On June 9th, the traveling circus show Circus Pages returned to the Lenawee County Fairgrounds to perform two shows in Adrian, MI.

The show opened with a lion taming routine featuring a group of white lions. The animals bounded around the circled floor jumping over one another, and sitting atop platforms while several performers directed them. There were several other animal acts featured throughout the show, including camels, elephants, and a canine review where dogs jumped over obstacles. That routine culminated when one small dog ascended a ladder and jumped off the top into the waiting arms of the ring master.

The human talent included a janitorial-themed clown, a hula hoopist, and an unicyclist, among several others. One of the standouts included the aerial artists. The first of which saw several performers dressed as cowgirls dangle from the ceiling and maneuver their bodies in various positions. One of the performers was suspended via a head apparatus, which left her arms free to manipulate a parasol, ribbon, and at one point, fire poi. The second aerial act featured a woman hanging from a metal hoop instead of a rope. She finished her act with a fast spinning movement hanging only by a strap on her neck while being pulled to the top of the building. There was a juggling act, which featured three performers juggling balls, clubs, rings, and torches. Highlights of the juggling included a three person club passing pattern, five ring juggling, and rapid pace circus-style club juggling.

Circus Pages put on a very entertaining and fairly polished performance. The show was different enough from previous years to remain unique, but still featured their usual format and key acts. There was a very diverse representation of circus entertainment, with the only real disappointment being the lack of any acrobats. As a whole, it was a very entertaining show.

Juggling concentration can be a fun game to play.  Trying to maintain a solid pattern while people do things like throw props at you or put their hands over your eyes can be a challenging, yet often doable endeavor.  If you were to introduce electricity into the mix however, well that would be a whole different story…

The 2011 Ann Arbor Juggling Arts Festival was held May 14th, 2011 at the Wide World Sports Center in Ann Arbor, MI.

There were about 100 people in attendance this year, ranging from experienced hobby jugglers to non-juggling families who had read about the festival. This year there was only one vendor present on site, Wunderground, which had a variety of juggling books, dvds, and props for sale.

No workshops were held this year, though there were a variety of games scheduled. However, due to a lack of interest, many of them ended up getting scrapped. Though a few managed to run successfully in a more impromptu format, such as juggling limbo, combat, five ball endurance, and five club endurance.

It proved to be another fun Ann Arbor Juggling Arts Festival.

The above video is vintage footage of juggler Alexander Kiss taken in the mid-twentieth century. Not only are the moves incredibly advanced by even today’s standards, but many of his insanely difficult tricks were highly innovative as well. When was the last time you were at a convention and saw someone doing numbers juggling with rings while bouncing a club on their face, or balancing someone on their head (who is spinning a prop on their feet and a ring on their freehand) while walking around and juggling four sticks? Crazy!

The manipulations displayed in this video are…interesting to say the least. Though for whatever reason, I cannot stop watching. I wonder if the punishment he endures at the end is due to him bashing the ceiling, or because he cheated by using a third hand. Then again, maybe it’s best that some questions are left unanswered.

The Golden Dragon Acrobats performed at the Tecumseh Center for the Arts on April 23, 2011 in Tecumseh, MI.

The show opened up with a slow interpretive dance piece and slowly transitioned into a work of contortion, with performers balancing stacks of wine glasses on their feet while twisting around into various positions. Next followed a display of equilibristics, this included the balancing of objects on the chin while juggling sticks and a piece where a man caught and balanced large shaker cups onto his head. Act three contained the most pure juggling in the show. Several performers came out and juggled large bounce balls on their feet while laying down and began passing them back and forth. Right after that, there was a lengthy routine featuring hat juggling and manipulation. Highlights from this piece were six hat passing on stage and a five hat shower pattern. The first half of the show concluded with a roue cyr spinning wheel piece, where performers used various sized wheels. At one point, an acrobat came out on a wheel not much larger than a hula hoop, and just before the curtain dropped, a giant wheel rolled out with multiple people on it, manipulating its movement collectively.

Part two opened up with some teeter board balancing, and then moved transitioned to a lighter note with a man and woman ballet duo. A segment featuring diabolo came next, with multiple performers doing spins and various moves together on stage with the prop. At one point, a giant string was stretched across the length of the stage with a performer on each end, and two diabolos were sent from each side, and bounced over one another to the opposing end of the stage. The most intense moment of the night came with the Tower of Chairs act. An acrobat stood on the main floor (the stage was too tall) and began stacking chairs one upon each other while others handed them to him, until he was 20+ feet in the air near the ceiling of the venue. He then held onto the top chair, and performed a handstand before slowing disassembling the tower and making his way down. Several more feats of balance and multiperson acrobatics followed before the performers left the stage, to a standing ovation from the audience.

Jugglers Pray is a project created to encourage the people of Japan during this rough period of disaster. Pitch in on cheering for Japan by going here to have your video included in their digest.

On March 12th, 2011, I had the pleasure of seeing The Flying Karamazov brothers perform in Jackson, MI. I had seen the brothers perform their current show 4Play a little over a year ago, and was curious to see them performing again. The cast this time around consisted of Zossima (Stephen Bent), Nikita (Andy Sapora), Kuzma (Harry Levine), and new member Michael Karas, as Karas.

The show opened with the brothers stacking and moving cardboard boxes around on stage until they inevitibly pulled out the juggling clubs and started passing. They then went into several of their pieces exploring the rhythmical relationship between juggling and music, which included hitting their clubs together and juggling clubs with bells. Other skits included a comical ballet, and juggling a cascade together while they all played instruments. While it was the same show I had seen previously, there were a few new pop culture jokes and references, most notably several about Charlie Sheen and Lady Gaga.

For the Gamble, I had brought a bloody brain latex prop in hopes that they would juggle it on stage during their challenge segment. My prop was not selected, though they did play with it and shoot it off stage with a cap gun after it “reverse zombie” attacked one of the brothers. The items that were chosen for the Gamble were: an old television antenna, an Easter egg basket filled with Easter eggs (which were filled with candies), and raw tripe. After a very messy first attempt, Nikita won the Gamble on his second try after making the slight modification of taping the eggs into the basket. The brothers finished out the show with a lengthy and impressive four person club passing bit and ended with their classic Terror Trick, which involves juggling many dissimilar objects such as a cleaver, an egg, a bottle of wine, and a frying pan.

After the show, the brothers were very approachable and talkative to everyone who stuck around afterwards. It was a very entertaining show through and through for both jugglers and non-jugglers alike. Check out The Flying Karamazov Brothers current schedule to see if they are coming to a city near you.

What exactly is possible when mixing shapes into all these different combinations, and is the world ready for The Ultimate Pattern? In any event, after watching this cool club manipulation video, you can download the Club Hybrid Music Remix mp3 here. Rock!