Durango HLGCBS

Hey everybody!

The Durango juggling festival was a blast! Amazing job for a first year festival :) Here's my summary!

Highs:

-Getting to watch the public show instead of be in it. This was one of the first times I've done that in a while. I think I learned a lot from doing that. Getting the chance to analyze each act was great, not to mention just enjoy it!

-Passing with Jeff Lutkus!!!!!!!!!! Oh man, the first time him and I had passed in two years was Friday afternoon at the festival. We quickly found that we could still do any of the old tricks we tried, and in some cases were even better at them now. This bodes well for the future.

-Juggling outside. Just in general this was nice. All of Friday was outside, and Saturday morning was as well. I'd never felt this way at a juggling festival before, but I honestly didn't want to go inside Saturday afternoon.

-Field ball on Saturday. That was a great way to wake up.

-Car ride to and from Durango. This was my first time seeing that area of Colorado. I really need to explore this state more. The company during the car ride was also great.

-Meeting some more West Coast Folks. You're all pretty cool.

-Winning three of the games! 3 club cascade race with a club the long way between yours knees, huggling, and 4 ball 4 person relay!

-Denver/Boulder showing at the fest! At last count, I think we had 12 people there. That made me feel so proud of our group!

-Brad Weston's acting for jugglers workshop. He reminded me of a lot of things I'd forgotten, and taught me a lot of new stuff too. I'm looking forward to incorporating this into what I do on stage.

-The Mayor of Durango. I'm sorry everywhere else. Your Mayor is not nearly as cool. End of discussion.

-Juggling with Doug Sayers. Last few fests him and I have both been at, I've made it a point to get some advice from him. It seems to be paying off. Also, just being able to hang out with him and do some 5 club tricks is pretty cool.

-The public show. All the acts were great, but a few stood out amongst the rest (to me): Brad Weston's was the only person (besides the emcee, Matt Hall) who spoke. His comedy is top notch as are his skills and especially his presentation. Bekka Rose's piece may have been one of the most effortless and elegant pieces I have seen in a long time. Poki is a hoopster, and usually I'm not a fan. 97 out of 100 hoop acts are the same, and boring. The other are real circus hula hoop acts, hoop acts a la Bob Bramson and Carter Brown, and apparently now Poki. His skill set was equivalent to that of your average highly skilled burner, however, his character on stage was constantly engaging, and he made very good use of his skills with the hoop. They were presented in an interesting and engaging way. Ember did a contortion routine, and again, I've seen so many, I don't really care anymore. However! She had such a interesting and wonderful character. I'd try to describe her character, but I just wouldn't do it justice. Actually, I think I'll try. Many contortionists try to look sexy, or graceful when contorting themselves. Ember took it in the exact opposite direction. She made her character look as awkward as possible while performing these bizarre moves with her body, but in kind of an endearing way.

-Renegade. ESPECIALLY the venue! It was at a bar! Why don't more festivals do this?!?!?!

-Saturday after party! Had a great chance to get to know Brad Weston and Kyle Johnson. Looking forward to seeing you both again soon.

-Raffle: I really like how they organized it at Durango. You'd buy your tickets, and then each raffle item had a jar you could put your tickets in. This meant that you could only win something you actually wanted! It basically made every raffle exciting, since anyone who won something, actually wanted it!

-Getting a bronze club from David Kha! I have been looking for one of these ever since I met Julien Rochat (sp?) at the Ecole de Cirque de Quebec about three years ago. David has started making them in the US, and I got one from him. Here's a plug for him. Check out his site, www.worldjuggle.com ! He's a really cool guy, wish I'd gotten to hang out with him a bit more.

-Matt Hall emceeing the public show: He has gotten so good at this! I was taking mental notes the whole time.

-The Major of Durango throwing out the ceremonial first pass for the public show

Lows:

-Not being in the public show. Even though it was great to be in the audience, it doesn't beat performing.

-Some parts of the games. Don't get me wrong, they were a lot of fun, however, there were a couple instances where rules were changed halfway through, or some results thrown out and parts of games re-done.

-Getting to the party on Saturday. Some organization would have been nice here guys. Instead of just getting the address for the party beforehand, we all met at house A, then we all followed someone who didn't actually know where they were going to house B (eventually we got there because someone else in the caravan was staying at B), where someone lived who actually knew where the party was (at house C). This took the better part of an hour. That was an hour I could have been happily drinking/at a party/having fun.

-Lighting cues in the show.

-Missing a good part of the day in the gym on Saturday. This was completely mine and Jeff's fault. We went to look for food, and found some far from the fest (in a pretty cool bar!) that took too long to get. Then, we get back and find out that just down some stairs from where the fest was happening, was a restaurant...facepalm...

Goals:

-Break 5 club bx record (nope)

-200 catches of shoulder pads (nope)

-Learn a new 5 club trick (almost, got one in progress)

-Pass with Jeff (check)

-Hit an alberalb (check)

Crush:

-Dominique; you're so much fun!

-Brad Weston; great guy, great performance, great workshop.

Bane:

-Can't really think of one here...

Surprise:

-How easy passing with Jeff was! We did some tricks better than before he left for Poland.

That's all! Looking forward to the next one :)

-Warren