17.7.2009 von Ines.

Greening the Beige is dancing with excitement and pleased as peaches to announce DESERT DANCE, a Benefit Without Borders event, coming up this Saturday, July 18th!

The global fundraiser/awareness raising/multi-layered art event will focus on the topic of desertification in China and its Beijing realities. For the full event details including performance and film screening schedules, please visit http://www.greeningthebeige.org/node100

All photography display works are available for sale by silent auction. Proceeds will be used for the self-sustaining 3rd Annual Greening the Beige Event — RE-ENERGIZE BEIJING — coming this November 2009.

Note that our first choice of location has now moved to No. 4 Zhangwang Hutong (opposite Bed Bar, look for the golden gate entrance), Jiu Gulou Dajie. While we are not pleased regarding the circumstance for this change, we are extremely grateful and honored to have found such a stunning and generous new home for our event, a 500 year old restored courtyard temple, located north of the drum and bell towers.

If you’re planning to come or have any questions, or would just like to send us your positive feedback, love, and support, we definitely want to hear from you.

‘Til then, the oasis awaits.

Tree Hugs,
the Greening the Beige Desert Dance Crew

亲爱的北京绿色朋友们，

点废成绿盛情邀请您参加刺激而有趣的沙漠之舞，这个受益无国界的活动将在7月18日（星期六）举行！
全球资金筹集人、全民意识提高、多层面艺术活动都将关注中国沙漠化的主题以及北京的现状。有关这个活动的详情，包括表演和电影播放节目表，请参见附件或点击链接 http://www.greeningthebeige.org/node100

所有的摄影图片将以无声拍卖的形式出售，所有的收益将用于点废成绿于2009年11月自办的第3届年度活动——重振北京。

请注意，我们的首选地点现移至北京市东城区旧鼓楼大街张旺胡同4号（在Bed酒吧对面，金色大门入口）。虽然临时的地点改动带来一些麻烦，但是对于这个新场地，我们感到更加荣欣和欣喜，它是一个拥有500年历史的重建庭院，就在鼓楼的北面。

如果您想参加活动，或有任何疑问，或只是想表达一些您的想法和支持，请写邮件给我们。

我们期待您的参与！

献上大树的拥抱,
点废成绿沙漠之舞工作成员

–
Greening the Beige点废成绿
www.greeningthebeige.org

Geschrieben in Green, Beijing | 1 Kommentar »

15.7.2009 von Ines.

It is nice to be back in Beijing, meet some of my Beijing friends and have dinner in a Xinjiang restaurant. And it was cool that Jess Meider had a special concert today in the Yugong Yishan club. She was accompanied by Sarah (background vocals) and Zack (bongos) as well as Zacks’ brother (standing bass) and Marie-Claude (accordion). It was a great mix. And my friend Fede performed during the Moon Song with his crystal ball.

Geschrieben in Performers, Music, Juggling, Beijing | Keine Kommentare »

14.7.2009 von Ines.

My last day in Germany was nice. It stared with a breakfast with a friend from Hamburg in the traditional “Tee-Haus” in Erlangen. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture. We will have to do that next time we meet. Then I went to say hi to some friends in the nearby bike shop and get some things sorted at my local bank. After that I had a very delicious goodbye dinner at home. My parents cooked fine beef roulades with Franconian dumplings, red cabbage and a variety of garden salads. That tasted so good.

And then it was time to say goodbye and realize how heavy my bags were. It is good that you do not need to book a specific train in Europe, but you can take any similar connection with the same train ticket. There was one train that I wanted to get, but the time was flying and there was some probability that I could miss that one. Many discussions on what would be the best route did make us take the most efficient road so that I arrived with a comfortable 10 minutes before departure.

After check-in in Munich I met another friend that I have not seen for a while. He looks great like always. And then it was flying back to Beijing and arriving only 9 hours later.

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13.7.2009 von Ines.

Herzogenaurach is famous for two brothers that continued the show making profession handed down by their father. But as they did not get along with each other they both opened their own companies - today known as Adidas and Puma.

Some years ago Adidas build a factory outlet shop in the outskirts of Herzogenaurach. Many people from all over Europe drive by to get special discounts here.

Puma of course also has a factory outlet, but is now building a huge new Puma-City.

Here is a view towards the village where my parents live. Actually most of the village is hidden in the valley behind the forest and in front of the antenna in the far distance. It was great weather today and not as cold as the past two weeks.

Between doctor’s appointments I had a picnic on a meadow. Nuremburg sausages, pepper sausages, ham wraps on a stick, filled zucchini, potato salad, red beet salad, cucumber salad, German bread and red current berries from the garden .

In the evening I met a friend from Berlin. I had last seen him when he visited Beijing 20 months ago. We first had some Franconian dinner (Schaeufele mit Kloessen) and then some weird named cocktails in the rain. It was nice to see him after such a while.

Geschrieben in Germany | 2 Kommentare »

12.7.2009 von Ines.

Back in Germany I decided to look through some of the boxes that I had put on the attic of my parent’s house some years ago. One was my theater accessory box that I had long forgotten about. When I was 9 to about 12 years old me and the daughters of my parents friends used to play spontaneous theater, something like improv theater. We would roughly think of something, like who we were (sisters or friends or a family) and where we were and then invite our parents and just play whatever came to our mind first. That resulted in some funny conversations. One that I remember was us wearing grandma’s fur coats and fur hats and winter boots and then saying that we will go to the beach in Spain. We would dress up in clothes and worn out shoes that we found on the attic and use various accessories that I had collected. I am not sure what the main topic of our spontaneous theater acts was, but the huge amount of similar accessories that I discovered in that box does make me wonder…

On the attic in other boxed I found some of the trophies from competitions that I participated in. I decided to take Chinese style pictures with me and my victory cups from competitions in cycling, gymnastics and even diving and skiing.

In the evening I took a picture with my parents in their garden.

Geschrieben in Germany | 1 Kommentar »

11.7.2009 von Ines.

My last day at the European Juggling Convention in Spain was a quiet one. It seems everybody must have partied hard the night before as the whole juggling field was empty. And that even still at 11:30am. Martin and Gerhard did some partner acrobatics for me. And I in return did some unicycling for Gerhard.

I then had to rush to catch the Vitoria-Gasteiz urban bus to the main bus station. The bus did not come as it was posted on the schedule, but actually 35 minutes later which almost made me miss the bus to Bilbao. And if I would have missed that I do not know if I would have made it to the airport on time for my flight. But it went well. I took some pictures out of the bus window along the highway from Vitoria to Bilbao. It felt like the 1 hour on the highway was a constant downhill roll.

And this was taken through the bus front windshield therefore it has so many insect smudges.

In Bilbao airport they must have just had a protest. The airport looked like a mess. And there were the bright stickers (made to hardly ever go off again) sticking everywhere. They said the complete staff working at the airport wants higher wages and better working conditions. But I am not sure the working conditions of the cleaning staff will be so pleasant the next few days. But at least the staff was not on strike and my flight back to Germany left on time.

Geschrieben in Juggling | 2 Kommentare »

10.7.2009 von Ines.

So this is why I am here in Spain: The main Gala Show of the European Juggling Convention 2009. Today I first had my own private rehearsal time on stage, then we had the complete run through the show and after that 2 shows with full halls. It was a very long and intense day.

In Vitoria there is a special festival at which they have a puppet go from one tower in the city via a wire to the next tower. As we are at a juggling and unicycling convention they had that puppet made out of balloons and made him riding a unicycling and juggling balls.

Also the tower was made out of balloons. At the beginning of each show they had this puppet fly over the audience from the city tower to the stage.

For both shows the huge Mendizorrotza hall was full

The European Juggling Convention 2009 Gran Gala Show consisted of the following performing artists:

Jens Sigsgaard and his modern body beat and contact juggling

Florent Lestage and his modern double devil stick performance

Jeanine Ebnoether and her modern beautiful body rolling contact juggling choreography. It was nice to have another woman perform in the show. And she did it so elegantly and smooth it was a pleasure to watch.

Kagu is a child juggling balls

Matias did a modern dance with a single wheel similar to the German wheel (Rhoenrad)

Mikel did contact juggling with clubs

Duo DeFracto did a great modern, minimalistic and funny ball choreography. It was so well timed and performed.

Sergey Junior (looking now much older than the pictures on his website) is a 4th generation circus artist juggling rings and flying objects

Grisha Lovygin had a well choreographed ball juggling show but unfortunately I do not have a picture of him

And yes, I was part of the program with my trick bike show. It was nice to perform on such a huge stage with so many famous performers in front of a very knowledgeable audience that appreciated my skills, went mad and then into standing ovations. It was an extraordinary feeling! Here is a picture of my performance at EJC 2009 Gala Show taken from the photos.albapasser.de website (thank you for the picture):

I am waiting to see a video of the show. I hope the organization team will put one together. And our MC for the show was Loco Brusca

And this was the artists green room where we had baguette and cheese. Everybody was exhausted but satisfied after the show.

Geschrieben in Performers, Juggling, Fixed Gear | 1 Kommentar »

9.7.2009 von Ines.

So many jugglers everywhere. It is really nice. I like the outdoor grass area where people just juggle. Everybody in their own style:

There was also a volley”ball” field and people were playing volley-juggling. That is just like volleyball, but you play two against two, everybody with 2 clubs, the person serving has 3 clubs. That is fun to watch:

There were also many free workshops for various skills like partner acrobatics, handstands, vertical trapeze, Chinese pole, Russian board:

I participated in the slack rope workshop. That is a slack version of the slack line. I think it is more fun than slack line.

There was also a unicycle trial area with rocks and boulders to jump onto. Here are some unicyclists that gathered at the main square of the EJC area.

There were always some public performances going on, especially the street performer style.

And finally after some hours of searching I finally found him! My friend Oli from Beijing who used to come to the Beijing Jugglers workshop and amaze everybody with his skills. I knew he was at the EJC 2009 but without a mobile phone nor internet and everybody camping it was hard to get in contact with him. I thought I might see him somewhere as he is tall. But then  realized that actually a lot European jugglers are tall.

Geschrieben in Juggling, Unicycle | 1 Kommentar »

8.7.2009 von Ines.

After some hours of traveling I finally arrived in Northern Spain in a city called Vitoria-Gasteiz. The huge European Jugglers get together is held here this year. It had started already 4 days ago. It met friends from the Erlangen juggling group as well as friends that I had not seen for about 10 years. They arranged for one hall that is open 24 hours to do whatever you want: Some people participate in the juggling combat, others do passing or practice juggling balls and others do trapeze or partner acrobatics. Like me.

Geschrieben in Juggling | Keine Kommentare »

8.7.2009 von Ines.

This morning I packed up my trick bike into my bicycle travel bag and got my things ready for my trip to Spain. The flight is actually shorter than all the travel by buses to get from the airport to the venue where I am booked to do trick bike performances. Here is a goodbye picture with my mother.

Geschrieben in Germany | Keine Kommentare »