CircuSpeaks: February 2012

Hello All!

This Watson has been a constant battle of whether to stay true to myself or to stay true to my project, which surprisingly doesn't always line up. Who would've thought?! I know the Watson funds people not projects, but I still do want to get the most out of this year in regards of my project. Something I thought I would be doing more of is going into the outback and into the indigenous areas of all the countries and continents I have been to. But as I have come to realize, unlike a lot of existing Watson projects I chose to study something that isn't naturally occurring. Although it can be argued that there are many things within societies that operate like social circus, it isn't yet naturally occurring in small villages and impoverished areas worldwide. Although the movement is certainly growing, it must be grown carefully. I have come to the following tough realization: It is actually more self serving and selfish for me to go into indigenous areas with a bunch of juggling balls than it is helpful for the people I would interact with. Most likely if I made juggling balls out of balloons and rice, when I would leave these villages they would break open the balls to eat the rice. I have absolutely no desire to be the "white savior" who comes for a weekend and then abandons the project. Additionally, the Watson doesn't really allow staying with projects for long enough to make true and deep meaningful progress in establishing a sustainable programs. I am finding that social circus is currently more relevant for me within cities or with already established programs, mostly done with gang members, elderly, and at risk women and children. Although indigenous programs are important, it is absolutely crucial to have a permanent person stationed with each project to ensure safety, and the continuance of the project.

So in light of this realization I have reorganized the rest of my trip. I will now be headed to Central and South America. Since I have started immersing myself into the circus world across continents I have solidified in my mind that this is work I would like to be doing for the rest of my life. Something that will be very important in setting up and running social circus programs in The States is knowledge of the Spanish language. Although I was recently invited to visit and explore the social circus world of South Africa, Ethiopia, and Kenya and I was excited to go to Brazil, I am putting my foot down. In all of these cases I believe these experiences would greatly add to my knowledge of social circus worldwide, and would add to my project in unique and diverse ways that other countries would not. None of them however would help me to learn Spanish. Although I LOVED studying Latin in middle and high school, I am now cursing myself that I have become one of the ignorant Americans who only knows English! So I have reprioritized and come to the conclusion that the Spanish speaking regions of Central and South America are as good social circus sites as any. The social circus sites in Central and South America that I have contacted are in Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil. I will begin in Guatemala and go from there.

I have ditched everything besides emergency medicine so I can carry my trapeze, collapsible hula-hoop, some juggling balls, and an aerial rope! In total contradiction to what I said before, I will be trying to spend some more time in communities that don't have social circus on the rest of my trip. Instead of looking at it as social circus, I will just play with kids and see what happens. Who knows!? I am looking forward to the change of pace and this new refocusing of my relationship with social circus. I also will be leaving my computer for the rest of the 5 months starting in 1 week. I couldn't be more excited.

In my last week here in Australia I will be playing in an ultimate tournament, going on a three day bike trip. and doing a bunch of flying trapeze. I am going to try to squeeze some sightseeing into my remaining time also! I realized I have been so focused on circus that I haven't seen as much as I thought I would in this beautiful place. Although I have seen wallabies I haven't seen a kangaroo yet! Alarming I know! I've only seen them dead. So my mission in the next week is to take a bit of a break from the circus overload of my life and find a kangaroo!

In other news have decided to apply to a full time circus training program that will start this fall. The applications are due in about a week, so I have been going absolutely nuts training and trying to get it all done in time. I joined a gym briefly to figure out how to do chin-ups (since I need to be able to do 10 in a row! IMPOSSIBLE I AM SURE OF IT!), and have been spending a lot of time writing about myself. And yes, I have been spending a lot of time on the computer the past two weeks networking, and filling out applications. I can't wait to get away from the computer again and leave it in the hands of...fate? or whatever else there is out there. I came to the realization that I needed to be able to do more skills and more apparatuses in circus than I can already do if I want to be a teacher of circus. I cannot wait to go back to school! Fingers crossed that I get in!

I hope the world isn't too cold in the US of A! I miss snow myself.

Lots of Love,

Sophie

This is the first time I ever got to spin in Spanish Web class at the Women's Circus in Melbourne, VIC. I can't believe I ever thought my shoulder was questionable in strength!

Last week I sat down with Therese, one of the school teachers from The Flying Fruit Fly School to chat about the set up of the Flying Fruit Fly School and Circus (FFFC). She recounted what it had been like 6 years prior when she had started working as the Art and Humanities teacher at the FFFC School. She had known immediately that she had come to somewhere special when she asked a group of 3-6 graders to draw the human body. Without missing a beat all of the boys pulled up their shirts and drew outlines of their six packs to hand in.

So what the hell have I been up to the past 2 months anyways?

I just spent the last two weeks in Albury, New South Wales visiting the Flying Fruit Fly Circus (FFFC.) Believe it or not FFFC was one of the first community/social circuses in the world. Begun 32 years ago, it is still chugging along in the country city (more like town) of Albury, NSW. The two weeks I spent in Albury I attended and participated in my own circus training, trainings for the regular students at Fruit Fly, the Indigenous program, a program run for the elderly (Fruit Bats, see picture), the Saturday community circus program for kids, adult classes, the disengaged youth program for kids with behavioral problems, and I have conducted multiple interviews with students, teachers, trainers, board members, and with the training and artistic directors.

The whirlwind of my experience of Albury- which I will elaborate on below- basically put into practice every single thing I have learned in the past 6 months of observing, teaching, volunteering, and training with different circuses around the world. It brings tears to my eyes to know that a place like FFFC exists, and I hope one day I can help create a place like Fruit Fly in the US. It was such a treat to get a bit of encouragement and interest from people who are already in the business of community circus and to know that my study and experience hasn't been in vain! They have welcomed me with open arms, and even have asked my advice in a few cases of how they could better their program. They are impressed with my experience, where I have been, and what I have seen. I have gotten to assist on the floor with spotting aerials and have gotten to train with their trainers a bit. I am stunned by their dedication to their students and by how well the program has evolved over the years. Although there is much to improve upon there like anywhere else, in my opinion they are doing pretty well for themselves.

Although the FFFC as an organization has definitely drifted from its original community circus roots, it does still promote circus as a means of community building and empowerment for people of all ages and abilities. There are about 70 kids from grade 3-12 who study full time at FFFC. This means that they go to school and train at Fruit Fly facilities.

My first day at 'Fruities coincided with the first day the kids were back from summer vacation (yes their summer is opposite to the US summer! weird!) I was sitting in the observation deck watching 2 twelve year old boys fling each other around the training space, nearly cracking their heads and killing themselves on doors and equipment. But of course as I watched closely I saw that they were completely in control and were 100% aware of their bodies in space and in the air. The 12-18 year olds in the oldest student group chattered uncontrollably before training started. I could tell that coming to the training space was the best part of their day. Already the space seemed to me truthfully like a haven of support, community, achievement, trust, and empowerment. And the best part? As the top-dog group on the scene at Fruit Fly, those older 25 or so kids get to come here everyday. I was cracking up laughing by the middle of the first training session I observed. There were 10 year olds behind me doing backward rolls pushing up into perfectly stuck handstands, there was a 17 year old girl with perhaps 15 hula hoops going around every single part of her body in different directions. There were 6 teenage boys doing front flips and dives through a seriesof stacked hoops, and while I hadn't even ever heard of bounce juggling before, there was a girl bouncing around 9 balls on stair piano keys (like the stairs at the Boston Science Museum!) She was making music by bouncing the balls on the steps. All the while there is a Fruit Fly student on a turn table making live hip hop music for the Fruit Flies to rehearse to.

What I found particularly beautiful about the place was that around four of the original Fruit Fly students are still here: as the training director, trainers, and as the director of community outreach. They know what is takes to make community, and have the generosity and dedication to this place to help keep it going. In addition, a large percentage of the trainers here were Fruit Flies themselves. Literally anywhere you go in the circus world you will find Fruit Fly graduates: any professional circus in Australia, the National Cirque School in Montreal, and Cirque Du Soleil to name a few, The complete wealth of knowledge that was at my fingertips after only being there for two weeks was baffling. One of the senior trainers and former Fruit Fly student also runs a community/social circus program for Indigenous communities in Central Australia (Kindred Circus.) I had the chance and pleasure to pick her brain during my stay in Albury which was facinacating. What is remarkable about Fruit Fly is that the majority of the kids who attend their school have been going to Fruit Fly since they were about 5. The trust I see within the group is unmatched by any I have ever seen. They are family. Also since the students have been doing circus for so long they are complete and total freaks of circus: their love so pure, their skill so honed and fundamentally sound.

I spent a morning with the Fruit Bats, the circus program Fruit Fly runs for people over 45. The majority of the group is upper 60s to mid 70s. The bunch were friendly, goofy, and incredibly talented. They all began practicing circus in old age, but don't let that fool you! When a woman in her early seventies got into full splits and screamed TA-DA! I nearly fell on the ground from shock and also from laughing. What a refreshing group, just proof right in front of my eyes that circus keeps you young, helps confidence, and builds teamwork. The group trots around the local community doing gigs and is well known for their spunk and their pyramids. They are cute. They couldn't wait to show off their abilities and include the girl who was 1/3 of their age and studying circus as a form of empowerment (see photo.)

When I return to Australia (something I think is inevitable at this point) I will hopefully return to Fruit Fly. Like the rest of my time here in Australia, Albury set before me hard decisions. What should I do with me time?! There has consistently been too much to experience, talk about, interview about, and whats more is that the snowball effect seems to just be increasing in speed. SO MANY CIRCUS CONNECTIONS wherever I turn.

Sitting here in the grass watching the crickets that look like giant cockroaches while I am writing this post, I reflect on the 3 very busy and beautiful months I have spent here in Australia. Holy cow! I have done so much and have met so many incredible people who taught me so very much.

It would be an extreme understatement if I said that my time in Australia has been inspiring. I have been welcomed wholeheartedly by the entirely of the circus community in Australia. From my time studying pole dancing, to taking a Train the Circus Trainer course, to interviewing some of the most well established circus trainers in the business, to networking up the wazoo, to getting involved in preparations for circus expeditions that will go out to the Bush, to just riding the current of the Watson around the country: the experience has been as they say in Australia: "Full On." Spending equal amounts of time volunteering, training myself, getting involving in Guerilla Circus Shows and Classes, experiencing communal art warehouses, and hearing tremendous stories about the power of circus, I have been living and breathing this art form. I have been triangulating it from every angle.

I chose to focus above on Fruit Fly, but I spent ample time at a couple of other circuses in the past three months. One of the circuses I spent some time with during my stint in Melbourne was The Womens Circus (WC.) The WC was the original womens-empowerment-through-circus organization in the world. The Womens Circus was one of the main reasons I selected to come to Australia in the first place. I spent two weeks interviewing, observing, and training at The Womens Circus. In contrast to my experience at the National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA) the women at Womens Circus do not play around. They aren't sexual in their routines, and in fact they seem to gravitate more towards wearing overalls and climbing poles like Chinese men do, rather than wearing a skimpy outfit on a trapeze. What was special about the Womens Circus was that it by definition exists for normal women who live normal lives. The people I befriended there didn't feel pressure to perform or to progress faster than their natural progression. They emphasis trust at all costs at the WC. Staying with women from the WC and seeing how they lived inspired me to becomes further truthful and trustful in my life.

In another example of amazing Australian experiences: Not only do I fit the description of "running off to the circus," but I can now also tick off the list "running away to live on a commune." I joined the volunteer team in the Circadia tent at the Woodford Folk Festival because I had heard the best circus instructors for social change all went to Woodford to teach with one another. Essentially, Circadia (the Woodford communal circus tent) was a play space in the middle of the beautiful temporary community of Woodfordia. I got to learn from the best circus teachers in Australia, train with them, interview them, and teach the kids and adults that came to play and join in on the fun. This experience was occurring while the most famous and beautiful Australian musicians, actors, and artists performed, lived, and created with one another for a week in the middle of the bush. My days there consisted of standing on shoulders, learning how to juggle 4 balls, writing heaps (as they say in Australia) of poetry while sitting in the grass listening to didgeridoo music, participating in dance meditation, watching and learning how to spin fire, being silent, staying up too late, feeling completely manic with creativity, and acting on a complete obsessive commitment to helping develop the circus community we created together there.

From Woodford I followed a couple of "Carnies" to an invite only bush-doof (definition: a bush dance party characterized by lots of drugs) arts festival. My time was spent running through the bush with the wallabies, sitting naked in the creek, practicing acro-yoga and contact improv in the water, hanging from trapezes that were in the trees, playing with the children on a slippin' slide, writing letters to friends back home, and having some of my first down and alone time since I began this journey in Australia about three months ago. It was a wild ride.

The above post is just a glimpse into my present life and my three months in and around the eastern half of Australia. I would need a novel to write it all, and it already was sort of like a novel! I miss you all. Can't believe I'll be headed back your way in less than 6 months. I am now peering into the remaining months of this trip wishing there was more time to see everything I want to see, and do everything I want to do.

I hope all is well with you and yours. Sending love from Oz.

Sophie