kids on ropes

with a little help from a wandering holy man, the end of last week proved time to prepare the final preperations for the last discipline that i want the kids to try their hands (or should i say feet) at!

now that they have a few weeks experience of stretching and toning of their limbs, i felt the kids were ready for some rope walking! origionally, i wanted to build a tight rope structure for them like the kind that you may see in circus schools around the world but research in indian welding shops proved that this would be a bigger undertaking than we first hoped so i stuck to simple structures made from bamboo, the first problem was getting hold of the bamboo, as anyone who has tried knows, it is not allowed to cut bamboo 4 days of the week here for invironmental reasons.... the next problem was that the structures have one or 2 minor design faults, hopefully i can correct these in time for performance. in the mean time, it is proving successfull to improvise and so far, all but one girl as had a taste of rope walking balance and the boys are raring to go!

alex arrived!

fantastically, fabulously and funnily, alex arrived yesterday and gave a class today!

really good for me to have more help, excellent for the kids to have more teaching (especially from someone so proffesional). and we all enjoyed her style.

she also brought with her a young guy who is keen to teach as well, without much experience in circus but hopefully we can find something for him to do.

workshop in charan

charan is the tent village. also known as a slum, it is a temporary housing site with somewhere between 700 and 800 residents. conditions are hard, the people are recieving help from the tong len organisation but they need more!
it is good to make shows, to offer a couple of hours break from the hardships of one's situation.
from today, we got the chance to offer also a workshop so that the kids could try their hands at the circus skills.
will they learn? should they think of circus as a way to earn money? an alternative to begging? is it just a chance to hang out with a few westerners who care about their situation?
the answer is, who knows.. personally i know that it is hard work to get a level of circus that you can really make serious money with and many determined people quit circus before it takes them to the starry heights that each performer may dream of.
what i do know is that it is an opportunity! and opportunities are something all too few in a village like charan.
i have a dream that at least one kid may involve her or himself in circus and chase the dream too it's limits.......... if i can only give time to the kids and see them happy, it is also enough!

introducing......... unicyle

the boys group have noww given all the equipment bought in england and in india a thorough test, from balls to clubs, diabolos rings and unicycle! they try to take the utmost care of it of course, it is all going to fall down sooner or later. -gravity... the jugglers enemy or friend? -i would say that it is all an oportunity to learn! and this i think they will do before too long.

rain has made practice difficult for the girls as it always seems to rain on their day to train but they are hard working and determined and use the time to train even inside their hostal! stretching and balancing, we have reports that they already feel "fresher and healthier" from the good excercise.

classes under way

despite being new to the physical condition required for circus, the kids are doing really well, learning to stretch, balance and coordinate their bodies for the first time for some of them and are showing that they can do some simple acrobatics and are applying themselves to stretching.

i have already introduced some juggling equipment to the boys group also and they are able to get the hang of some things, showing equal intrest for all different props!

despite some stormy weather, we did some good stretching and yoga with the girls group yesterday, proving that even in the cramped front room of the girls hostal, there is space for circus!

in general, things are going well, the kids have taken to circus very well so far, the focus is still on the hostal kids for now although we hope to go into the tent village as soon as possible and offer at least some basic teachings there in within the next few days.

show in charan

still no classes as yet, hopefully we will be organised enough to get the required matresses for safety today...

yesterday was not entirely wasted day however as i mandaged to get together an inspirational circus show for the villagers of charan -the tent village-

it was a new and great experience to work with the villagers to set up the high structure for the slack rope and with their hard work in the baking sun, i felt comfortable to walk at about 2 meters.

more than anything, it was a delight to see so many happy and smiling faces! this combined with the enthusiasm especially from the older kids to learn something themselves was really fantastic!

inspirational show

as an introduction to circus skills (necessary as probably none of the kids have been to a real circus and most of them still confuse me with a magician) i performed a small show yesterday in the school in which the hostal children are regularly attending.... they clapped heartily at the juggling, laughed gaily at unicycle antics, looked on in wonder at crystal ball manipulation and seemed amazed by slack rope walking.

at the end of the show however, all they really wanted to know was "please sir, could you make the hanky disapear?"

today i will give the first class, warming up there limbs and joints to see what they may be capable of before moving onto trickier stuff in the coming week.

i am also schuduled to make a small show today in the actual tent village, conditions still seem really tough there but you can still see smiles on faces and i consider myself lucky to be able to try to bring them some of the magic of circus, -and i don't just mean that trick with the hanky-:)

planning the plan

sleepily i type this after a long day making the plan of when and where i will teach the kids... it seems that the project will be divided between one group of kids who still lice in "Chrarankot" -the tent village- and a group of kids who live in a hotal provided by the Tong Len trust, they are attending a formal school regularly and so are more used to a timetable but i have great hopes also for the former group also who benifit from a tuition tent in the middle of their tent village and all whom i have met so far are enthusiastic about the chance to learn some circus skills!

the Lhama in the photo is Jamyang, a fantastic man who is the founder of Tong Len and dedicates most of his time to the children.

meeting the adults and window shopping

So, the first meeting today with the Tibetan monk in charge of the Tong Len project!
i was happy to meet them, they were happy to meet me and we are all happy to be able to bring some circus to the children..
We outlined some ideas about what, where, and when to teach the kids, alternating between the kids who live in the Tong Len hostal (the kids who attend school more regularly) and the tuition tent in Charan, (the tent village in Lower Dharamsala).
After the meeting, i went on a scouting mission to check out the availability of things on my shopping list to make the classes safer, and more exciting! .....India being India and my hindi being as bad as it is, not everything will be easy to find but so far i have already tracked down some crash mats and leads towards making stuctures for both tight and slack ropes!
Tomorrow will be the day to check out the spaces to see if we can train in the space we have or if we must hire something bigger!
Watch this space............. ;)

delhi to dharamsala

the plane was easy and one day in delhi was enough... made a little painstaking the departure as the bus was late by about three hours but despite the nerve shattering road manner of our driver and the seemingly endless bumps on the road to the mountains, the journey was a success and i even got the chance to sit up front with the driver so that he could see a few magic tricks!

and so,........... 7:00am this morning, suitcase, unicycles, rucksack and i arrived safely and soundly to upper dharamsala.

i contacted the monks who run the school and hostel for "tent village" children and we have an appointment to meet day after tomorrow; should leve just enough time for some training, lesson planning and to simply breathe in the good mountain air!

preparing to leave england

a couple of weeks was just enough time to prepare for taking circus to a group of children living in a tent village half way up a mountain in the himalaya range!
to make sure that there will be plenty of exciting things to teach the kids, i got together a large shopping list of supplies from the juggling shop in london, including unicycle, clubs, rings and other things!

did a bit of extra fundraising by walking my rope over a canal and although the londoners were busy enjoying their pints and rare good summer weather, they took time to stop and stare and support with a clap of their hands and pounds in the hat!

physical preperation took the form of daily yoga to keep my body fit and flexible and enrolling as a member of the london circus school meant that i always had training space for rope walking, handstands and juggling.

lastly and by no means leastly, friends who could not make it here gave a large cash donation to help bring circus out here, hopefully this will go to buy some mats for safe acrobatics and even some kind of structure for rope walking!

the flight out of england was 10th may and i realised the benifit of all the yoga as i arrived safely at ther airport with 36 kilos of "stuff to juggle and one wheeled cycles" .....-off to india

me