9:00am-
10:00am

11:00am-
12:00pm

9:00am-
10:00am

Cigar Boxes
Dan Holzman

11:00am-
12:00pm

Beginning Poi will cover the basics of spinning and toys will be needed.

Beginning 3 Clubs will cover the basics of flipping around 3 clubs, starting from manipulations with 1 club and progressing to simple 3 club tricks. Toys will not be provided.

Meghan Letters has been a performing child since the beginning when she put on show tune numbers in diapers at family dinners. Since those days she has been in such shows as "As You Like It", "Lost in Yonkers", "A Company of Wayward Saints", the "Momalogues", "Camelot", "Intergalactic Brawl" and the "Circo Magnifico Variety Hour". She also spins poi and juggles torches at numerous fire shows at public performances and private parties.

Meghan's adventure into the realm of juggling and circus started when this guy named Walter announced in her Theater 108 class that he needed someone who could do cartwheels for a show. She thought, ‘I can do a pretty mean cartwheel. I should volunteer.’ The piece combined juggling and acrobatics as court jesters. That show was Camelot and from there she hasn’t stopped juggling. That same guy Walter taught her the basics in that crazy juggling class last spring and she spent her spring break with a new set of clubs; thanks Ma! Somehow she found her way to the Humboldt Circus and now is the Head Spieler for the club. This makes her in charge of posters and nothing to do with juggling but does mean she gives her spiel a lot.

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Performance Video Production Workshop Learn video shooting techniques to make the most of your performance video using any home video camera. Workshop will cover angles, lighting, and audio as well as the best way to approach shooting your performance, whether its a live performance or something staged. Easy steps to make the most our of your video and your performance. Just need to bring yourself to watch and learn.

Connie Leaverton is one of our featured special guests and her complete bio can be found HERE

The History of Circus workshop is an exploration of the culture and historical figures in the genera of circus. Shea will be presenting his major thesis, which is chronological description of circus activities worldwide. This workshop will also be discussing the application of circus within the styles and themes of juggling, clowning and theater arts.

Shea FreeLove has a self-written Physical Theater Major at Humboldt State University. Shea has been performing for 15 years, and has been active in the circus arts for the past six years. Shea founded the Humboldt Circus in 2000 and has produced numerous circus shows at HSU, most notable would be Dr. Sugarshakers House of sin, a sold out rowdy burlesque show. Shea has performed many street shows across the nation at various events and festivals including: the Reggae on the River, Benbow Arts and Music festival, Pier 39, and the Madison area Farmers market. Shea FreeLove has performed in a number of touring circus troupes including: The Inferno Brothers, Adventures of the Jolly Roger, and the Offbeat Outlaws.

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Baton 101 – Tricks for Jugglers We will cover some basic full hand work, finger work, rolls, releases, and catches. Come learn how to start working on a fishtail....that cool trick that the baton twirlers know! You’ll find many applications that you can use with the club juggling and club swinging, staff, contact, and devil stick tricks you’re already doing. I'll have some extra batons on hand...or you can use your own devil stick or staff.

Staff Twirling – Rolls & Contact This workshop will focus on staff tricks that roll on you and stay in contact with your body, arms, and legs. Will be helpful if you already have a basic ability to pass the staff hand to hand and keep it moving with full hand flourishes. Bring or borrow a staff if possible...I'll have one extra on hand, as well as batons that you can use to learn the material.

Cindy Hamilton has taught baton twirling throughout California and Europe. She now lives in Arcata and happened onto the wacky world of juggling at the Humboldt Juggling Festival 3 years ago. Throwing up and catching were already familiar, and the rest is a blurry history of juggling festivals, hither and yon. She's taught at the IJA National Conventions in Reno and Buffalo, and at a number of smaller festivals. She attends every regional West Coast festival she can get to. (WJF in Las Vegas was fantastic, although batons were banished from the gym....) She delights in the skill, creativity, and open mindedness of jugglers. She loves getting beginners going...breaking it down so it's doable. In her real life, she is a pediatric physical therapist with a part-time private practice. She also has a new, home based “etail” business and is an Ebay Powerseller.

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Intermediate and Partner Poi
The focus of this workshop will be on learning partner poi moves. They are mostly intermediate level moves. Before each partner move is taught we will go over the moves involved in the partner move. If some people do not know the moves they can work on learning it while the rest of the group focuses on learning the partner version. People of all skill levels are encouraged to come. The workshop is flexible so if there's something you are working on come with your questions, or feel free to share something you have learned too. We will have a couple extra sets of poi, but it is recommended to bring your own set.

Solenne Alexa Vanne has been juggling and spinning poi for three and half years. She is a five ball juggler and seven club passer. She enjoys playing with torches and fire poi. She has choreographed various poi routines and especially likes partner poi. She has performed in various Humboldt Circus shows and with the Juggling Pirates in The Adventures of the Jolly Rogers, as well as at the 2004 Damento Juggling festival.

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JUGGLING – With T & A
A juggler for thirteen years, Erin Stephens has observed the juggling world from a nearly-unique perspective – as a woman. Recently, Erin has worked as a juggling instructor in a variety of settings including group homes for boys, school programs, the AcroSports Circus School and Make A Circus Foundation in San Francisco. She has also observed and researched diverse topics relating to women and youth in the juggling world. This workshop covers the extensive “herstory” of women jugglers; with a focus on cultures where female jugglers were prevalent, including eras where it was just as likely to find a female juggling as it was to find a man. The workshop will also highlight specific theories and observations of the physical, mental and emotional differences between women and men and how they relate to juggling. Throughout time, women have been persecuted for being different than men. This workshop will discuss why those differences are not only awesome, but essential, and how we can use these differences to further develop the skills, passions, and abilities of women in the juggling world.

Erin Stephens has been studying the art, math, and science of juggling since the age of ten. Being ignorant of the endless possibilities of juggling, Erin spent the first four years of her juggling career training the three-ball cascade for up to 10,000 catches, before finally learning her first “trick”. Also, not knowing how few female jugglers existed, she began performing for parties and street performing as a self-conscious fifteen-year old girl. Despite being called a dork for juggling in high school and a clown for having the desire to perform, Erin developed a strong juggling foundation that continues to attract attention wherever she goes. People are attracted, she now realizes, because, not only is she good with her balls…but she’s got breasts too. And that’s hot! On top of having breasts, she also has a brain…and that’s even hotter! This past December, Erin graduated from the University of California – Santa Cruz with a degree in Community Studies, and a Senior Thesis titled “Circus Arts for Social Change”. Erin is learning what it means to be a professional female performer, and she promotes the “sociology of jugglingjust as she does the art, math, and science.

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Smart Feel your Cartwheel This workshop will get us all stretching, rolling, warming up, getting onto our hands, going upside down, and executing our best cartwheels. Trish will cover basic physical dynamics that make cartwheels easiest. For those who want an added challenge...we will work on one-armed cartwheels & partner cartwheels with people of similar size. If we have time, we will do some other basic partner-acro moves. Then...we will cartwheel our way to our next workshop.

Trish Riel has a BA from the Visual & Performing Arts School of Syracuse University, a MA in Acting & Theatre Arts from Humboldt State University, and gobs of experience in theatre, dance, and cartwheeling in unlikely places. She has cartwheeled in grocery stores, on cars, and even at the Alamo. She is something of a cartwheel addict & is happy to have the opportunity to help liberate people from their non-cartwheeling activities.

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JJ Crashbang is a Dell'Arte graduate ('84) and has been teaching unicycle since 1983. He has performed at festivals and street shows throughout Canada, US west coast and Europe. He now focuses more on the visual arts and prestigitation.

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Mira Steinberg is an old-school humboldt juggler who has recently juggled and bellydanced her way into medical school. She loves performing on her home turf. She has studied with two innovative, highly acclaimed dance troupes, Fat Chance Bellydance in San Francisco and Invaders of the Heart in Davis.

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All Shuffled Up A three ball shuffling workshop. Tricks will include: slow shuffle, fast shuffle, Luke's shuffle, shufflled Mill's, up-shuffle, Roy's shuffle, clawed shuffle and various variations.

Roy Newman has been juggling for about eight years. He first learned to juggle oranges while working at a country club, and has not stopped since. While three ball jugging is his main passion, he also enjoys playing with the stix, diabolo, cigar boxes, footbag (his original game), the unicycle, contact juggling, and clubs. His current goal is to learn to juggle five balls and ultimately the five ball Mill's Mess.

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Acrosage Inversion Come experience the unique healing sensations & health benefits of Acrosage Inversion. Jenny will demonstrate & teach this partner-yoga gravitational stretch. Discover weightless surrender & rejuvenation as you learn to give & receive this fabulous treatment. No experience necessary.

Face Painting Learn techniques & what materials to use for breathtaking face paint transformations! Children encouraged to attend for demonstration purposes, and fun!

Jenny the Juggler is one of our featured special guests and her complete bio can be found HERE

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Beginning Poi Please bring your own poi and/or two clubs. I have a few extra sets, but not many. We'll work on maintaining planes and some basic moves such as the butterfly and the weave, as well as things to keep in mind for performance situations and whatever else people show interest in.

Brandi Slater learned to spin poi at this very festival and was instantly addicted. With a lot of dedication she's come pretty far in the year that she's been spinning. She loves to spin fire poi as well as non-fire poi, and she also juggles balls and clubs.

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1 & 2 Diabolos This workshop will consist of whatever the attendees want to learn. From the basics of getting 1 diabolo started, up to advanced tricks with 2 diabolos. There will be some spare diabolos avaliable, but supply will be limited, so please bring your own.

Mike Montag learned to juggle in 1999 and quickly became an addict. At the First Annual Humbolddt Juggling Festival Mike picked up a diabolo and did not put it down all weekend, since then the diabolo has been his favorite juggling prop. Also known to pass clubs, juggle balls, and even a do a little contortion and balance.

Beginning Contact Juggling CJ - sphereplay - kinetic crystals - call it what you will, CJ is here to stay. This artful form of juggling is beautiful to watch, very rewarding, and adds variety to your juggling. Come and learn the basics from an experienced teacher who will simplify this skill for you, and take you on a tour of this wonderful new world of contact juggling. Expect to learn a lot of moves so bring a notebook. For any skill level, but designed for the complete beginner. The workshop will include numerous fundamental moves including "butterflys", stalls, body rolls, transfers, isolations, & basic combinations. Also covered will be choosing a ball, CJ terminology, demonstrations, CJ resources, individual assistance, and Q&A. Bring 1 ball (and some extras if you can).

Intermediate & Advanced Contact Juggling - Take your CJ to the next level. Learn countless moves and combos, develop your style, share your stuff, and bring a notebook. Turn your CJ basics into a showworthy skill. This workshop will cover a series of intermediate & advanced moves and combinations that build on primary skills and increase in difficulty - body rolls, transfers, multiball theory, toss CJ, & palmspinning. Also covered for the aspiring CJ master will be building routines versus "freestyle", CJ terminology, developing your own style, a demonstration, and Q&A. If possible bring 3 or more suitable CJ balls, some extras will be available.

Shapes, Legos, and Grips - Want to spice up your club routine? A little bored with your rings? Well...come to this innovative workshop with your clubz and rings and learn exciting new ways to juggle and present these props. This workshop will cover a style of juggling that is experimental and will offer a fundamental and highly effective approach to the very visual style of "legos & shapes" using the simple yet complex concept of "grips". Also covered will be combining these skills with your toss juggling. Bring an open mind and a notebook (and clubz and/or rings).

Kevin Axtell has been juggling for 6 years and is interested in new and unique juggling styles as well as prop design. He is an experienced performer and teacher and takes pride in the workshops he has prepared for this event. Kevin also practices yoga, plays music, and is an avid fire dancer. Namaste~

Devil Stick will focus both on learning new tricks with devilsticks and exploring the world of creating music by beating out rhythms with them (flowersticks users are welcome, but may find themselves limited to certain tricks). Helpful if you already have some devilstick ability, but beginners may also attend.

Clark Davis has been juggling since Fall 1985. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Environmental Resounces Engineering from Humboldt State University. Clark's interest in the intimate bond between juggling and music has drawn him into a world of beating out rhythms in his juggling patterns.