Background

Feeding the Fish is a company specialising in the creation and performance of top quality unique visual juggling shows.

The duo: Alix Wilding and Simon Mylius are both accomplished British jugglers with over 15 years' experience performing choreographed technical juggling. They have wowed audiences in 33 countries around the world at hundreds of events including high profile product launches, awards ceremonies, festivals, galas, sporting events, cabarets and nightclubs.

Specialising in colourful upbeat routines, FTF have carved a niche for themselves by working with cutting edge illuminated props that can be programmed to trace wonderful shapes and colours in the air whilst being juggled and manipulated.

They are uniquely positioned to innovate and create – besides their expertise in technical juggling, the combination of Alix’s background in choreography and Simon’s mastery of electronics and computer programming ensure that they can not only develop the technology they need but then put it together into a tightly performed high impact stage show.

History

The company has evolved over the years since its formation in 1996 by Simon Mylius, Howie Bailey and Chris Sly, and their first glow show using electrically illuminated balls. This was at the time groundbreaking and highly acclaimed, headlining the 1997 British Juggling Convention. The show "Luminescence" was created in 2000 by Alix, Simon and Howie using the first sequenced programmable juggling equipment (developed in collaboration with Aerotech and thanks to support from BJC2K). "Luminescence" toured successfully for two years.

Passionately creative about both the juggling and the visual element of their act, Feeding the Fish continue to build on "Flux" which has toured successfully the past few years as well as the newest show "Kaleidoscope" that premiered in 2008. The most recent developments are Pixel-Poi that can combine client logos with juggling and manipulation, as well as the latest Laser-Light-Wands that project ultra-bright beams above the audience in perfect sync with the choreography and souindtrack.

Workshops

Learning to juggle promotes mental agility, communication skills and creativity. The skill of juggling 3 balls can be learnt in the course of a half an hour workshop, and is never forgotten. In a corporate context, circus skills workshops develop motivational techniques, team-building, goal setting and achievement through visualisation. As well as all this, they are of course great fun.

Over the years, the members of Feeding the Fish have taught literally thousands of people to juggle in various contexts including a large corporate client base, as well as beginners (both adult and children) and specialized juggling classes for full time students at both Circus Space (the UK's leading circus school) and Belfast Circus School.

The ideal corporate workshop will consist of 30-40 minute sessions with one teacher per group of 15 participants (20 is the maximum we would recommend). It is extremely rare for anyone in a group of this size to be unable to juggle three balls by the end of their first session. Whenever possible, participants will be split up according to previous juggling experience so that concurrently running sessions can cater for different abilities.

As well as juggling, Feeding the Fish organize workshops in a broader range of circus and related skills - For workshops outside of their own specialities, Feeding the Fish have a team of teachers selected from experts in: acrobatics, tight-wire walking, diabolo, plate-spinning clowning/physical comedy and unicycling.

The Equipment

Feeding the Fish provide all necessary equipment, and can also supply custom logo-printed juggling kits in presentation boxes to be given to participants at the end of the session to enable them to continue learning their new skill.

The show to inspire

As well as providing standalone workshops, Feeding the Fish can integrate both teaching and performance into corporate events, conferences and presentations. Short performances are inspirational and give participants a deeper insight into the skill and the directions in which it can be taken or approached. They can be customized to fit in with a particular theme or product, as well as providing a metaphor which can be used in presentations.

Please contact us to discuss your requirements for juggling and circus skills workshops.

Previous Bookings

Custom Performances

The stage-show "Flux" is suitable for corporate events, festivals, galas, cabarets and variety shows, and can be customised on request, to add that extra Wow-factor.

Pixel-Poi

We developed Pixel-Poi ourselves during 2006 and they are completely unique (patent pending). They can be precisely programmed to display text, graphics and logos as they are spun by the performers - this makes them perfect for custom performances. A typical branded performance of Flux would include a Pixel-Poi routine as the finale of the show, displaying numerous colourful patterns. As the music builds to the crescendo, the client's choice of logo or text appears in the Pixel-Poi. The effect is completely breathtaking.

Pixel-Poi branded shows have been performed for: Aegis, Arts & Business, Best of the Best Awards, Best Workplace Awards, BMW, Bombardier, City.People.Light, Dockers, Dubai Financial Market, Ernst and Young, HWK, Knight Frank, Levi's, Mercedes, Mini, Parkvale Property Group, Philips, SAP, Scout Association, Singtel, Smart, Techfest, Technorama, Traxx DC, Trevor Sorbie, Volkswagen, Warid Telecom

We typically request one week's notice for custom-programming although short notice bookings may still be possible. As the graphics displayed are pixelated, high resolution artwork is not necessary - any image file of the logo may be sent to us. The displayed graphic will be a recognisable representation of the original logo rather than a verbatim copy. For text programming, the shorter the message, the more clearly visible it will be - ideally just one or two words. Please contact us for further information about custom programming of Pixel-Poi.

Science Festivals

Flux is an ideal performance for Science Festivals - blending as it does intriguing technology with a skillfully presented artform. To date, we have performed at National Science Week (Cambridge University), Science on Stage Europe (CERN, Geneva - sponsored by the European Space Agency), Cheltenham Science Festival, Techfest, Kshitij, Technorama and the Konrad Züse Awards Ceremony held at Phaeno Science Centre, Wolfsburg as well as closing the "Is the Universe a Computer?" symposium held at the Deutsches Technikmuseum, Berlin as part of Germany's 'Informatics Year'. Teacher's sheets about the science of juggling and the technology in the performance are available.

Nightclubs

Adaptations of Flux have enthralled clubbers from the best of London’s underground parties to the chic super-clubs of Osaka and Tokyo performing alongside international DJs such as Danny Tenaglia, Kid Crème and Danny Rampling. Choreographed routines are interspersed with freestyle sections allowing the show to respond to and fit with the DJ's music.