the Downside-Up Circus » inspiration

Goggles and Gears and German Wheels

Tara — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:06:43 +0000

Workers arrive at the factory and prepare to start the day, heckled by their overbearing boss. But when a little bird gets in through a window, its freedom and flight inspire a minor mutiny. The workers seize the opportunity to find possibilities for expression and autonomy, transforming their workplace with incredible feats of skill and creativity.

Last Tuesday Molly, Tara, Victoria, Kristian, and Lindsay all went with a large group of other circus folk to see the inspirational Cirque Mechanic’s In A Birdhouse Factory at UMass Amherst Fine Arts Center, a high-quality stage circus show starring a company of experienced circus artistis (including former Cirque du Soleil and Pickle Family Circus performers) who came together just for this one tour. With seats in the front two rows, we had an up-close-and-personal view of the excellent and entertaining acrobatics, aerials, trampoline, german wheel, and clowning.

With tight staging, excellent sound design, and really creative props (such as a German wheel ‘port’ which let the wheel spin in place and used the energy to wind a cable through multiple pullies, raising and lowering various other props), Birdhouse told a satisfying story that created an exciting, lighthearted world. Sweet and funny interactions between characters were carefully woven into the pacing, and the shifting of focus was very smooth, making transitions between acts (often an awkward challenge) natural. The skill level was impressive, but the professionalism and polish of the performers more so. Birdhouse is a stellar example of theatrical circus, the setting and characters supporting the use of circus skills and vice versa. If you get the chance, go see for yourself!

AYCO!

Tara — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:00:41 +0000

Attending the American Youth Circus Organization Festival really reinforced for me just what it is that I love about circus: the solidarity, the community, the positivity, the fun. I’d never seen so many circus people – wonderfully unorganized, endlessly enthusiastic, innovative, creative, friendly, skilled circus people – in one place. There were crazy tights and hairstyles all over, and every third person had facepaint or was carrying clubs. People of all kinds, all ages, are working together, learning from one another, respecting each other, and all doing what we love to do.

The list of participating organizations was impressive, a who’s who of youth circus programs and troupes in the US: Circesteem from Chicago IL, Circus Harmony from St. Louis MO, Circus Smirkus from Vermont, The Stone Soup Circus from New Jersey, My Nose Turns Red Circus from Kentucky, SANCA’s Youth Company from Seattle, WA, and many others. These programs are small, unique, and spread apart. To be in one place together really made them into a community with a common goal: to bring circus to kids across America.

And those kids were incredible: talented, dedicated, smart, and funny. I got to interact with them (my favorite overheard quote, from a 13-yr-old boy: “I have an eight-pack… I just forgot to put it on this morning!”) and see them perform. The adults who support those kids, teach them, work so hard to keep these youth programs going, are incredibly inspiring individuals. They are knowledgable and passionate but still young at heart.

Victoria and I met up with the Bindlestiffs in person, who proved yet again to be not only excellent as business mentors, but wonderful people and friends. I reunited with old friends, and talked to and played with people I’d only ever heard of or met in passing, discovering connections, shared accquaintainces, shared tastes, and shared ideas. There were organized and impromptu discussions on a whole range of topics, from Social Circus to gender in circus, from where kids go from youth circus programs to performance technique. At the workshops, I got the chance to try German gym wheel, attempt new juggling patterns, and learn some Circus Yoga.

At the junction between the youth performers and adult teachers there is a gap in continuity that is slowly being filled by college-age circus enthusiasts like myself. The ‘roustabouts,’ the college students who were also the stagehands/gophers of the Festival, formed a little group of our own in green bandanas, silly accents, and shared big dreams for the future. The festival co-ordinators themselves were a recent college grad and a college student who put in a staggering amount of work to organize this major event. My next project, inspired by my Festival experience: a network to connect college-age(ish) circus movers and shakers to each other, to youth circus organizations, and to circus schools and companies!

Bicycle power brings touring musicians to Seattle…

Molly — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 22:04:50 +0000

live on-bike music

Dozens of bicyclists drifting through the streets of Seattle, hauling guitars, cellos, multiple drum kits, a 2000-watt pedal powered PA system, smiling and waving at confused pedestrians and annoyed drivers, being serenaded by a musician on a bike-stage: this is the essence of the Bicycle Music Festival.

It was, put simply, AWESOME. There are about 15 touring musicians, orchestrated by the Ginger Ninjas, who teamed up with about 10 other local bands. A few bands would play at a park – the sound entirely powered by audience members pedaling on bikes – everything would be packed up onto the bikes, and we would critical mass through the streets to the next venue.

Max juggles heavy bike locks - very impressive

The music was great, the atmosphere was spirited, vegetarian sandwiches and vegan donuts were handed out by Food Not Bombs, good times were had by all. One of the highlights for me was meeting up with a bunch of other jugglers. It’s incredible how magnetic whipping out a few juggling balls can be. Some of them were better jugglers than I was, but I taught all of them how to pass and how to steal – I think partner and multi-person juggling is even more fun than individual tricks.

When I was handing out Downside-Up business cards and telling folks about our planned bicycle-tour, Max the juggler said Hey! I’ve heard of the Downside-Up Circus! My face contorted into an interrobang of disbelief and exclamation. It turns out that he knew one of our troupe members, Corvus.

It was fantastic to see the results of a successful bicycle performance tour, to prove that we aren’t just chasing an impossible dream, and exciting to hear about the Ginger Ninja’s next venture: a bicycle tour of Europe!

More photos from the day can be found here.

Celebrating Bikes & Circus at the Tour de Fat

Molly — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 04:14:12 +0000

This weekend I went to the Tour de Fat in Seattle at Gasworks Park, a touring festival sponsored by the New Belgium brewing company to promote their beer, but mostly to celebrate bicycles and art. There were a few spectacular performances that I thought I would to recap and review here.

the Sprockettes dance their biker girl hearts out

First, I saw the Sprockettes, an all female bicycle dance troupe from Portland, Oregon. Clad in hot pink and black, they gave a spirited performance dancing to what sounded like 80s/90s pop-punk music, half of them lip-syncing along. Some of the simple acrobatics they did using their little trick bikes were really clever and fun. Their dancing wasn’t always synchronized, but that was not the point. The point was that every move they made, they made with such GUSTO, such vigor and spirit. Watching them made me feel like our culture is not actually doomed, and the revolution will be lead by girls on bikes clad in pink hot pants.

the Baron Vegan von Hamburger

The other show I saw was the Squirm Burpee Circus, by a group know as the Handsome Little Devils. Their show, as they proclaimed, was a “vaudvillian melodrama, with good guys and bad guys.” Their schtick was pretty straightforward, but effective and enjoyable. The bad guy, the Baron Vegan von Hamburger, had a contraption he used to to turn the audience’s applause into pure evil, in the form of a giant black balloon. But! if the audience applauded TOO loud, the machine would malfunction and the balloon of evil would burst. The good guys, brothers Mike the Handsome and Dashing Dave, with their assistant Lolo making a love triangle, performed some first rate juggling, swing dancing, and tricks, as well as having some of the best audience banter I’ve seen.

my dad enjoys a very unusual bike

Unfortunately I missed a show by Nanda, a group of juggling and acrobatic ninjas from Port Townsend. In addition to the variety of performances, there was other bike fun to be had, at a section of the park full of funky, rideable art bikes that were some of the strangest (and funnest) looking bikes I’ve seen.

Seeing such an outpouring of bike love and creativity got me really exciting for bike touring around the northwest, and seeing the performances got me really excited to start developing our own show, INTERROBANG!

I ride my bike I roller skate don’t drive no car…

Victoria — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:04:33 +0000

Right now, all the members of the INTERROBANG tour are scattered across the country doing a myriad of activities. For example, Tara and I are working as flying trapeze instructors at a sports camp. We’ve recently been looking into which bikes would best suit our tour, which then reminded us that we will definitely need to be training hard next year. Our goal is to bike 50 miles a day, with some days off where we stay put and perform often. Tara and I have just started biking to work, which is a very hilly 4 miles one way. The hills posed both a good challenge (especially when my bike played the ‘you wanted a low gear? Oh! Well let me just go against your wishes and shift you back into the highest gear!’ game) and insanely fun when going up and down them, respectivley. In any case, it was pretty satisfying to stroll into the camp already sweaty and thoroughly wind-blown.

Another benefit to biking is it really makes you work on your projection skills. If you wanted to talk to the person in front of you, you really do have to get your voice out there. This has a multitude of useful applications beyond chatting while biking. For example, good projection will be extraordinarily useful when letting towns know that the circus is in town, emceeing to a huge crowd, shouting up to princesses locked in high towers, and for dressing up in business suits and looking intimidating.

Tara and I are planning on riding a tandem bicycle for the tour, which means that projection won’t be as necessary (seeing as how we’re quite close to one another). We’ve been thinking of things the stoker (person in the back) can do while the captain steers. So far we’ve thought of filming/photographing the rest of the troupe as we’re on the road, reading out loud to the captain, high fiving other bikers/pedestrians, and juggling.

What would you do if you were on the back of a tandem bicycle riding through towns?