Circus Skills Workshops for Corporate Team Building / Entertainment
Purveyor of fine
Circus Skills Workshops aka Juggling Workshops
Mark Russell (aka Solo Circus)
Tel. 07785 394964
Circus
workshops are a fun way of getting a group of people to work,
play and learn together. The circus skills workshops I offer tend
to veer away from the competitive formulas and go more towards
unity within a group.
Learning circus skills really seems to put everyone in a group
large or small on a level with each other. Circus skills can be
learnt by everyone. Some will learn fast and others more slowly
but we can all do it! For those who learn fast I have more than
enough tricks to teach to keep them busy for a few years and for
those who find tasks involving co-ordination more challenging, I
have some very good techniques to get them well on the way to new
skills. I also encourage participants to help each others
learning.
Once everyone has learnt a basic skill, I start to pair and group
people up so that they can start to combine their skills into a
joint effort. How this is done depends on what skill is being
taught at that moment.
The main skills I use for a team building exercise are as follows:
1. Ball juggling from basic one, two and three balls. Leading to pairing people up and learning to juggle with two people and three balls. One person acts as the right hand and the other is the left. This is not as hard as one might think and is a great way to get begginer jugglers interacting.
For more advanced jugglers I can also teach ball passing which involves two people and six balls.
All of this is a great team building exercise as it really is necessary for all parts in couples to work together in order for it to work. The throw is more important that the catch, if the throw is good, the catch is easy! This can be applied to many things in work, rest and play.
2. Diabolo juggling. Each person will learn to spin, throw and catch a diabolo. Once they have learned this the group will be encouraged to throw a diabolo between two partners. After this they will then try and get the group to throw one diabolo along a line from one person to another so that everyone does a throw and a catch of the same Diabolo. Again, the throw is the most important factor, they must work together to succeed.
3. Plate spinning. Plate spinning is great to put in at about this point because it is quite easy and everyone generally gets self satisfaction very fast. Once learned I challenge the group to have all the plates spinning at the same time, not as easy as it sounds! I will also encourage throwing plates between partners and also challenging participants to nominate a person to hold as many spinning plates as possible that have been spun by everyone else and handed to the nominated person. Team spirit is essential!
4. Tight rope. The tight rope is about two feet high and eight feet long. Workshoppers are instructed on technique and safety. Everyone is encouraged across the tight rope with support from others until ready to go alone!
Flat shoes are a must for the tightrope so please instruct your employees to bring some along (maybe don't tell them why!).
If time will allow, it is great fun for participants to show off their new skills at the end of the session to the rest of the group. I can add an element of competition here by offering prizes to the best performers or most improved jugglers.
All
of the above can be done in two to three hours with a group of up
to twenty five people at a time. I can supply more professional
instructors if you have a larger group. There is no limit to how
many people I can work with, the more of you, the more of us and
the more top quality professional standard equipment.
For really large team building exercises I can arrange to have
different groups learning different skills, at different work
stations with different instructors and all rotating
periodically.
On the other hand, I could provide you with just a thirty minute energizer session to give the day ahead a good start. I have done this previously with plate spinning as people tend to learn it quite quickly it starts the day with a feeling of accomplishment, fun and team spirit.
Also on offer is a less structured but fun workshop including all the following skills : Ball, Club and Ring Juggling, Devil Sticks, Hula Hoop, Diabolo, Plate Spinning, Object Balancing (on hand, chin, nose and head), Hat Manipulation,Cigar Boxes, Wire Walking or Tight Rope and Unicycling.
I often provide circus skills workshops as pure and simple corporate entertainment without actively guiding the team building element. Great as a pre-dinner or after dinner entertainment.
Everything is flexible, if you don't like something, I can change it. If you really do like something, I can do more of it!
Mark Russell (aka Solo Circus)
Tel. 07785 394964
Email. teambuilding@circus-workshop.co.uk
main website
Previous clients include...HSBC, Orange, HBOS, RBS, Tesco, NHS, Shell, Britannia Building society and many others.
Solo Circus has £10m of Public liability insurance. A risk assessment can also be provided if required.