During the month of May the circus tent in Belgrade will be a place where a lot of shows, organized visits from local schools and workshops will happen, all in hope of educating people about circus arts.
I could only take the time off to participate in workshops taking place from 6th to 9th of May. We could choose 2 from 6 different disciplines of which we had an introductory class on the first day. On the table were slacklining/tightrope walking, trapeze, acrobalance/handstand workshop, hula hooping, clown technique and juggling. I wanted to do something that was totally out of my comfort zone so I choose clown technique and the handstand workshop.
We learned the difference between a circus and a theater clown, that a clown is a sincere being and never lies, never says ‘no’ to any question, isn’t ever mean and most importantly never dies on stage. We went through a couple of exercises, one of them was called “Make me laugh”. Well, this one wasn’t easy at all. Being put on a spot with only yourself and no props,with a very specific aim to make your colleagues laugh isn’t easy. I certainly have a new found respect for clowns.
I got some great coaching on doing the handstand and different variations of it from the master. Philippe is from France, and speaks very little English but he was more than capable of explaining everything we needed to know through a series of sound effects and through mimicking our errors and correcting them. I loved his class although it left me every time feeling dizzy from all the blood going to my head and broken from all the pain going to my shoulders.
Great pictures, and yea, clowns do tend to get a bad rap! 
Check out Anasazi – fire dancer and stilt performer !
Recent Comments