It’s 2022 it’s time to Get Your Act Together.
Building a routine is a bit daunting at first, maybe if you’ve never done it before but it’s such a good opportunity to use all these skills you’re developing all these skills you’ve had for so long to take you out of this improvisation loop and to really put them all together into something that’s yours and that’s really exciting you can build on and actually use and entertain people get paid for whatever you want to do with it.
So day one what are we going to do ? Well we’re kind of going to do “nothing”, which is, we’re not really going to do anything with a prop, with a ball. We’re going think about it for a second thinking about what expectations you have for the next 30 days and what kind of routine that you’re going to end up with, what kind of routine do you want to put together, and the secret is, that the routine you’re going to put together is going to be yours it’s not going to be something that we dictate to you. Whether you want to do a little show to impress friends or family, or whether you’re putting together a statue act that you want to take out on this street, or a circle act something to put up on stage in front of other jugglers. Whatever it might be we’re going to give ideas about how to build that routine, how to build sequences, how to add layers of kind of interesting body movement, of atmosphere of context of emotion whatever it might be to make that routine as the best it can be for you.
Don’t think by the end of this you’re going to have something that’s perfect and fully formed, because that’s not what we deal with here. The way to get something that’s perfect fully formed is to take that routine, and run it and run it and just perform in front of different people and see what sticks and what doesn’t, and be prepared to change it at a moment’s notice, but we’re going to give you that seed and we’re going to see it grow a little bit so that you have something that’s actually really tangible to work with.
So that’s what’s coming up, but for today:
Today is just thinking about what shape this is going to take for you personally, whether you want it to be something that’s big and out there or what’s small and compact. These are the things that you want to be thinking about from the start: you want to be thinking about what kind of audience do you want this routine to be for? So that’s a complete starting off point do you want this to be for family and friends this can be very different to if you wanted to be for, people passing by in the street for, a crowd of jugglers or a crowd of lay people who have never seen contact before. So take a little second, it’s be good to have a notebook for all of this that’s coming up because you’re going to be making lots of notes for yourself, and just start writing that down. Thinking about what audiences you enjoy performing towards? You would like to what’s in your comfort zone and what’s just slightly outside of that comfort zone that you’re prepared to push yourself towards and then moving on from that thinking just in general about the kind of atmosphere that you want this to take ? Do you want it to be something very serious? Do you want it to be a bit more lively? Just start building in your head, Just that the vague outline, I think.
This is this big bit of rock that we’re just going to chisel all the way up you’re going to end up with something finished by the end. But right now it can all just be as abstract as you like. Even have a think about what props you’re going gonna use? Are you gonna go acrylic? Are you gonna go for a stage ball? You’re gonna go multiball like all of this just now doesn’t need to be set in stone there needs to be anything fixed just really thinking what possibilities do I have what’s speaking to me right now? You can even be thinking about music at this point.
Some people prefer starting with music and building from there, some people prefer starting with their routine finding music that fits. That really it’s up to you. We’re going to be touching our music a lot more as we go on here, but it’s really a personal preference. So yeah right now just really thinking about your audience What kind of prop you’re going to use.
And then the other really important things for these 30 days is just make the most of the space that you have right now clear your practice space, clear the corner where you are even if you’re doing a seated routine or a kneeling routine clear everything from around you so you’ve got space to work because that’s just going to make life so much easier for you to be focused on what you’ve got so start with this as abstract as you like go as in depth as you like we’re going to be building up from here and i’ll see you tomorrow
/outro music