juggling help in the boston area?

[orestas1123]

Im a novice juggler and was wondering if there are any festivals or workshops or just classes in general in the Boston area? Or are there any coming around? I could use some professional help.



PS. I dont know if this post should be here or in the resources/ educational material area.

[Circusnews]

New England Regional Youth Circus festival is scheduled for Aug 13, 2005, and includes both a juggling track, and a spinning and twirling track (their are 14 tracks in all). Both will offer a wide range of workshops, from beginning to masters level.

Simply Circus offers juggling, clowning, and many other classes in the Boston area (www.simplycircus.com)

MIT, BU, BC, Harvard, Brandice and many other area colleges have a juggling club, sometimes 2.

Let me know if you need any more information!

[orestas1123]

Arent the college clubs mostly college students? And what are most of the clubs like?

[Circusnews]

Arent the college clubs mostly college students? And what are most of the clubs like?

Some are, some are not. MIT and Harvards are not. BU, BC, UMass mostly are.

Simply Circus has a few adult classes being scheduled for February that may be of help to you.

The first class is a general beginners level circus skills class for adults (stiltwalking, juggling, flag, poi, creating an act and a few other skills). This will be a weeknight class, most likely Mondays in Newton.

The other adult class we have comming up is a clowning class (Finding Your Inner Clown) with master clown Sam Brown. This will be a Sunday morning class, and will take place in either Newton or Watertown.

Both are 8 session, 1 hour 45 minute classes. Feel free to email me for more information on either of these. I will also be posting anouncements of them on the education board next week sometime.

[orestas1123]

Well first of all I'm only 15. But would i just walk up to the harvard or MIT clubs and start juggling? And I'm assuming I could get help with mills mess and stuff. And are there an differences between the two clubs. As you can tell I'm a little nervous about juggling with random strangers.

[Circusnews]

No, I would not expect a teen to go to these clubs.

Given your age, what you really need is a teenage juggling or circus program.

You're in luck, as it just so happens that I am the director of one such program for teens in the Boston area.

So let me extend to you an invitation to come and join the Simply Circus Explorer program. We meet every other Sunday from 2 - 5pm at Newton Community Service Center, including this comming weekend. We do juggling, acrobatics, acrobalance, wire walking, and just about any other circus skill you can think of, other than aerial arts.

For more information on this program (including directions), go to our website. Please feel free to email me, or call me with any questions (contact info is on the Explorer page).

[orestas1123]

What are the ages of most of the students? And how is hte juggling taught? Is it specific to individual student needs or is it more the whole group does the same thing? And how is the time divided, could i Just juggle the whole time ?

And, uh, will somebody be able to help me with mills mess?

[Circusnews]

Currently the average age is 14.9 years old (14 years, 9 months).

Everyone is requiered to learn at least a basic cascade, but juggling is more of an individual thing. We have a few kids that really take juggling far (club passing, 4 and 5 balls, etc), and others who never go beyond the basic cascade. We work with it all.

In general, here are how our days run:

Setup
Warmup / Conditioning
First Workshop(s)
Open / Speciality Time / Workshop 2
Closing Game
Cleanup

Set-up, Warmup/Conditioning, the first workshop (often a choice of 2), and cleanup are manditory. During the second workshop you can usually choose to work on something else entirely if you want, and we generally have staff that can help. At the same time, we go with the flow. Last session we were doing acrobalance, and went right through the whole time without stopping. We had planned to do juggling the second half, but no one wanted to stop, so we just kept going with the flow.

Guest workshops are the exception to this. When we have guest instructors in (and we do have 6 or so a year) we usually dedicate both workshop sessions to it, and it is usually manditory, though it depends on the workshop.

Upcomming guest workshops:
Acrobalance (Feb 13th)
Knife Throwing (TBA)

[orestas1123]

Ill look into it, who do you have as guests, and how good are the staff at juggling? Like I said Im working on mills mess and 5 ball cascade.

[Circusnews]

Guests come from all over. Past guests have included people like Thomas Wood , Adam Dipert (one of the foremost devil stick artists in the world), stunting instructor DZ Haskins (she is comming again on the 13th of Feb), and many, many more.

We have a few people that do MM and variations of it, and 2 kids that are at various stages of 4 and 5 ball.

We actually have a new juggling coach named Brett Constantine that has joined us. He was the juggling guru for UMass Juggling club.

[orestas1123]

How big is the facility, just wondering and how many students?

[Circusnews]

We will have anywhere from 8 - 20 people on any given day, plus instructors.

As to the space, we meet in the auditorium of NCSC, a space about the size of a basketball court, perhaps a bit larger.

[orestas1123]

Great I will look into joining and any more information that you think is important would be greatly appreciated, Im a little nervous to meet so many new people.
Thanks

[Circusnews]

Make sure to read the rules and regulations of the program. That includes things like the dress/uniform code, program fees, etc.

It is OK if you are not in the proper uniform for your first session or two, but you should dress as close to the uniform as possible until you get a uniform.

As for meeting new people, this is a group of teens unlike any other you will ever find. Come with an open mind, and an open heart. Come ready to learn, and ready to share your skills with others. Most importiantly, come ready to have some fun.

If you (or your parents) have any questions, please ask.

[le pire]

Orestas,

MIT, Harvard and the BU clubs welcome teenagers and there are other teens that show up most of time. Hope to see you there!



etienne