{"id":65431,"date":"2019-12-10T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/some-run-to-stay-fit-others-take-up-circus-arts\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T13:49:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T13:49:59","slug":"some-run-to-stay-fit-others-take-up-circus-arts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/some-run-to-stay-fit-others-take-up-circus-arts\/","title":{"rendered":"Some run to stay fit. Others take up circus arts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Chloe
Chloe Harris, 12, works on her juggling skills during a circus arts open house at the Durango Community Recreation Center. She prefers juggling with balls because they fit her hands better.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The flurry of jugglers\u2019 balls might seem chaotic, but for instructor Jesse Shavel, juggling can be meditative and help learners set aside distractions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of those things that is really great for your focus. \u2026 I feel like a lot of people lack focus,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Children and adults tested their coordination and focus as they sent bright balls and clubs flying through the air at a juggling open house late last month hosted by Shavel, a coach with Durango Aerial Arts & Acrobatics<\/a>. The group teaches students circus skills, such as juggling, unicycling, silt-walking and twirling through the air on silks.<\/p>\n

Stephanie Harris attended the open house with her children Jordan, 10, and Chloe, 12, to practice their juggling skills as a family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew it wasn\u2019t easy, but I didn\u2019t know it was this hard,\u201d said Stephanie Harris, who started juggling this fall.<\/p>\n

More experienced juggler and Animas High School student Quinlyn Bright said developing the skill improved her hand-eye coordination.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you threw something at me, there was good odds it would hit me in the face,\u201d Bright said.<\/p>\n

\"Jesse
Jesse Shavel leads a juggling circus arts open house at the Durango Community Recreation Center in late November.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Shavel, who teaches juggling at the rec center, sees it as a skill that can be applied to other sports. For older adults, learning to juggle can help maintain cognitive function, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything can be learned, if you learn it the right way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Coach Cynthia Johnson focuses on the aerial arts and acrobatics and finds it far more appealing than simply going for a run.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good exercise \u2013 exercise that we want to do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Adults can find even simple acrobatics scary because they never learned how to fall safely, she said.<\/p>\n

She ensures adults have those skills, so they can have fun with acrobatics, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes you feel like a kid,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

Bright, an aerialist, said she likes being upside down, and it is a beautiful art.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like, \u2018Guess what? I am in a circus,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

mshinn@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coach: Juggling helps promote focus, hand-eye coordination<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[155,13,28,445,668],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-65431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-education","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter-lead","tag-public-health"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91287,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65431\/revisions\/91287"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65431"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=65431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}