements or some nasty sequences you’re going to put in your next show? Do you just want to work on the latest thing you learned? Do you want to work on a family of moves? All of these are fine, but will inform greatly on how you use your time. It’ll also make a big difference in how long the diet lasts in terms of days/months/years…

Second – list the diet tricks*. If you’re working on, for example, a siteswap heavy routine, you probably want to include all the tricky ones you’re thinking of putting in. If it’s a specific thing you’re aiming for (i.e. 5 clubs, one of my current diets), then it’s probably good to put a few good training patterns in. If you’re on basics, make sure you do things on both sides, and if you’re working sequences, make sure you’ve got a clear start and finish. (*I’ll keep using the word ‘tricks’, actually it can be much broader than this, especially when you get into conceptual stuff and sequences)

Third, define what success is for each trick. sometimes it’s an amount of time, sometimes it’s a number of catches or rotations, sometimes it’s doing it clean. This is very much dependent on what the prop/discipline is, and what you’re hoping to achieve.

Decide how many times you are going to do the tricks. This one is often tricky to get right, so, as with everything, be prepared to change it. I normally go for 3, 5 or 10, depending on what I’m looking for in the trick – if it’s more an entry trick then I’ll go for lower numbers. If I’m looking for polishing something I’ve got reasonably ready then I might do 10. 5 seems a good average but sometimes can take forever…

Finally, work out what your warm-up is going to be. At the very least it should include the tricks on the list so you aren’t testing them in isolation. Usually you’ll include some other stuff too, especially entry tricks that will help, (e.g. 50505, 55500, 55550 etc for 5 clubs, or the component parts of a sequence that’s part of your diet).

Put it all on a page like this one: Rob juggling spreadsheet (follow the link for a downloadable file you can edit, or scroll down to look at one of my current diets).  This was my initial 5 club diet, with some vanity backcrosses included. It looks pretty different now, because it’s important to adapt your diet to meet your needs as you go, which I’ll describe shortly.

Go! Try out your diet. Put the date in the top row each time you try it and measure your success rate. Personally I like to do my entire warm up then my entire trick list, because it feels more authentic to performance pressure, but some people like to train the trick and then test it immediately. Don’t Cheat! You don’t get to just say ‘Oh, that one doesn’t count’ on stage… Put your success rate in to the box; you can either do this a a simple number – e.g. 3 (out of 5); as a slightly more lenient number-  e.g. 3clean + 1(messy); or as a best attempt if you’re not getting there at all – e.g. 0 (45 catches), where success was defined as 50. Once you’ve tried it a few times and entered the data, you should be getting a good grasp of it and you can adjust the diet as you need:

• Does it take too long? take some stuff off until you are ready and put them back on later.
• Are the tricks are of a good level for you or are they out of reach? Note that a string of zeros is not necessarily failure, especially if your technique is improving or you are seeing slow progress (for example, I have yet to break my 3c back cross success barrier, but it’s definitely better!).
• See if you’re getting the right number of goes and adjust accordingly.
• Are you nailing it? if you get full marks on something a few times in a row, think about clearing it off the list and putting the next thing there – you can always move it to the warm-up if you want to keep working at it a bit.
• Keep mental notes and written ones! This’ll help you improve a lot, and will also put some relevance on numbers when viewed from the future – E.g. I’ve put things like ‘in a terrible mood today’, or ‘no time for proper warm-up!’.

A couple of bits of general advice. Firstly, take some breaks and don’t exclusively do the diet unless you really feel you’ve got the focus. Make sure you take the time to have some treats! It’s pretty easy to overdo it if you’re not careful and put yourself off the idea entirely. Secondly, and probably most importantly, you will plateau and not feel like you are progressing. This is absolutely normal, and in fact it is when internalisation is done; which is a huge element in the learning process. The times when you achieve rapid improvements are a result of hard work during the plateaux, so don’t overstress when it feels like you’re headbutting a brick wall! However, if a pattern/trick/sequence is really not getting better, seek advice – a good teacher will speed up the progress of your diet success pretty quickly, but it’s up to you to seek them out. *Edit* Finally, mix up your practise sessions before you do the recording section of the diet. Try blocked practise, interleaved practise and random practise and see which works best for you! (see the top comment for a tiny expansion on this).

Here are a couple of my diets from this autumn. Annoyingly I’ve been carrying an injury for the past month so it’s been very hard to keep up with them, especially with the rest of life getting in the way but I’m happy with the work so far, and I’m almost ready to get stuck in again…

5c diet This is a long term one for me, I’m aiming to work my neglected left side and actually get both 5c and 3c backcrosses. I’ve had good long runs in the past of both, and also in training during this time, but seldom under pressure. The numbers are pretty shocking, but this one is a full year diet for me so I’m happy enough, especially as I can really see progress in my ability to do other things not on the list! I’ve also done things like adding back cross doubles, which is now running well, and in general all of the patterns are really improving, even if the numbers aren’t.

click on the image for a zoomed version

Contact staff diet This one is about cleaning up my wrong (evil 😉 ) side, and doing a refresher on some contact basics as I haven’t really been practising it for several years – I’ve totally got stuck in a rut but have become inspired again recently through dragonstaff. So… Was pretty horrified by the first set of numbers, but it’s improved pretty fast and I think Ill be updating it soon. On the downside, my evil matrix is killing me…
click on the image for a zoomed version

I love using this training technique – it exposes weaknesses and refines skill, both of which are very positive things! I’ve used/taught it for clubs, poi, balls, hoops, acro, contact staff, staff juggling, contact ball, isohoop, hats… and I’m pretty sure it could be adapted to literally any circus discipline – it’s just a case of being able to quantify what success is and acting accordingly. I do LOVE that you can watch your progress in writing and really see how you are improving. On the downside, it can be hard to stick to, especially if you get too excited and overdo it… Please do ask me if you’ve any questions, and once again a big thanks to Matt for getting me started on it.

Play 2013 FTW!

Hey Everyone.

I’d like to say HUGE thank yous to everyone involved in Play 2013, you were all awesome. As I said in my thanks on stage, I could really just talk about every single person – each and every one of you really make this festival something special. So, apart from the Workhouse (Wooh!) and Dunc and the EPIC crew and volunteers (wooh!), I’m going to do it a little differently this year…

Things I love about Play Festival

• I love how much you all love Play. It’s what keeps us going when things aren’t quite working out.
• I love that people bring awesome things and suggestions. A genuine thank you for all the feedback you give us, it really helps.
• I love the shows, the performers, and particularly the comperes. I also love that I didn’t book them this year. Aaaaah…  (I’ll talk about the heckling later 😉 )
• I love the workshop ethic. I love that many people treat it as a week of masterclasses.
• I love that it’s a festival, not a convention. There are lots of conventions, and only one Play Festival.
• I love that we’re tidy, but I do wish we could get closer to the ‘Leave No Trace’ ideal of some other festivals. I’d love to not have to spend several hours moving rubbish that other people have already moved, you know? and it could be so easy…
• I dearly love the pole in the middle of the stage. It’s kind of like the love you have for a family member that you’re slightly embarrassed to introduce to your friends/performers but love anyway.
• I love the crew. The crew is just… adorable, hardworking, efficient and fun. And occasionally they let me and Dunc go off radio.
• I love the music. I want to play at Play one year…
• I’d love for next year for a small minority of people to really think hard about the way they behave in front of other people, especially kids. I LOVE how many kids and families come to Play, and I don’t want language, excess and the heckly atmosphere to be responsible for them not coming.
• I love how well Play-ers share the love, but wonder why so many seem to think that the one time they can be less loving is when someone is on stage!? Play has a coherent policy for heckling at appropriate places and to not do it when it’s not.. but I forgot to pass that on to Dave this year. It worked so beautifully in 2012 and particularly in 2011, but as has been discussed elsewhere, I think we all get a D- this year. I don’t love my memory.. I do love that we’ll do it better next year. 🙂
• I love the annual pilgrimage to the Lonely Tree after the festival, and looking down at the negative tree that is formed by the campsite pathways and tent-shadows.
• I love the crushes that just seem to come around every year at Play-time. Mine this year include Seye Steel (for being 101% awesome), Nathan Lunatricks (crowdsurfing ON to stage!), Ronan (finally), George, Jen and Jenni (encouragement not necessary), and all of Shake That (ooooh..).
• I love that people come from all over the world just to Play with us! It’s very humbling.
• I love you. You are the reason we do Play.

See you all next year!

Flow Arts? hmmm…

note: After a lot of the discussion here and in other places I think I’m going to re-think and maybe re-write for clarification in a few places…

[small rant alert]
I really dislike the term ‘Flow Arts’. I’m not a Flow Artist, nor do I think anyone else I know is either – I genuinely think it’s a non-term that has somehow taken hold and become defining, and that frustrates me. The way our community uses it is (IMO) exclusive and as a group shows arrogance rather than collective self-confidence.

Flow by definition is something anyone can do, and the people with the best flow are not us. They are working in factories, driving trucks, making chapatis, playing samba, doing tai chi.. so why is there an exclusive group of people who get to call themselves ‘Flow Artists’? Even amongst my friends list I can see non-connected people (in this context)  who have a better innate understanding of Flow than any of the spinners/hoopers/jugglers I know. I’d feel pretty small trying to explain to a person who’s been playing piano for 60 years that I’m a Flow Artist and they are not. And sadly, by the way it is currently used, that’s what you’d have to do*! Or.. you have to stop saying you are a Flow Artist and actually talk about what you do, and find relationships and personal consciousness through the experience of Flow.

So… finally, I actually believe that it’s detrimental to a lot of people’s development (while also being great for some, for sure) to use the term. The age old debate of ‘dance vs. tech’ has now become ‘Flow vs. Tech’, and I firmly hold to something I first shared publicly in 2003 – if you define yourself in this way, you restrict your ability to learn. Certainly for a small percentage of people it’s enhancing, but I would contend that the mysticism surrounding the ability and need to ‘Flow’ through training is pretty damaging for a lot of people’s abilities to develop their own skills. I mean, dancers and musicians, even aerialists and acrobats don’t have this mystical nirvana they have to find – they just have to train, and love what they are doing. Why can’t we?

Sadly I recognise that this term is current and useful. But please, don’t call me a Flow Artist, and please think about why you might call yourself one.

*The easy argument here is ‘Of course you don’t! they are Flow Artists too!’. In which case, you are defining yourself as something so broad as to be non-useful, such as ‘someone who likes food’, or ‘literate’ – i.e. such a huge swathe of the population that you need to then redefine it immediately after to have any contextual meaning.

Staff Juggling int/adv

Basic explanation of three families of staff juggling

• Wall plane cascades
  includes french cascade, rev cascade type tricks
• Shower pattern
  classic 2 and 3 staff tricks, passing patterns
• Club reverse pattern
  similar to three club cascade with reverse chop to keep spin (nb. Costa Rica style!)

2 and 3 staff shower patterns

Basic 1 and 2 staff shower for revision

• 2 staff:
  • flats
  • antispin/reverse
  • btb flats
  • chop shower
  • body throws with shower catch
• 3 staff
  • Shower
  • antispin shower

Nb: half shower is in cascades family, as is rev cascade for purpose of this workshop

Wall plane cascade family

Basic 1 and 2 staff work for revision

• working towards classic french cascade
• 31 changing the three from cascade throw to shower throw and practising both sides

3 Staff

• French cascade
• Finnish cascade
• reverse cascade
• half shower
• 441
• Olive extensions
• mills mess
• 423
• half turns

Club reverse patterns

1 and 2 staff revision where each throw is a single spin with a reverse chop

3 Staff

• basic pattern
• extra spins: 1½s, doubles
• 423 variations: flourish, wrap, isolate, trammel, extensions
• turn into half shower

Kick ups into all three patterns

3 types of basic kickup

• classic throw from foot
• classic slam (no throw) into same hand
• stepover to other hand slam

into patterns

• classic into french cascade
• stepover into reverse cascade
• classic into shower
• slam into shower
• multiplex with classic to other hand

 

nb. further work includes passing, multiplexes.

Staff Juggling Intro

Most of this is very similar or the same as a workshop taught by Antti Suniala and Tommi Suomela of the legendary Rubber Heart Duo. It’s got a few modifications for my own preferences, but they really knew what they were doing back in 2005. A lot of the workshop is about drilling good technique early on so that when you get to 2 and 3 staffs you have a much quicker learning curve. There’s some crossover with the second workshop, as I’m never sure how much I’ll get through at each time of teaching so the delineation is a bit inexact…

Types of staff to look at; various pros and cons

• fire staffs
• super light alu
• plastic tube
• Rattan

Look for props that are easy for you in terms of length, make sure it has a good grip and preferably 3 marks dividing the staff into approx. 4 sections. My personal preference here is for super light – I love my shoulders and don’t like it when they don’t work…

Learn to spin holding in all three grip positions, switching between them.

For ALL throws and patterns work everything left AND right!

Basic throws

• cascade throw
• shower throw

Training with basic throws:

• work planes,
• work throwing and catching positions
• try to catch palm up and with good hand position too.
• Vary height and speed of spin.
• Vary grip position
• figure 8s with throws either side (training for using throws in spinning)

Basic throw/catch variations

• shoulder throws
• wrist throws
• chop throw (under the arm)
• behind back catches
• flat throw

Body throw variations

• behind the head catch
• btb throw
• under leg throw and catch
• btb throw to bth catch
• btb (under arm) to bth catch

2 staff shower patterns

• basic shower (throw – pass – catch)
• chop shower
• 2 staff shower with extra circle for full pattern (‘sweep change’)
• flat shower
• flat with btb pass
• flat/spin alternating

2 staff body throws

• in front (no body!)
• under the arm
• uta to behind the head
• btb
• btb to bth
• btb (uta) to bth

work on combinations!

Basic multiplexes

• hi-lo split (also not multiplexed)
• flat split (same level)

31 combinations – from 2s forward figure 8s. Work right hand high AND left hand high. Uses 2 basic throws with a pass underneath.

Training for 3 staff patterns

• figure 8 with change on direction as a catch (for French Cascade)
• club pattern with reverse chop

Wooh!

Enjoy.

WTF, world? (archive)

Here’s something I wrote in late 2011; most of it seems to be still pretty relevant with the way the UK /world governments have been behaving in the intervening 18 months. We’re not quite at war with Iran and China has managed to stave off most of their impending crisis, but inequality is still growing, the banks, bankers and architects of the credit crunch seem to have ‘got away with it’, and Cameron and his cronies are still pushing through ideological reforms that have very little to do with fairness or economic theory…

When I originally wrote this, there was a huge response filled with positive action and opportunities. I certainly don’t feel as desperate now as I did then for a variety of reasons. I do feel a personal response is due, so there is one in the pipeline…

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20/11/2011

I’ve been trying to work out why over the last couple of months I’ve been feeling a little under the weather – nothing serious, after all my life is pretty good compared to many, but.. you know, that feeling of ‘yeah, I’m fine, i guess’ rather than ‘Great, thanks!’ when someone asks how you are…On reflection I think a major part of it is that I am disgusted at the actions of our government(s), and feel a great sense of frustration at my inability to do anything about it. I’m not sure I really need to go into pages and pages of detail, but a few examples (working links are in first comment):

• We essentially have Banks taking over government: http://tinyurl.com/736k4ea. This is clearly a great idea. after all, look how well we’re doing with only partial adherence to Friedman-ite philosophy. We don’t really have democracy any more. Awesome.

• Every action the ‘International Community’ takes is geared towards helping the super-rich, disguised under the heading ‘the markets’, with little or no social responsibility. And it’s not just recently and only in the now-faltering west – the IMF is a hideous, hideous organisation has a long track record of destroying developing countries by offering ‘aid’. A more inappropriate term I cannot think of for loans that incur crippling debt AND require that the recipients spend most of the money on western development agencies, not directly. Here’s a coherent and, under the circumstances, quite restrained IMF/World Bank critique: http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/item.shtml?x=320869. and that’s just those two organisations, and it was written in 2005… if you’ve the time and inclination, read Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine, a brief history of disaster capitalism and corporate opportunism.

• The conservative government (IMO there is no discernable positive liberal aspect to be gleaned from the past 18 months of ‘coalition’ rule) is focused on destroying the poor to benefit the rich. Even the famously wishy-washy and – to put it politely, interestingly financed  – Church of England is up in arms at how ludicrously unequal the cuts are:  http://tinyurl.com/7wofkq4. The total estimate of savings made from welfare cuts is £7bn. This policy alone will put an estimated 80,000 children (not total people threatend by the policy, just children) at risk of homelessness. In comparison, renewal of Trident (UK nuclear sumarine fleet for non UK folks) will cost £25bn, a vast amount of which will go into the pockets of – surprise surprise – the extremely wealthy arms industry. I could dredge up so many stories to illustrate this point, but will move on, now that I’ve brought up arms…

• We’ve been involved in what are now pretty much univerally recognised as two unjust wars this century. They’re drawing to a close, but it seems likely we will have another on our hands very soon – Iran. Why is this? In my opinion it’s certainly not out of fear that Iran is a becoming a rogue nuclear state (though that is the line we must accept), but almost undoubtedly because war makes a hell of a lot of money for a very small slice of the population. The more you look at EVERY  international war there has been in the past 100 years, including the two world wars, much of the involvement has been financially motivated. I apologise if that offends, but if you don’t think so, do a little research. War economy is good for the arms industry, and historically for banks. I’m not so sure about it being ‘good for business’ any more, but it is certainly good for a very small minority, who are very powerful.

•  Do I need to mention the official response to the Occupy protests? or the huge inequality brought about by mass deregulation? or the social price of mass consumerism? the soaring unemployment rates? the fact that the country underwriting a lot of european debt (china) is on the verge of total economic collapse? argh.

So. What are my options?

1. Stir up a revolution on Social Media

I definitely feel that when I post something on Facebook there is an aspect of preaching to the converted – after all, with a few exceptions (some surprising, some not), my friends list is populated with people who broadly share my views. I do occasionally post a few things, I am a member of avaaz. I sign petitions, and engage with friends whose views I disagree with, and I have made several complaints to the BBC for inaccurate and insufficient coverage of the Occupy movement, which thankfully is now improving… but I also try not to let my life get taken over by computing. In this case I prefer to use FB for sharing things I like, and email for work purposes…

2.  I should be able to change things by positive action, right?

I do a lot of positive things, including work with local communities, work for an international childrens charity, make an effort to be nice to people, explain (fairly) calmly my political and environmental viewpoint when challenged… and yet all of the above is still happening. I’m not someone with a huge platform with which to shout out my views. I appreciate the statement ‘You must be the change you want to see in the world’, but if not many people are watching then although it’s great inside it doesn’t feel very effective as a tool for international social improvement.

3. So.. Direct action?

I have been to the Occupy Newcastle site a few times, and, much as I support what they are doing, they are having very little effect locally, possibly even a negative effect. It is also one of many UK occupy sites that have had problems with the EDL. If I were living in London I would spend more time at Occupy LSX, but I’m not. I support the Occupy movement, and the growing sense that there are millions and millions of people who are also angry at the above points is profoundly moving. But on the other side, if I were to take MORE direct action, as it were, I would end up in jail. An extra side effect of my general inclination to social responsibility in my work is that I am not swimming in cash and able just to drop everything to go and protest/work tirelessly against all The Stuff…

So… what can I DO? I’ve spent a morning writing this because I’m truly feeling a bit powerless. I’d appreciate some help here, as it’s pretty upsetting to feel like we’re just watching the rich do what they like while the poor suffer. I know that I, although probably statistically pretty poor for the UK, have a good life –  I have a job I love 99% of the time, I am good at stuff, I have amazing friends and family, I don’t owe loads of money, I travel a lot, I have satisfying hobbies, I eat easily available nice food…So in theory I shouldn’t complain about my lot. Though my net financial worth is Not Very Much, by the newfangled ‘happiness’ ratings, I reckon I’m in or near the top bracket. Even so, I can’t help but feel like if I just stand and watch those who are worse off than me when it is obvious who/what is making their lives miserable, then when it’s all weighed up at the end I’ll be just as bad as the 1%. Please don’t think I’m looking for sympathy or consolation, because I’m not. I just want to make a difference, and I want to address the problems at their origins, not just continue putting out little fires around the edge.

Thanks for reading, thinking and responding…