Contact juggling
Encyclopedia
Contact juggling is a form of object manipulation
that focuses on the movement of objects such as balls in contact with the body. Although often used in conjunction with "toss juggling
", it differs in that it involves the rolling of one or more objects without releasing them into the air. It is divided into three main techniques:
"), have been performed for centuries. More variations were introduced by vaudevillians such as Paul Cinquevalli
. In 1986, American juggler Tony Duncan was reported to be holding audiences spellbound with an act that involved rolling a single ball all over his body.
Michael Moschen
brought the form to a new level with his performance, "Light", developed in the 1980s. In this performance he used 75mm clear crystal balls, palm spinning up to eight balls simultaneously. He finished the act by rolling a single clear ball so that it appeared to float over his hands and arms. Moschen received high regard from the international circus community for his range of innovative new techniques, and he was made a MacArthur Fellow
(received a "Genius Award") in 1990. In the 1986 film, Labyrinth
, David Bowie
's character performs contact juggling throughout the film. These manipulations were performed by Moschen, who stood behind Bowie during filming, reaching around and performing the tricks "blind". In the film's credits, Moschen is credited for "crystal ball manipulation."
In the summer of 1990, John P. Miller (now better known by his pen-name, James Ernest
), wrote and published the first edition of the book Contact Juggling, which covers all of the basic contact juggling techniques and methods for learning them. The first edition had a run of only 100 copies, photocopied and stapled. The second edition was published in 1991, in a comb-bound format, by Ernest Graphics Press, with the author listed as James Ernest. Ernest is credited with coining the term "contact juggling".
In 1991, the video "Michael Moschen: In Motion" (created as the television special "In Motion with Michael Moschen" for PBS's "Great Performances" series) was released. Since then, this form of juggling has received further popularization through instructional materials and performances developed by jugglers other than Moschen. Throughout the 1990s, there was continuing contention within the juggling community regarding whether Moschen's ideas were being stolen by performers and juggling instructors (see "Controversy", below). Since, many resources have become available for contact jugglers, such as clubs, books, festivals, videos/DVDs, and balls specifically manufactured for contact juggling.
In 2010, Zoom TV, a direct-marketing company, began mass-marketing "the Fushigi Magic Gravity Ball", an acrylic contact juggling ball with a steel core (used to prevent the focusing of sunlight through a clear acrylic sphere, a fire hazard). Zoom TV claimed that the ball possesses special properties that make it "appear to float" and improve balance and control (see "Controversy", below), and saw significant commercial success.
In 2010, an updated and revised third edition of the book Contact Juggling was released by Ernest Graphics Press.
discussion group in late 1999 and later formed into www.contactjuggling.org which serves the English speaking community with tutorials, forums, and videos. Since then, other international contact juggling forums have served jugglers in Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, German, and French.
In September 2001, the first contact juggling convention (CJC) was held in Florida, USA. Two of the attendees were British contact jugglers Daniel Kerr and Andy Wilson, who then organized the first contact juggling convention in Europe (BCJC). It was held in Scotland in 2003, and included a public performance to allow the general public to learn about contact juggling. Since then, contact juggling conventions have been held in various countries around the world, as well as contact juggling workshops being taught juggling festivals and circus schools.
or copyright
. In 1992, Michael Moschen threatened not to attend the International Juggler's Association
annual conference in Quebec, Canada, where he was to be a guest of honor, due to a favorable review of the book Contact Juggling in the Fall 1991 issue of the IJA's periodical, Juggler's World. In the end, Moschen did attend the festival.
The wide commercial success of the "Fushigi Magic Gravity Ball" in 2010 reignited the controversy within the contact juggling community. The television advertisement consisted of a montage of contact juggling performance, the amazed reactions of audience members suggesting the ball appeared to float by itself, and an announcer suggesting that the ball can be quickly mastered "in just minutes." Concerned about the public depiction of contact juggling being accomplished not by skill but by means of a special prop, contact jugglers quickly filled a Fushigi thread to 100 pages on contactjuggling.org. The Winter 2010 edition of the IJA's periodical Juggle features a 4-page article about "the Dynamic/Contact/Sphereplay/Fushigi Controversy" by Brad Weston, including an interview with John Cammarano (the president of Zoom TV, the direct marketing firm producing the Fushigi ball). The following issue featured a rebuttal by a professional contact juggler accusing Cammarano of exploiting contact juggling to sell a deceptively marketed product.
Object manipulation
Object manipulation is a form of dexterity play or performance in which one or more artists physically interact with one or more objects. These can be special props made for the purpose of the manipulation itself - such as balls, clubs, hoops, rings, poi, staff, devil sticks, etc. - or any other...
that focuses on the movement of objects such as balls in contact with the body. Although often used in conjunction with "toss juggling
Juggling
Juggling is a skill involving moving objects for entertainment or sport. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling, in which the juggler throws objects up to catch and toss up again. This may be one object or many objects, at the same time with one or many hands. Jugglers often refer...
", it differs in that it involves the rolling of one or more objects without releasing them into the air. It is divided into three main techniques:
- Body rolling means manipulating one or more props (usually balls) around the hands, arms, and other parts of the body. Balance is required to hold the ball in various positions of control. This includes tricks such as headrollHeadroll- Contact Juggling :The headroll is a trick involving rolling an object or prop, typically a ball, around on the juggler's head. The most commonly performed version is rolling a ball from temple to temple, across the forehead. At some points during the trick, the object may be balanced in place...
ing and the butterfly, the trick of rolling the ball from the palm to the back of the hand via the fingertips. - Palm spinning means manipulating one or more balls in the open hand so that at least one ball is in motion. Balls may be in both hands or transferred between hands to form graceful and fluid patterns, including rotating a pyramid made of four or five balls in one hand.
- Isolation refers to the manipulation of a ball so that it appears to be suspended in place. Similar to sleight-of-hand techniques in magic or fixed-point mime techniques; the performers exploit the clear surface of the ball to hide any noticeable rotation, creating the effect that the ball is still while the performer moves around the ball.
History
Many of the techniques found in contact juggling, such as balancing or rolling a single ball or palm spinning (see "Baoding BallsBaoding Balls
Baoding balls are also known as Chinese exercise balls, Chinese meditation balls, Chinese medicine balls, and healthy balls. They are a traditional product of Baoding, China, thought to have been created during the Ming dynasty...
"), have been performed for centuries. More variations were introduced by vaudevillians such as Paul Cinquevalli
Paul Cinquevalli
Paul Cinquevalli was a famous juggler from the late 19th century to the early 20th century. His birth name is given by The Cambridge Guide to Theatre as Paul Kestner, but other sources give it as Paul Braun-Lehmann and Emile Otto Lehmann-Braun.-Early life:Cinquevalli was born in Lissa in what is...
. In 1986, American juggler Tony Duncan was reported to be holding audiences spellbound with an act that involved rolling a single ball all over his body.
Michael Moschen
Michael Moschen
Michael Moschen is a juggler. He received a Fellowship from the MacArthur Foundation in 1990, has appeared on TV on PBS, and done ads for Motorola. Cirque du Soleil commissioned Moschen to create a new work for their permanent theatrical circus in Las Vegas, Nevada.Moschen is particularly known...
brought the form to a new level with his performance, "Light", developed in the 1980s. In this performance he used 75mm clear crystal balls, palm spinning up to eight balls simultaneously. He finished the act by rolling a single clear ball so that it appeared to float over his hands and arms. Moschen received high regard from the international circus community for his range of innovative new techniques, and he was made a MacArthur Fellow
MacArthur Fellows Program
The MacArthur Fellows Program or MacArthur Fellowship is an award given by the John D. and Catherine T...
(received a "Genius Award") in 1990. In the 1986 film, Labyrinth
Labyrinth (film)
Labyrinth is a 1986 British/American fantasy film directed by Jim Henson, produced by George Lucas, and designed by Brian Froud. Henson collaborated on the screenwriting with children's author Dennis Lee, Terry Jones from Monty Python, and Elaine May .The film stars David Bowie as Jareth the Goblin...
, David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
's character performs contact juggling throughout the film. These manipulations were performed by Moschen, who stood behind Bowie during filming, reaching around and performing the tricks "blind". In the film's credits, Moschen is credited for "crystal ball manipulation."
In the summer of 1990, John P. Miller (now better known by his pen-name, James Ernest
James Ernest
James Ernest is an American game designer and juggler. He is best known as the owner and lead designer of Cheapass Games. Prior to founding Cheapass, he worked as a juggler at various venues, including Camlann Medieval Village, and as a freelancer with Wizards of the Coast. He also worked for...
), wrote and published the first edition of the book Contact Juggling, which covers all of the basic contact juggling techniques and methods for learning them. The first edition had a run of only 100 copies, photocopied and stapled. The second edition was published in 1991, in a comb-bound format, by Ernest Graphics Press, with the author listed as James Ernest. Ernest is credited with coining the term "contact juggling".
In 1991, the video "Michael Moschen: In Motion" (created as the television special "In Motion with Michael Moschen" for PBS's "Great Performances" series) was released. Since then, this form of juggling has received further popularization through instructional materials and performances developed by jugglers other than Moschen. Throughout the 1990s, there was continuing contention within the juggling community regarding whether Moschen's ideas were being stolen by performers and juggling instructors (see "Controversy", below). Since, many resources have become available for contact jugglers, such as clubs, books, festivals, videos/DVDs, and balls specifically manufactured for contact juggling.
In 2010, Zoom TV, a direct-marketing company, began mass-marketing "the Fushigi Magic Gravity Ball", an acrylic contact juggling ball with a steel core (used to prevent the focusing of sunlight through a clear acrylic sphere, a fire hazard). Zoom TV claimed that the ball possesses special properties that make it "appear to float" and improve balance and control (see "Controversy", below), and saw significant commercial success.
In 2010, an updated and revised third edition of the book Contact Juggling was released by Ernest Graphics Press.
Contact juggling community
The online presence of contact juggling began with a Yahoo!Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
discussion group in late 1999 and later formed into www.contactjuggling.org which serves the English speaking community with tutorials, forums, and videos. Since then, other international contact juggling forums have served jugglers in Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, German, and French.
In September 2001, the first contact juggling convention (CJC) was held in Florida, USA. Two of the attendees were British contact jugglers Daniel Kerr and Andy Wilson, who then organized the first contact juggling convention in Europe (BCJC). It was held in Scotland in 2003, and included a public performance to allow the general public to learn about contact juggling. Since then, contact juggling conventions have been held in various countries around the world, as well as contact juggling workshops being taught juggling festivals and circus schools.
Controversy
Some have claimed that portions of the book Contact Juggling and any juggling performances that contain elements similar to Michael Moschen's original "Light" performance are breaches of Moschen's intellectual propertyIntellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
or copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
. In 1992, Michael Moschen threatened not to attend the International Juggler's Association
International Jugglers' Association
The International Jugglers' Association or IJA is the oldest and largest organization of jugglers. It is open to members worldwide.-Benefits of Membership:* Special from major prop vendors worldwide.* Member prices in the IJA’s ....
annual conference in Quebec, Canada, where he was to be a guest of honor, due to a favorable review of the book Contact Juggling in the Fall 1991 issue of the IJA's periodical, Juggler's World. In the end, Moschen did attend the festival.
The wide commercial success of the "Fushigi Magic Gravity Ball" in 2010 reignited the controversy within the contact juggling community. The television advertisement consisted of a montage of contact juggling performance, the amazed reactions of audience members suggesting the ball appeared to float by itself, and an announcer suggesting that the ball can be quickly mastered "in just minutes." Concerned about the public depiction of contact juggling being accomplished not by skill but by means of a special prop, contact jugglers quickly filled a Fushigi thread to 100 pages on contactjuggling.org. The Winter 2010 edition of the IJA's periodical Juggle features a 4-page article about "the Dynamic/Contact/Sphereplay/Fushigi Controversy" by Brad Weston, including an interview with John Cammarano (the president of Zoom TV, the direct marketing firm producing the Fushigi ball). The following issue featured a rebuttal by a professional contact juggler accusing Cammarano of exploiting contact juggling to sell a deceptively marketed product.
External links
- teaching webpage with animated GIFGIFThe Graphics Interchange Format is a bitmap image format that was introduced by CompuServe in 1987 and has since come into widespread usage on the World Wide Web due to its wide support and portability....
s of moves by Paul 'Silver Man' - History of contact juggling from the Ministry of Manipulation.
- download Kae Veren's Guide to Contact Juggling
- Contact Juggling Basics at Wikihow
- The BCJC 2003 on Scottish TV
- ContactJuggling.org Wiki