All juggling events in 2012
Juggling events in Austria, 2012
lunedì, 30 luglio 2012 to martedì, 31 luglio 2012
Stickball - the Australian trend in object manipulation
Some of you might have already seen this game played at juggling events or festivals and wondered what it is about.
Off course the idea of stick and ball balancing isn't a new invention, it has existed for a long time in different forms and disciplines and even in the juggling world it has been performed by some of the world's most famous jugglers.
So what is the new approach about stickball?
Stickball (also known as Stykball) originated in Brisbane's West End (Australia). It is a form of ball and stick manipulation where the stick becomes an extention of the body, balancing, spinning and throwing an oversize tennisball. It incorporates elements of dance, acrobatics, hakeysak, body rolling, contact juggling, staff manipulation and juggling.
Even though it can be approached, trained and performed as a very skillfull form of 2 objects manipulation, the initial spirit is a more communicative one:
Stickball developed as a non-competitive freestyle multi-player game, usually played with 2- 9 players. The players stand in a circle all holding sticks, usually broom handles. They then pass a giant tennis ball to each other by rolling it along the stick and launching it. The objective of the game is to keep the ball flowing. Each player is unique in their technique. The game involves smoothly moving the ball from one person to another using the ball and the stick, never hitting the ball but rather keeping contact and balancing, gracefully guiding and redirecting the movement of the ball.
The game is cooperative rather than competitive and is beautiful to watch. There are no fixed rules, so it leaves a lot of room for creativity and allows players of any skill level to join or leave the circle at any time, it is also possible to use other objects or body roles to guide the ball. The spirit of the game is one of fairness and co-operation.
During the last decade since its invention the complexity of tricks and skills of the players has increased a lot and stickball has gained in popularity all over the world.
Did you get curious? - join the experience!
Intensive Workshop in Vienna 30.06-01.07.2012
The Australian Caleb Trott has been playing and developing Stickball for over 10 years and has been running workshops for the past 3 years in Europe and Australia.
On the 30th of June and 1st of July 2012 he will be teaching an intensive workshop for a max. Of 15 participants in Vienna, Austria. Participants of all levels are welcome and gear will be provided. The workshop includes a general introduction to stickball, technical work (basics, tricks and flow), group work (circle games and variations) and creativity work (developing personal moves and methods and mixing stickball with other manipulation techniques).
For more information, video links and registration please go to: www.kreativkultur.org