Juggling News

The Melbourne Juggling Convention 2007 DVD is now available from HalfBaked (Sydney Jugglers) for $10 plus postage. Go to http://www.halfbaked.com.au/dvd.html to order your copy!
The 5th Sydney Juggling Convention is coming soon and will be held on 26th-28th January 2008. Have a look at http://www.sydneyjuggling.com.au/ for more info.
The line-up includes:
• Marco Paoletti
• Natalia Galkina (Russian foot Juggler)
• Aaron Gregg + his brother (Canadian Street Performers)

The Candy Butchers Concoct a Circus of Skilled Slapstick
By Christopher Rawson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - November 09, 2007

Doesn't everyone love a circus? Even if you don't, I expect you'd love The
Candy Butchers, a one-hour show that's best described as a vest-pocket
circus with attitude.

It's hard to put your finger on just what that attitude is, which is half
the fun. It's eager but surly; truculent but wistful; knockabout slapstick,
but also highly skilled.

There are just four of them, but to start, as they work the audience with
their cotton candy and who knows what, including a tray of forks (forks?),
they seem to be legion and everywhere. Noisy, too, in the swaggering manner
of circus or carnival candy butchers, the traditional name for the
concessionaires, as they hawk their wares and josh the rubes.

It's not that they're exactly eager to sell you something; more like they're
daring you to try to buy. But the cotton candy is real, with its
sticky-sweet aroma pervading the perfectly sized New Hazlett Theater.

Suddenly the lights go down, one of them is thrown into the center of the
ring -- this isn't so vest pocket that it doesn't have a proper ring with
trapezes and other mechanisms -- and they're off. There's no plot, per se,
but there's loads of personality: strong man and geek, dominatrix and kewpie
doll. Or, as I wrote in my notes (there were no programs), short and tall,
red-haired and blonde.

They create a drama of sassy personality, helping and hindering each other,
vamping the audience. The skills are circus skills: twirling rings, riding
bikes, climbing drapes, balancing, tumbling, soaring, falling, but the
accompanying music and interplay of attitude give it an atmosphere more
Fellini than Barnum & Bailey.

The central relationship is between the two women, bossy red and smudged
blonde, both more zaftig than svelte but strong within the curves.
Eventually the stage is in shambles, but suddenly they're all riding aloft,
bathed in red light and ethereal music, with a glitter ball working its
tawdry magic. Then the lights die, with only the cotton candy machine left
in its star spot.

The audience didn't want it to be over.

"A Circus Sweetmeat" is the subtitle. Sweet it is, but tart, too. It's part
of the Australia Festival, which means they're all jet-lagged not just in
time of day but even season, which may add to the funny tilt of it all.
Kudos to Marko Respondek's wonderful lights and the direction by Stephen
Burton, because even mayhem has to be directed -- "well, managed," he said
to me after the show.

Christopher Rawson has been Post-Gazette theater critic since 1983 and
theater editor since 1990, writing reviews, previews, news stories,
obituaries and columns. He reviews about 170 plays a year, mainly in
Pittsburgh but also New York, London and Canada. "In the Wings," his weekly
column of theater notes, appears Thursdays, and "On Stage," his online
journal, appears erratically. Each year, Rawson leads about five
Post-Gazette theater tours to Broadway, London and Canada. The schedule is
posted on the PG theater page.

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What We Do...
We cycle from town to town, looking for a place to stay, co-operating with locals and the community and performing in the street or at a pre-arranged locations (usually some kind of Social centre) and giving workshops after the event if we have time. Getting up to 15 people on working bikes, fed, amused, happy, well rested and ready to perform to their best for popcorn is a vast achievement in itself! The show has to be seen to be believed - it involves live music, live accidents, clowning, tightrope, monocycling, bike jousting, diabolo, juggling, acrobatics, magic, fire spitting and dancing, acrobalance, trapeze and incredible jumping mad Mexican bean chaos! It is a great experience meeting people from a vastly varied ways of life, learning about other attitudes, languages, history, the world today, nature and how to keep a team of clueless foreigners, entertaining, laughing and creating with a bunch of junk we carry with us.
How We Do It...
Six years have elapsed now since the original idea for the circus was formalized from a gas of an idea into the mighty (well, so to speak...) force that currently rolls through the mountains of east asia. We have sustained ourselves nearly entirely from the funds collected through street shows, and managed to hold our bikes together sometimes simply from bailing wire and scrap metal supporting 100 kilograms of baggage. As autumn creeps out behind the summer sun, we generally make a dash for the south and find an old house that needs repair, thus irking out a living situation from nothing. Upon arrival in a large city, such as Beijing, Moscow, or Istanbul, we need simply to pull out our instruments and equipment and perform on a busy street or in front of a cafe and VOILA, a house appears out of nowhere. Generally when we travel, all funds collected from the afformentioned shows goes into a collective sachetto, which subsequently is used to purchase food, bike parts, or pay medical bills in the extreme case that someone falls ill.
We try to prioritize free shows for underprivileged kids, and have been known to experiment on animals by rinsing hot jazz in the local zoos, much to the dismay of the custodians, but to the extreme pleasure of the monkeys!
Why bicycles ??
Because we like bicycling. We have fun. We encourage people to cycle by showing them the pleasure it brings us. By travelling on a bicycle we are exposed to the weather, people, the whole environment around us. Having a bicycle for a home allows us to cut down our expenses: no rent, no car insurance, no trips to the gas station, nor the car mechanic.
We travel with all we need, which includes water, food, camping gear, our instruments, plus junk for circus shows.
Carried by our mutant bicycles, we offer unexpected live entertainment - encouraging kids away from TV video-game lethargia and into circus amazement.
A New TallbikeBecause finding an abandoned bicycle to fix up isn't usually too difficult, those who want to join us have easy access.
As you may have guessed or seen, we travel very slowly. We find this way of traveling rewarding, sometimes blissful, often disasterous, and ridiculously serendipidous.

www.cyclown.org
www.myspace.com/cyclowns

Womens Circus Seeking Applications for Outreach Director

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3 circus performers required for Little Devils "Go Super!"
- 2008 primary school tour.

Description:
"Go Super!" is a 50-minute circus show produced exclusively for primary schools, which promotes confidence, teamwork & positive self image. It’s a fusion of circus acts, a great storyline with a clear narrative, lots of fun and audience participation.
Location:
Melbourne metropolitan (school tour).
Dates:
Season dates: 4/02/08 – 22/02/08.
Times: Mon–Fri daytime only, must be available from 8am–4pm each day.
Rehearsals:
21/01/08 – 1/02/08, Times TBC, but must be available for day or evening rehearsals.
Wages:
• During the show season: between $400 - $800 per week, depending on number of shows per week.
• Maximum of 3 shows a day (most likely 1 or 2).
• Rehearsals: $200 - $300 per week for 2 weeks, depending on hours. Must be available during day and evening until times are confirmed.
Auditions:
• 17/12 – 21/12, daytime and evening.
• Possible auditions available Friday 4th, Saturday 5th & Sunday 6th January by appointment, if required. Please call or email to enquire.
Skills and experience:
Essential:
• Own completed circus act, 6 - 10 minutes in length (all ground acts considered, no aerial);
• Some tumbling ability;
• Some experience in Adagio/Acrobalance as either base or flyer;
• One or two other circus skills to a high standard (e.g. juggling, hula hoops, diabolo, etc; not necessarily a finished act);
• Proven ability to work on stage with other performers;
• Acting training & experience.
Preferred:
• Experience acting in children’s shows/plays;
• Internet access at home;
• Licence and car.
Note: If you have some or all of the above skills and are an experienced actor, but do not have a finished circus act, give us a call and we can chat about possibilities!
Please send your CV to Louise Jordan:
louise@littledevilsrec.com.au
t: 03 9555 1591
f: 03 9555 3913

The National Circus Festival presents the first:
Lone Star Materclass Program - January 2008

This first master class series is designed to bring highly trained professionals together, to work on skill development with a limited number of motivated participants. In putting together this performance training programme we have focused on the environment in which we will be working to maximise training possibilities.
Lone Star, where the Tasmanian Circus Festival is held, is truly a special place. Set amidst a vast forest, this natural environment is home to native birds, wallabies, echidnas, wombats and platypus. The ambience will be conducive to working on developing skills and at the same time provide a unique live in environment.

Swinging Trapeze with Ruby Rowat
Ruby's integrity to the art & virtuosity of circus distinguishes every performance & is true in her approach to coaching. She has been privileged to train initially with Andre Simard & more intensively with Victor Fomin, whose coaching method uses specific progressive drills for acquiring swinging trapeze tempo & technique into your body. Ruby has coached professional & aspiring performers in swinging
technique & in act creation in Montreal, Vancouver, Brazil, Tasmania & now in Brisbane. Since her initial intensive training with Victor she continues to train with him between contracts. As Victor says, "There's no such thing as a poor student, just a poor coach."

Performance Technique : 23d - 28th January 2008

Viewpoints with Laura Sheedy
Viewpoints is a technique of theatre training and improvisation that articulates the two dominant elements performers and directors deal with on stage - time and space. Viewpoints allows performers and directors to function together spontaneously and intuitively, equipping theatremakers with skills to generate dynamic work, quickly. Performer and director Laura Sheedy (A Scam and a Strongman, Undercover, Adventures of Captain Frodo) began training and working with SITI in 1998. Since then, she has been utilising Viewpoints to create theatre works and run masterclasses in Australia and the US. This training intensive will immerse participants in the Viewpoints technique and
provide an invaluable resource for performers and directors of all styles and experience.

Clown with Clare Bartholomew
Explore and discover the playful, childlike and ridiculous world of the clown. The emphasis of this masterclass will be the playfulness of the clown, complicit between each performer on stage and cultivating pleasure at being ‘seen’ by the audience. Through both individual and group work, each performer will find their own relationships to the task and discover what might work for them, be it in solo, duo or group performance. Clare Bartholomew is an actor, deviser, director and clown doctor. She has developed a number of award winning solo and ensemble clown and theatre works (One Mans Business, The Business, Die Roten Punkte) and is an accomplished teacher of clown and physical performance. Prepare to be silly, take a risk and have fun!

For more information go to: www.circusfest.com/training
Click here for brochure

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GPAC announces new General Manager
Geelong Performing Arts Centre (GPAC) will have a new General Manager running the show from February 2008. Jill Smith will replace current General Manager Sally Beck while she takes 12 months’ maternity leave.
Jill has most recently worked as a policy adviser in the Premier’s Private Office and also has extensive arts management experience as General Manager at Playbox and The CUB Malthouse in Melbourne.
As General Manager of Playbox (now trading as the Malthouse Theatre), Jill played a key role in the initial development of the theatre and the recent development of the Malthouse arts precinct. This includes the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Chunky Move, and a major set construction workshop that has also doubled as a performance space during the Melbourne Festival.
Jill has also held numerous appointments on arts boards and has received many awards for her services to the Arts.

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