The Highs and Lows of Being a Diabetic Juggler

You can find more about Kathrin and see her work at @kathrings on instagram or on her website here: https://www.kathrings.com/ 

Hup Squad Book Club: East Asian Contortion Trilogy

Reviewer Emily Fulton (Age 16)

In between busy weeks of circus intensives and coaching, I got my hands on a new contortion book from Modern Vaudeville Press thanks to AYCO’s book reviewing opportunities. Contortion and Practices of Body Flexibility in East Asia: Mongolia, China, Japan is written by Mariam Ala-Rashi and was recently published in 2023. This trilogy encompasses three individual yet interconnected works of research, including Mongolian Contortion: An Ethnographic Inquiry, China’s Bending Bodies: Contortionism and Politics in China, and The Kakubei Jishi: The Rise, Fall, and Restoration of a Japanese Folk Performing Art. It is a fascinating read for anyone interested in the history of contortionism, how the origins of artforms can be obscured behind how we want history to appear, how politics impact artistry, and how different cultures can separately develop distinct yet related artforms using body flexibility.

At 464 pages, this is one of the longer research-based books that I’ve read. I enjoyed this book by flipping through it and making a beeline towards sections that fascinated me, such as Mongolian contortion philosophy and technique, state run contortion schools in Communist China, and the colorful origin stories of Japanese Kakubei Jishi (flexibility based lion dance). Because it is a compilation of Mariam Ala-Rashi’s many years of research, the book was sometimes a bit technical and potentially confusing to someone who isn’t familiar with all of the terminology. However, there were plenty of stories and interesting details built in to keep me coming back for more.

Ala-Rashi’s meticulous writing also challenged me to consider aspects of our art that are all too often overlooked. I had never really considered, for instance, how world politics and major economic events have a direct and tangible impact on art creation, specifically movement arts. What art is created, how it is created, who is making it, where it is made, and who it is made for are all closely tied to wars, economic status, social stability, and a multitude of other factors that Ala-Rashi brushes on when describing the origin of contortion in various countries. Specifically, I was fascinated with Ala-Rashi’s description of one of the most renowned contortion schools in the world, the Beijing International Art School in Communist China. The young girls in this school are subjected to intense supervision in their personal lives and their contact with the outside world is limited in an effort to mold them into the most elite contortionists in the world. Furthermore, mistakes made on stage by high level performers in the Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe were considered an act of ideological revolt and they were punished accordingly. As a young circademic (circus academic), I consider the way their performance was directly tied to political oppression terrifying and incredibly important to recognize.

As I read this book in a common space during my summer of training at Circus Smirkus, I quickly discovered that other youth artists were also fascinated with the book and the history it presented. I found myself reading the rich details and vibrant stories aloud while sharing some of the most jaw-dropping contortion photographs I have ever seen with my friends. As one of my peers shared with me, I wish they made books like this about other disciplines! So, rest assured, everybody can find an aspect of Contortion and Practices of Body Flexibility that resonates with them.

Reviewer: Lyra Gross

7 hours at the unheated studio makes your arms quiver as you come down from a 30 minute straight handstand against a wall. You’re being scolded because your toes weren’t pointed but all you can think about is what the thermometer reads in the gym, 40 degrees Fahrenheit... This story paints an accurate illustration of what students at the Beijing International Art School experience. My name is Lyra Gross. I’ve been training circus for around 7 years, and was lucky enough to review Contortion and Practices of Body Flexibility in East Asia for AYCO. This piece of writing made by a three year full-time contortion student is incredible in its ability to provide contortionists with the different training methods some countries use to obtain extreme flexibility and strength. The importance of contortion in different cultures is also prominently displayed through the text and shows how it can be used for things other than entertainment such as propaganda or symbolic cultural traditions. Although it can be a tricky read due to the author’s constant sourcing, it overall provides crucial information of the history of contortion as well as important contortion training methods, and is definitely worth reading. 

Contortion and Practices of Body Flexibility in East Asia includes different training methods from countries all over the world, and can help inspire other artists to practice contortion in more efficient ways. The book includes examples of how “the bending of the spine always follows the leg stretches as it is crucial to warm-up the leg muscles and hips first” (Ala-Rashi 69). Although many contortionists stretch their legs rigorously, it is usually with the intention of developing good lines instead of assistance to back flexibility. This information can help us as contortionists change our stretching methods in order to gain extreme flexibility without hurting joints. Not only that, but the book also helps artists understand how much time is put into the sport. The Beijing International Arts School forces students to stay on campus at all times and they usually have “4 training sessions throughout the day” (Ala-Rashi 234). Which evidently adds up to a total of 10 hours of training. This puts in perspective how long athletes have to train to be at the level of high paid Cirque Du Soleil artists. It also helps contortionists that don’t train rigorously be less self conscious about their abilities.

Now, although this book includes key contortion training methods, it may be a frustrating read because of unnecessary information and the author’s constant sourcing. It is very obvious that the author put a lot of time and research into this project, but this can lead to information dumps. For example, pages 294-312 talk solely about the history and landscape of Tsukigata in Japan and have nothing to do with contortion or acrobatics. Although this gives context of the genesis of contortion in this area, it could easily be summed up to one page. Another confusing aspect of the text was determining whether the author was referring to her studies or other sources. For example, she talks about how an “author had the opportunity to experience the traditional contortion training,” (Ala-Rashi 40), but begins sourcing the author two pages before. These long references can make the book confusing and sometimes leave readers a little lost. Although all of this is true, the author clearly put a lot of work into writing this book and these little hiccups are worth pushing through to obtain essential information about contortion.

This contortion book also includes many interesting facts about how body flexibility is used in different cultures and can be more than just entertainment. The genesis of contortion in Japan for instance, was originally created to track down a criminal. A person named Kakubei was killed, but in the process supposedly he bit off his attacker’s toe. His sons therefore invented contortion and would invite “people in the audience to join the practices so they could look at peoples toes without drawing any suspicion, in the hope of finding their fathers murderer” (Ala-Rashi 313). Personally I found this very interesting and enjoyed learning about some of the unique ways contortion can be used. Another example is how China used acrobatics as a form of propaganda. The circus shows were made to represent the unification of the soviet union, and if  “performers made technical mistakes during a ‘revolutionary’ show, then the performance failures were not considered random technical problems but signs of political subversion” (212). Can you imagine the pressure those performers must have gone through? To be able to represent your country through dance and flawless acrobatics is such an incredible topic to wrap your head around. Contortion and Practices of Body Flexibility in East Asia is an amazing book in its ability to show contortionists different forms of training and help us understand where some styles of contortion originated from. I hope this review was helpful in determining if this book is right for you.

Interested in getting your own copy to read for yourself? Visit Modern Vaudeville Press for all your circus reading needs!

My Amazing Journey at AYCOFest 2023 Seattle!

By Sylvia Faulk, Capitol City Circus (formerly TSNY DC)

I’m here to spill the tea on my unforgettable experience at AYCOFest 2023 in Seattle! Grab some popcorn and prepare to be amazed by the thrills, chills, and epic friendship skills I discovered under the circus tent!

New Friends: The Circus Connection

Making friends was way easier than I thought! Within moments, I was meeting new circus enthusiast friends.  I was absolutely mesmerized by their dedication and passion for their craft. There is so much to learn and do! 

Climbing to New Heights and Trying New Things on Silks and Lyra

My main circus love? The silks and the lyra! I learned cherry drop on the lyra and did partner trapeze. I watched people doing amazing shoulder and headstands, and some people were mastering the unicycle. There were incredible acrobats as well! I got to do the Teeterboard and the Bungee!! I couldn’t believe it. And flying trapeze was icing on the cake!

The Spectacular Showcase

The grand finale of the festival was the Showcase, where I got to perform on silks in front of a packed audience in the amazing Emerald City Trapeze Arts. The spotlight was blinding, the music was pumping, and my heart was doing acrobatics of its own. As I climbed those silks, I felt absolutely terrified and by the end, I have never been prouder of myself!

But the showcase wasn’t just about me or even just about the performers. It was about SANCA, it was about Charlie – our stellar emcee – and Audrey and all of the AYCO staff who make circus possible (my little sister got to be a stagehand), and the audience who shared in the joy and beauty. It was about all of us, united by our love for circus, coming together to create and enjoy something truly spectacular.

My first time in Seattle!

Oh, and let’s not forget the other star of AYCOFest– Seattle! I had the opportunity for the first time ever to explore the one-of-a-kind city of Seattle. Pro tip: the parmesan-crusted corn on the cob at Pike Place Market is a must-do!! 

The real treat was my visit to the Emerald City Trapeze Arts. It was like stepping into a circus wonderland. Their state-of-the-art facilities and jaw-dropping training and performance space had me in awe. 

Expanding my Circus Family

As the festival came to a close, I realized that it wasn’t just about the tricks and stunts. It was about the people – the friends I’d made, the instructors who had inspired me, and the incredible performances at Showcase. I left with a phone full of joyful photos, a heart full of unforgettable memories, and a circus family that will last a lifetime.

So, there you have it, my circus-loving friends – my adventure at AYCOFest 2023, meeting amazing people, practicing the aerial arts, and exploring the wonders of Seattle!

Hup Squad Interview: Felicity Hesed

Interview by Olympia Davis

I recently had the opportunity to interview Felicity Hesed, artistic director at Circus Center. Most recently, she adapted and directed The Secret Garden into a circus and theater fusion production. She spoke about The Secret Garden, her team in directing, her next project, and advice to young performers and directors.

*Note: Some dialogue has been changed slightly for clarity and length.

Olympia: Can you tell me about the acts of The Secret Garden performance? How did you incorporate circus into the acts?  How did they flow together and tell the story?

Felicity: The Secret Garden is a novel originally, and I adapted it into a play that would incorporate circus. There’s a pretty famous adaptation of The Secret Garden that is a musical version, but ours is very different. I used the book as the source material, I didn’t use the musical or any of the movies. I worked from the book but modernized it a bit. I really wanted our show to feel present and real. 

The book starts with the main character, Mary Lennox, living in India and everyone dies from a cholera epidemic. Since cholera is not a problem today for people and I didn’t want to have it set in India or in England, our show begins with people at a party post COVID talking about how they all survived COVID. They discuss how they’ve been hearing about this new virus, but it’s probably not a big deal. And then, we find out someone at the party has died and then things go crazy. Because it’s targeted at children, we’re not super overt about what happens to everyone, older children in the audience understand from the rest of the story and younger children think, “I don’t know, things got crazy at the party”. That’s where our first acrobatic act happens. It is a chaotic scene in the party where people are running around and freaking out and we do a lot of lifts and tossing people and tricks like that.

So Mary is left alone on stage and she’s been handed an iPad to occupy herself because her parents don’t want to deal with her, everybody says, “Mary, just go away”. She’s all alone and does an acro-contortion solo where she’s staring at her screen the whole time and moving the way a little kid wiggles and squirms when they’re staring at the TV.

She then moves to live with her uncle in this mysterious Manor. When she goes exploring in the hallways, we have the hallways come to life with spirit characters that build staircases and toss her around and create tunnels. It gives you a sense of this weird mysterious house, and how her imagination comes to life inside it.

The garden comes to life, so that’s fairly abstract. Plants don’t do back handsprings and don’t toss each other and don’t dance. But to me, it’s indescribable when you see a beautiful plant in bloom or you see a whole garden just burst into color. There’s no way really to describe that. The garden scene is our take on what that is like; what is a garden like when it’s grasping and trying to find the sun and trying to find water? How do we show that movement quality in our bodies? And then when it’s fully in bloom, what does that exuberance look like? We show that through very exciting acrobatics.

There are some parts of the show that are a little more literal – like the neighbor family does a jump rope act because they give Mary a jump rope and she’s like, what is this? They realize she’s never seen a jump rope, and she’s never been taught to jump rope. So they show her. That’s an exciting acrobatic jump rope act, which is a bit more literal. 

The robin is a pretty important character in this story. They show Mary the key to the garden and show her where the garden door is. Most of the show, the robin is portrayed as a puppet that’s manipulated by a person on stage, but there’s one moment where the puppet leads Mary off stage and when they come back on stage, the puppet is a person who performs a trapeze act. Everybody loves that act, it’s very exciting.

Olympia: How long did it take you to adapt it from the book into your version?

Felicity: I read the book for the first time during the pandemic, sometime in 2020. I immediately envisioned it as a circus show. For about a year it noodled around my brain – which is important work. Right around the beginning of 2022, I started working on a written adaptation. I started working on a written adaptation. I worked on that for a few months, then we started development rehearsals around March of 2022.

We developed it in a pretty fast rehearsal process. We did our initial production of it in June 2022 It went well, but I knew there were things about the script I knew I wanted to fix. There comes a point when you’re already in rehearsal that the actors will lose their minds if you keep changing the script on them. As a director, you have to cut off how many more changes you will make, and the acrobatics, we did as much as we could in a fast rehearsal process with the people we had. But we knew we also wanted to kind of upgrade some of the circus moments. We were really fortunate to get a residency at the Children’s Creativity Museum in downtown San Francisco. It’s a beautiful museum with a beautiful theater. We were excited and we got to dive back into work. After that first production closed, I did a lot of mental work and then around the same time the following year, I jumped back into rewriting the script, around January of 2023, and spent about three months rewriting. Then we got back into rehearsal right around the same time of March in 2023, and the show ran for four weeks at the Museum in June and July of 2023. So about a year and a half.

Olympia: What is the casting process for the show? Did you have auditions?

Felicity: For the recent production we did, which was a four week run at the museum, we held open auditions and we posted it pretty widely. We were definitely looking for local people because it was a longer run, and because it was a pretty intensive rehearsal process since we’re combining theater and circus.

Because it’s produced by Circus Center, we were primarily looking for people who have some connection to Circus Center, but we were open to looking at other folks as well. We ended up casting seven youth performers that are all part of the San Francisco Youth Circus. It’s written to have youth artists in it for some of the lead roles and some of the extras.

We also cast 10 adults. About half of them are actually teachers and performers at Circus Center. A couple of them are primarily actors in San Francisco – one of them actually was an actor before he started this and has since learned some circus. Another person was mostly an actor but she’s done a little bit of circus. These actors were great for some of the roles where we didn’t really need them to be able to do as much circus, we really just needed people who could act the parts. They’ve been great. They jumped in and learned a lot. 

Olympia: Interesting! That’s a lot of people, but also less than I was expecting. Does each person have multiple roles throughout the show?

Felicity: Most of the characters just play their character throughout. Some of the bigger youth characters we actually double cast. So for example, Mary Lennox and Colin Craven – they’re the two biggest youth roles – we double cast; we have two Marys, we have two Collins. When they’re not playing their primary role, they play kids in the neighbor family. It’s a much smaller part and they do some group scenes and some group circus acts. That way, because we do two shows a day, it gives them both a break. It also allowed us to give more people opportunities, and if someone were to get sick or injured, we’re not lost.

Most of the other people primarily have their part to play, but they join in group scenes and acts. For example, the person who plays Dicken. She is mostly Dicken throughout the whole thing. She’s in the party scene at the beginning, everybody’s in that as a different person. And then she’s in the corridor as a part of the ensemble.

Most of the acrobatic sections are done by our ensemble. The ensemble is a group of seven people. One of them is a teenager and the rest of them are adults. They transform into different roles throughout the show, from hallway to garden to people at the party. They do it all. In the end they’re part of the big finale, so they’re very busy.

Olympia: What is the process of creating the circus routines and choosing the music? Are they choreographing their own routines or are you choreographing?

Felicity: I worked with Evan Tomlinson Weintraub on this – he was our acrobatic designer. He is amazing! He grew up training at Circus Center in the San Francisco Youth Circus. I was super lucky to have him come back and work on this show both times with me – the initial production and then this remount. He’s really the mastermind behind most of the circus acts. We also had a choreographer this time who was also one of the artists in the show. Her name is Lex Baesen and she teaches at Circus Center as well. She brings a lot of circus experience as well as dance training. She also worked with us on the choreography to make everything seamless.

All of the acts were created for this show. People bring tricks and sequences they know, but it really was created collaboratively during rehearsal together. Even the solo acts would work with us to shape their piece so that it fit the emotional tone of the show. Each artist did a lot of research, exploration, and discovery. Anyone who’s been fortunate enough to see the show will be like, “Wow! I’ve never seen stuff done that way”. It’s very creative, it’s very unique. It’s so collaborative, but Evan and Lex definitely take charge in that moment. 

For me, one of the joys of working on a show like this is how collaborative it is – and Evan and Lex are right there with me on it. Everybody we cast is very creative. Part of what we were looking for in the audition process was improvising and seeing just how creative they could be; what they could come up with, and how open they were to trying new things. We were really looking for people who could dive in and create with us.

Olympia: What was your background before you became the artistic director at Circus Center?

Felicity: I started as a theater person, I did theater as a kid and I studied it in college. After college, I moved to Chicago to pursue a career as an actor, which I did for a while. And then I stumbled on circus. I was walking in Evanston one day, and I looked in these windows and there was this room where all these people were hanging from trapezes and tumbling. I was like, “What is this? I want to try this!” It was the Actor’s Gymnasium, a circus school in Chicago. I started taking classes and just totally fell in love. 

Once I started getting into circus, I immediately was curious about how circus and theater could combine because I had this strong theater background. I quickly started working on shows that would incorporate both. Sometimes there is more theater, sometimes more circus, sometimes they’re a pretty even split like the Secret Garden. There’s always some element of each in all of my work. 

Since moving to San Francisco to train at Circus Center, I’ve done a little bit of everything; I’ve taught, I’ve been a student, I’ve directed shows. During the pandemic, I got to keep creating. Circus Center was really supportive and I kept artistic projects going for Circus Center during that time. As we were coming out of the pandemic, they were looking to restructure, and the executive director asked if I would be the artistic director because I was kind of doing that job anyway. He was like, “Why don’t we make this official as we start to reopen?” 

Olympia: What’s your favorite part of directing, either for this production or overall?

Felicity: Whenever I create a show, there’s always an essential idea there that I feel compelled to communicate. For The Secret Garden, one of the things that struck me about this story was how it was really about these people who were experiencing isolation, trauma, and loss – things that we were all very familiar with during the pandemic – and they were finding a way through it.  They were finding a way to come back to life from that by being outside in nature, by being part of a community, by playing. I felt very strongly about wanting to communicate that theme. For me, when I direct a show, it’s very important that I have a strong theme in mind that I really want to put out into the world. 

Probably the most fun part of directing is working with the performers, going through that process of having this idea that can only go so far in my own mind, to seeing what amazing things the performers or other collaborators bring to the process. Seeing how their ideas come together and then seeing this whole new thing come about. Some of it might be what I imagined in my mind, but much of it is stuff that I never could have thought of by myself. It requires that group, that collaboration, that community to really make something new, that no one person could have ever done by themselves. For me, the most fun part is that process of discovery and creation and seeing an idea go from a seed to this big blossoming flower.

Olympia: What is your next project? Do you have something in the works?

Felicity: Yeah, I do! I’m working on a new show. It’s called {IN}TANGIBLE. Brianna Kalisch, a circus and theater artist based in New York wrote this very beautiful play. It’s about a woman with dementia who’s living in a home and her children come to see her, and it’s about her experience with dementia. Her memories come to life on stage as these circus fantasies. It’s so beautiful, beautiful script, beautiful concept. 

She found me as a person who directs circus theater and we hit it off! In August, we’re going to New Jersey to do a development residency at a place called ArtYard. We get to do this two week development residency where we’re living and working there and just developing the show and exploring and all those things we just talked about that are so awesome. We found an amazing cast of performers. Most of them are New York based, but I’m bringing one of the people who did The Secret Garden with me. We’re hoping that down the road, once we develop the show more, we’ll get to fully produce it and see where it goes. I’m happy to be continuing to do this fusion circus theater work, which is really my passion, and excited to get to know the east coast circus and theater community a little bit better.

Olympia: Do you have any advice that you would give to performers or directors?

Felicity: I would say the biggest advice that I could give anybody is just go for it. You can make a lot with very little, and the only way to learn and to grow is to go for it. Ideas can sit locked away in a journal or a box for many years, but it’s really much better if they have a chance to get out in the world and become something. It’s scary because you don’t know what will happen, and not every show or not every act is going to be your best one, and that’s ok. They don’t all have to be, but the only way to get better is just to do it.

The only way to get good enough, the only way to be ready, is to go for it and to do it. That can be in the backyard with your friends, or your local circus school, or making videos. If you really love it and you really care about it, eventually you’ll get to a point where you can do it more professionally. I think it’s so fulfilling to the soul to create, to make art, and nothing should ever hold someone back from doing that.

WELCOME TO BARABOO

By Aodhan Lane

Last weekend, I traveled to Baraboo, Wisconsin, with my mom and my friend Circus Steph. If you haven’t heard of Baraboo, this is a must-see place for any circus lover. The city of Baraboo was the home of the Ringling Brothers. The brothers created their first circus here back in 1884. Since then, Baraboo has grown into a beloved circus city.

My first stop was to the International Clown Hall of Fame (ICHOF) and Research Center. It is packed with history of famous clowns like Lou Jacobs, Bozo, Emmitt Kelly and many more. Greg DeSantis, Executive Director of ICHOF gave us a tour of the facility. My favorite part of the museum was the elaborate costumes that the clowns made by hand.

In the evening, I went to the Baraboo Concert on the Square to listen to Professor Stich’s Original Baraboo Circus Band. It was a treat sitting in the square listening to the songs of the circus while eating my cotton candy ice cream.

The biggest circus attraction in Baraboo is the Circus World Museum. When you enter the museum, there are displays that give the history of the circus in Baraboo. There is an old calliope that you can put in 50 cents and enjoy the music – and make sure to look at the sides to see how it works!

There are several more buildings on the property with exhibits about clowns, elephants, the circus wagons and more. My favorite was the circus wagons. I imagine it was beautiful and exciting to see these wagons pull into town for the circus. The best part of the museum is that during the summer there is a real circus under the big top tent. Amazing performers dazzled us with strength, balance, comedy, and song. This is the last year for elephants at Circus World so it was a treat to see them and give a farewell.

After my exciting day at Circus World Museum, I went to the International Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center Induction Dinner. Here I had the opportunity to watch as Paul Jerome, Tom & Tammy Parish, The Rastelli Clowns, and Ruthie Chaddock were honored with being inducted in the Hall of Fame. I met so many famous and wonderful clowns that are now my new
friends.

On Saturday, I dressed up as Jef the Mime and was in the Big Top Circus Parade. The first circus parade in Baraboo was in 1907 so being a part of the parade was a thrill. It was fun being in a place where people love clowns, want to high five, take pictures, and cheer as you walk by.

The rest of my trip I took the opportunity to make new friends with several of the clowns. My favorite was Larry Clark and his daughter Addy. Larry is a former Ringling clown who jus happens to a face that I know very well; he is the face of my clown mug.

Baraboo is an amazing place for a clown, circus lover, or someone who might want to capture the magic of nostalgia that is circus.

Book Review: Steve Ward’s “Opulence and Ostentation”

Review by Thayer Slichter 

I got the incredible opportunity to read and review the newest book from Modern Vaudeville Press in anticipation of its release. I am so grateful that they reached out and I get to share my thoughts on this new book! 

Opulence and Ostentation by Steve Ward is a well-rounded and put-together book about the history of circus architecture. It covers many different aspects of these buildings such as the people who were associated with them, the physical attributes of these buildings, and timelines of what happened within these stunning spaces. This book is filled with pictures of the exteriors and interiors of these venues, works of art, and my personal favorite: floor plans. While reading this book, I found myself learning about so many buildings I hadn’t heard of before. My new favorite, which I found in chapter five, Ginnett’s Olympia, quickly became a topic of interest and a new favorite for me. Ward does a brilliant job of expanding on what made the buildings he chose to cover so fascinating. This book had a lot of information without feeling dull and was able to answer a lot about the history of these places in a way that was appealing to learn about.

My favorite part of this book is that it shows that even though these buildings were all created in different locations, they are all connected by a love for circus by the people in these places, and across these places how the meaning of circus possibly changes or stays the same. This book was able to show the similarities and contrasts between all sorts of different spaces and cultures and what these sites were used for, and it did so in a way that felt compelling for me to keep reading. The introduction and the chapters that follow go into what makes a circus a circus without feeling like there is a right or wrong answer which I absolutely love. Any opinions or thoughts in the introduction and the following chapters feel like an offer, and it is very clear when Ward is putting his own thoughts onto the paper and inviting you to think about the topics at hand vs. when they are factual statements without room for interpretation like the timelines of the building’s history. 

If you like circus, history, and architecture then this book is absolutely for you. I certainly enjoyed reading it and I am very excited that I am able to write about and read this book. A huge thank you to Modern Vaudeville Press for letting me do this review!

Check out Modern Vaudeville Press to see the other wonderful circus books they already have in their catalog and keep an eye out for the release of Opulence and Ostentation by Steve Ward soon!

Brown Aerial Acrobatics Club Show: CHRONOS

Review by Daisy Coleman; all photos by David Pinto – @lenseful 

Brown University of Providence, Rhode Island, has its very own circus club: Brown Aerial Acrobatics! The club is student-run and offers training and student lessons in a variety of aerial disciplines, including silks, rope, straps, dance/static trapeze, and lyra. They perform twice a year, once during the fall semester and once in the spring semester. In the spring of 2023, they performed the student-written and directed show “Chronos,” with a cast of over 30 members.

Brown Aerial Acrobatics offers the chance for students interested in circus and aerials to try it at a beginner level, but they also offer intermediate training and open gym time, as well as a Performance Team program, an apparatus specific-group that trains more rigorously and is part of creating the spring show.

The organization has existed for eleven years, and the students at Brown Aerial Acrobatics train two-three times a week, and offer opportunities as “apparatus heads” to lead lessons on specific aerial disciplines. In April of 2022, they performed their first show with a theme, “Asteria,” tying together each students piece with a story about landing on a starry island after a spaceship crash. In April of 2023, “Chronos” focused on the theme of time, and details the story of a mad scientist stealing a magic pocket watch to become an evil villain, who the protagonists must stop. Along the way they meet various friends, who appear on lyras, ropes, trapezes, and silks.

The 2022-2023 co-presidents Autumn Jade-Stoner (senior) and Abbey Alderman (junior) were a huge part of developing the spring show “Chronos,” and keeping the circus community spirit high at Brown. Brown University is one of few colleges that offers a circus club, but is certainly doing its part to keep circus alive and open to everyone! 

HUP Squad Reviews the Circus International Film Festival (CIFF)

In March Hup Squad members Olympia and Anneliese attended the virtual Circus International Film Festival! The festival is a month long film festival where one or two circus films are emailed to attendees daily. There is a wide range of storytelling, circus disciplines, full length and short shorts. Read on to find out what attending the festival was like for our two reviewers!

OLYMPIA

The Circus International Film Festival wrapped up in April, and I had the opportunity to be a part of it. Each morning, the festival provided links to one or two films for the day, and a voting form at the end of each category. I loved the format of this festival, as it made it so easy to watch the films no matter the time I had. I really enjoyed watching them at the end of each day, and checking the discord discussions was a fun and easy way to connect with the community.

Before this festival, I had never really seen circus film, so this was a new and different experience for me. I loved the way these artists told their stories through film, using light, sound, and camera techniques to really help the audience feel the message of the films. I was very impressed with the quality of each and every film! Each one was done very professionally. 

My favorite category was “short shorts”. I think it is amazing how the creators were able to tell such a story in so little time. Each one had fun and happy energy. My personal favorite “short” short was Contortionist Homonius, by Marites Carino. This film told the story of a mysterious creature called “Contortionist Homonius”, and presented the creature as if it was a rare species found in the forest. I really enjoyed the way this was put together, and I thought the camera work was really well done. There were lots of shots looking through trees as well as magnificent backdrops in the forest, all captured beautifully. 

Another film that I loved was the short documentary Come One, Come All – The Salida Circus by Nathan Taylor Ward. I thought this documentary about the Salida Circus was really lovely to watch. Even watching through the screen, it was clear to me how welcoming and open the Salida Circus is. The stories the founder told, as well as the stories from the children, made it evident to the audience how circus is for everyone. Each person told a story about how circus gave them a place where they belonged, no matter their background. I feel that this is true for me too. When I started aerial I had no experience, but I quickly fell in love with it, and always felt welcomed. The Salida Circus seems like an amazing community, and this documentary was very special to watch.

Each and every one of the films in the festival was expertly crafted, and getting to be part of the festival as a viewer was such a privilege. I would recommend this festival to anyone and everyone! Whether you are already a circus enthusiast, or are just starting to fall in love with it, this festival is for you!

ANNELIESE: Compare and Contrast

The full length films where often a lot more story centered and followed a more structured plot, while the shorts where often longer routines, in video form, using a chosen song as a sort of script – both where great depictions of story telling! The shorts felt like a more accurate depiction of aerial in my opinion- considering a lot of the story telling in aerial is centered around short routines corresponding with music – however I enjoyed the full length films more.

This isn’t to say that one genre is better than the other, or that I felt this way about all of the films from the Circus International Film Festival, however I found myself really appreciating the balance between active story telling, and aerial performance in the longer films. My overall take away from the festival is very positive, and I had such a fun time Full Length Shorts watching such a wide spectrum of films!

Of course I need evidence to prove my point, so here goes. My favorite short length film was “Stiff” by Briana Bowie. I thought the visuals where great and, and the concept was absolutely beautiful. In a very short piece of media this story managed to capture a beautiful and comedic story about a man infatuated with the dead, as his most recent specimen comes to life – and preforms! On the contrary, my favorite full length film was “Persephone Bound: Continuing the Conversation”. This was a beautiful and daring film that captured the story of Persephone in a new way, never told before – it followed her journey as she overcame trauma and persevered. It is a great representation of circus – but the strengths of this film are in its cinematography and meaning. These films are great examples of why I think that the short lengths are better representatives of what circus is, but the longer films hold my favor because of the story they have time to explore.

Interview with the Founder of the Circus International Film Festival, Marisa Diamond

Interview by Olympia Davis

Olympia: What inspired you to start the film festival?

Marisa: In the very beginning, my inspiration was that I am a filmmaker, I am an artist, and a performer and I started to explore dance films when I was in university for my undergrad. As a part of my screen dance class, I started using circus for my films. My professors thought it was really cool idea and something that they hadn’t really seen before. So I started doing that and I loved it. I had submitted some of my films from that class to different film festivals around the country. My dance films got accepted, but my circus films did not. I wanted to create a space where these films would be understood and appreciated. So I started the festival. When COVID hit, I was like, let’s do it. This is something that I wanted to do for a long time and, and everyone’s at home, right? So what a great time to start a film festival, especially one that’s online.

So that was the inspiration in the beginning. But since then, it shifted for me, the inspiration behind why I keep doing it has really come to community and accessibility and connection. So yes, it’s really important to have a space for these films to be appreciated and seen, but it’s also about the people who are making these films, and the people who like seeing these films are now getting to connect. We’re an international film festival and that’s really inspiring and driving to me because when people connect, they push each other, they come up with new ideas.

Olympia: Do you still make films now? And if so what is your favorite thing to do when making the films?

Marisa: I haven’t recently been making films. I’ve been doing a little bit more photography and working as a freelance editor a little bit. Recently I’m in my master’s degree, so I haven’t had a lot of time to create my own art, which is a little sad, but also I’m really passionate about what I’m studying. So there’s a balance there. I love editing. That’s why it’s the thing that I’ve kind of chosen to do while I have this limited amount of time. There’s something special about editing, especially in the circus film world where you’re not necessarily working with a script when you are creating the film. In circus film or music videos, like you can, you can craft whatever you want in the post production. So for me, I like that, it’s about storytelling. You’re, you’re really crafting an entire story in the editing world that’s almost similar to writing a script. Writing is not my strong suit. Visual makes a lot more sense to me than words. And so I can tell a story through editing where someone who’s a writer can tell a story through a script.

Olympia: What was the process of starting the festival? You decide you want to start this film festival, what’s next?

Marisa: Yeah, it was really quick and it was just me at the very beginning, with the input of my mom. I was living at home and my mom was my sounding board, as she also comes from the circus world. She is a circus coach and has been a circus performer also. Then it was my big leap of faith. My next step was reaching out to all of the contacts that I had in the film and circus world and building a jury because, I knew that that could be a good selling point to get people to submit, because when filmmakers see names that they know that’s huge. We had a really fabulous jury that first year, and I think that the amount of submissions we got was partially due to them.

 I then decided what categories we would have. It was really important to me that we had an under 18 category. I did some research on other film festivals to see what categories they had. That first year we had like a short non-documentary, a short documentary and a full length, and it was massive. We have learned since then. We’ve broken it up into five categories and that has helped. 

Then I decided we would have a jury award and an audience choice award. I think that that’s a really powerful way to get people involved. I set up the website with all that information on it and then I just blasted on social media about it. The first year of the festival was free and we had a huge audience and it went really well. It was really successful and along the way, Emily Fulton, who’s the festival assistant joined and Jonathan Meehan joined kind of towards the end of the festival that first year. And we are still the team behind the sort of international film festival now. In the beginning, it was a lot of me throwing something up in the air and hoping that people would catch it.

Olympia: Can you describe the role of the jury a little bit?

Marisa: We choose the jury through people that we already know, or connections in the, the film or circus worlds. So through our connections, we reach out to people who are circus performers or work on the artistic side of circus companies. And people who work in film as well. It’s really important to us to have representations from both sides. And then once film selections are made, all of the films get sent to the jury members for each category. So not every jury member sees every film, they only see the films that they are judging in each category and they get a score sheet that has nine different categories, that they are supposed to score on a score of 1 to 10 and then they total those scores. Participants are getting a numbered score and it is based on a certain number of criteria that we set. We also encourage them to connect with each other, because such a big part of this festival is the connection of the community. That’s one of the things that we hope that we can give to the jury, is getting to meet new people who are in their profession or in a profession parallel to or what they’re interested in. 

Olympia: Are you able to show all the films that are submitted or do you narrow it down before you show them?

Marisa: We do narrow it down a little bit. Percentage wise, we accepted a lot of films compared to what was submitted to us this year, and then going forward, we’re hoping to make the numbers a little bit smaller, because, the trend of what has been submitted to us, the quality has gone up every year. We’ve obviously had some incredible films every year, but on average, I think the quality is going up. So we’re not actually having to reject anything, but we are getting a little stricter with what we accept. We are looking for slightly higher quality, and the reason for that is we want to make sure that everything that gets selected is gonna be competitive in the festival. We also have to be really respectful of our jury members time and expertise because everyone’s a volunteer right now.

The only reason why we don’t select films is because they don’t fit the guidelines that are outlined. Your film has to have been completed within the last two years. That doesn’t mean you couldn’t have filmed it earlier, you could have archival footage from 20 years ago that has never been edited together and you just edited a project last year. That’s totally fine, it just has to have been completed within a certain length of time of the before the festival.

Other things are that you have to have rights to your music. That’s a big one. That’s a big reason why we can’t select your film. We don’t select anything X rated. That being said, we don’t discriminate against nudity or violence or anything like that, but we look at the context and reasons for it in the film. So we try to put out warnings when we send out all the info, but we don’t discriminate against that because that is their artistic license, there is an artistic reason for that. I would say we accept a lot more than we reject by a lot.

Olympia: How do you decide the order of the films in the category?

Marisa: It depends on the category. For smaller categories, like under 18 and full length, are a little more random, but nothing is totally random. I try not to put films from the same country back to back if I can avoid it. I think it’s really interesting and important to see different perspectives because we’re an international film festival. Sometimes it ends up that there are two Canadian films on the same day or days next to each other just because I can’t avoid it. That’s one of the ways I sort them when we’re creating the screening schedule. The other way is for the shorts, non documentary, and for short shorts. This was really intentional this year, I tried really hard to make sure that our audience was never going to be watching more than half an hour. If there was a really long film, I tried to put it next to a shorter one. 

The order is not about the content of the films, it has more to do with being mindful of both our filmmakers and our audience, because I want the audience to be able to watch everything, and I want the filmmakers to get their films seen. We do think about what order we put the categories in as well. We’ve never put the non documentaries next to the short shorts because they’re similar genres and lengths of time. So there’s intention behind it, but it’s not to influence the audience in any way, and it’s not to influence the jury in any way. The jury gets a full month with all the films so they have time to watch them, so it doesn’t influence the jury in anyway.

Olympia: How much time do you put in each year, preparing and doing all the work for the festival? What is that like?

Marisa: I would say from preproduction to production to wind down, we start in June and the festival doesn’t wrap until mid March. The first chunk of time from June or July through September, we’re pretty relaxed. We try to meet once or twice a month. Our meetings are about an hour, all on Zoom because we’re all over the world. Our team members are Jonathan, Emily, me and Thomas Chambers who was on the jury is gonna be joining our team. We have the United States, Japan right now because Jonathan’s on tour with Cirque Du Soleil and John and I are in New Zealand. Those meetings last about an hour and then I put in 3 to 5 hours a week on these monthly or twice a month meetings during our kind of quieter season. Then in mid October, we start really diving in and prepping for the season again. And then in, in late October to early November we start putting everything together. During that time, I work no less than five hours a week. During the festival, it’s a lot more, probably two hours a day on the festival this year. The month before the festival, February, we are meeting every week, if not more often, and we’re all doing a ton of work. It fluctuates throughout the year, it’s definitely not a full time job. Other than Emily because she’s still in school, we all have full time jobs. We all work and this is really just a passion project for us, but we all love it and that’s why we keep it going. 

Olympia: What is your favorite category to watch?

Marisa: Oh, that’s such a hard question. I love the under 18 category because I love working with youth. It’s really special to me. That’s what I’ve been doing for a lot of my life is, working with kids. There’s always such unique perspectives and different films from the other categories. You can see similarities between some of the films but they have such a unique, interesting, important voice. You can really see that in this festival. I don’t know if that’s my favorite, but I always love it. I think short shorts are my true favorite, because that’s where I like to create. I really like that music video style film. I think that in this age of instant gratification and low attention spans, that category can have a lot of impact. Although, I have to say like, I had three favorite films this year and two of them were not in the short shorts category.

Olympia: Can you say what your favorites were?

Marisa: Everything we get is incredible, I think that everything has its strengths. My favorites were, Brave Clown, which was a short short by Paul Gomex. That just blew my mind. I was talking about it with Jonathan the other day who is the communications director for the festival. We both were just in love with that film. It made us smile, it warmed our hearts and it really exemplified why we do this festival for a number of reasons. If I had to describe to someone what a circus film is like, I want to show them this movie.

Another one is Life Hope, which was a film from DoubleV in Taiwan. Again, it just made me smile. It had this cheekiness to it almost, that was super fun. 

And then my third favorite would be Common Ground from upswing aerial in the UK, which was made by Dan Martin and Victoria Dela Amedume. That one was about circus performers of color, which I am and it was right up my alley. The style of humor was spot on and it’s so hard to get comedy right, and they did it and every aspect of it I thought was done so well. . It’s the same style of humor that hurts.  That like the pain that we feel not only as circus performers, but as people of color, that pain that we feel and making it funny and over the top and it was a commentary on and for people of color and circus performers of color and I loved that film so much. 

Those were my top three. Obviously some of the jury award winners were also up there for me, for sure. But I feel like those three had something really special, they had a lot of heart. After watching them, I felt like I understood the people better, whether it was the filmmaker or the actual circus performer or the director, I felt like I understood them through those films. 

Olympia: When did you fall in love with circus, and what circus background do you have?

Marisa: I started as a gymnast when I was three. I tried circus for the first time, when I was six at my local girl scout camp because there was a flying trapeze rig there, which was super cool! That was a session of camp. You could sign up for a girl scout camp and it was an overnight camp. I was like, heck yeah, I wanna do that, obviously! But, I thought that was a one off. I was like, that was great. I had so much fun. I’m never gonna get to do that again. Then a year or two later, there were girls on my gymnastics team who were in circus, and I went to see the show to support and be a good teammate. We saw the show and I said to my mom, I have to do that. I have to do that. I fell in love a little bit with circus when I was six on the flying trapeze. I feel like I started to fall in love with it then, and then when I saw that circus show, that was when I knew, I knew in that moment, I have to do that.

When I was 10, I started training year round. We had a really small youth troupe through Diamond Family Circus which my mom started for me and my friends because we really wanted to perform more. There was a small group of us that really wanted to perform, and we’re like, summer’s not enough. So, my mom and I co-founded Diamond Family Circus at 13 and we did that through when I went away to college and Diamond Family Circus still exists. We perform at small venues and, and community festivals, things like that. Since then I’ve trained at NCA, and a bunch of places that don’t really exist anymore. Now there’s a lot of great circuit schools in the Boston area. But when I was really young there, it was still a new concept, circus as an idea. Circus as a tented thing was not new, but recreational circus was very, very new still. 

I went to normal college, University of Michigan, for my undergrad. And through that, I got to do my thesis on circus. They do not have a circus program. I did an interdisciplinary arts program, both performing and visual arts. In my senior year, I got to do a three part thesis project that included writing a theoretical curriculum for a circus school. And then a practicum of that where I built a show with the Advanced Youth troupe back home in Massachusetts. That was really a collaborative youth driven show. Then for the third part, I got to create a 20 minute one woman show circuit. So that really shot me into performing a lot more. I’ve been performing for years. That one woman show that I did propelled me forward. Then I spent a year and a half at Circus Harmony in Saint Louis as a coach and performing like 2 to 4 times a week in their ring performing my one woman show. Since then I’ve taught and performed around the world. I’m performing here in New Zealand on Sunday!

Olympia: Do you have any advice for either filmmakers or circus artists?

Marisa: Stop worrying if you are a filmmaker if you are good enough. If you have a good idea, just do it because, first of all, there is no good or bad, if you just do it, that’s great! The way to refine your ideas, the way to get better is to do it, to try. On the other side of that is reach out to people that you admire, you never know who’s gonna write you back. Write the people you want advice from and maybe 1 of 10 people will write you back. But that’s huge. You never know who’s gonna become your mentor. You never know who you’re gonna get to work with down the line. I think that’s really important as well, but really, just jump in, stop wondering and just do it. The more, the more you can just play around and experiment with stuff, the better you’re gonna get. You can learn a lot of technical stuff by googling it. If you’re the kind of person who feels like you do need a class to learn the technical stuff, the editing, whatever it is, there are classes online. Really, just get into it, commit to it. Start a project, if you get halfway through it, and realize it’s trash, move on to the next thing. It’s not necessarily about finishing, it is about creating. Trust yourself, trust that you have a vision, trust that if you start creating, there’s a reason you started doing it. It’s because you had a reason to want to make something and trust that what you have to say is important. 

For circus artists, find coaches you vibe with. I think that’s really, really important. I’ve worked with a lot of coaches who were great coaches, but I like our personalities clash and I felt like I couldn’t learn It’s not because I’m a bad student. It’s not because you’re a bad coach. We just don’t get each other. Find coaches you vibe with, and work your butt off. 

Learn your body, learn your limits. And I don’t mean, oh, well, I can’t do a split so I’ll never be able to do a split, that’s not a limit. I mean learn to listen to your body, learn the difference between pain and hurt. Listen to it, don’t just learn it but listen to it. For me, my back is shot because I pushed through pain all the time and if you’re in pain all the time, that’s probably an injury or an injury waiting to happen. I came from a world of competitive gymnastics and that’s normal there, right? You just push through all the pain. But we’re the only people who live in our bodies, I cannot feel what you are feeling, even if I am the best coach in the world, even if I am a doctor, I cannot feel what you are feeling. So you have to learn your body and it’s the only body you get, you have to live in it your whole life. 

So find a coach you vibe with, work your butt off, and learn your body. I think part of working your butt off is also being respectful all the time. You never know who you’re gonna see in what position again. Just because you’re training with somebody,  even if it’s your classmate, they could go a different route and then be the casting director of a company by the time that you are ready to audition for the company. And if you were a jerk to that person or they knew that you didn’t work hard at a certain age, they’ll remember that about you even if you’ve worked your butt off since then. 

Last piece of advice, this is one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever been given. The world is full of opportunities, there are so many opportunities around you, your job as a human, as an artist, as a person is to close your hand around them. We can give you all the opportunities in the world, it is your responsibility and your choice to take them. 

Olympia: Is there anything else that you would like people to know?

Marisa: I just want to say thank you to anyone who’s ever been a part of the festival in any way. Whether it’s as a juror, or as an audience member, and the filmmakers obviously, this festival could not exist without everyone that participates, whatever role it is. We’re so, so grateful to everybody. Also, I am really grateful that we were received in a positive way because like I said, I had no idea what to expect when I started it. We’re excited. We’re trying to grow a little bit every year. Also, do your homework, everybody. I don’t mean school work, although you should do that too. But that’s where I got a lot of inspiration as a circus performer, as a filmmaker and as someone who started this festival, I did a lot of research. Do your homework. It’s good for you. It’s good for your brain. It’s good for your soul. Find what inspires you and do that.

Circus is …

by Sylvia Faulk

Circus is a world that transcends the ordinary. It is a space where I go to work and play hard, where every breath is infused with magic, and where my spirit soars aloft.

At circus I am more than just a performer; I am limitless possibilities. My body becomes an instrument of expression, each movement conveying the inner meaning of my soul.

Circus is pushing the boundaries of my physical and mental abilities. I test the limits of balance and coordination, challenging myself to achieve feats I once thought impossible.

Circus is a constant journey of self-discovery, where fear is transformed into courage, doubt into determination, and hesitation into purpose.

Circus is friends who understand my dreams, a community that shares in triumph, and that offers a helping hand in times of uncertainty. Circus is a purposeful creating of togetherness, of love, laughter, support, encouragement and unbridled joy.

Circus is my home away from home—a place where I can be myself at my best, where the ordinary is transformed into the extraordinary, where the impossible becomes possible.

Circus is the thrill of taking flight, the pure bliss of surrendering myself to the music, of feeling my body find its perfect expression.

Circus is where I come to find myself, to learn about my own potential and to marvel at the beauty and magic of being human.