Newsletter - September 2002

Welcome to the first Cambridge Community Circus newsletter for a very long time!

So what's been going on then?

As most of you will probably know, CCC has been rather quiet over the last couple of years - no Community Show, very few shows outside and sometimes not even very many people at the Sunday workshops. After discussing things with the current Management Committee, I decided to try and re-launch CCC and get things going again, with (it seems) quite a lot of success - we've recieved a previously held back grant from the City Council, Sunday workshops are very busy and we've also been featured in various local press.

How can I help?

If you'd like to help CCC to thrive, there are some simple things you can do:

• Join the management committee. We'll be having some elections for a new committee soon, we intend to meet once every one or two months for a brief meeting. You'll learn about all the aspects of running a community group and help make major decisions about CCC's future - for example, you could decide whether we run a British Juggling Convention one day! If you're interested contact me.
• Learn to teach workshops. We'll shortly be running some classes in how to teach circus skills, based on the experiences of myself and others who have taught (probably) hundreds of people to juggle over the years. There are some simple techniques you can use to teach almost anyone, and it can be immensely satisfying (and can even make you some extra cash!). Details to follow.
• Help with the Sunday workshop. There is usually one nominated person who teaches beginners, gets all the equipment out and then later attempts to fit it back in the cupboard, makes sure people pay etc., but they can often use help with packing up or teaching.
• Edit the next newsletter or contribute an article - tell us about the last juggling convention you went to, talk about how you first learnt, or even draw a cartoon!
• Run a mini-workshop on Sunday. Perhaps you'd like to teach some 4-ball tricks, or left-handed club passing?
• Just come along and juggle - if you don't have time for any of the above, don't worry - the more the merrier.

Workshop update

Apologies to anyone who had trouble finding us over the last few weeks, we had some trouble with venues - however the good news is that we're now in the Drama Centre until Christmas. We will also shortly have some new toys - a secondhand freestanding ladder I picked up at the Bristol juggling convention and also some basketballs and footballs for learning ball-spinning. I will also be putting a reel of diabolo string in the workshop box so we can re-string all the workshop diabolos, and for people to use if they snap their own string during the workshop. Trapeze will hopefully be back from next week as well - we're currently looking for a better venue for a regular trapeze workshop, so if you can think of anywhere that's high and cheap let me know!

News, rumours and gossip

Martin (Stretch People) Varallo now has a two-week old baby girl (congrats Martin!) and is currently living in Canada.....John Beresford (the other Stretch Person) is moving to live in Brighton (and so can put us all up for the British Convention next year :-)....Sam Thornely is now working in the camping shop on Burleigh Street (the outdoor bit of the Grafton Centre)....Camilla Prytherch and Claire Durant are moving to Bristol to go to university and have already been invited to various acrobalance workshops, let's hope they get some work done as well....'Bendy' Paul Wright is off to Australia again to travel and busk, leaving in November this year....any more rumours, news or gossip, let me know for the next newsletter.

Dates for your diary

Circus Shows

There are two traditional tented circus shows coming up and a more 'contemporary' juggling show - if you haven't seen a circus since you were tiny, go along and see how the professionals do it! Most tented shows are now animal-free, I'll say below if this isn't the case.

• Jay Miller's Circus is at Saffron Walden from the 24th-29th September at 5.00 p.m. and 7.30 p.m. Tickets are only £5 on Tuesday 24th and some CCC members are already going on that day to the 7.30 showing. If you would like to go it's probably OK to just turn up - apparently there was no problem getting tickets last time. For more details of the show see http://www.jaymillerscircus.co.uk - looks like they have a juggler and lots of acrobatic and aerial (trapeze or rope) acts.
• Zippo's Circus are coming to Cambridge, they will be on Midsummer Common from the 3rd to the 8th October. I am currently trying to arrange a group discount for Community Circus people and even possibly a workshop in the big top on the weekend - I'll be sending out more details when I know them. Zippo's have a horse act in the show (they have a very high standard of animal welfare if you're concerned, see their website at http://www.zipposcircus.com for details) and lots of human stuff.
• Kicking the Moon, a contemporary circus group who won the first Jerwood Circus Award and trained at The Circus Space, London, are performing at the Mumford Theatre (at Anglia Polytechnic University on East Road) on Saturday 19th October at 7.30 p.m. I'm also trying to arrange a group discount for this show which looks like it includes lots of juggling, I'll let everyone know the details. More about Kicking the Moon at http://www.kickingthemoon.co.uk

Juggling Conventions

If you've just started juggling you might be interested in going to a Juggling Convention - basically a place where jugglers from all around the country meet up to swap tricks, buy and sell equipment, watch and perform in shows and generally have a great time. You can go along even as a complete beginner and it's a great place to learn new tricks. You can find out details of all coming juggling conventions at http://www.jugglingdb.com/events but to give you a rough idea:

• 6th October - Royal Tunbridge Wells in Kent (the first year for this convention I think)
• 12th October - Manchester (a very friendly one this, I went last year and enjoyed it hugely. The show is in a pub with cheap beer and there is crash space available for the Saturday night)
• 19th-20th October - Durham (not been to this one but there are lots of good jugglers in Durham and it's a very pretty town - and not as far away as you might think, just go up the A1...)
• 9th-10th November - London (held at The Circus Space, the biggest UK circus school, and thus lots of workshops in aerial and acrobatic skills as well as the usual juggling stuff. Usually a very high quality show as well. It's possible to stay overnight or just catch a late train back to Cambridge).
• 7th December - Bristol University (known as Bristol's Other Bristol, or Bob, because there's another convention in Bristol...)

Future events

There are a few ideas for the future that we'd like your opinion on:

• Should we do a major show next year? This would involve devising and rehearsing a circus-themed show on weekends over two or three months, to culminate in a performance open to the public. If you're interested in performing or even just in helping out with costumes, prop-making, transport etc. let me know.
• Unicycle hockey - would anyone like to organise a team?
• More equipment - is there anything you'd particularly like to try and can't because we don't have the equipment? Someone has suggested throwing knives; other possibilities are walking globe (although this is a difficult and dangerous prop to use), maybe even some hats, what about strange things like tennis racquets or tennis balls in a tube?
• Juggling Music - I'm going to contact the Drama Centre and ask if they can get a new stereo as the current one is rather broken. However, we could do with some communal music for the Sunday workshop. If you've got a favourite CD you think is good juggling music then bring it on a Sunday night and we'll make a copy for the workshop, so you don't have to remember it every weekend.
• Christmas Party - I suggest we arrange to meet in a pub after the last workshop before Christmas (probably the 22nd December) and try and get some food, mince pies etc. laid on..

Alright, so how do I tell anyone what I think?

The easiest way is probably to email our Yahoogroups mailing list - if you haven't joined so far please do, details are on our website. Other than that you can contact me, Charlie Hull, at the usual CCC email address, or talk to me at a Sunday workshop. I'm the one trying to spin a ball on a long pole balanced on my chin...Remember, the Community Circus is about you - so don't be afraid to say what you'd like to happen.

Fact of the week

An occasional feature - people have been asking me recently what the world records for juggling are.

The short answer is:

rings - 12 catches with 12
balls - 12 catches with 12
clubs - 9 catches with 9

although some people are working on 13 objects. You can also check out the full records at http://www.juggling.org/records/records.html

Take care and happy juggling!

Charlie