Contact juggling

Contact juggling with four acrylics

Contact juggling is largely considered an art form of which there are three main schools of technique:

1. bodyrolling is the manipulation of one or more props (usually spheres) around the hands, arms, and body, usually without the prop(s) ever being thrown into the air.
2. palmspinning is the manipulation of two or more spheres in each hand wherein at least one sphere is always in continual motion. Spheres may be transferred from one hand to another to form graceful and fluid patterns, but rarely are they ever released into the air.
3. isolationism is categorized by manipulation of usually one prop (again, a sphere of some sort or other toy such as firestaff) such that the prop appears to be suspended in time and place while the performer dances around it, usually in the Popping and locking styles.

Contact juggling is also known by several other names, including Static Juggling, SpherePlay, Orb Rolling and Dynamic Manipulation.

History

Contact juggling in its modern popular form originated with a juggling routine developed by Michael Moschen in the 1980s, entitled Light. In this performance, Michael Moschen began by manipulating a single water-clear acrylic sphere without ever closing his hands over it. The sphere appeared to float over his hands and arms as if it was drop of water, or a ball of light. Some of the various single ball manipulations (balancing a ball on one's head, for example) existed long before Moschen's time. What made this performance unique was the use of the clear acrylic as the only prop, and the palmspinning, where Moschen manipulated upwards of eight spheres simulataneously, without ever releasing one into the air, as would a traditional juggling performance..

In 1991 shortly after the video "Michael Moschen: In Motion" was released, James Ernest, a games developer, wrote the book "Contact Juggling". James may be the originator of the term "Contact Juggling", as Michael did not have a name for what he did (in the credits of the Labyrinth film, for example, he is credited with "crystal ball manipulation"). However, Moschen coined the term "Dynamic manipulation" and unsuccessfully strove to have it adopted by the community.

In the 1986 film Labyrinth, David Bowie's character is seen to contact juggle throughout the film. These manipulations were actually performed by Moschen who stood behind Bowie during filming, reaching around and performing the tricks 'blind'. This film showcased the new discipline and helped it gain popularity.

The style of juggling has received further popularization through instructional materials and performances developed by jugglers other than Michael Moschen, but which refer to props as well as manipulations that he created and performs. This apparently led to some contention within the juggling community in the 1990s regarding whether Moschen's ideas were being 'ripped off' by copycat performers.

By 2000 the discipline had achieved widespread recognition and there were many resources available for contact jugglers, such as clubs, books, videos/DVDs and balls specifically manufactured for contact juggling. A google search for "contact juggling" returns as many hits as "ball juggling", which could be indicative of the prevalence of contact juggling today.

Contact juggling community

Many contact jugglers also practice other disciplines such as toss juggling and many jugglers can perform one or two basic contact juggling moves, even if it is not their favoured discipline. Originally there were very few sites devoted to the art of contact juggling, so most contact jugglers were closely associated with other juggling styles and lurked in toss juggling and circus skills communities and forums. The online community presence of contact juggling began with a Yahoo! discussion group started by gujamin in late 1999. Now there are a variety of groups focussing primarily on contact juggling.

Gujamin of the contactjuggling Yahoo discussion group, proposed the idea of a contact juggling convention and various locations were proposed, ultimately settling on Florida as the location for the first convention in Sept. 2001. The First convention was funded, and organized by a contact juggler named Ferret, and had an attendance of only about 35 people.

Two attendees named Daniel Kerr and Andy Wilson would later go on to organize the first convention in Europe, the British contact juggling convention. In 2003, the first British contact juggling convention was held in Scotland.

Contact jugglers can now be found at pretty much any juggling convention in the world.

See also

• Juggling
• Modern juggling culture

External links

• Contact Juggling.org
• ContactJugglingDotCom
• The original Yahoo! Group
• Patri's Contact Juggling Page (one of the first contact juggling sites on the web)
• The Ministry of Manipulation: the best contact juggling media
• Contact Juggling Basics at Wikihow
• Contactjuggler.com
• Template:Dmoz
• The BCJC 2003 on Scottish TV