Duets have much more presence on stage than a solo piece. In some ways, I find duets protect you from the cliche pretentious solo juggling/flow act that is so easy to fall into. After all my experience in working with others I am relieved to find such a solid working and overall good circus partner. It has been an incredibly fun journey to work with Thomas. We have found a real magical working habit. In response, I have decided to write a list of what to look for when you are looking for a circus partner.

1. We have fun together.

As a partnership we laugh at ourselves often, and entertain each other. As such, we find neat ideas and comedic moments we will include in our act. It provides us with a fun working environment, and since we have to work with each other every day this is great motivation! It makes me look forward to working hard every day. When we aren’t feeling well, we are good at being compassionate and cheering each other up, providing the necessary dose of happiness to continue the work. It’s much better than working solo.

2. We help each other out.

Relationships can sometimes be about give and take, and with Thomas, it’s very generous. We give whenever we can. Our language barriers are overcome by trying to speak in the others language whenever possible (metaphorically and literally). Thomas has been extra generous in helping my french progress immensely. As such, I am starting to have a workable french. We have different strengths as jugglers and we teach each other many different possibilities. We adapt to the others needs almost seamlessly giving us a feeling of connection in our work – it ends up belonging to both of us, and we are equals within that.

3. We admire each other.

Because we both have different strengths, we also have different weaknesses. We both have over a decade of experience in the circus world, meaning we both have some serious knowledge in the industry. Except, we are from different cultures, and different parts of the field. Thomas is very skilled at teaching, and has been involved professionally with circus schools. I have extensive busking experience. The differences merge into a wonderful melting pot of knowledge between us, and we both admire each others work, concepts and ideas.

4. We share a commitment to the work.

Every day for the last 4 months we show up to the space daily, practice for 2-6 hours together, and quite simply, do the work. We equal each other on our commitment, no body whines about having to do it, we just get to it and do the thing. We never hold each other back, but instead push each other to work better, stronger, more efficiently and more often.

5. We are on the same page.

We are both in a time and a place in our lives where we want to make new shows. This is very important or the rest of the work above wouldn’t matter. We are learning skills from one another, which we then expand upon, creating new points of view on old ideas. Thomas continuously motivates me with taking an idea, changing it, and giving it back to me. I hope to be doing the same for him. This is so inspiring and creates a powerful exchange of ideas.

In the end, because of all of the above, our shows are as likely to become as strong as our partnership. I look forward to laughing daily while on the job and creating strong work. We are only on our first act so far, but I can see through my experience with others that this is a healthy partnership and will be a lasting work relationship.

Thomas and I are experimenting with video to ensure motivation to create something new together every day. This means we’ve created the 20 Day Duet Challenge. This challenge gives us 15 seconds of new work daily. It often takes about an hour to create each piece or idea fully. These ideas may, or may not make it into our new acts. There are other ideas that didn’t make it into video also. Either way, it is a platform we now stand on, and by the beginning of May I expect we will have a well rehearse new piece of work to unleash on the world!

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Check out the videos on instagram:

 

#20dayduetchallenge needs some work but fun!

 

A video posted by @dawn_dreams on

#20dayduetchallenge day 4 #contactjuggling with @jonglotaku

A video posted by @dawn_dreams on

#20dayduetchallenge day 6, week 2. Silly #contactjuggling

A video posted by @dawn_dreams on

#20dayduetchallenge mirror sequence. Fun! #contactjuggling #duet

A video posted by @dawn_dreams on

#20dayduetchallenge day 14

A video posted by @dawn_dreams on

#20dayduetchallenge #Contactjuggling #everydamnday

A video posted by @dawn_dreams on

#20dayduetchallenge day 10 #contactjuggling #circuseverydamnday #malabares #multiball #flow

A video posted by Thomas Bernard (@jonglotaku) on

#20dayduetchallenge day 9 #contactjuggling #malabares #multiball #juggling #jonglerie #thekalieffect

A video posted by Thomas Bernard (@jonglotaku) on

#20dayduetchallenge day 7#contactjuggling #circuseverydamnday #malabares #multiball #juggling #jonglerie

A video posted by Thomas Bernard (@jonglotaku) on

#20dayduetchallenge day 2#malabares #multiball #juggling #jonglerie #contactjuggling #circuseverydamnday @dawn_dreams

A video posted by Thomas Bernard (@jonglotaku) on

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