circle rules football - topscore › uploads › ... · since inventing circle rules football in...

Circle Rules Footballpublicity kit

CIRCLE RULES FOOTBALL was developed in the fall of 2006 as a Senior Independent Project at New York University’s Experimental Theater Wing. It was created by Gregory Manley with the help of Christie Correa, Benjamin Forester, Alexia Rassmussen, Scott Riehs, and Elizabeth Sharts. The sport premiered to the public on December 2nd and 3rd, 2006 at the ConEdison field on East 16th St. and Avenue C in Manhattan, NY. After its initial premier, regular games began in the Long Meadow of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park where they remain a weekly occurrence from March to December.

Simple to construct, easy to learn, and exciting to play, the sport has grown quickly in a short time. Since its inception, circle rules has garnered extensive press coverage and accolades, appearing in Good Morning America, The New York Times, WIRED Magazine, The London Evening Standard, and more. It has been played by thousands of people across the world without any outside marketing or investment. New York City has a league of its own and several other cities are eager to compete. It’s time to streamline our efforts and aim for something bigger.

THE MISSION: Circle Rules Football is a new team sport with an ever growing player base and vast potential. We are seeking partners to develop our cultural and athletic prowess into an international league.

The NYC seasoN runs from April to August, with games, tournaments, and celebrations in Brooklyn’s most popular parks all Summer Long.

Beyond the city, Circle Rules Football has spread to more than 100 schools and fields around the country and is growing rapidly abroad, with regular games hosted in Canada, England, and Brazil

Our players are widely recognized trend setters and innovators, representing institutions on the cutting edge of visual art, fitness, social change, game design, and pop cul-ture.

Circle Rules Football is played on a circular

field with one goal in the center. One

team scores through one direction, the

other through the opposite direction. The

gameball is a customized 50cm exercise

ball. Players touch the ball with any part of

their body, combining techniques of soccer,

basketball, volleyball, and some unique ball

handling skills. Surrounding the goal is an 8

meter circle called the Key. Each team has

one goalkeeper, the only player permitted

inside the key. Goalies have full contact with

each other inside the key, but no striking is

allowed. Officially, a full length game lasts

four, 15 minute periods with 6 players to a

team.

Winning more players and accolades at every

event we’ve attended, Circle Rules Football

has come to represent a growing movement

in alternative sports. It’s a strange cultural

responsibility, and we take it pretty seriously.

THE GAME

The Playbook:We will work closely with you to design a business model that re-flects our mutual goals. A philosophy of good sportsmanship and teamwork is paramount to every decision we make, so once you’ve decided to work with us, we can tailor opportunities to your needs.

Encouraging players to take the next step can be hard, but as soon as they step, running comes easy.

We’re extremely grateful for your consideration and we look forward to working with you soon.

Greg Manley - Founder

“Now, thanks to one cre-

ative New Yorker, there’s

a new sport for anyone

who’s dared to dream of

hoofing that exercise ball

across the gym — and it’s

quickly commanding a

following in London, as

twentysomethings put

down their fixed-gear

bikes to chase a ball

around a circular playing

field.”

-Ben Bryant

London Evening Standard

“It’s accessible to anybody. It’s accessible at varying levels of athleticism and experience. It defines a new set of skills that anybody can pick up relatively quickly. And those are the quali-ties of a good game.”

-Adam nelson, founder & game designer: Obscure Games Pittsburgh

“In the Beginning, there was Abner Doubleday. He gave us Baseball, and it was good. Dr. James Naismith? He gave us Basketball... and it was good. But now there’s 24 year old Greg Manley. He’s given us Circle Rules Football. And it is AWESOME.”

-John BermanGood Morning America

“Every sports fan lives for the drama and theatricality of sport. We wear memorabilia, we chant using call and response, we recite famous speeches, we in the end are emotionally connected to our athletes, and teams. However, what happens when “the piece of theater” becomes “a real sport”?Greg Manley has been figuring this part out since the first Circle Rules Football Game was ever played.”

-Eugene Michael SantiagoHuffington Post

To watch full videos, please visit www.circlerulesfederation.com/press

Featured By:The New York Times

Good Morning America

East Bay Express

ESPN

WIRED

LXTV

Four Four Two (UK)

Innovation Stuntmen (Germany)

Venue (UK)

London Evening Standard (UK)

Lugar Incomum (Brazil)

Wall Street Journal

Altoids

Bear Naked

Brokelyn

Huffington Post

L Magazine

LunchNYC

WCMF - The Break Room

Time Out New York

Radar Redux

New York Press

Good Magazine

And More...

Selected Press

CaptainsGreg Manley - Commissioner

Since Inventing Circle Rules Football in 2006, Greg has been interviewed by every major media publication about Circle Rules Football. He has also pioneered the development of Sports Invention education, a P.E. program fused with critical game design. He was a featured speaker at the 2010 BOOST and he continues to oversee the devel-opment of Circle Rules Football across the world.He holds a BFA from NYU

Scott Riehs

Scott has worked with Circle Rules Football since it was first developed and served as an integral part of the sport’s development, documentation, and expansion. He is currently pursuing an MFA in film production at Columbia University

Andrew Butler

Andrew Butler is a performer and writer with several theater companies in NYC. He was the first ambassador for Circle Rules Football, bringing the sport international attention in Prague. Andrew teaches performance develop-ment with a number of schools and institutions in New York City. He is a graduate of the Experimental Theater Wing at NYU

Matt Shroyer

Matt has been playing and coaching circle rules football since 2007. He is the co-author of the 2010-2013 Offi-cial rulebooks, and captian of the New York City regional team. Outside of the Federation, Matt is an attorney.

Circle Rules Federation4132 Gilbert St.

Oakland, CA, 94611www.circlerulesfederation.com

Greg Manley-510 225 [email protected]

Search All NYTimes.com

WORLD U.S. N.Y. / REGION BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY SCIENCE HEALTH SPORTS OPINION ARTS STYLE TRAVEL JOBS REAL ESTATE AUTOS

FASHION & STYLE DINING & WINE HOME & GARDEN WEDDINGS/CELEBRATIONS T MAGAZINE GLOBAL STYLE

Multimedia

Robert Stolarik for The New York TimesFIELD DRAMA A circle rules football game recently in Brooklyn.

By ALEX WILLIAMSPublished: May 15, 2009

A giant rubber Pilates ball soared high in the air at Prospect Park inBrooklyn, while below it, actors and artists traded body-checks andelbow jabs.

A scrum of a dozen were playing afreeform sport called circle rules

More Articles in Fashion & Style »

MOST

TWITTER

LINKEDIN

SIGN IN TO E-MAIL

PRINT

SINGLE PAGE

REPRINTS

SHARE

HOME PAGE TODAY'S PAPER VIDEO MOST POPULAR TIMES TOPICS Subscribe: Digital / Home Delivery Log In Register Now

With Games They Invent, Artists Unleash the Athlete Within - NYTimes.com http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/fashion/17games.html?_r=0

1 of 5 6/25/2013 1:12 PM

Video: Circle Football

Video: Wffling Hurling

Institute for Aesthletics

American Viking BallLeague

Photographs by Robert Stolarik for The NewYork Times

BRING YOUR GAME Greg Manley,top, refereed a game of circle rulesfootball, center, in Prospect Park lastSunday while others played whifflehurling, bottom.

football. The point of the game — 30percent soccer, 20 percent rugby, therest pure Dada — was to pound theball through a single, soccer-stylegoal that sat, like an object of Druidic devotion, at thecenter of a ring of orange pylons.

One player punched the ball with his fist. Hey, hands onthat guy! Wait, hands are allowed. So are shins, chests,forearms and — ouch — faces, apparently.

As the match raged on last Sunday, players dribbled thegiant ball awkwardly on the turf as if it were a basketballborrowed from Claes Oldenburg’s garage. At one point,the goalie for each team wrestled each other to the turfGreco-Roman style beneath the crossbar, while a playeron the wing swatted the huge ball violently onto ablanket far from the field of play, where a young couplewere sunning themselves with their toddler son. Out ofbounds!

Wait, there are no boundaries.

It’s art, get it?

Greg Manley, a 24-year-old actor who lives in Brooklyn,created circle rules football three years ago as anexperimental theater project at New York University.Since then, the game has inspired a plan for a league ofits own and has been played in more than eight citiesaround the country, including Puerto Rico, and in Prague.

The game is also one of a growing number of highlyconceptualized art-sports that have been invented in recent years by young artists and

Go to Complete List Â»

POPULAR

DealBook: Mass Layoffs at a Top-Flight Law Firm1.

Well: Steps for More, and Better, Sleep2.

Editorial | Sunday Observer: The Decline and Fall ofthe English Major

3.

Well: The Rise of the Minimalist Workout4.

FRANK BRUNI: Paulaâ€™s Worst Ingredients5.

Well: Really? The Claim: Taking a Walk After a MealAids Digestion

6.

The TV Watch: The World Turns for Mad Men andWomen

7.

Op-Ed Contributor: Big Lawâ€™s Troubling Trajectory8.

If Jack Daniels Were a Beekeeper9.

Op-Ed Contributor: The Future of Fair Labor10.

BLOGGED SEARCHED VIEWEDE-MAILED


2 of 5 6/25/2013 1:12 PM

promoted on YouTube and other Web sites. These sports, like vikingball, class-consciouskickball and straightjacket softball, are supposed to be competitive games, but also art.

Circle rules football, for instance, is intended to highlight the common thread betweenimprovisational theater and athletics, an improvisational performance in its own right.“Everything inherent in theater is inherent in sports,” Mr. Manley said. “Drama isconflict, and there’s no better conflict than the Super Bowl.”

Like Mr. Manley, many artists say their absurdist sports are an outgrowth of thecontemporary art-world trend toward participatory art, which is intended to break downwalls between artist and audience. But beyond the high-mindedness, the skinny-armedaesthetes also seem to be on a personal mission to reclaim sports from the bull-neckedathletes of their youth.

Sure, like other young ironists who wear vintage ’80s T-shirts and listen to Of Montreal,the adherents of art-sports could just play dodgeball and kickball on weekends. But bycreating their own games, they are making a statement that sports can be somethingdifferent in this steroid-pumped, travel-team era — namely, fun.

“It isn’t about proving yourself,” said Scott Peterson, a 23-year-old actor, of circle rulesfootball. “It’s about having fun, playing — both in terms of ‘a play,’ and ‘playing.’ ”

Matthew Slaats, of Staatsburg, N.Y., conceived “1 v 1,” an alternate-universe form ofone-on-one basketball involving a paddle-wheel and ice tongs. Michael Coolidge, a31-year-old Canadian artist, is the Abner Doubleday of mini-bowl transformodrome,basically bocce ball crossed with mini-golf. Abby Manock, a Brooklyn performanceartist, created bag tag, a relay where competitors change into costumes — polar bear,bag lady — as they race to scoop detritus like milk cartons or old stuffed animals intocolor-coordinated trash bins.

O.K., maybe these games are more performance art than sport. But to be fair, in 1891,when Dr. James Naismith divided 18 snowbound Massachusetts students into opposingteams and instructed them to toss a soccer ball into peach baskets nailed on oppositewalls, the first game of “basket ball” must have looked pretty Duchampian, too.

ALSO IN GLOBAL SPORTS »As Rivals Come and Go, Tommy Haas Is Still HoldingCourtA Clear Women's Favorite and Flux at the Top for Men

Ads by Google what's this?

Consumerization of ITConsumerization in the enterprise.

Learn More from Intel.

intel.com/consumerization


3 of 5 6/25/2013 1:12 PM

More Articles in Fashion & Style »A version of this article appeared in print on May 17, 2009, on pageST1 of the New York edition.

With much contemporary art leaving regular folk baffled, art-sports can be a way toreach out to the masses, said Anne Elizabeth Moore, a conceptual artist and writer inChicago. In January, Ms. Moore organized a mock-Olympics called the Unlympics,featuring a dozen invented sports like stop, drop and roll and duration jump-roping,which drew hundreds of participants (the “summer games” are scheduled for July).

These sports, she said, were inspired in part by the art movement social practice, inwhich audience participation — highlighting personal interaction and communityinvolvement — is considered a medium in its own right. “So much of art has beenmoving in the tech direction,” Ms. Moore said. “I just feel like that is separating people.”Sports, of course, are often perceived as too base a subject for fine art — apologies toLeRoy Neiman. Still, the marriage of the two has a rich tradition, from Greek depictionsof the pentathlon in black-figure vase paintings to Jeff Koons’s basketballs floating in afish tank.

In recent years, sports have been popping up in many forms of serious art, like theBerlin filmmaker Harun Farocki’s 12-channel video installation on World Cup soccer orthe American photographer Hank Willis Thomas’s manipulated images exploring sportsand race. Last year, at the Tate Modern in London, artists of the Fluxus movement, ado-it-yourself aesthetic, held the Fluxolympiad — featuring the balloon shot put, theflipper race and soccer played on stilts.

In many ways, it’s easy to imagine that these sports aren’t meant to attract the masses,but alienate them.

When artists become interested in sport, “they become terribly anxious that they couldbe confused with the quote-unquote normal fans,” said Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, aprofessor of comparative literature at Stanford University and author of “In Praise ofAthletic Beauty” (Belknap Press, 2006). “So intellectuals, when they play games, theycannot just play normal games. It has to be intellectualized.”

NEXT PAGE »1 2


4 of 5 6/25/2013 1:12 PM

Search All NYTimes.com

WORLD U.S. N.Y. / REGION BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY SCIENCE HEALTH SPORTS OPINION ARTS STYLE TRAVEL JOBS REAL ESTATE AUTOS

FASHION & STYLE DINING & WINE HOME & GARDEN WEDDINGS/CELEBRATIONS T MAGAZINE GLOBAL STYLE

Multimedia

Video: Circle Football

Video: Wffling Hurling

Institute for Aesthletics

American Viking Ball

Published: May 15, 2009

(Page 2 of 2)

And the arcane games also help shut out the high school lettermen.Mr. Manley, who gave up soccer and football for theater in highschool, said that making up your own sport leveled the playing field— no one knows the game better than you do — something notpossible if artists tried to square off in basketball against peoplewho had been playing for the last 15 years. “We’ve been out ofpractice awhile,” he said.

Last Sunday in Prospect Park, about200 yards from the circle rulesfootball match, Tom Russotti, a Brooklyn artist, wassweating away with about 20 other players in a game ofhis own invention, whiffle hurling.

Mr. Russotti, 31, the founder of what he calls the Institutefor Aesthletics, invented a version of the Irish sport of

Advertise on NYTimes.com

More Articles in Fashion & Style »

MOST POPULAR

DealBook: Mass Layoffs at a Top-Flight Law Firm1.

Well: Steps for More, and Better, Sleep2.

Editorial | Sunday Observer: The Decline and Fall of3.

TWITTER

LINKEDIN

SIGN IN TO E-MAIL

PRINT

SINGLE PAGE

REPRINTS

SHARE

BLOGGED SEARCHED VIEWEDE-MAILED

HOME PAGE TODAY'S PAPER VIDEO MOST POPULAR TIMES TOPICS Subscribe: Digital / Home Delivery Log In Register Now

With Games They Invent, Artists Unleash the Athlete Within - NYTimes.com http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/fashion/17games.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0

1 of 3 6/25/2013 1:20 PM

League

More Articles in Fashion & Style »A version of this article appeared in print on May 17, 2009, on pageST1 of the New York edition.

hurling that uses whiffle ball bats instead of traditionalwooden hurleys. The sport has been played since 2005 inNew York, California, Chicago, and once, on a slag heap

outside of Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

While the game, at first blush, looked like lacrosse for sociopathic 9-year-olds, whifflehurling, Mr. Russotti said, constitutes art because its smirky costumes (ruffled collars,Indian dhotis) and team names (St. Brendan’s Reformatory for IncorrigibleSelf-Knowing) subvert the conventions of sportsdom. And by throwing artists andstockbrokers on the same field, he said, both are forced to explore new identities.

“If you go to a gallery show, there will be the artist in the corner and the rich financierpeople, but they don’t have to deal with each other,” he said. In a game, “theirpersonalities come out really quickly.”

He is surprised by how Type-A stock traders enthusiastically tap their inner surrealistand hit the field in uniforms with sombreros or Pele-era short shorts. Conversely,mild-mannered artists can turn cutthroat. One player, an animation artist, is “theprototypical vegetarian Williamsburg hipster,” Mr. Russotti said, “but when you put himout on the field, he goes berserk.”

As players swung their bats like medieval maces, the air filled with the thwack of plasticon plastic, and plastic on flesh. Unlike most art, the risks in art-sports are physical, notemotional, said one participant, Martha Clippinger, 26, a painter and sculptor inBrooklyn.

Still, there are limits. “With no health care,” she added, “I’m being a little more carefulwith my dives these days.”

« PREVIOUS PAGE

Try unlimited access to NYTimes.com for just 99¢. SEE OPTIONS »

Go to Complete List Â»

the English Major

Well: The Rise of the Minimalist Workout4.

FRANK BRUNI: Paulaâ€™s Worst Ingredients5.

Well: Really? The Claim: Taking a Walk After a MealAids Digestion

6.

The TV Watch: The World Turns for Mad Men andWomen

7.

Op-Ed Contributor: Big Lawâ€™s Troubling Trajectory8.

If Jack Daniels Were a Beekeeper9.

Op-Ed Contributor: The Future of Fair Labor10.

ALSO IN GLOBAL FASHION & STYLE »Stefano Pilati's 'Feeling' for ZegnaA Menacing Paradise

1 2

With Games They Invent, Artists Unleash the Athlete Within - NYTimes.com http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/fashion/17games.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0

2 of 3 6/25/2013 1:20 PM

Related Articles

Cavendish surprisedby victory

James inspires Heat toanother title

Microsoft U-turn onXbox limits

Suggested Topics

Gaming

Commonwealth Games

Basketball

20 September 2010

In gyms across London, there exist those who havealways suspected that the humble exercise ball iscapable of so much more than just facilitating their dailyroutine of ab crunches and inclined press-ups. Now,thanks to one creative New Yorker, there's a new sportfor anyone who's dared to dream of hoofing thatexercise ball across the gym — and it's quicklycommanding a following in London, astwentysomethings put down their fixed-gear bikes tochase a ball around a circular playing field.

The game is Circle Rules Football, a fast-paced blend offootball, handball and basketball (see box, right), and it'sproving a hit in London for its original gameplay andstrong emphasis on fun."I wanted to play with the culture around sport," explainsGreg Manley, the American founder of Circle RulesFootball. Greg, 25, isn't your typical sportsman. Hedeveloped the idea for Circle Rules Football in 2006 as the concept for anexperimental theatre project while studying at New York University.

"The more I thought about the nature of sports, the more I started thinking, everythinginherent in theatre is there in sports," he explains. "You've got the conflict, you've gotthe arc of the story and you've got the production values."

Taking his "cast" out into the parks around New York, he mapped out a new game thatwas accessible and fun to play but also explored ideas about what constitutes theatre."I'm hoping that theatre-goers are going to come to this game and start identifying withsports in a way that they haven't before," he says.

As an academic exercise, Circle Rules Football was convincing enough to earn Gregan A grade. More importantly, though, it started to spread throughout Brooklyn,America and now the world, typically drawing in people tired of mainstream sportsculture who are looking for something different.

This is what first attracted Hampstead-based project manager Gwyn Morfey to the

Top stories inLifestyle

Just ask me out

Why am I still single?

Classrooms on stilts,staggered playtimesand 8am-8pmteaching shifts... howone primary school isbattling the bulge

London's best:double-ended nailpolishes

After-dark denim:everyone's favouriteindigo has been takenout of Sundayafternoon and intococktail hour

Most Read Commented Shared

Wimbledon 2013: celebritiesdescend on SW19 to watchtennis ... and enjoy thehospitality

Tributes paid to Time Teamarchaeologist Mick Aston,who has died aged 66

Benjamin Mendy on Arsenalhit-list

West Ham blow as AlvaroNegredo eyes ChampionsLeague

Before they were famous -the dramatic makeovers ofstars

Share

Ben Bryant

Circle Rules Football - a whole new ball game - Life & Style - London Evening Standard http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/circle-rules-football--a-whole-new-ball-game-6515468.html

2 of 7 6/25/2013 1:27 PM

game when he discovered it last September at Bristol's Igfest, the interesting gamesfestival. "From the very beginning there's this idea of the spirit of the game — it's not allabout winning," he says. "And it's all reinforced by the fact that it doesn't take itself tooseriously. It's about being dramatic and being fun."

After playing a couple of rounds, Gwyn, 29, was hooked. He decided to bring CircleRules Football to London, organising an indoor variant through his fledgling gamescompany Fire Hazard. It became a hit as soon as he introduced it to Hampstead inMarch this year.

One player is Casey Middaugh, a freelance music teacher from Clapton. Casey, 26,never really played team sports, preferring rock-climbing and yoga. She was attractedto Circle Rules Football because of the creative way in which it's played.

"You can dribble the ball, kick or toss it. The only thing you can't do is hold on to it,"she says. "So I think it's funnier because it is so obviously ridiculous that there's nopressure. I don't want to play a team sport with people who've been playing footballsince they were little and are super intense about it."

Manisha Desai, a 29-year-old web designer from Dollis Hill, agrees that it's mostappealing because it's simply fun to play. "It was easy to pick up, because you canexplain it to others quite quickly and easily. It's a slightly different game because it's amix of basketball, football and running around, and it's just a fun game to play and be abit silly for half an hour."

Most players stumble upon Circle Rules Football by word of mouth — a manner verymuch in keeping with the laid-back philosophy of the game. "Don't get me wrong, theyget competitive," says Casey. "But competitive in a silly way. It's very tongue-in-cheek."

So it's a tongue-in-cheek game, imported from Brooklyn, which emerged from a NewYorker's experimental theatre degree. Hardly surprising, then, that hipsters are latchingonto Circle Rules Football. Expect to see it in a park near you soon.

Information on upcoming games of Gwyn Morfey's indoor variation of Circle RulesFootball can be found atfire-hazard.net.

CIRCLE RULES FOOTBALL

A team sport played on a circular field roughly 40 metres in diameter. A single net-lessgoal stands in the middle of the field, surrounded by a small, circular perimeter — the"key" — that's roughly four to eight metres diameter and can be marked out with conesor painted. Players aren't allowed to enter the key or touch the ball while it's inside.Two teams, of a minimum three players each, chase an exercise ball around the fieldtrying to hit or kick it through the goalposts, each from a different side of the goal.Players aren't allowed to carry the ball, and contact between players is limited tojostling for the ball. Play lasts for four15-minute periods.

Ads by GoogleFun Schrodinger's Cat TeeRock this tee like SheldonCooper, nerdy, awesome and100% soft cottonwww.snorgtees.com

Top 10 Golf Swing KillersTake 36 Seconds and LearnHow to Hit Longer and Straighter(Free)...www.RevolutionGolf.com

Childrens Portrait Studio$5.25 sitting fee everyday 16years in businesskidzshotz.net

Kate Middleton PhotosStunning Pictures of PrincessKate Middleton and the RoyalFamily.Kate-Middleton.StyleBistro.com

View the latest jobs in:

Central London

North London

South London

East London

West London

Lifestyle in PicturesThe outfits that wentwrong: fashion failsfrom celebrities onthe red carpet

SPONSORED FEATURES

Circle Rules Football - a whole new ball game - Life & Style - London Evening Standard http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/circle-rules-football--a-whole-new-ball-game-6515468.html

3 of 7 6/25/2013 1:27 PM

PlaybookThe Wired World of SportsWeird & wonderfulOutdoorsShare on Facebook176 shares

Tweet 141 0

By Pahull Bains05.13.114:00 PM

ShareShare

Circle Rules Football: Experimental Theater Meets Sports | Playbook | Wired.com http://www.wired.com/playbook/2011/05/circle-rules-football/all/

1 of 9 6/25/2013 1:36 PM

NEW YORK — On a sunny afternoon in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, families are enjoying picnics, and groups of friends are playingsoccer, cricket and Frisbee. In one corner of the park, a bunch of twenty-somethings play with a yoga ball. A giant, bouncy yoga ball.One guy dribbles the ball until another kicks it out of his possession, sending it flying straight through a set of tall goal posts with nonet.“That’s seven to the Subjugates, four to Bunga Bunga,” yells out one player.Another quickly scoops up the ball with one hand and tosses it to his teammate, who dribbles his way closer to the goal, taking care tostay outside the perimeter of tiny cones encircling the goal posts. Dodging around the other players, he hurls the ball at his teammatewho dives into the inner circle to catch it, slamming into the ground a moment before the ball soars into his outstretched arms.Wait, that’s a penalty! A player from the opposing team stands at the corner of the field with the yoga ball in front of him. In onequick, strange motion he hops up with both his legs together and kicks the ball with both his feet at the same time, sending it zoomingback into the playing field. And the game is in motion once more.It’s fine if you have no idea what’s going on. The sport is Circle Rules Football, and it’s only four years old.Circle Rules, as it’s usually called, was invented in 2006 by Greg Manley, a student at the Experimental Theater Wing at New YorkUniversity’s Tisch School of the Arts. For his senior independent project — equivalent to a thesis, but for actors — Manley waved asidewriting his own play or producing his own show like his classmates. Instead, he spent his time churning out ideas for the developmentof a new sport.The project stemmed from his personal view that all sport is theater: dramatic, theatrical, viewed by an audience of millions. Based onthis perception, Manley began to envision the foundation of an entirely new activity, one that highlighted the theatricality and dramainherent in all sports.

Manley, half-Indian and half-American, was born 26 years ago in Berkeley, California. He grew up primarily in Oakland, where heattended Park Day School, whose educational mission embraces “critical and creative thinking” as well as “artistic expression.”Indeed, it was there that Manley was exposed to a different kind of phys-ed philosophy: His sports teacher, Will Hughes, had apenchant for inventing new sports and Manley and the other students benefited by learning a wide range of games that no one hadevery played before. The excitement and awe of constantly learning something new stuck with him.


2 of 9 6/25/2013 1:36 PM

The two things Manley (right) was certain of when it came to developing his own sport were that the game would involve a yoga balland that it would be played in a circular arena.His relationship with yoga balls goes back to his early childhood, when he’d see them in many of his friends’ homes. It was taboo toplay with them at the time, lest they break something in the house.Later on, with the freedom afforded by adulthood, Manley decided to indulge that childhood dream and “really abuse” the yoga ball.So Manley drew on inspirations from different facets of his upbringing and poured everything into the sport. He wanted to create asport that assimilated all the things he had loved about sports as a kid and eliminated the things he didn’t like, such as overheatedcompetition.“The reason the sport is like this, the reason it doesn’t have any equipment, comes from me playing soccer my whole life,” Manleysays. “The reason there’s wrestling in the middle of the field comes from me wrestling with my dad when I was growing up, as well asmy love for contact sports.”Manley chose a circular field as the basis of the game because it’s the shape he connects most with as an actor. When he and fellowcast members would warm up before a performance, they’d always end up in a circle facing each other. It was in that “central focus”where he was most comfortable.From the beginning, Manley’s vision was simple.His aim was to take the game away from the typical jock culture that usually surrounds sports. He knew his theater friends wouldenjoy playing a game that lacked the “angry competitiveness” that normally scares non-athletes away from a lot of sports, so he stayedcognizant of that while formulating the sport’s underpinnings.‘It’s such a funny thing to see two people standing just crumple to the ground. It’s so bizarre. I thought a simple competition like thatwould serve the game well.’Manley immediately came up with a few twists. One of these is called the “down-up,” which happens in lieu of a coin toss. In order todetermine who gets possession of the ball first, and in which direction their team will score, a player from each team — at the opening


3 of 9 6/25/2013 1:36 PM

whistle — has to drop down, touch both shoulder blades to the ground, and get back up. Whoever does so first, wins.“That’s straight out of the Experimental Theatre Wing, where I learned how to fall, how to go from standing to level yourself as fast aspossible,” Manley says. “I think it’s such a funny thing to see two people standing just crumple to the ground. It’s so bizarre. I thoughta simple competition like that would serve the game well. Artists really appreciate it, and athletes too.”Another twist is the double kick. Early on, Manley and his friends tried to come up with a unique way to get the ball back in the fieldwhen it got out of bounds. They didn’t want to do just a simple free kick, so they went with something fun and a bit awkward: kickingthe ball with both legs together.“It’s a weird move,” Manley says. “To people who’ve never played, it seems ridiculous and stupid.”Because of the game’s whimsical quality, Manley knew that the only people who would come to play his game would be “the ones withan irreverent sense of play, but who also enjoy competitive sports.”The playing field is a circle, 50 meters in diameter with a tall goal post in the middle. A smaller circle called the “key,” measuring fiveto eight meters (approximately 16 to 26 feet) in diameter, is made around the goal using, ideally, small plastic cones, or whatever is onhand. (Rolled-up socks are a perfectly suitable substitute). Each team scores through the same goal, but from opposite directions.Teams can have between three to eight players, and a goalie if there are more than four players on each team. Though players are notallowed to wrestle, goalies are permitted to make full contact with each other.The key is perhaps the most critical aspect of Circle Rules. No player except the goalie can touch the ball within its confines. All otherplayers must be outside the key to touch the ball. Players can lean over the edge of the key and touch the ball, so long as their feet areon the ground outside the key. If players dive into the key, they must make contact with the ball before they do so with the ground.


4 of 9 6/25/2013 1:36 PM

Though the Circle Rules community is steadily growing in New York and beyond — it’s been played in more than 100 schools acrossthe country — Manley says it’s hard to keep track of just how many people are involved. He knows of some loyal followers in Londonand Toronto, but usually the only way to find out that people are playing it is when someone asks him for a rulebook.Manley is now focusing on getting the game to college campuses, which he considers “hotbeds for new ideas to take off.” He recentlyapproached 15 East Coast colleges but he didn’t receive a response from any.‘The thing about this game is that you can put it in your backpack and play anywhere, this theater that I created.’So Manley has decided that the best way to try to integrate Circle Rules into college life is by disseminating it far enough, with thehope that some college students somewhere would pick it up and go back and teach it to their friends on campus.“It’s difficult,” Manley says, “but I feel that its potential is just so strong that I need to pursue it.”Lately, Manley has been spending his energy on recruiting for the 2011 New York City league. The opening game of the season (whichruns until August 30) took place at Bushwick Inlet Park in Brooklyn last week.Circle Rules has been played at a number of sports festivals in New York over the past few years, including the Come Out & PlayFestival, the Fringe Festival, Figments, and even at festivals in Pittsburgh and Bristol, England.“The thing about this game is that you can put it in your backpack and play anywhere, this theater that I created,” Manley says. “Thatwas the victory immediately. You could have a whole show in 15 minutes.”You might not see Circle Rules at the Olympics any time soon, but that doesn’t matter to the diehards descending upon Prospect Parkevery weekend. For them, the curtain never comes down.


5 of 9 6/25/2013 1:36 PM

Pahull Bains is a writer/copy editor for Starring NYC, recent intern at Teen Vogue, and soon-to-be graduate of ColumbiaUniversity’s Graduate School of Journalism. She has also interned at The Indian Express, one of India’s leading newspapers. Followher on Twitter at @pahullbains.

Photos: Top: Sasha Arutyunova; Manley: Blaine DavisSee Also:Introducing Poolball, America’s Next Great Barroom SportHockern Takes ‘Extreme Sitting’ to New LevelVideo: Basketball-Playing Robot Seals Will Rule Us All One DayCompetitive Chess Boxing: Brain Meets Pain in IcelandVideo: Wingsuit Formation FlyingQatar World Cup May Feature Carbon-Fiber ‘Clouds’Pages: 1 2 3 View AllRelatedYou Might LikeRelated Links by Contextly

Wild Whiskers Make Competitive Beard Growing a Follicle Folly

In Search of Tech Cred, eBay Builds a New Engine for a New Identity

Lopsided Map of the Cosmos Offers New Clues to the Universe's Origins

The Mad Men Season Finale: Seeing the Show Through Its Ads

These Crazy Guns Shoot Pewter, Plastic, and Paper MacheTags: arts, circle rules football, Football, New York, Outdoors, theatre, wacky, Weird & wonderful


6 of 9 6/25/2013 1:36 PM

Tweet

Embed this PhotoCopy & paste this code into your website

Login or Register

Get the official Get the official Twitpic for iPhoneTwitpic for iPhone or or Twitpic for AndroidTwitpic for Android apps apps

Circle Rules Bristol in FourFourTwo magazine. (Disclaimer - T... on Twitpic http://twitpic.com/6haxvx

2 of 3 6/25/2013 1:48 PM

As a boy, Greg Manley grew up in Oakland California. As a young man Greg invented a sport in New York. That sport? CircleRules Football. Almost three years ago Greg Manley decided for his senior project at the Experimental Theater Wing of NYU'sTisch School of the Arts, he would create a sport as theater. Every sports fan lives for the drama and theatricality of sport. Wewear memorabilia, we chant using call and response, we recite famous speeches, we in the end are emotionally connected toour athletes, and teams. However, what happens when "the piece of theater" becomes "a real sport"?

Greg Manley has been figuring this part out since the first Circle Rules Football Game was ever played. What started out withpick up games occasionally, turned into weekly Sunday afternoon pickup games with throngs of people joining in wanting tofigure out the new game. And now, Circle Rules Football is a Federation. Since summer of '07 Circle Rules has been playedacross the country with groups (aspiring leagues) sprouting up in New York, Florida, Oregon, California, Toronto, Puerto Rico,Prague and one year at Burning Man to name a few locations. This past summer Circle Rules crossed the Atlantic as part ofIG Fest 2009 (a festival dedicated to new sports) in Bristol, UK, where it won two prestigious awards: "Best in Festival" &"Most Likely to be Played Again." The sport was also part of New York's Fringe Festival, where games included halftimeshows with marching bands, live music during games, and drum circles. And you don't even know how the game is played,yet.

The game is played on a circular field (40m diameter), with a circle or the "key" (4-8 diameters) in the middle. Inside the "key"is a goal (2-4 meters wide, 3 meters tall). One team scores by knocking, tapping, heading, or kicking a ball through the goalin one direction, while the other team scores through the other direction. In a normal game no player may touch the ball in the"key" unless he/she is airborne. In a goalie game, goalies are allowed to deflect balls in the "key", as well as, scrum with theother goalie to prevent a deflection. The ball used is a yoga ball (the big bouncy one). At no point can a player hold or sit onthe ball, however, the player can dribble the ball anyway he chooses. Sounds confusing I'm sure, but have you ever triedexplaining football or baseball in writing? I was confused the first time it was explained to me too. But by the end of the firsthalf (2 halves to a game), not only did it make complete sense but I was hooked.

I grew up playing baseball, basketball, lacrosse, and was captain of my Football team. I play in a co-ed softball league (shoutout to my GameCocks), and an all men's flag football league (shout out to my Stratsmen). The level of coordination,athleticism, team work, pride, and endurance needed for all of these sports are not lost in Circle Rules. But, at the same time,

June 25, 2013

Eugene Michael Santiago: Circle Rules Football -- The Road Ahead http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eugene-michael-santiago/circle-rules-football_b_324456.html

1 of 2 6/25/2013 1:21 PM

the nature and pace of the game suits athletes of all skill levels. So the game is truly enjoyable to all because one doesn'thave to be a stud.

The problem the Circle Rules Federation faces now is expansion. In our interview Manley asked, "How does a smallorganization with limited financial means and playership assert its control over something that is designed to be easy to set upin one's backyard, or in an open field?", before posing a shot at an answer, "all of the accoutrement". The accoutremententails sponsorship, field permits, night games, fundraisers, parties, and jerseys, along with regional and nationaltournaments. "What we need are partnerships with leagues or groups around the country to host events, and run leaguesunder an official license and name." Added Manley, "which would be available for a little amount of money."

But how does that make it more than something that could easily be free? "That's where the theater comes in," here comesManley's vision, "look at recreational leagues. It is theater, you get jerseys, you get drink specials, you get umpires, and thatgoes all the way up from amateur to professional. Look at Monday Night Football, they have fireworks coming out of gianthelmets." As these words came out of Greg Manley's mouth images of Jerry Jones and his New Cowboy stadium flashed atfast intervals in my head. It all comes down to the theater of it all.

Expansion only goes as far as the level of entertainment on all levels. Sports is entertainment, ergo to create a sport it has tosell. It has to entertain people who play it, practice it, watch it, read about it, write about it, and most importantly it has toentertain people who pay for it. No entertainment yields no payment, no money, no expansion. "Word of mouth via Internet,TV and press can only go so far, we [the federation] need reliable regional commissioners to establish leagues nationwideunder the license of the federation."

Membership creates the money to push the theater and level of game play to the next level. People have started to play, andsponsors have shown interest. All that is needed now is a foundation nation wide. Groups and leagues in your area can befound on the Circle Rules Website. If you are in New York, and find yourself in Brooklyn on a Sunday afternoon stop by theLong Meadow in Prospect Park (off of the Grand Army Plaza entrance). Games start at 2, watch or try it, you'll like it.

Eugene Michael Santiago: Circle Rules Football -- The Road Ahead http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eugene-michael-santiago/circle-rules-football_b_324456.html

2 of 2 6/25/2013 1:21 PM

Create Account« Roundabouts

February 15, 2012

Tweet

0

Share

Mesmerizingly Mesmeric Revelat… »

ARTS & CULTURE » EVENTS

A sport with theatrical origins.

By Cassie McFadden @cassie_mcfadden

Ask Greg Manley to draw parallels between sports and theater andhe can talk at length about their similarities. For one thing, there's

the staged conflict that makes each production worth watching:

Onstage, it's the drama that builds with an actor's scripteddelivery; on the field it's the less explicit, though no less

impassioned, dramaturgy driven by an athlete's desire to win.

Circle Rules Football Comes to Oakland | Events | Oakland, Berkeley & Bay Area http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/circle-rules-football-comes-to-oakland/Content?oid=3...

1 of 3 6/25/2013 1:55 PM

And, like the protagonist of any play, in sports "you have heroes to rallybehind. There's a very epic quality to professional sports that exists in all

kinds of theater."

Still, it's easy to see how the two diverge. Sports, by their physical nature, tend

to attract more brutish types, whereas theater draws those with less corporealconcerns. But if anyone is qualified to compare the crafts, it's Manley, who

grew up in Oakland and participated in everything from sports camps to ahigh school production of The Laramie Project. Ultimately, he committed to

the latter, moving east after high school to study drama at NYU, where theoverlap between actors and athletes was basically nonexistent, he said. "I lost

touch with my athletic life after going into drama," Manley recalled.

And then, in 2006, when he was tasked with creating an original theater piece

for a senior project, Manley was bit by the athletic equivalent of the actingbug. He decided to incorporate athletics into theater — and he seems to have

succeeded. Circle Rules Football — named for the circular field on which it'splayed — is a "theatrical" team sport that combines elements of soccer,

volleyball, and wrestling, with opponents aiming a large rubber "stability ball"at a single, central goal. And despite its theatrical origins, Manley said the

bulk of the game's drama comes from the sport itself. While certain aspects ofthe game — like the requirement that a player use both feet to kick the ball

inbounds — seem silly at first, he said the game is just as competitive, anddangerous, as any. In other words, you won't find players sauntering around,

reciting lines from Shakespeare.

The motley game, played by everyone from beefy rugby players to lanky

thespians, has garnered such a vast following that it could just be Manley'smagnum opus. Now organized under an official federation, it's been featured

in The New York Times and on Good Morning America and played across thecountry and as far away as England. With a five-team league that convenes

regularly at the sport's birthplace in Brooklyn's Prospect Park, New York isinarguably the game's epicenter. But with the league in its off-season, Manley

returned to Oakland in January to start an East Bay faction that could

eventually compete with the East Coast originators. He's been holding free,


2 of 3 6/25/2013 1:55 PM

« Roundabouts

informal games every Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. in Astro Park (550 ElEmbarcadero, Oakland), where games will continue after he eventually

returns to New York. Manley plans to check on the progress of the fledglingteam this summer. He's working as a puppeteer in an eighteen-month

traveling production of Warhorse, which makes a San Francisco stop in

August. "I guess I've made a career out of taking silly things seriously,"Manley said.

Contact the author of this piece, send a letter to the editor, like uson Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Mesmerizingly Mesmeric Revelat… »

Related LocationsAstro Park

550 El Embarcadero OAKLAND-GRAND LAKE

AstroParkOakland.orgBe the first to review this location!


3 of 3 6/25/2013 1:55 PM

Home Lifestyle Circle rules – OK?

An innovative game combines getting fit with thinking outside of the box: Simon Fry gavecircle rules football a spin.

Since May this year a growing band of Bristolians have been among the few people in theUK taking part in a truly fascinating pastime. Circle rules football originated in 2006 whenNew York University drama student Greg Manley, who had played soccer, basketball andAmerican football while growing up, set out to devise a new sport for his seniorindependent project (aka a thesis for actors). When Manley visited Bristol for this year’sIgfest games festival, a Facebook group was formed to spread the word in Venueland.

I go along to Queen Square one Thursday evening (winter games are staged on an ad hocbasis – check Twitter or Facebook), where, as players gather, organiser David Otridge, aformer website designer, inflates the 50cm diameter ball. Stakes are hammered into turf tosupport a single set of goalposts at the centre of a circular pitch, wherein cones designatea smaller, inner ‘key’ area. Goals are scored by the ball passing through the goalpostseither right-to-left or left-to-right, depending on the team.

Said teams are distinguished by ribbons, which are worn around players’ foreheads andare brought along by Jess, an illustrator/animator who had them left over from anotherIgfest game. “Before the ribbons we just tried to remember who was on our teams! I alsohad pink and green ribbons, but the battle of red and blue is a tale as old as time.”

24.06.2013

15.05.2013

19.04.2013

PREV 1 NEXT

LIFESTYLE NEWSExploring RedcliffeThe extraordinary church dominates, of course, but theonce-autonomous township of…

Make A Staffie SmilelaunchIf you pay a visit to Bristol Dogs &Cats Home, you'll notice that there'soften a fair…

Animal rehomingcampaignBath Cats and Dogs Home haslaunched a new campaign toencourage more people to offer a…

EXTERNAL LINKS

Circle rules – OK? http://www.venue.co.uk/lifestyle-features/14242-circle-rules-ok-

2 of 3 6/25/2013 1:52 PM

N EXT PO STThe Brooklyn Eagle on ourbirthday bash

EARLIER PO STWaiting for you: a summer

home-swap in Paris

Circle Rules Football. You got what it takes?

SPORTS AND EXERCISE

by Casey Soloff | 6.23.10 | 2 Comments

0 Tweet 0 submit

We all know the story: you paysomething ridiculous for a gymmembership and swear that thistime, you’re gonna use it.Really. But 5 p.m. comesaround, and the last thing youwant to do is run like a hamsterfor 30 minutes in front of aflat-screen. You want somethingmore from your workout,something… alternative. Luckyfor you, you live in Brooklyn

—where football is circular, bar-hopping is aerobic and exercise need not beboring.

Brooklyn Hash House HarriersWhoever said drinking isn’t good for you (ha!) obviously hasn’t tried hashing.Let’s call this part scavenger hunt, part foot race and part pub crawl. Startingat a predetermined point, participants race on foot to find chalk marks along a

Like 13

Sign In RegisterH O M E EVENTS REAL ESTATE

ABOUT CONTACT ADVERTISE SEARCH

CAREERS

D ATIN G

EN TERTAIN M EN T

FO O D & D RIN K

G IVEAW AYS

N EW S

O U TIN G S

SALES & D EALS

SERVICES

SH O PPIN G

N EIG H BO RH O O D S

Bay Ridge/ Bensonhurst

Bed Stuy/ Bushw ick

Boerum H ill/ Gow anus

Brooklyn H eights/D UM BO

Brooklyn N avy Yard

SEE M O RE >

Alternative workouts (& wacky games) in Brooklyn | Brokelyn http://brokelyn.com/alternative-workouts-wacky-games-in-brooklyn/#more-18967

1 of 5 6/25/2013 1:23 PM

trail. After about an hour of racing, the marks eventually lead to a bar. Then,the party begins. Average cost is around $15, but this is a workout andbar-night all in one.7 p.m. on Mondays. Visit HashNYC.com for weekly start locations.

Circle Rules FootballThere’s a ball, and you can useyour foot if you want to—that’sabout where the similaritiesbetween this and the other gamesof football end. Half sport, half art,the game was born from NYU’sexperimental theater program.Played every Sunday in ProspectPark, the rules call for players togather on a circular field, with the objective of getting a yoga-style fitness ballthrough a central goal from one side. The opposing team defends and tries topass it through from the other way. This sport doesn’t take itself too seriously,and beginners are welcome. But for those who want to make it to that innercircle, there’s always league play.Open Play: Long Meadow, Prospect Park, 2 p.m. on SundaysLeague Play: N. 10th St. and Kent Ave., Williamsburg; 6 to 8 p.m. onWednesdays

Captain Quinn’s Boot CampRise and shine, soldier, and report for an hour of aerobics, strength buildingand teamwork exercises in the crisp, morning Brooklyn air. Jon Quinn, acertified personal trainer with a real passion for getting people in shape,created his Boot Camp to provide the benefits of personalized training in agroup setting for a fraction of what it would cost at a gym. With a suggestedprice per session of just $10 and a policy of never turning away anyone dueto limited budget, you’ll always be able to work something out. Register for afree one-week trial using the code “BROKELYN” and the good captain willwaive the $15 reservation fee AND give you an extra week free.Park Slope, Carroll Gardens and Brooklyn Heights (times vary by location),888-850-1674

Brooklyn BouldersThe old Daily News garage inGowanus has been completelytransformed into one of the mostextensive rock climbing gyms inthe city. Brooklyn Boulders is achallengingly-satisfying way toget one serious workout, withwalls for climbers of any skilllevel. Rates during peak hours

+ ADD AN EVENT

0

EVENT GUIDE

Culture / Art & Design

INTER. Act, Reciprocity inMedia12:00pm | Tuesday, June 25thBric Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn

Nightlife / Happy hour

Happy Hours at Belli inClinton Hill, Ge…4:00pm | Tuesday, June 25thBelli Osteria, Brooklyn

Nightlife / Happy hour

Happy Hour at The RockShop, 7 nights a …5:00pm | Tuesday, June 25thThe Rock Shop, Brooklyn

Food & Drink / Restaurant

Moules and Frites a go-go atChez Oskar5:00pm | Tuesday, June 25thChez Oskar, Dekalb Avenue, Brooklyn, Ny, Brooklyn

SEE ALL EVENTS

KEEP IN TO UCH

JO IN O UR EM AIL LIST

SU BM IT

Alternative workouts (& wacky games) in Brooklyn | Brokelyn http://brokelyn.com/alternative-workouts-wacky-games-in-brooklyn/#more-18967

2 of 5 6/25/2013 1:23 PM

« Dreams Do Come True: Neil Strauss's… | The Permanent Collection: 13 Songs… »

ART

Archives | RSS | Tips | Twitter

In Gowanus, Playgrounds Both Real and ImaginedPosted by Jennifer Mills on Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 12:02 PM

A tiny upstairs gallery seems like a funny place tohost an exhibition on parks and public spaces. Butthat was the setting for last week’s opening ofBrooklyn Utopia’s Park Space/Play Space. Thereception took place at the Old Stone House inJ.J Byrne Park, on the Park Slope-Gowanus border.

The exhibit, Brooklyn Utopia’s third at The OldStone House, features works that are “visioningfor parks and public space,” said Kimberly Maier,the House’s executive director. The upstairsgallery featured works such as Marina Zamin’simmersive video installation “Brooklyn Canals”and an animation by Jess Levey projected onto acanvas with cutout flower pots and windows.There were also panoramic photo-murals of a fewblocks on Kent Avenue, as well as picture-postcards and descriptions of eminent domaincases across the city.

Some of the other works in the exhibit merge public space with technology. Lynn Cazabon’s“Uncultivated” project displays pictures of plants with QR codes beneath them. When someonescans the code, they are directed to a website which pinpoints the location of the plants and givestheir species. Then there is Skymills, an app which calls on the Old Stone House’s Dutch legacy and

In Gowanus, Playgrounds Both Real and Imagined | The Measure http://www.thelmagazine.com/TheMeasure/archives/2012/04/09/in-gowanus-playgrounds-both-r...

1 of 4 6/25/2013 1:56 PM

Tweet 0 Share

« Dreams Do Come True: Neil Strauss's… | The Permanent Collection: 13 Songs… »

Email Add to favorites

erects virtual windmills that can be viewed through an iPad or iPhone. The mills also create virtualskywriting, which Will Pappenheimer was busy collecting from attendees. Holding the stand ofhis iPad like a handle, Pappenheimer spun around showing off all the windmills, noting that if youwalk into the location of one you can look up at the windmill's ceiling. He envisions the app as avirtual public space where users plant trees or write virtual messages that all users can see. “Youreally are a utopian,” a listener remarked. “Yeah!” Pappenheimer said.

Pappenheimer will be conducting an“Augmented Reality Workshop” on May 19th,part of the exhibition’s extensive eventsprogram. One of the most promising of these isApril 28’s bootcamp and exhibition game of“Circle Rules Football,” a game played withone of those bouncy exercise balls. Basicallythe tenants of the game are that you can doanything with the ball (kicking, dribbling,passing) as long as you don’t run while holdingit. There is one goal in the center and the job ofthe two goalies there is basically to stop theother from doing their job. There will also be alarge dodgeball game nicknamed “The Battle of

Brooklyn.”

More docile events include a collective sky-gazing night, and later in the exhibition a “collectivewedding ceremony” with artist Tracy Candido. There will also be eminent domain biking tours fromPark Slope to Coney Island, and a public mural making workshop. The exhibit also coincides withthe opening of a new playground in the park. Although the playground doesn’t open till May 11,it will feature some of the virtues of the exhibit, combining art with public space with asubmarine-inspired design by artist Julie Peppito and 3D images seen through periscopegoggles.

Tags: gowanus, park slope, old stone house, brooklyn utopia, park space/play space

In Gowanus, Playgrounds Both Real and Imagined | The Measure http://www.thelmagazine.com/TheMeasure/archives/2012/04/09/in-gowanus-playgrounds-both-r...

2 of 4 6/25/2013 1:56 PM

circle rules football - topscore › uploads › ... · since inventing circle rules football in...

Documents