| I liked this book! If you think you would
like to start teaching some circus arts, or if you are already doing so
and would like to get some other ideas, this book is for you. It is short,
simple, but loaded with useful suggestions. What a sense of achievement
kids might gain from working to learn these skills.
Section one covers juggling with scarves. Not only are progressions
well covered but some fun-sounding cooperative games and tag games are
explained. One group activity has the children in a circle and then,
on a command, everyone throws his/her scarf in the air and rotates one
or two positions to make a catch. A tag game has everyone with three
scarves hanging out of the back of their pants like turkey feather to
be plucked. Another interesting discussion in this section relates to
whether or not positive transfer can be expected to occur from scarf
juggling to ball juggling. Catanzariti
believes that little transfer will be seen. I like how he brings in
research finding to supports his argument.
Sections II, III, and IV deal with juggling of balls
and beanbags and other objects. The other objects range from rings,
to pins, to beach balls, to rubber chickens. The pros and cons of ball
and beanbag juggling are discussed. Many suggestions and trouble shooting
hints are given for helping students learn to juggle three balls. And
after they have mastered three-ball juggling (20 tosses), a number of
easy to hard tricks are explained. There are good ideas for partner
juggling and how to learn four-ball juggling. One pedagogical suggestion
I particularly liked was that of having the performer begin juggling
with the stunt itself. In other words, if the student wished to learn
to juggle under-the-leg, the first ball should be thrown under the leg
to begin the sequence.
Section V is devoted to manipulation activities. These skills
were all new to me but I feel that they were explained well enough,
and enthusiastically enough, for me to want to given them a try. A partial
listing contains devil sticks, spinning plates, diabolos, nesting cups,
cigar boxes and hat tricks. It made spinning plates and cups sound feasible
-- what a kick that would be for kids!
A big part of Section VI was devoted to unicycling and stilt
walking. I wish I had read this book years ago; I could have provided
much better teaching progressions than what I did. Beyond simply riding,
unicycle goals such as rocking, free mounts, backward riding, and partner
stunts are well covered.
The last two sections, VII and VIII, pulled things together
with Unit Planning/Course Design and Putting On a Student Circus. Unit
planning ideas are given for all age groups from one week K-2, to university
circus arts courses. And the culminating event ideas sound like fun
and should make a good base from which to build.
Finally, there are appendices that should be useful for those who
want more. Up-to-date resource books are listed as are organizations
and internet sites. And there addresses for equipment dealers.
For more information, or to order this book, click here.
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