For the last year and a half, my student jugglers have not been able to go out to other venues to do their juggling, magic, drama and variety show.  During the covid-19 pandemic, they did live on zoom shows, started a youtube channel with several routines, and did three live shows within the confines of their school, but they didn't get to go into the community, which is what they do best. Even the current eighth graders hadn't experienced taking the show 'on the road'. That changed yesterday, when they did a show at Portland, Maine's Barron Center nursing home.  

Needless to say, there was a lot of excitement and nervous energy as we travelled the 30 minute drive from our school to the nursing home.  Once we got there, everyone pitched in to unload props and set up the show.  Then they had time to warm up before the residents started to arrive.

Maintaining social distance was a top priority, of course, which created a six foot gap between us and the front row.  Nevertheless, the students did great at speaking up and making visual effects clearly seen.  Caleb did the linknig rings trick with very little practice, and nailed it nonetheless.  Ellie had even less time to learn a torn and restored paper, and was equally successful.  The audience loved Nathan's and Grace's rabbit production, as well as Izrael's and Eva's dove frm a fire pan.  Our newest addition - Bean, a 16 inch bearded dragon - was recieved with more of a mixed reaction.

As for juggling, Amber did clubs for the first time in a show, while Jake and Elana both performed machete juggling.  Our next show is at another Christian school on November 3rd, and I can't wait to see how much the kids will have progressed by then.