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Archive for the ‘Juggling’ Category

Morning Bike Tricks and Juggling

Dienstag, August 11th, 2009

I am fed up with the rain in the evenings and therefore the missing bike trick training. So I asked Fede to come out with me at 8:30am for joint training. What a beautiful morning: Blue skies, clean air and sunshine. The place we went to is quite nice. All the Chinese that come for a workout leave at around 8:30am so we have the complete space for ourselves.

Fede Juggling Training

Fede Moro Juggling Clubs

I brought my pink Cinelli track bike with my new pink Oury grips. They are so comfortable. This place is not perfect for doing tricks on fixed gear bikes, but it is fine for what I wanted to practice.

Ines Track Bike Wheely

Free Handed Wheely

In the evenings there are some Chinese guys that have whips for exercise. Fede has bought one and is now learning the art of whipping. Whenhe does it right it makes a really loud noise.

Fede Whipping

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Scitech Outlet Mall Grand Opening Event

Samstag, Juli 25th, 2009

Outside Beijing in Shunyi area between the never ending construction sites of new multi villa compounds a mall complex for brands had their grand opening. Fede and me were booked as performing artists to entertain the visitors with juggling tricks, slapstick, unicycling and bike tricks.

Fede and his Ball

Jess and some other musicians were booked to play jazz music for the VIP guests. Jess received professional make-up and hair-do by the stylists of the models.

Jess Getting Styled

The Chinese fashion world seems strange to me. The models must be considered beautiful and handsome by somebody, or? I still wonder who likes their „fashion“ clothes like for example the horrible cream colored skirt with black dots of the model on the left side of the picture. Or their ugly shoes that they have problems walking in. I might just not understand Chinese fashion.

Chinese Models

The place was quite crowded and it was fun to do some bike tricks there.

Outlet Mall Opening

Escalator to VIP Section

Jess looked amazing in that silk cocktail dress and with a real flower in her hair.

Jess Meider and Band

Jess Meider Jazz Band

Afterwards back in the city I met visiting friends in an outdoor „beer garden“ style venue. It was the first time I got some mosquitoe bites this summer. But as always they were gone right away.

Posted in Fixed Gear, Juggling, Media, Natooke, Performers | 1 Comment »

Enchanted Juggling

Montag, Juli 20th, 2009

Tonight we had the weekly Beijing Jugglers meeting in Yugong Yishan. It was special because Jess Meider and Fede Moro practiced their joint performance: Jess playing the guitar and singing her own beautiful „Moon Song“ while Fede has a crystal ball to do contact juggling to the music. It looks just like the moon.

The Moon Song Contact Juggling

Jess Meider and Fede Moro Performance

Posted in Juggling, Music, Performers | 1 Comment »

DESERT DANCE Event

Samstag, Juli 18th, 2009

Today I went to the Ritan Park rock climbing wall. It was astonishingly empty for a Saturday late afternoon. Maybe this is due to the hot and humid weather. It was great not to have to wait in line to climb a route. And there were hardly any mosquitoes, not like in the past years.

This evening was the Beijing Burners Without Borders event called DESERT DANCE organized by Greening the Beige. It was a mix of art and music to raise environmental awareness. There was a belly dancer

Desert Dance Belly Dancer

Jess Meider played her songwriter songs in unusual positions while Federico performed contact juggling.

Jess Meider Letting Herself Shine

Federico Juggling and Jess Meider The Moon Song

The whole venue was extremely beautiful. It is a privately owned renovated former temple. Really amazing.

Ines at Desert Dance

Posted in Green, Juggling, Music, Performers | 1 Comment »

Concert: Jess Meider and Friends

Mittwoch, Juli 15th, 2009

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.

Jess Meider Concert

Contact Juggler Federico Moro

Songwriter Jess Meider and band in Yugong Yishan

Ines back in Beijing

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Vitoria to Bilbao

Samstag, Juli 11th, 2009

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.

Partner Acrobatics

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.

Vitoria Mountains

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

Bilbao Mountains

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.

Bilbao Airport

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EJC 2009 Gran Gala Event

Freitag, Juli 10th, 2009

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.

Vitoria Unicycling Puppet for EJC 2009

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.

Vitoria Gasteiz Gala Show EJC 2009

For both shows the huge Mendizorrotza hall was full

Vitoria Mendizorrotza SJC 2009 Gran Gala

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

Jens Sigsgaard and his modern body beat and contact juggling

Jens Sigsgaard

Florent Lestage and his modern double devil stick performance

Florent Lestage Devil Stick

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.

Jeanine Ebnoether Body Rolling

Kagu is a child juggling balls

Ball Juggler Kagu

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

Matias Wheel Performance

Mikel did contact juggling with clubs

Mikel Club Contact

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

Duo DeFracto Show

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

Sergey Junior Juggling

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):

Ines Trick Bike Show at EJC 2009

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

Loco Brusca

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

Performing Artists Green Room

Chairs

Posted in Fixed Gear, Juggling, Performers | 1 Comment »

European Juggling Convention 2009

Donnerstag, Juli 9th, 2009

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

Juggler at EJC 2009

Contact Juggling at EJC 2009

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:

Volley-Juggling at EJC 2009

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

Handstand Workshop at EJC 2009

Russian Board at EJC 2009

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.

Slack Line Workshop at EJC 2009

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.

Unicycles at EJC 2009

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

Public Performance at EJC 2009

Aerial Performance at EJC 2009

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.

Oli Pinchbeck

Posted in Juggling, Unicycle | 1 Comment »

Juggling in Spain

Mittwoch, Juli 8th, 2009

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.

24 Hour Hall at EJC 2009

Juggling the Night Away

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Fede’s Party

Montag, April 20th, 2009

Fede had just come back from Uganda where he had been teaching teenagers and children how to juggle and do acrobatics as well as putting a show together for them so that they could earn money. That is a project done by an Italian non-profit organization. And now he is off to Italy and Europe, leaving tomorrow. We will miss him.

So we had a party for him. Oli was DJ-ing some nice tunes, a lot of jugglers and friends came and Kris came and brought his new carbon track bike (credits to Risteard for the picture).

New Bike