Dance Heroes

Although not strictly juggling, this post is about movement. I have just recently discovered the Legion of Extraordinary Dancers, and as I watched a few episodes I found them more and more enjoyable. First some very cool breakdancing, then some tricking and parkour-like moves, and then some excellent robot movements. It was especially for me to draw connections. For instance, in the first episode, The Tale of Trevor Drift, I recognized some of the movements from the break-dance class that I take on the weekends. In the second episode, Antigravity Heroes, I recognized a lot of the movements as tricking and parkour-like moves, and I got an especially a warm and fuzzy feeling knowing that I have done some of those moves, or similar things, in the past. The third episode, Robot Lovestory, seemed to me to have great movement similarities with Genki Sudo's World Order, and I was very impressed with the motions of the performers. They have performed at TED, and
all in all I like the group a lot so far. A mixture of Heroes and dance. I plan to continue watching LXD.

Check out the trailer here:

Post-juggling, or maybe meta-juggling

The things that some people, such as Wes, do are so amazing and creative that I am always dumbfounded by them. These people take ideas of juggling, and the apply them to the body and to other objects, making a performance that is so much more than just the tossing of balls or clubs in complicated patterns. I have just had the pleasure and honor of seeing a brief preview of one of these performances.

Getting back in the swing

Just a quick note before I head out to work.

I biked from my home to YuGongYiShan last night for the juggling club, and it took about 50 minutes. With a bike ride that long I am glad that I have my iPod, because I can listen to university lectures or podcasts or audiobooks or music on my way there and back. I got a bit of juggling practice in, did a few cartwheels, and even tried a couple of headsprings. Gus continued to help me and talk me through a "Machine w/ hand switch" (I really have no idea how to describe that move). It was nice to chat with Lao Zhou, and I taught him how to begin learning the Machine. It was a fairly small turn-out, with a high of six people at one point. This week there was a Canadian, three U.S. citizens (including me), Lao Zhou (who is Chinese) and a German-Chinese girl who is studying at Beijing Normal University.

I am continuing to use the childrens' juggling balls at the preschool at which I work when there is downtime. Sometimes when the kids are drinking water, or in the morning before many kids show up I will practice some moves with the beanbag-like balls. They are very easy to grip, so it is nice to practice with those.

Time, Practice, and Advancement

...or lack thereof. Here is a bunch of things which I dislike: I only practice juggling on Mondays. I haven't learned any new tricks in the past few months. I haven't even spent time looking at cool juggling videos online.

Since I haven't been practicing, rather than improving, my skills have been stagnating, and I fear that if I don't get back into the groove of things soon they will begin degrading. 20 minutes a day should not be that difficult for me to find.

Juggling: Alive Again

As an opening post for the revitalization of Kinetic Kalamazoo, here is an items that I came across online recently that I want to share. I found Genki Sudo's dance from a blog that I have enjoyed long before I started to use Twitter.

Some incredible movement and music created by Genki Sudo, who just came out with an electro-pop album.