As you may have guessed from the title, there are two essential things to master when learning a new circus art. The first is conditioning and the second is technique. Though some skills require more of one than the other, both are extremely important aspects of each art.
What is Conditioning?
Conditioning has a lot to do with practice and repetition. Naturally, if you’re going to learn something new, it takes practice. For circus arts this is especially true, namely since many acts require your body to do things it is not used to naturally.
You may have heard the term “Muscle Memory” used before. Muscle memory refers to that feeling you get when you don’t have to think about doing something anymore; your body just does it.
For example, if you’ve ever learned to ride a bicycle, or drive a car, or play an instrument, then you’ve probably felt the sensation of “just knowing.” If you haven’t done it in a while, you may need a quick refresher, but your body just knows what buttons to push, how quickly to go, and how to recover if you mess up.
This is exactly the case with many circus arts. Once the body has undergone the training process enough times, it starts to remember what needs to happen, when, and how.
What is Technique?
When I refer to technique, I more specifically mean the “how” of the act. Technique refers to the specific methods one uses to perform a particular trick. Technique can also refer to a particular trick or type of trick.
Technique is the break down of a skill into manageable parts so the student can see just how it is done and what the different ways are to do it. Technique is important for making your act look pleasing to the eye, but it can also be helpful in learning a new skill. After all, what is learning a new trick but learning “how” to do it?
Which is More Important?
Though both technique and conditioning are important to learning a new trick, it is true that one can be more essential than the other. However, that all depends on what act you are trying to master. Certain disciplines are more technique heavy while others rely mostly on conditioning.
Conditioning-Heavy Disciplines
The two disciplines that are more conditioning-heavy are Equilibristics (balance) and Acrobatics. Both disciplines rely a whole lot on the practitioner simply “getting” the act before moving on to intermediate and advanced levels.
In equilibristics, you see this most often. For skills like unicycle, stilts, or tightwire, it takes some time before the performer develops his/her balance. The performer must repeat the tricks over and over again until he/she feels comfortable doing them. At that point, the performer can begin to focus more on technique.
Acrobatics is similar, though technique does factor more into the learning process. Nevertheless, acrobats, in order to learn new skills, must work on each several times before he/she becomes more comfortable with them. Only after heavy repetition and training can the performer begin to understand how the trick can be broken down and added upon.
With both equilibristics and acrobatics, technique can be helpful in the conditioning process because it may help to bring the performer to a quicker understanding of the skill. Nonetheless, conditioning is what the practitioner must focus on in order to move on to subsequent levels of difficulty.
Technique-Heavy Disciplines
The two disciplines which rely more heavily on technique are Aerial and Clowning. These two disciplines do require the practitioner to practice heavily, but there is much more emphasis on technique or the “how” of the skills.
With aerial, the performer spends most of his/her time learning new techniques rather than mastering one in particular. The first step to learning an aerial art like trapeze, lyra, or silks is learning the basic building blocks. These building blocks consist of a number of different techniques which can then be combined or altered to become more complex tricks. This differs from equilibristics, for example, because an instructor must begin training by helping the student to become comfortable balancing on the apparatus before the teaching of specific techniques can begin.
Clowning is all about technique. Yes, conditioning is involved, and a clown must practice his/her craft to become very good, but the true trick to clowning is knowing how to act/react. Muscle memory does not play a large part in clowning, while understanding an audience’s mindset, reacting to unexpected events, and knowing what to say all do. These are all examples of techniques a clown must learn in order to be very good at his/her job.
Because conditioning does not play as large a role in learning these two disciplines, it is very easy to start a beginner on any of the two. Take just about any Joe from the street and you’ll probably be able to teach him at least a few clowning or aerial tricks (that’s right, even aerial tricks can be learned by just about anyone). On the other hand, you’re same average Joe may become too frustrated with the conditioning aspect and quit before he learns any equilibristics or acrobatics tricks.
Aren’t You Missing Something?
You may be wondering, “Where does Manipulation fit into all of this?” What an excellent question!
Manipulation I would say is the discipline that is the most split between heavily conditioning based and heavily technique based. Both conditioning and technique are so integral to manipulation that it is difficult to say that one is more important than the other.
If I had to chose, though, I would certainly go with conditioning. Taking juggling as an example, before someone can even think about trying to perform a trick, he/she must become comfortable with the basic cascade pattern. This goes for almost every trick there is in juggling, since many tricks require a whole new conditioning process.
In order for a person to move from juggling three balls to four, he/she must be re-conditioned. The same goes for learning to juggle clubs. The same is also true if the performer is attempting to learn a new juggling pattern like reverse cascade or mill’s mess.
And though this is true, technique is extremely important in the learning process as well. Without proper technique, people often learn the wrong ways to perform certain tricks. Though there are usually several right ways to perform each trick, there are also many more wrong ways. Without technique, you may be learning a more difficult and/or less aesthetically pleasing way to perform a trick, which would require a great amount of conditioning to correct.
Which is Better?
As I’ve mentioned, both technique and conditioning are extremely important when learning any new trick; though, depending on the trick, one may be more fundamental than the other. If you are trying to decide what discipline may be better for you to learn, you may want to keep this in mind.
For instance, I know I prefer conditioning-heavy skills because I like to work at things repeatedly until I “get it.” I like equilibristics because, once I have the basics of the skill, I can learn a whole lot of new tricks at once. And once I’m comfortable, I can push my boundaries to see what new techniques I can learn.
You may be better suited for technique-based skills if you can’t be bothered with all the conditioning. What technique-heavy disciplines are great for is taking a number of basic skills and using them to create more impressive and unique ones. This leaves the door open for a lot of improvisation and innovation.
Whatever you’re niche happens to be, don’t expect everything to come easily. Some tricks you may get in no time, but there are always more difficult ones to learn. Even professionals are constantly in a state of learning, conditioning, and re-conditioning.
Yet even though this is true, it is sometimes the most basic tricks which are the most impressive to the audience.
Related posts:
- Equilibristics
- Circus Arts 102
- Staff: Head Spins and Neck Wraps
- You Can Be A Circus Artist!
- Introducing: Lil’ Saint!
Tags: Conditioning, Learning, Technique, Training
