Flow Circus

Paul performed at the Nasher Museum of Art’s Family Day this weekend. The event celebrated current exhibition Big Shot: Andy Warhol Polaroids. Paul presented his own version of a self-portrait through his performance incorporating juggling, magic, & balloons.

The Nasher Museum has a beautiful performance space and enthusiastic audiences. In addition to performances, Paul performed close-up magic and engaged kids of all ages (the grown up ones too!) in plate spinning fun. We look forward to returning to the Nasher again in the future.

For more photos, visit the Flow Circus Photo Gallery. If you saw one of Paul’s shows, feel free to comment here.

At libraries across the United States, families will Make A Splash and teens will Make Waves this summer. Flow Circus has been brainstorming fresh ideas for a new 2010 SRP performance. Our juggling & skill toy workshops provide a unique program for tweens & teens……they will be making wave patterns as they juggle and making waves as they share their new skills with friends.

Below is a list of our current summer schedule. We still have openings for these tours and would love to visit your library. For more information on performances and workshops visit www.FlowCircus.com/library

Encore! loves Flow Circus. Paul and Dawn are awesome! They managed to capture the attention of and engage even our most hard-to-please students. The demonstrations and patient instruction were top notch—and I was even juggling by the end! I can’t say enough about how great they are.

Amy Franks, Program Specialist, Durham Public Schools

Last week, we had the opportunity to teach juggling workshops at 3 different Encore! afterschool programs in the Durham Public School System. We were so impressed by the willingness of these middle school students (and staff) to try something new. Over the course of a 60 minute workshop, everyone saw big improvements and we even had some of the participants juggling up to 30 throws. We look forward to returning to the programs this spring to introduce other skill toys.

Last week, we had the opportunity to return to the YMCA Campfire Conference held in Black Mountain, NC. Summer camp staff from all over the southeast came together to share ideas, develop skills, and play together. In addition to teaching juggling and skill toy workshops this year, we conducted a team building workshop using balloons.

To add to the fun, Paul also performed his variety show for the group. The one thing we observe when working with YMCA staff is that they are always ready to laugh and play! We look forward to participating again next year.

To see more pictures visit the Flow Circus Photo Gallery.

Flow Circus offers a range of professional development programs for school, library, afterschool, and camp staff. Programs and workshops use juggling, balloons sculpting, and performance to actively engage participants in teambuilding, stress relief, leadership development and creative thinking.

Watch our video & imagine your colleagues having fun together!

For more information visit the Flow Circus website.

Flow Circus helped the Wake Forest Branch Library celebrate its 13th Birthday this weekend with a performance of Read Yourself Silly. It was a beautiful November day in North Carolina ….nice enough to perform outside. The article below from the December 2009 Rolesville Buzz describes the event. For more pictures from the Wake Forest Library show, visit the Flow Circus Photo Gallery.

During the 2009-10 school year, Flow Circus will be performing Read Yourself Silly at schools and libraries throughout the East Coast. Juggling, magic, and balloons captivate audiences and help deliver a memorable message…….visit the library to learn new skills!

Flow Circus finds that working with adults can be just as much fun as working with kids because adults need to laugh & play too! This month we conducted two different staff development sessions. The first was held at Camp Silver Beach for the Peninsula Metropolitan YMCA. Our half-day workshop was part of a two day retreat focusing on the book Juggling Elephants by Jones Loflin and Todd Musig. As the authors point out in the book: People sometimes need to laugh, relax, and not take themselves too seriously. Our session taught participants how to juggle and use a variety of skill toys. Learning these new skills gave the group an opportunity to reflect on the learning process and how to overcome a fear of failure in order to improve their very own own 3 ring circus!

This past week we conducted a workshop for the staff of Mauney Memorial Library and Cleveland County Library System (pictured above). For this workshop, we used balloons to set up different team challenges that emphasize the importance of good communication, clear objectives, and understanding strengths/weaknesses when working together in teams. Creative thinking and team brainstorming resulted in the commercials below which promote the wide variety of services that libraries provide in the 21st Century. Watch and enjoy their results.

 Visit our website to learn more information about Flow Circus Staff Development Workshops.

The Afterschool Alliance celebrated the 10th Annual Lights on Afterschool which included  more than 7,500 events nationwide. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan recognized the importance of afterschool programs with his statement: Learning doesn’t just happen in a classroom between school bells. Children learn all day long. So it’s vital to give students and their families the tools, the facilities, and the opportunity to continue working on traditional academic subjects as well as a place for broader lessons in areas like art and music to enrich their lives. The Afterschool Alliance also released the results of a new study America After 3pm which reports how American children spend their afternoons.

Flow Circus was on tour in the Washington, DC area during Lights on Afterschool and helped the Greater Washington Boys & Girls Club celebrate the event with a performance of Read Yourself Silly.  Program director Ron Diokno commented after the show that the kids were simply too engaged and mesmerized. I guarantee you they had a great time, in fact, too much fun for one of our kids that couldn’t stop laughing throughout the show!  If more activities were like this, then more of our kids would learn and be inspired to achieve in their own ways.

Flow Circus works with a number of wonderful afterschool programs throughout the year through both hands-on programs and performances. We wanted to highlight the importance of these vital programs by joining in this important celebration. We were happy to inspire the club members and staff with our playfulness.

We look forward to participating in the Lights on Afterschool celebration again next year.

When visiting New York City in October, we saw a listing for an exhibition about toys and knew we had to go! The exhibition at the Brooklyn Public Library included yo-yo’s, kites, and other toys made from recycled materials by children in the Dominican Republic. Along side the toys were beautiful images taken by Jaime Jimenez capturing the curiosity, determination, and joy of children at play. This project Juguetes was inspired by the creativity of traditional toys and games made by children. In the book with the same title, Jimenez writes:

Over the past decade and a half, the lives of the people in the Dominican Republic have changed drastically. This has much to do with globalization. It has transformed and will continue to transform everyday life. The creativity in the children has changed due to the fact that now there are more mass produced toys available. This is why I find it necessary to document the children as much as possible while making their creations.

Visit the Juguetes website to see images and learn more about Jimenez’s project.

We were excited to see that many of the toys were variations of the skill toys that we teach as part of our programs. Toys that we selected because they do engage kids for hours yet are so simple in design. They do not need electricity or internet access, they can be used inside or out, and most importantly there is no limit to what can be done with them!