Re: I’m back
schecter@TFS.COM (Mark Schecter) wrote:
>Mark,
>
>Welcome back! And let me be the first of probably many to say, please feel free
>to tell us more about your circus training. I must confess to having harbored a
>secret fantasy in that direction for a long time, and I’d really like to know
>what it was like, where you did it, and so forth. Thanks!
You are the first but not of so many (but enough to convince me to post this to
the group)
I did my undergrad degree in Canberra (Australia) and moved to Hobart to do my
PhD. As is usually the case a move to another city is accompanied by a change in
lifestyle and hobbies etc. I met up with some circus people in Hobart and began
my circus career not long after moving here. It started with juggling and
quickly moved on to all sorts of circus skills. I loved it all, probably because
I was very quick to learn new skills (much to the disgust of people who had been
trying the skills for a long time and then see me do it first go). I soon
learned that to maintain friendships I had to pretend to stuff up a bit. Even so
I managed to aquire the nickname “First time Mark”.
After 6 months in Hobart I took on a possition of assistant trainer of the Youth
Circus here. After a year I was THE trainer. Now, 4years on, I am still training
kids and still trying to finish my PhD. My skills are very varied
- I specialise in unicycling, juggling, tumbling, balancing/adagio, slackrope
walking, handstand work, and to a lesser degree in chinese poles and hoops,
and trapeeze. I’m sure I’ve missed something but you get the picture.
The training I was just doing was in Albury, a small town on the border of NSW
and VIC, in Australia. It was a two week project (which is run once a year) for
people dedicated to circus performing or training, with a wide range of skills
offered by highly accomplished trainers. This years trainers included Mr. Lu
Guong Rong A gold medal Chinese acrobat, Valodya Ovdokimov a gold medal Russian
acrobat and a few Australian experts to cover a wide range of skills. The skill
level of participants was surprisingly high. One guy was juggling five clubs
with a ball bouncing on his head. He could juggle 9 rings, do all sorts of
amazing stuff with four and five clubs. There was a floor tumbler there who was
doing roundoff flip twisting layouts (he was just a little better than me).
There were people doing great balances and fantastic trapeze work. I was the
best unicyclist and slackropist there and was up the top in the tumbling and
balancing, so I had a good self satisfactory time which resulted in a swolen
head now and then 
While there I had an interview for a possition training the Flying Fruit Fly
Circus (the Albury based kids circus, “ordinary kids doing extraordinary
things”). It is for a one year long trainer traineeship where I would learn
teching techniques and also have a chance to improve my own skills much
more. Something I am very keen to do. I hear about my success or failure
within the week.
Well I think that just about covers my circus training.
peterp@foe.co.uk (Peter Philip) wrote:
>There was a reference to you in your absence - someone was wondering if you
>could do cartwheels on your uni. Perhaps you could enlighten us…
>
>Peter
I haven’t tried them. Probably for a good reason. I’m sure they’d be quite
hard. For a cartwheel you have to push off with one leg so you’d have to hang
onto the uni with just one leg. I do a handstand with the uni where I just bend
over and put both hands on the riding surface then press up into a handstand
with the uni between my legs. I can walk around like that then lower the uni
down and ride off. Seems to impress people. I doubt a cartwheel would look very
gamely with the uni.
Thanks for the welcome back. It’s good to be back.
Mark
Mark Sands o o o E-mail M.R.Sands@iasos.utas.edu.au o o IASOS/CRC Ph: +61 20
2941 Fax: +61 20 2973 ------------------------------------------------ o
Institute of Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies o @_/ CRC for Antarctic and
Southern Ocean Environment /|
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