Running away with the circus!

Sky Skills was for children aged 8 and over, so A was unable to come. Instead she swapped places with C and got a head start on our next adventure, while I took C to Sky Skills Studios.
Bob and M (and A) went over to Reymerston to set up tents and get established at the Circus Camp we were to attend there. When we eventually arrived (London traffic not great at rush hour!) Bob took J home and the rest of us settled down for a night under canvas. He and J spent the next few days getting J’s room sorted and tidy ready for his exchange student’s arrival next week and making sure homework was all caught up, including missed work from the band weekend. Fortuitously this meant that J’s ticket was available for 6, so she was able to come and do circus skills with K and L. A had opted to be a 3 – 6 and just have fun in the littlies area.
We’d missed the first session, but so had several others, so the second session was more or less a repeat: first of all a demonstration and then a chance to try a few different skills before deciding what specialism to take on. In the end 6 and C went for unicycling, while K and L opted for trapeze (with Em’s E too), all of them on the basis that these were things that would be harder to do elsewhere than juggling, diabolo, poi and so forth. Other possibilities included clowning, tightrope walking, hula hooping, stilts and slackrope walking (which they did in the evenings anyway). Specialisms chosen, they were then expected to focus on getting together a performance for the show on the final day. This meant working fairly solidly for two sessions a day – a total of five hours or more. You can imagine how tired they were by the end of each day! I was particularly impressed with C and 6’s dedication. Unicycling is hard! Lots of falling off, lots of bruises and lots of getting up and trying again. Eventually C decided she had too many bruises and needed to stop, which actually worked out well since Em’s R needed a poi partner, but meant that 6 was now on her own – and still picking herself up and carrying determinedly on. By the time of the performance she was able to travel a few metres by herself and about twice as far with a shoulder to lean on, which may not sound much but is an impressive achievement indeed. Several of the circus performers maintained that they had taken at least a week to get anywhere much on unicycle and the only way to get results is to do as 6 did and just keep trying. I’m told www.unicycles.com is the place to look…
In the evenings there were shorter sessions for the adults. On Thursday Em and I tried hula hooping and both earned ourselves some impressive bruises between thumb and fingers, then on Saturday M and I braved the trapeze, which was hard but fun. It’s now several days later and I can still feel the effects on my arm muscles and have bruises on the backs of my knees! It gave us some appreciation of what the children were doing 🙂
It seemed silly to be so close to where my aunt lives and not visit, so once I’d recovered from dangling upside down on a trapeze we set off, to find that my cousin, his partner and their children were there too, so we had a lovely family time together – dashing back just in time for A to take part in the talent show as part of a (very small) human pyramid.
Sunday, the last day, was spent by the children practising final routines, by A playing with friends and by me striking camp. It all (just!) fitted into one car, which meant Bob didn’t need to come and help 🙂 Much as he’d have liked to have seen the performance, it would have been a long way to come just for that and a few bits of tent!
After lunch was the big moment: the show. It was great! So much effort had gone into each act and nothing went unrewarded. Obviously with only a few days of practice many of the acts were far from impressive, objectively speaking, but each performer was applauded for what they had achieved and those who dropped more balls than they juggled got no less enthusiasm than those who had clearly spent their time taking skills they already had to a higher level. We all loved all of it 🙂
We’re looking forward to next year already!