The Juggling Edge - Live recording of the 38ème Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain.

Orinoco - 2017-01-30 18:02:53 UTC #

Live recording of the 38ème Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain.

https://youtu.be/KZyzUzT4gUs

Haven't watched yet, saving this for later.

^Tom_ - 2017-01-30 20:21:37 UTC - Parent #

We watched it live on two Arte videostream on Saturday night. It certainly had a couple of moments. I'll let you guess my favourite acts once you've watched it.

LukasR - 2017-01-30 21:26:53 UTC - Parent #

https://concert.arte.tv/fr/38eme-festival-mondial-du-cirque-de-demain

i suggest to watch it on arte and support them instead of giving the clicks to a russian pirate

peterbone - 2017-01-31 09:44:25 UTC - Parent #

Watched it live through a VPN as well. Highlights for me were the beatbox guy, hand balancer, Swedish Chinese pole guys, Canadian luggage trolley lady, Diabolo. Viktor Kee was a judge.

Colin E. - 2017-01-30 22:27:05 UTC - Parent #

The ball juggling routine was superb, the characterisation was brilliant, and he owned the audience!

I also really enjoyed the diabolo routine (although I just can't stand vertex or whatever it is called, it looks so inelegant!)

Something I liked about both performers is that they were not afraid to push things to the edge of their abilities, and it was the small failures that really made the acts.

The Void - 2017-01-31 00:37:51 UTC - Parent #

Wanna buy a tee? https://www.capsule39.com/tlmb_vertax.php

mtb - 2017-01-31 10:51:51 UTC - Parent #

I thought that the drops for the ball finale might have been planned. At least, the first one seemed to be.

Colin E. - 2017-01-31 10:58:42 UTC - Parent #

I think it was a bit of both - I'm pretty sure this was on the edge of his abilities, but with the 'skit' around having someone come and pick them up being entirely rehearsed. I very much doubt his act is planned to have an exact number of drops. It's part of what keeps the performance fresh.

mtb - 2017-02-02 07:18:47 UTC - Parent #

Yeah. Although he got a really strong crowd reaction after the first drop, which is why I thought that that one might be planned. And then maybe one more was expected.

Still good going!

mtb - 2017-01-31 07:35:42 UTC - Parent #

Kerol, the beatboxing club juggler was not bad either.

I really enjoyed the seesaw + Chinese pole act as well, although I did not like the ending.

Daniel Simu - 2017-02-09 09:31:30 UTC - Parent #

You can now als read my review of the festival at eJuggle:

http://ezine.juggle.org/2017/02/08/jugglers-at-cirque-de-demain-2017/

mtb - 2017-02-09 14:58:06 UTC - Parent #

Nice review! I would love to see the other show, do you know if it will be going online?

I watched it again on the weekend, and noticed that the Zhejiang Troupe's finale is even more mental than I thought: The base was actually in a handstand with the antipodist lying on his feet.

Daniel Simu - 2017-02-09 22:56:21 UTC - Parent #

The other show was not recorded by Arte, so it will not go online as a full show. Probably some artists have recordings of their own, and might decide to release those online in the future.

Sadly I didn't snap a picture of that finale nor did I rewatch the video, but now that you remind me, yes that was the case. I really saw little of that act, much too distracted by the background dancers and trying to make a Dutch joke about it (die 8 dansers vormden de ACHTergrond ;) )

mtb - 2017-02-10 05:40:45 UTC - Parent #

Ah well. Will keep an eye out.

The background dancers did seem superfluous.

I really enjoyed the whole show though.

The Void - 2017-02-10 00:15:16 UTC - Parent #

Thanks for the review!

bad1dobby - 2017-02-10 04:54:21 UTC - Parent #

Thanks for the enjoyable review, Daniel.

Regarding the Zhejiang troupe, you wrote:

"The tricks performed were unimaginatively hard to do..."

I wonder whether you meant "unimaginably hard"?
"Unimaginatively hard" would mean something like "very difficult but not at all creative". (My apologies if that was your intended meaning)

Daniel Simu - 2017-02-10 13:42:54 UTC - Parent #

Oopsy, that error slipped through! Thanks for the correction, this is the only way for me to improve my English :)

lukeburrage - 2017-02-10 10:24:57 UTC - Parent #

Juliane and I caught up with the Arte show yesterday, and we made very similar comments to your own about the acts, though I hadn't read your review at the time. Things like "I bet those dancers have something to do in a different act, but they are in the choreography throughout the main show, so here they are."

I'd seen ChihHan Chao (George) perform at the EJC, both on the Open Stage and in the Diabolo Battle (where he came second), so the act wasn't so special for me, especially with so many drops and mistakes. I understand why he got a gold medal though.

I have a choreographed drop at the end of a few of my acts, but Alejandro Escobedo needs to learn that if you don't get the trick after the "comedy picking-up the dropped props routine", then the next attempt has to happen FAST. As in, maybe slightly funny but most importantly No Hanging Around. By the second drop the audience already knows you are A. good at juggling, B. clever (for choreographing a drop, or having choreography to cover the drop), C. funny and D. entertaining. Extra choreography for each drop doesn't elevate B and only decreases A, meaning C and D have to ramp up to cover the deficiency. And it was such a pity after the rest of his routine was without major errors.