Sorry for the delay, folks. The end of the week got a little hectic. Did you know that I am now commuting about 4 hours per day ? That means I have all the time for podcasts…
1. Listening – Training for Pain Free Performance; w/ Dr. John Rusin by Movement Fix Podcast In this podcast, Dr. Ryan Bell talks to Dr. John Rusin about training for pain-free performance. Dr. Rusin discusses how you need to train not for a generic person with a specific goal (e.g., a straight-arm inversion), but for your body and your specific needs (e.g., do you have the requisite hanging posture to perform a straight-arm inversion pain free). His points about building simple progression and regression pyramids have direct parallels to circus training.
2. Reading – I Changed My Body for My Sport. No Girl Should. by Lauren Fleshman A follow up to the NY Times video I shared recently about Mary Cain, another runner Lauren Fleshman talks about how to fix the win-at-all-costs culture of competitive high school sports. (I was one of those girls who took her salad dressing on the side.) She asks: What would it look like if sports were built for young women and girls? Would the focus on weight be replaced with basic nutrition and education on relative energy deficiency in sport? Would it dramatically reduce injuries and mental health disorders for all genders?
3. Watching (again) – InTime by Compagnie Pal Frenak When I first saw the video of this show in 2016, it changed the way I thought about creating circus work, even though there is no circus in it. Although CIE Pal Frenak does use circus in some shows, InTime is all dance. Frenak shows the complexity of human relationships–solitude, desire, love, physical contact, violence, power, subjection, possession, honesty–without narrative and without needing to offer solutions. It’s a beautiful work that seems to get taken down from youTube often, probably for nudity, so catch this 45-minute masterpiece while you can.
4. Listening – So Heavy I Fell Through the Earth (Algorithm Mix) by Grimes Grimes dropped two remixes of So Heavy I Fell Through the Earth, the second release from her upcoming LP Miss_Anthropocene. The Algorithm Mix is a blend of softly layered synths and relaxed vocals. The perfect music for an empty studio, a white wall, and a hanging spinny thing. Add it to your improv playlist.
5. Watching – Blanco by J. Balvin Just watch this wacko music video from J. Balvin. Flying cats. Bone breaking. Did I mention flying cats?