{"id":975,"date":"2014-03-06T16:52:31","date_gmt":"2014-03-06T09:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pharecircus.org\/blog\/?p=975"},"modified":"2019-01-29T18:32:19","modified_gmt":"2019-01-29T11:32:19","slug":"rola-bola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pharecircus.org\/rola-bola\/","title":{"rendered":"Rola Bola"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"rola-bola(1)\"<\/a>Circus Skills Revealed:
\nRola Bola a.k.a. the Balance Board<\/p>\n

Aside from being amazed by the hard work, skill and emotion that goes into our circus performances here at Phare\u2026 We want the world to understand the circus. The technical elements and history are fascinating.<\/p>\n

Today, we look at Rola Bola, or Balance Boarding. Though there are examples of balance focused tricks in performances much earlier, a Frenchman named Vasque from the late 1800\u2019s is often credited with the founding of the discipline.<\/p>\n

Essentially, the artist stacks a board on top of a cylinder and balances atop the board. More cylinders and boards are then added to increase the complexity of the balancing act.\u00a0 Add in some other circus skills and stunts to make the act even more astounding than it already is, i.e. juggling, handstands, partner acrobatics, etc.<\/p>\n

With the help of Chandan, a performer from Phare\u2019s production, Khmer Metal, I was able to find out a few extra glimpses into the struggles to be a Rola Bola master\u2026<\/p>\n

\"rola-bola(1)\"<\/a> \"rola-bola(3)\"<\/a> \"rola-bola(2)\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Training? \u201cStart small,\u201d he told me. And, in front of a wall for support. One cylinder and one board. Do your best to find control on the board, both being still and moving from side to side. Try to use the wall as little as possible once you feel more comfortable, then, move away from the wall a bit. Continue moving away until you don\u2019t need the wall at all. Then? Start over. Add another cylinder and board and move back to the wall. Repeat. Repeat as many times as you can until the wall no longer provides much safety because you\u2019re up so high!<\/p>\n

\"rola-bola(4)\"<\/a>Danger? \u201cFalling backwards is the worst,\u201d he said. It rarely happens, but when it does, it\u2019s because you\u2019ve pushed yourself beyond your limits and were caught by surprise. It\u2019s the worst not only because you can\u2019t see where you\u2019re falling, but because you often collide with your various boards and cylinders on the way down. As if the ground weren\u2019t bad enough!<\/p>\n

Most frightening? \u201cWhen you\u2019re holding someone else on your hands or shoulders as you\u2019re balancing \u2013 they\u2019re depending on you!\u201d This says it all of course, and it gives new meaning to the idea of trusting your coworkers.<\/p>\n

\"rola-bola(5)\"<\/a>How do you know it\u2019s ready for show? \u201cWhen you\u2019ve practised it so much you feel the confidence to do it alone with no safety or support \u2013 a dozen times.\u201d\u00a0 Wow! That must take some serious patience.<\/p>\n

Well, when you\u2019re looking for something to do in Siem Reap besides the temples, you can come see Chandan doing a number of stunts in his show coming up in a week, or you can come check out some Rola Bola this week in our current performance, Eclipse. Either way, you\u2019re in for the best evening entertainment in Siem Reap!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Circus Skills Revealed: Rola Bola a.k.a. the Balance Board Aside from being amazed by the hard work, skill and emotion that goes into our circus performances here at Phare\u2026 We want the world to understand the circus. The technical elements and history are fascinating. Today, we look at Rola Bola, or Balance Boarding. Though there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":980,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-special"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pharecircus.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pharecircus.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pharecircus.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pharecircus.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pharecircus.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pharecircus.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pharecircus.org\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pharecircus.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pharecircus.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pharecircus.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}