I have just recently incorporated some juggling into my routine. Interestingly, I have been getting comments from two main camps - one that is telling me to repeat my patterns more and the other that is telling me to repeat them less..?!?
I made a video of it to get more feedback:
https://www.youtube.com/v/ZDN4-54D6XU
Very keen to see what you guys think of it. Or if anybody has any suggestions on how this piece can be improved, I'm all ears.
1. Smile.
With regards to repeating a pattern, ask your self what you achieve by repeating a pattern. The answer to that should tell you whether you need to repeat more or less. Sometimes it is worth repeating a complicated pattern to allow an audience time to work out that there is a pattern & you are not just haphazardly making stuff up as you go along. Conversely throwing in a one off trick once so people don't have time to work out what happened are left asking, "what did he just do?" is very powerful too.
Repeating a pattern in a different way is worth considering too. For example in Luke Wilson's 3 club routine he did an extended run of 432 kickups, the pattern is pretty easy for a lay audience to grasp but as the pattern goes on he gets a bit more frantic which helps demonstrate that it is a difficult trick & the audience should appreciate it more (I can't remember if I heard that from Luke Burrage or Luke Wilson himself).
In your specific case repeating a pattern gives you rhythm which you need to accentuate your sliding footwork. I think you should focus more on your steps than the juggling1 because that is what sets you apart from other jugglers. Make sure you are doing some cool slidy stuff on every beat & use all the performance space. Don't just tie one step to one trick, combine them all in every way possible (someone wrote a fantastic combination generator to help with this sort of thing). An audience is there to see you, not your props.
1 Although having said that when you are switching hands with the dummy elevator make sure the carry & the throw peak at the same height on both sides!
lukeburrage - - Parent #
It's from a video you can find here: https://circusgeeks.co.uk/2014/10/03/luke-wilson-moisture-festival-april-2011/ Arron talks about that part of the routine too.
In a workshop called "the performance of juggling" I mention the extended 423 kickup sequence to demonstrate "the three applause points in numbers juggling feats as juggling act finales" and how it doesn't only apply to numbers juggling. Luke gets three distinct phases of applause for that trick, the same as Anthony Gatto can get for a long run of 7 clubs.
Thanks for these awesome ideas. Actually it's not a solo performance. It's a bit hard for me to talk about it for now because I don't own it as yet. But let's just say it's a very dramatic piece. In fact, it is a tribute to a well-known band, Vengaboys, who constantly employs the most expensive and profound lyricists for their songs. My set will also be partly accompanied by spoken word. So judging by the amount of profundity in the piece, I thought it would be a good idea to keep my facial expressions to a minimum. Also the character that I am playing is one that does not emote.
Judging from other responses I've gotten, I realized I have been focusing on the wrong things while coming up with this. But now I know how far I can go with it. That feels really good.
Also, I agree with the dummy elevator bit. My left hand throws is a lot weaker than my right. Need to work on that. Thanks again for taking the time to offer very constructive comments!
Whoops. Didn't mean to say this.
"..Judging from other responses I've gotten,.."
Sorry my bad!
I wanted to say, "After reading your comments as well as other comments I've gotten.."
No edit button? Aww....
I have three suggestions.
1. Have you tried freestyling along to really expressive music, or maybe your favourite music ever? Something very very beautiful or exciting, something that moves you? Something that makes you laugh out loud and dance like nobody's watching? If you can bring something of that into your act, it will become way more interesting.
2. If you're going to do interesting body moves, do them all the way. Sometimes they are there and sometimes not, and sometimes they seem a bit half hearted. Make a major theme out of them! Get some beepy electronic robot music, exaggerate the crap out of all those moves, watch your video back and work on your lines until they're perfect, see if you can match the body moves to the tricks you're doing. Make a big thing out of it, or don't do it at all.
3. Watch that video again and just focus on looking at your face. An audience is going to look at your face frequently - that's just what people do. I'm sure you've got an expressive face in real life; you can use it to communicate feelings to your audience, or to make eye contact with them, or to draw their attention to things. Your face is a canvas. Consider what you put on it!
Here's some inspiration for you:
https://www.youtube.com/v/6gHOUw2XALQ
Thanks for taking the time to watch the video and for your comment. Unfortunately for this piece, for the most part, it is not accompanied by music. I can't quite talk about it yet (not without prior written permission from our legal and PR people anyway) but I think I know what you're imagining I should do.
If we're talking about hip-hop dance, I guess non-purists would argue they would fall into different styles: popping, locking, tutting, gliding, (ro)botting, ..etc. I believe the style that you are talking about are either popping or botting as in the video you shared.
Actually I tried popping before and our audience didn't respond well to it. Unfortunately, most of the time they do tend to skew older for us. But I guess if we ever get the chance to perform to a younger audience, I am definitely keen to try out your ideas. As for the dance part, I have to stick to locking, tutting and gliding only for this one. I am playing a character (ala Meyerhold and Artaud) so I have to sorta like be in an existential state the whole time while I'm onstage.
Strangely, I always find myself pleasing the people who sign the checks more than the audience sometimes. I guess you can say I got used to it. Maybe one day I will be able perform purely for the audience again. Maybe then and only then will I be able to stay current/relevant again and embrace all the new styles that are out there and make them my own! *sigh* :)
ah, what I meant definitely wasn't "Put popping in your routine!"
What I meant was, try putting the routine to one side for a moment, pick some expressive music that you really enjoy (whether it's hip hop, or ballet or Old People Music or something from the Sesame Street Musical), and just juggle along responding to the music. It's an exercise in thinking about variations in tempo and volume, and about having the structure of the music inform the structure of the juggling, and about how emotions from the music can come in the juggling, and a whole bunch of stuff I think you might find helpful, maybe.
Even if you don't have music in your act, music can teach you a lot of very relevant things.
I also meant (with item 2) that it's hard to see your character in there at the moment, so maybe you can project that character out at the audience a lot more.
PS. Sorry, there is no Sesame Street Musical to my knowledge, but there should be.
Little Paul - - Parent #
Does "Avenue Q" count?
holy crap.
OK I shall be booking tickets to see this (probably in York in September), who wants to come?
Oh shoot! I was just informed that the search engine spiders found this thread already!?! How is that possible? I didn't even mention the name of the show. Usually it'll take months before they start crawling our stuff. Must be a slow day for SEO/SERP (YES GOOGLE I AM LOOKING AT YOU!)
Before I say anything else, let me just profess my love and respect for Vengaboys. I think their song lyrics are really poetic and the world is definitely a better place thanks to them.
Okay, now that that is out of the way..
Never occurred to me before how musical structures/dynamics are actually quite similar to juggling. Think I will give that a try. I have also started looking at beats and meters in poetry and how that can influence juggling. Still a bit confusing at this stage.
"..project that character out at the audience a lot more.."
Good point. For now, I am finding it a bit difficult keeping a straight face during rehearsals. This is my first time doing a poetry recital. What can I say, I am easily amused. At some point, will definitely need to work on the characterization a lot more. I am beginning to worry that I will be the only cracking up during the show while audiences are simply yawning away.
PS. Um...I think there may be a couple of advocacy groups out there who may consider Sesame Street the Musical as a form of cruel and unusual punishment. I can't be sure.
Me too. They're very philosophical like that.
The song I am doing is called Up & Down. Check it out. It's about....you know....life.
Little Paul - - Parent #
It's not as deep as "Cheekah Bow Bow"
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