For those who’ve dreamed of running away with the circus, performing magnificent feats with hoops and fire, and delighting awestruck audiences around the world, the Victoria Juggle and Flow Festival will light the way.
This year’s festival is the seventh of its kind and features performances by some of the West Coast’s greatest ground-level circus performers and the famous Komei Aoki from Japan. It also offers a unique opportunity to network and learn through over 40 workshops ranging from “Busking 101” to “Spinning Prop Movement Theory.”
Dawn Monette is a member of the UVic Juggling Club and the driving force behind this year’s festival. Monette’s passion for juggling began when, as a child, she saw her older brother practising and asked him to teach her the tricks.
“He blew me off, so I stole his balls and his book and was determined to learn on my own,” says Monette. Her brother soon lost interest in the hobby, but for Monette, juggling became a way of life. “It ended up being something that I really loved doing,” she says. “People kept asking me to perform and all of a sudden I didn’t have time for anything else.”
Monette has since forged a successful career as a juggler and street performer, making enough to avoid student loans while getting her education.
“I’ve returned to school this year to finish my degree and I managed to pay for my tuition with the busking money I had made in the summer,” says Monette.
Through getting her degree in social work, Monette hopes to channel her performance skills into helping the less fortunate. “I want to work healing people through joy and play and inspiration,” she says.
This vision was born from Monette’s stint with Spark Circus, a project operating in war-torn areas of Thailand, visiting local schools, performing, and giving toys to the many orphaned and displaced children.
“I really saw the importance of play at these schools. They’re so happy that you’re there and to have these toys,” says Monette. “I got to go back a second year and see how they played with the toys that they’d gotten and how much it enriched their lives.”
As for why performance skills like juggling and spinning poi have a powerful effect on an audience, Monette says it’s about testing the boundaries of human skill.
“To display the abilities of humans is inspiring and reminds us what we are capable of even in times of darkness,” she says. “We’re answering these questions of ‘what am I capable of and how do I make that look beautiful, graceful and easy?’”