2015 - 20 Years of Flow and Introduction to the Circus Life

This June marked 20 years of yo-yoing for me. I celebrated by going to the Flatland Juggling Festival in Lincoln, NE. There I met with a lot of skill toy players and flow artists, some I have known for a while and some I was meeting for the first time. Over the course of the 3 day event I felt my heart swell with excitement for all of the things I was seeing around me and the old tricks came back to my hands like I had never taken a break. I was a novelty in the room as the only person yo-yoing all weekend and I played til I had blisters. Then, I played some more. It hurt so good.

After the event I felt something awaken in me. At first, I thought it was that old competitive spirit that wanted to travel to competitions and try to prove myself as one of the best in the sport. I very quickly realized that wasn't it at all. As a competitor, I felt like I was limiting myself on what I could actually do. The rule set for yo-yo contests did not allow for many of the things I was interested in pursuing unless I wanted to wait and compete in the Artistic Performance (AP) category at the World Yo-Yo Contest. Nope. Not interested in that at all. Competing is stressful and eventually makes the hobby less fun. I wanted to move past that and just entertain people. I was meeting regularly with performers of various disciplines from Juggling, to Poi, to Hula Hoops, and so on. These great people opened my eyes to a world of creativity that felt much richer than playing for points.

Since the Festival, I have been dabbling in other flow arts, taking patterns and moves from them that I can incorporate into my yo-yo show. I have also been spending a lot of time engineering small acts to perform in front of a crowd. Some are feats of skill, like knocking a quarter off a nervous volunteer's ear, while others are choreographed routines similar to yo-yo freestyles but with more creative elements than technical elements. It is for the entertainment of the poor folks that have to watch me.

I learned that there are local circus groups in and around Lincoln that either already exist or are getting started soon that hold performances all over the place. I did not even know this was a thing. I have done so much in the way of performing on my own over the years. Oh, what it would be to be a part of a performing group? As soon as I started doing some digging I knew this was my next turn in the path of my life. I have learned a great deal about what a modern circus is (and what it isn't) and I want it.