This Week — 4 June 2021

If you’re near Philadelphia this weekend, be sure to check out the triumphant return of live circus during the Hand to Hand Circus Festival. Otherwise, there are plenty of online happenings to satisfy your appetite for circus antics. And if you’re hosting an in-person event this summer, let us know!

PRIDE

The Circus District is looking for LGBTQIA+ circus artists — hobbyists, enthusiasts. students, professionals and teachers — from the DMV to join us for a local profile series celebrating pride this month (and every day of the year). If you or someone you know is interested in doing a recorded Zoom interview or offline interview for a written piece, please email us at circusdistrict@gmail.com. These interviews will be popping up on our Facebook and YouTube in the next few weeks, so keep an eye out!

ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT

June 4

Check out the USA Championships of Battle Night at 8:30 p.m. EDT to see eight club jugglers go head-to-head in a fun and engaging virtual competition. The audience gets a vote in each round, alongside two judges who will share their expert analysis. Join the Zoom at this link, or watch on the Unicirclo Laguna YouTube page.

Anytime

Loki Circus Theater presents the free-to-view virtual production of COLORED GRRLS, which tells the stories of African American women through circus, dance and original text. Check it out on YouTube at this link. Support this theater company by donating at this link.

IN-PERSON SHOWS & CLASSES

June 4-13

The Hand to Hand Circus Festival in Philadelphia features contemporary circus performances by students at Circadium, as well as the show Eventide by multidisciplinary performance company 3AM Theatre. There will also be a free circus midway on June 12 with timed-entry passes to learn circus and occasional street performances. Get all of the details about this festival’s offerings at this link.

June 13

The quirky, quintessentially blues-quelling clowns of Happenstance Theater are back at it! Enjoy a live show full of circus splendor and hilarious antics at Preposterous, an outdoor and socially distanced production at Joe’s Movement Emporium from 4-5:30 p.m. EDT. Get tickets ($20 adults, $10 kids 16 and under) at this link.

June 17-20

Monarca in Flight presents C4 Weekend, four days of circus workshops in lyra, fabric, sling and dance trapeze. Check out the schedule and register for a class at this link.

VIRTUAL FESTIVALS

June 4-6

Club Fest 2 is bringing you another virtual festival jam-packed with workshops, shows, panels and head-to-head club juggling battles. All are welcome to join this event, organized by Club Motion Juggling, which has cultivated a truly worldwide community of club jugglers. You can even submit your creative club-based art to their art show. View the schedule and all of the details at this link.

June 17

Dance Place presents Gaze, a five-day virtual festival highlighting local and national LGBTQIA+ artists and companies running June 16-21. On June 17 at 5 p.m., watch Creep Cuts perform their piece FREEZE RESPONSE, which draws from the indecision and purposelessness of the global pandemic to reveal a surrealist, anti-fascist work of clowning. This performance uses dada drag, queer social media diatribes, original electronic music and sketch comedy to create a fever dream of rebellious imagination. Watch for free at this link. This show will stream through June 28 at www.danceplace.org.

July 12-18

Join hundreds of jugglers from around the world at the IJA Online Festival 2021, featuring shows, workshops, panel discussions, a prop raffle and much more. Last year’s online festival revealed just how fun and far-reaching a virtual juggling event can be. RSVP at the Facebook event page.

July 23-25

The Virtual European Juggling Convention 2021 will feature a global array of workshops, games and an online gala show. If you’re interested in running a workshop or hosting another virtual activity, email VEJC@eja.net. Visit the Facebook event page for the latest.

July 30-August 7

Enjoy the Virtual Aerial Dance Festival, with workshops in aerial theory, dance, juggling, flexibility, creativity, pilates, improvisation, burlesque and more. There will also be panel discussions on a variety of topics including aging in aerial arts, implicit bias of BIPOCs in entertainment, intersectionality in aerial dance and circus, and aerial and motherhood. Register at this link, and see scholarship information below.

COMMUNITY

BIPOC aerial and circus artists can apply for scholarship funds to attend the Virtual Aerial Dance Festival 2021. Find more information about the festival above. The application is at this link, and is due by June 6.
Enroll in Rhizome DC’s Community Supported Art program to receive nine pieces of original artwork from local artists this Summer/Fall. Shares for the program are available at a sliding scale from $200-$500. Buy one at this link.
Donate to In Good Wealth, organized by BIPOC Midwest Circus Alliance founder Cicely Green. This non-profit provides the Black community accessibility to wellness, movement and health, supporting holistic businesses that ignite generational wealth through community and individual well-being. Visit this link to learn more and give what you can.