My name is Eric Robinson. I am a Circus performer and Circus artist. I am also a teacher. I do acrobatics. I also do juggling and any form of circus that I can get my hands on. I’m a performer who can manipulate himself into any shape.
What I think Circus as a community offers is that it's a form of a structured system where you can interact with other humans. To do it, you have to be precise. You have to learn the particular techniques. You have to interact with a coach. Some people are better self-directed, but you need somebody to look at your performance from an outside point of view. So communication is key.
I've noticed specifically in the Black community that you're given a narrow range of options if you want a form of athleticism. You can be a basketball player or a football player. But nobody tells you about Circus. Circus is a way bigger door for you to get through as opposed to a tiny little pinhole that football and basketball provides you. Circus is a “choose-your-own-adventure.” It allows you to either make and break certain habits and also create friendships and places that you didn't even think about. It allows you to interact with people that you probably would have never interacted with because you don't necessarily get outside your community or other communities are so insular or so siloed that you can't create decent connections in other places.
You can get so much of a worldview from the diversity of Circus. And then to combine that with the Black community, that's a huge deal! A lot of these guys don't even go past their own blocks or their city or the places that they rep. And with basketball and other sports, they only get you to those places when you get to a certain upper echelon. You can meet some people from Costa Rica, you can meet some people that did clowning in Cuba, you can meet some people who have trained with Mongolians. My coach was from Kazakhstan when I first learned how to do circus.
Circus is everywhere. And that's the best part about it.
What I think Circus as a community offers is that it's a form of a structured system where you can interact with other humans. To do it, you have to be precise. You have to learn the particular techniques. You have to interact with a coach. Some people are better self-directed, but you need somebody to look at your performance from an outside point of view. So communication is key.
I've noticed specifically in the Black community that you're given a narrow range of options if you want a form of athleticism. You can be a basketball player or a football player. But nobody tells you about Circus. Circus is a way bigger door for you to get through as opposed to a tiny little pinhole that football and basketball provides you. Circus is a “choose-your-own-adventure.” It allows you to either make and break certain habits and also create friendships and places that you didn't even think about. It allows you to interact with people that you probably would have never interacted with because you don't necessarily get outside your community or other communities are so insular or so siloed that you can't create decent connections in other places.
You can get so much of a worldview from the diversity of Circus. And then to combine that with the Black community, that's a huge deal! A lot of these guys don't even go past their own blocks or their city or the places that they rep. And with basketball and other sports, they only get you to those places when you get to a certain upper echelon. You can meet some people from Costa Rica, you can meet some people that did clowning in Cuba, you can meet some people who have trained with Mongolians. My coach was from Kazakhstan when I first learned how to do circus.
Circus is everywhere. And that's the best part about it.