Notes and queries and a case full of clubs: Style Notes

One word which is often bandied about in discussions and descriptions of jugglers and juggling is “style”. Some have it, some don’t. Someone juggles in a particular style, or has their own distinctive and defining style. But what does it really mean to have style, and how can we develop it in our own juggling? Let us start with our …

Notes and queries and a case full of clubs: Concepts

As has hopefully become clear over the course of my writings here, it is vitally important to me to tie conceptual ideas (theory) to actual physical work (practice). This link from theory to practice is easy to demonstrate in a workshop or classroom situation, but somewhat harder to visualise when writing about the process. I have already discussed factors of …

Notes and queries and a case full of clubs: Subjugation

As jugglers it seems to make clear and perfect sense to define ourselves based on our props: on tricks, on whirling orbits and topological paths, and perhaps also through our connection to the juggling community and the wider, but related, communities of other circus arts. Sometimes, and if moving away from the basic facts of juggling to those of performance …

Notes and queries and a case full of clubs: Words of the Week

My last article took one particular theme (efficiency) and explored it as fully as I could. I often tend to fixate on one particular aspect of juggling at a time, and then try to understand and clarify my thoughts and beliefs on said aspect. Sometimes that clarification takes place in a notebook, sometimes in my head, and sometimes in an …

Notes and queries and a case full of clubs: Efficiency

In the last 12 months, 12 weeks (a total of 52 days) of my juggling-working life has been spent teaching. Teaching juggling to advanced students at circus schools in Holland, Sweden, France, Germany and Ireland has accounted for 25% of my income in that time. That is a sizeable amount, and teaching is clearly by now one of the major …

Notes and queries and a case full of clubs: PROPS

This month my article is a magazine. You know, like in the old days. You can download the (4 page) PDF file via the link below, and I recommend that you print it out to read. It is formatted for A4 paper, but scaling it to US letter should be fine. If you don’t like dead-trees, view it on your …

Notes and queries and a case full of clubs: Object Physical Research

In my last column I wrote at length about the inherent conceptual content of juggling, and so I thought the best way to follow up on that would be by bringing the topic back down to something more tangible: the most tangible and basic thing possible – how we move the objects we use. Something I hold very dear is …

Notes and queries and a case full of clubs: Risk

Almost everyone I speak to has a different definition of juggling. Some elements of some of these definitions I can easily agree with. Others, not so easily. It is hard enough for me to pin down my own definition in any clear way without having to deal with those of others. But if I was pressed to say something fundamental, …