Girl Guides Circus Skills Badge

Workshops:

Circus Maniacs has lots of experience running Circus Skills Workshops specifically for Girl Guide Groups to help their young members obtain their Girl Guide Circus Skills Badge.

Badge Requirements:

This is the syllabus for the new Girl Guides Circus Skills 3-staged badge. Skills which can be used for this badge include:

Plate spinning, scarf juggling, yo-yo (3 tricks must be known), juggling with three items, floor juggling (with 3 balls), diablo, three ring juggling, devilstick, balloon modelling, juggling with four items, cigar boxes, lasso, stilt walking, tumbling and acrobatics, club swinging (with at least two), contact juggling, unicycling

Stage 1

Attend at least 1 juggling/circus skill workshop
Learn 2 circus skills from the list above
Do two of the following :

Make a set of 3 juggling balls (or bean bags)
Demonstrate your skill to an audience of more than 10 people
Try one other skill from the list of circus skills

Stage 2

Learn three new skills from those listed. These should be different to those learned in Stage 1. Be able to perform three different tricks using one of your chosen skills.
Demonstrate each of your skills to your unit. Tell them how you learned the skills and how long it took to get them right.
Do two of the following:

Teach three people one of your skills
Devise a worksheet to demonstrate one of your skills
Find out some interesting facts about one of your skills. For example it's origin, a world record, it's history...
Set yourself a target to complete a trick that you cannot do. Keep a record of your progress as you learn the trick.

Stage 3

Be able to perform five new skills that are different from those learned in Stages 1 and 2. Be able to do at least two tricks using each of your five skills.
Run a circus skills workshop. This could take place at a meeting, a dabble day or at camp.
Do two of the following:

Keep up your hobby of juggling/circus skills for at least six months. Keep a record of workshops attended, people you have taught and tricks you have learned.
Plan your own act - lasting at least five minutes - using at least three skills. Perform it to an audience of at least 20 people - such as at a talent show, camp fire or meeting.
Learn a skill that is completely new to you - such as unicycling, devil sticks...
Make a video or booklet that demonstrates three different skills

Notes
In this badge the lowest number of juggling apparatus which counts as a skill is three. Juggling with different apparatus does count as a separate skill. For example, juggling with four balls is a different skill to juggling with three. The tester does not have to be a juggler or someone with circus skills.

Other Contacts

Juggling Information Service - www.juggling.org

Helpful Hint Look in your yellow pages for details of local workshops and specialist retail outfits.

This information was also published in Guiding Magazine (June 1999)

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