Nich Galzin

running away from the circus

FROM CIRCUS...

More than twenty years ago I started volunteering with a local youth circus program in my home town of Chicago. Although I could hardly juggle, I could help as a homework tutor on the program. It was a bonus that as a volunteer I had access to weekly acrobatics classes with an amazing coach. I was just 20 years old at the time and within a year I would have drop out of university (much to my parents’ chagrin) and be dedicating all my time to training and teaching circus- a choice that would shape a huge part of the next two decades of my life.

Although the cliché of running away with the circus is often used metaphorically I literally did just that, although the face of circus has drastically change since I started. Theatres, street clothes and dreamlike movement can probably replace canvas, sawdust and horses in my story as a circus artist. I did get to see many places and work with amazing people along the way, and teaching was always a big part of my journey. Some highlights include working with Cirque Eloize (Montreal), Ockham’s Razor (London), Chamaleon Theatre (Berlin) and the Midnight Circus (Chicago).

I relocated to London in 2011 and have lived here since. The pandemic promoted me to stop performing as much, but I am still involved in the performing arts, working as a self-employed circus teacher and rigger mainly based out of the National Centre for Circus Arts in Shoreditch.

TO CODING:

My fascination with coding has sprung out of desire for a better understanding with the technologies that shape our life. It was during the first national lock down, armed with an abundance of free time, a feeling of wanting to find my next ’thing’, and amazing free online learning resources, that I made my first real attempt at learning web development. I was immediately drawn to the presentation of ideas provided by front end web development and the creative potential of all the new tools I was learning. As normality encroached back into the world I put aside my learning and got on with life again. It was late 2022 that after a conversation with a friend who works in software development I realized I wasn’t done with coding.

After more conversations with people who had retrained as developers I started to believe that this might be an industry I could retrain to work in. One of the things I find most appealing about the tech industry is the narrative it tells about how anyone, with some graft and learning, can join it’s ranks. It’s a very inclusive idea, and although I know it to have it’s short falls, it still allows for the possibilities of dreaming. Organisations like Founders and Coders, a non-profit with inclusivity at the heart of it’s educational model, only makes me more excited about the potential of working in a career that is both creative and inclusive.

CURRENT WORK

Screenshoot of website about green wood working.

Hobby Page

A page dedicated to the appreciation and study of green wood working. From the techniques of carving, to what wood and tools to use, this is a short introduction to the craft. Plus, it’s therapeutic and fills your life with beautiful handmade objects!

Screenshoot of the game page Blob Survival.

Game Project

A simple game for a simple blob! Dodge the spawning blocks and stay away from the edge to stay alive as long as you can. What’s you high score? My first experiment working with the html canvas element and using js for animation.

Screenshoot of a webpage about the movies of Wes Anderson.

Movie data

A practice in object manipulation and user interactivity in JavaScript. This site lets you see in fun facts about your favourite movies and lets you add new posters to the wall.

Screenshoot of project gallery webpage.

Project Gallery

A collection of all the projects I’ ve made for the Founders and Coders foundation course application. Uses flex box to place and arrange the elements on the page.