the Downside-Up Circus » seattle

Sunny in Seattle

Tara — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:11:19 +0000

Tara, Molly, and Victoria have had an excellent week in Seattle following the Fremont Solstice Parade! (See the latest pictures of Interrobang’s various gigs and adventures on Flickr.)

We recovered from our circus-on-concrete extravaganza and did some sightseeing at the Pike Place Market. We went to see Just Add Water at the School for Acrobatics and New Circus Arts, a new collaborative show put together by seven young circus professionals who did a short summer residency at SANCA. (It was a thoroughly enjoyable show, though some parts were more polished than others.) We stayed with many different friends (thanks to Allison, Marple, Erica, and Bryan!), practicing our juggling and enjoying the well-earned break from long-distance biking. And to top it all off, all week the weather has been gorgeous – sunny and warm!

On Saturday we joined in the fun at Artopia in Georgetown, juggling in a procession with our friends the Titanium Sporkestra and the Harlequin Hipsters, witnessing the absurdity and destruction of the Hazard Factory’s power tool races, wandering the market stalls, and catching several acts by various configurations of SANCA’s three youth performance troupes. The night closed out with a rather hectic marching band & fire-dancing blowout on the street!

On Sunday we met up with Lindsay and Kristian in Kirkland for a family barbeque, where we showed off our choreographed acts for our hosts. Next: Port Townsend for Fourth of July weekend, our last major leg of the tour! (Plus, for a few days we have the pleasure of a guest member, our friend Juliana who’s joining us from Oakland, CA.)

Gearing Up in Seattle

Tara — Sun, 30 May 2010 04:37:45 +0000

Victoria and I have joined Molly in Seattle! While awaiting the arrival of our tandem (which is making its way across the country via Greyhound Package Express and should be here soon!), we’ve been going on bike rides on Molly’s family’s bikes.

Today, despite a short downpour we did a 35 mile bike trek mostly along the gorgeous Burke-Gilman Trail, from Molly’s house just outside Seattle all the way in to Seattle Center. There, where we jaunted around the Folklife festival, enjoying great folk music and street performers, contradancing, and playing with newfound fellow circus folk. Lots of fun despite the gloomy weather.

Tara and Luke juggle at Folklife.

Now we’re staying with a lovely bearded man, Bryan, in Georgetown, in a little house with its own bike rack out front. He’s involved with Alleycat Acres, an urban farming collective that “transforms vacant spaces to create a network of sustainable urban farms that reconnect people to food while helping to increase food security on a community level.” So, he’s awesome. And he’s letting us stay on his couch(es)!

Victoria and Tara do acro at Folklife.

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!