2011 continued the trend of juggling branching out more online. Not just in the form of new jugglers and hobbyists to gain exposure, but in the realm of online video competitions. Jugglingstore.com had their first ever video contest, as did Gravitas juggling.  The IJA had their second annual video tutorial contest, which not only added many great tutorials to the world of juggling videos, but also offered many great prizes to its winners.

Records were set in 2011 as well. Numbers juggling beast Alex Barron became quite possibly the first person in documented history to flash 13 balls, and he also set a new record in 12 balls with 16 catches. Anthony Gatto dusted off his competitive spirit and set a stunning new record in 7 balls with a time of 11 minutes and 37 seconds.

The year saw the usual big juggling conventions. In its first time implemented, the IJA was able to use money from its anonymous iiWii donor in the form a festival fun fund which was spent on the 2011 festival in Rochester, MN. This funding added elements like an obstacle course, a jugglers’ lounge, and aided in sprucing up some of its additional functions, such as the joggling, and the extreme juggling competitions. On the sport juggling side of conventions, 2011 saw the WJF continue to evolve and shift from pure sport juggling towards a more diverse realm of manipulation, as their WJF 7 convention featured a ring isolation specialist headliner and a festival invasion of kendamaists. Unfortunately, not all festivals were well received, as some problems with the EJC 2011 in Munich, Germany led to a number of complaints from festival goers.

What does 2012 hold for the world of juggling? Surely there are many interesting developments to come. For instance, the IJA has announced a discontinuation of Juggle magazine in favor of a new eZine for 2012. There will no doubt be many exiting happenings on the horizons. Now, let’s juggle our way into a new year!

Events such as the individual prop competition, XJuggling, and joggling took place at the festival as usual, though there were a few new events this year.  Fire Nights occurred Tuesday and Wednesday night of the festival.  This allowed interested attendees to go outside of the convention center and manipulate fire props (torches, staffs, poi, etc.) or just watch the action take place in an organized and safely monitored environment.  The Gauntlet was another new addition to the festival.  This new piece was an obstacle course built onsite for jugglers to go through while juggling.  Obstacles included a foam pit, and platform jumping.  Many jugglers casually went through it whimsically for fun, though towards the end of the festival there was an organized run for more serious competitors who had clocked in with the fastest times.  There was also the new Busking Competition, where street performers got together to perform their acts outside to both jugglers and passersby alike.  The jugglers voted for their favorite acts with “busking bucks”.

There were many workshops spread throughout the festival.  In fact, so many went on, that many ran concurrent with other workshops, leaving attendees to choose between activities.  Subjects ranged from kendama, numbers juggling, and dance moves.  Stefan Sing had a very strong presence doing workshops throughout the festival.  His closed special workshop was called “Organic Juggling”, where he explored different areas of fully body movement while juggling minimal objects, while also teaching interesting individual moves such as smash pirouettes, and strangulation catches.  Sing also taught several open workshops during the festival regarding his style as well as a team workshop with his partner Christina Casadio. 

The Individual and Teams Championships was a very well attended event.  Showy Motion ended up winning the Teams Championships with a comedic Titanic-love story themed routine.  The Individuals competition saw the majority of the competitors coming from Japan.  Many of the routines included diabolo and ring manipulation.  Interestingly enough, one competitor did a entire routine using only shaker cups, going from 2 – 6 cups on stage.  Ultimately, Tony Pezzo won the individuals with a well polished routine that featured a lot of both creative and technical ring juggling.  In the Juniors competition, David Ferman took first place with a very high skill level toss juggling routine.

With the non-competative shows, Playing by Air performed at both the Benefit Show as well as the Welcome Show.  Their performance seemed to tell a story about a revolving cast of performers exploring different integrations of music and juggling.  They did a lot with cigar boxes and several pieces with glow balls.  Michael Karas did several solo pieces, including his new Tetris Juggling routine.  The Jugheads also performed during the Welcome show, which saw what must have been close to a hundred or more of them taking the stage and juggling in unison.  The Cascade of Stars was a truly amazing show to witness.  Though several previously announced Russian performers were unable to attend, the show did not seem to suffer in terms of talent.  Danger Juggling was very prominent during this performance; Tuey Wilson juggled five rings with a face balance while balancing on an unsupported ladder and The Danger Committee threw knives into a board around one of their troupe members.   Look Sharp! Performed some highly impressive team juggling skills.  Stefan Sing performed twice during the show, once doing his solo act “Pigeon, Why do you Scare Me?” and again towards the end doing a sunning two person manipulation piece with Christianna Casadio.  Francoise Rochais completed the show by doing some mixed object juggling with rings and umbrellas, and finished with a six baton juggle.

Other random highlights throughout the festival included the comfy and well-received Jugglers’ Lounge just outside the practice space, which had couches, air hockey, pinball, and a DVD player set up playing previous IJA festivals and the surprisingly extensive IJA history lounge, which had props used by many of the old greats, and other various historical items.  There were three Renegade Shows.  One of the festival surprises was free pizza at all the Renegade shows (courtesy of iiWii).  Some of the standout Renegade acts included Gypsy Geoff balancing a chair, and broom, and a spinning washtub on his face while everyone in the audience attempted to throw marshmallows into the washtub, Thom Wall performing a stacked glass tower on a mouth stick strip tease, and a full contact boxing/chess match, complete with scantily clad ring girl.

The festival seemed very well attended, and it was evident that many of the new events and supplemented activities caused by the iiWii donation went over very well.  Next year the IJA heads back to Winston-Salem, NC.

Doug Sayers juggling five torches at Fire Nights.

IJA History Lounge.

The Gauntlet.

The show opened with a lion taming routine featuring a group of white lions. The animals bounded around the circled floor jumping over one another, and sitting atop platforms while several performers directed them. There were several other animal acts featured throughout the show, including camels, elephants, and a canine review where dogs jumped over obstacles. That routine culminated when one small dog ascended a ladder and jumped off the top into the waiting arms of the ring master.

The human talent included a janitorial-themed clown, a hula hoopist, and an unicyclist, among several others. One of the standouts included the aerial artists. The first of which saw several performers dressed as cowgirls dangle from the ceiling and maneuver their bodies in various positions. One of the performers was suspended via a head apparatus, which left her arms free to manipulate a parasol, ribbon, and at one point, fire poi. The second aerial act featured a woman hanging from a metal hoop instead of a rope. She finished her act with a fast spinning movement hanging only by a strap on her neck while being pulled to the top of the building. There was a juggling act, which featured three performers juggling balls, clubs, rings, and torches. Highlights of the juggling included a three person club passing pattern, five ring juggling, and rapid pace circus-style club juggling.

Circus Pages put on a very entertaining and fairly polished performance. The show was different enough from previous years to remain unique, but still featured their usual format and key acts. There was a very diverse representation of circus entertainment, with the only real disappointment being the lack of any acrobats. As a whole, it was a very entertaining show.

The show opened up with a slow interpretive dance piece and slowly transitioned into a work of contortion, with performers balancing stacks of wine glasses on their feet while twisting around into various positions. Next followed a display of equilibristics, this included the balancing of objects on the chin while juggling sticks and a piece where a man caught and balanced large shaker cups onto his head. Act three contained the most pure juggling in the show. Several performers came out and juggled large bounce balls on their feet while laying down and began passing them back and forth. Right after that, there was a lengthy routine featuring hat juggling and manipulation. Highlights from this piece were six hat passing on stage and a five hat shower pattern. The first half of the show concluded with a roue cyr spinning wheel piece, where performers used various sized wheels. At one point, an acrobat came out on a wheel not much larger than a hula hoop, and just before the curtain dropped, a giant wheel rolled out with multiple people on it, manipulating its movement collectively.

Part two opened up with some teeter board balancing, and then moved transitioned to a lighter note with a man and woman ballet duo. A segment featuring diabolo came next, with multiple performers doing spins and various moves together on stage with the prop. At one point, a giant string was stretched across the length of the stage with a performer on each end, and two diabolos were sent from each side, and bounced over one another to the opposing end of the stage. The most intense moment of the night came with the Tower of Chairs act. An acrobat stood on the main floor (the stage was too tall) and began stacking chairs one upon each other while others handed them to him, until he was 20+ feet in the air near the ceiling of the venue. He then held onto the top chair, and performed a handstand before slowing disassembling the tower and making his way down. Several more feats of balance and multiperson acrobatics followed before the performers left the stage, to a standing ovation from the audience.

The show opened with the brothers stacking and moving cardboard boxes around on stage until they inevitibly pulled out the juggling clubs and started passing. They then went into several of their pieces exploring the rhythmical relationship between juggling and music, which included hitting their clubs together and juggling clubs with bells. Other skits included a comical ballet, and juggling a cascade together while they all played instruments. While it was the same show I had seen previously, there were a few new pop culture jokes and references, most notably several about Charlie Sheen and Lady Gaga.

For the Gamble, I had brought a bloody brain latex prop in hopes that they would juggle it on stage during their challenge segment. My prop was not selected, though they did play with it and shoot it off stage with a cap gun after it “reverse zombie” attacked one of the brothers. The items that were chosen for the Gamble were: an old television antenna, an Easter egg basket filled with Easter eggs (which were filled with candies), and raw tripe. After a very messy first attempt, Nikita won the Gamble on his second try after making the slight modification of taping the eggs into the basket. The brothers finished out the show with a lengthy and impressive four person club passing bit and ended with their classic Terror Trick, which involves juggling many dissimilar objects such as a cleaver, an egg, a bottle of wine, and a frying pan.

After the show, the brothers were very approachable and talkative to everyone who stuck around afterwards. It was a very entertaining show through and through for both jugglers and non-jugglers alike. Check out The Flying Karamazov Brothers current schedule to see if they are coming to a city near you.