out of india ...circus continues.

After two months of classes of circus arts, it is time to return to Europe. upon leaving the children, it is my sincere wish that they continue to practice their disciplines my absence.
The children took on difficult tasks and mostly applied themselves tremendously well to their practice, working at developing skills of balance, and dexterity, strength and dexterity.
I have the word of the children themselves, Jamyang and the others at Tong Len that they are continuing to practice now.
I intend to return to the mountains, check on the kids, teach more, bring new equipment and hopefully inspire some more teachers to jump into the project and come to bring new knowledge and tequniqes!

I would like too give thanks to Jamyang and all the staff of Tong Len for all they have done in the slum and all they have done to help me in my work, to thank Alex and the other teachers who have already given their time and energy to help and to believe in the children, also the hostal managers for their time and patience and big smiles of encouragement. And lastly, to thank all of the children they have brought rays of sunshine into my life!

i'll be back!

christopher bull

thanks day

thanks day was today!
back stage antics were fun for all and the kids surpassed themselves on stage, getting great write ups from three major national newspapers and putting good feeling throughout the room in the hearts of parents, sponsors, teachers and staff alike!
the children have been highly credtited both for their dancing as well as circus skills!!!

preparing for thanks day

well, the theme of the week has been very much "preparing for thanks day" -the first problems were at the start of the week where my health took a real turn for the worse and as a result, i could not even make it up the steps near the guest house where i stay, let alone the long haul down the mountain in a bumpy old jeep for classes.
then, when i did make it down there, the children were often occupied by their preperations for thanks day.... at first i was a little put out by an unusual lack of enthusiasm to circus, until that is, one day, i was lucky enough to get a sneak preview of their imitation bollywood dance and i was happy to see that they had incorporated pretty much everything they had picked up in Alex's great classes and even more to boot!
the last day of preperations meant a visit from a bombay friend and clown, Martin D'Souza (aka Flubber ther clown) and he was more than ready to give some heartfelt words of encouragement to the youngsters, explaining what is clown, magic and circus, how we can present it and where it can lead us.. from the back of the room, my smile also broadened as i heard him speak and i was happy to get a second positive description of clowning, -such a funny old art!