EJC 2024, Ovar, Portugal

Saturday

I learned to juggle as a kid in the 70s and really started to get into juggling in 1992. I got torches in January of 1993 and immediately went out to the local pedestrian mall to try them out and see if I could get some coin. I only had a few tricks and was dropping a lot, when some guy came over and asked if he could try them. He blew me away with trick after trick in a way I had never seen. Raphael introduced himself and invited me to the local juggling club and was hugely instrumental in my early career. He gave me skill pointers and performance advice, shared his collection of IJA videos with me, and also organized the first juggling convention I went to. Unfortunately, he left the country in the early 2000s and I never saw him again.

… Until we met in line for the first show of EJC 2024 in Ovar, Portugal! Great to see you again, Raphael!

Portuguese Gala

There is always so much energy waiting for the shows to start, particularly the first one on opening night. There was all the usual antics – waves, pirouettes, prairie dogging, screaming matches, silly dances, and more. Everyone was so ready to have a great time.

Mica Paprika, a chainsaw juggler, opened the show. He first juggled with 1 saw and 2 balls, then swung and juggled 2 saws, and finished with 3. A roaring start!

Carlos Gaudi did a dramatic presentation in white. His specialty was ring on ring spinning and body bounces and rolls. He worked with up to 4 rings and ended with a fountain and pull-down.

Oliveirinha is an “old skool” hat spinner, and he executed curls with hats on both hands. He shower juggled 3 hats on his head and did other trick catches. He spun 4 hats on a head pedestal, mouthstick and 2 fingers. He spun 5 on a chair with mounted sticks, all with a very likable character.

“With Rope” was a duo dance/movement act by Concorda with both sharing the rope and manipulating it around their bodies and creating cat’s cradle types of forms. Their dramatic movements and interesting interactions were very popular.

Luis Reis came on in stripes and started with mime and audience interactions. Then he moved into diabolo, starting slow like a ballerina, but then picked up the pace and went through body moves, whip catches, stick releases, and a nice double duicide. He ended with vertax and all the associated big tricks.

Carmo Madeira did aerial hoop accompanied by a live jazz singer. She did many spinning poses and rolled her body around and through the hoop.

Tiago Algusto performed phallic clubs to a humorous song. He worked his way through 3, 4, and 5 phalli.

Francisco Simões had a high-energy act with hats and disco and hip-hop dancing. He had tons of charisma as he manipulated hats while doing gymnastic dance moves. He also had some funny spontaneous interactions with the audience. He switched to flamenco style and performed with flair and dramatic poses. A highlight was 441 with the 1 chest rolled. He did many siteswaps with 4 and a shower to his head. He cascaded 5 and then did a combo of juggling 2 in one hand while balancing or spinning 3 others around his body. He ended with a classy behind the body blind heel catch.

Francsco Simolinch closed the show with fast and smooth moves with 3 clubs. He had a unique style of swiping clubs in mid-air and presented with a lot of dramatic movements.

Watch clips from the Portuguese Gala in the video below (0:39-11:56)

0:39 Mica Paprika, chainsaw juggler
1:25 Carlos Gaudi, ring juggler
2:15 Oliveirinha, hat manipulation
3:28 Concorda, rope dance
5:04 Luis Reis, diabolo
6:25 Carmo Madeira, aerial hoop
7:54 Tiago Algusto, phallic clubs
9:03 Francisco Simões, hat juggling
10:31 Francsco Simolinch?, club juggler

Sunday

I missed the Parade and the Welcome Show, “Catch the Beat” by Jonglissimo, but luckily there are some good videos online:

 

 

Special Show – “Concorda” @cordaconcorda

This show was a variation on the rope act from last night, but with a theme of stages of life. I didn’t connect to it so much, but the standing ovation and discussions I had with others put me in the minority.

Watch clips from Concorda in the video below (19:52-22:48):

Monday

Open Stage

Emcee

Ho Ho from Hong Kong opened the show with acrylic contact. But he didn’t do the usual slow flow – it was a fast-paced hip-hop act with dancing and lots of body movement and clever finger-work. The crowd loved his energy.

Nicola from Italy started his ball act with 3 through and between his legs in many variations. He did some clever disappearing balls illusions and had lots of body moves and bounces. He did a run of 7 balls and then 5 with many tricks including an impressive run of 5 ball backcrosses. Back to 3 balls, he did some unique tricks crawling and rolling around with balls flying out in every direction.

Nao from Japan performed diabolo only in vertax. I don’t even know how to describe the crazy variations, but it was fast and furious. He even casually took a drink from a water bottle while maintaining a one-handed vertax.

Mathilde and Lula did unique trapeze act because there was no swinging on the rig. It was actually using the trapeze as a prop to manipulate. They did some sync patty-cake with the bar, and then passed it around and ran around with it and had all sorts of clever interactions.

Te Juggling had “Peach”and “Kiko” passing while their third spoke about the importance of consent with your passing (and other) partners. It was clever and the message went over well.

Raj from India did a nice hat act. He did body rolls and head catches with 1 and 2 and then moved up to 3 with various body placements and a shower to his head. He did some tough behind the neck rolls, sometimes ending with an elbow bump with 3 and 4 hats. With 4, he also juggled them in fountain and with multiplexes, often with head placements. He finished with a clean 5 hat cascade.

Mark, “The Catching Machine,” from Brazil did a hoop act. He manipulated 3 with his feet and legs and in the air with different patterns. He did rolling reverse shoulder and behind the neck rolls. He did 4 in fountain and 7531. He did Bramson rolls, including with a surprise neck-spin. And he ended with a 5 hoop cascade.

From Japan, Shiroto was another great diabolist on the roster. He had some of the smoothest vertax I’ve seen. Really outrageous tricks with 1, then he went wild with 2 (still in vertax) and 3 (still in vertax!)! So many crazy tricks that got outrageously harder and harder, and also more aesthetic and beautiful. He earned a big standing ovation.

Ivo from Czech Republic used 3 flowers sticks (without handsticks) like batons or short staffs for a type of contact routine, rolling them around his body, around his arms, and twirling along the other sticks. He also worked with 4 and showered them around his neck and shoulders and did (I think) 633 with should rolls.

The finale of all finales was Masahiro Takahashi from Japan. I don’t even know how to describe all the tricks and variations that he invented and presented. Some highlights included crazy albert variations like all on one side. His 4 club solid shoulder throws in lazies were glorious and he also did alberts with 4. And so many 5 club siteswaps with mixed spins. He did a very long run of 5 club backcrosses combining additional tricks like under the leg throws. He did hard pirouettes and a beautiful 5 reverse on flats. He did 5 club Mills Mess with siteswaps and other tricks. He move up to 6 clubs with fountain and siteswaps and multiplexes and body throws. Hi finished with a long run of 7 clubs. And, of course, a huge standing ovation for the best club juggler in the world.

Watch clips from the Open Stage in the video below (-22:49-34:14):

22:49 Ho Ho, contact juggling
24:11 Nicola, ball juggling
25:53 Nao, diabolo
27:27 Mathilde and Lula, trapeze manipulation
28:16 Te Juggling, club passing and consent
30:30 Raj, hat juggling
32:00 Mark, hoops
32:48 Shiroto, diabolo
33:20 Ivo, flowerstick contact
33:40 Masahiro Takahashi, club juggling

Special Show – Xampatito Pato

Skilled clowning with cigar boxes. Started with a huge jenga-like statue of cigar boxes on the stage. He built up tension by taking out boxes and letting it get more precarious until the inevitable crash. He had a lot of cute gags and a very likable character. He did a clever 3 card monte interaction with the audience and some good ball juggling, too, including behind the head throws, siteswaps, and multiplexes with 3, 4, and 5 balls. He did a very funny Jenga game with a volunteer. Then bounce juggling 3-5 balls, including on a V he created from his table. Of course he did cigar box tricks, but mostly he was highly entertaining and full of surprises. Even cleaning up the stage at the end was fun. Standing ovation.

Watch clips from Xampatito Pato in the video below (34:15-44:54):

Tuesday

EJA General Assembly

It was decided that EJC 2026 will be held in Ptuj, Slovenia.

Open Stage

Emceed by Andy Erlanger.

Isabel from Belgium started with attempts at 4 and 5 club multiplexes, but got into the groove with her 3 club routine to violin music. At the end, she pulled off her 4 and 5 club multiplexes.

Erik did some nice contact juggling and then his ball turned to a ball on a string which led to some cool effects. He increased to 2 and 3 balls with one having a string which took the pattern out of the plane and made it more 3D. He had poi meteors that he juggled skillfully in a few patterns.

Companie JHEB with Eyal Bor and Jean-Hicham Rahmoun. They started with alternating and synced multiplexing up all 5 balls in a tower throw in great rhythm. Most of their routine was done passing balls in an overhead windshield wiper position with more and more balls getting added to the patterns.

Joy and Daniela performed cigar boxes with a Matrix theme. They took turns showing off their skills and then did a choreographed sync routine. They ended with 4, 5, and 6 box interactions.

Aria did aerial hoop with a big smile. She did many flexible poses in and outside the hoop.

Dani from Chile started with 2 club manipulations but then did 3 with tons of great body throws. He did Alberts and reverse under leg lazies. He did body and neck rolls and 4 with multiplexes and mixed spin patterns. He did 5 with many tricks including backcrossses.

Selenia started by balancing a hoop in different ways and then did isolation and rolling tricks with 2. She juggled 3 and balled up the 3 hoops to balance the structure. She did some combo tricks with 5 and 6 hoops with balances, hula, body spins, and balances.

Zuka from Argentina was the highlight of the night. Three armed juggling is hard to describe, but much of it was performed with one arm behind the head, which should be awkward, but 3 and 5 ball patterns were done to perfection. Standing ovation.

The emcee took off his shirt and juggled 3 clubs singles with no tricks (but much character) for 5 minutes for peace.

Frenchie pranced around with bubbles and did the tiniest contact ball, but then did a more traditional contact routine.

Verena closed the show with a hard rock 3 club routine. She did good tricks with high energy.

Watch clips from the Open Stage in the video below (44:55-end):

Tuesday Open Stage
44:55 Isabel, club juggling
45:59 Erik, ball juggling magic
47:15 Eyal Bor and Jean-Hicham Rahmoun, ball juggling
49:25 Joy and Daniela, cigar boxes
51:35 Aria, aerial hoop
52:33 Selenia, hoop juggling
54:05 Zuka, 3-armed ball juggling
55:05 Frenchie, contact juggling
55:57 Verena, club juggling

Special Show – “The Dark Side of the Moon” by Insomnia Nou Circ

They had a lot of interactions with 1 club, but then moved up to 7 club passing in doubles and singles. They reverted to 1 club each doing a snappy synced routine. They did takeouts ad exchanges and many interactions with 3, 4, and 5 clubs. They passed 6 in many patterns including ultimates and then moved up to 7, 8, and 9 club passing.

Wednesday

Volleyclub 

Open Stage

MCs: Swantje and Axel

Marvin and Melanie from USA did a space theme “throwing” around lights and then did some awesome glo-clubs. They had a nice sync swinging routine and then did 3 clubs with takeouts. They had nice visual formations and passed 7 clubs. The ended with synced 4 clubs each.

Junya from Japan and Germany did hoop isolations with 1 and 2. He was very smooth and had beautiful effects.

Ryo Atami from Japan did clubs with fast swinging tricks. He did 4 and 5 in different patterns. His specialty was multiplexes and he did quite a few with 5 and even 6 and 7 clubs.

 

Skorza came on in pink and green (costume, hair, clubs). His clubs seemed to have mind of their own as they yanked him around stage. He worked well with the music and had a good variety of club tricks including chest rolls, placements, balances, and club-tapping tricks.

“Tactile” hoop act by Emma Hörnell was performed blind-folded. She did 1, 2, and 3 hoops with lots of manipulations and many surprising blind catches. She did expert body rolling including Bramson rolls (normal and also front-to-back).

Liri Kamai from Israel did 3 green balls with sudden juggling and body movements. He rolled on the ground with throws through his legs and did many blind behind the head throws in different ways.

Elvis from Portugal did club manpipulations around his body and his style had many twists and twirls. His trademark is horizontal foot catches that surprisingly appeared from within complex juggling sequences. They got increasingly wacky with 4 clubs and more foot catches out of nowhere.

Daniel was the second space theme of the night with a peacock feather to demonstrate the weightlessness of outer space. He shot a feather high in the air and caught it in a face balance. He pushed the balance to different locations on his body like his foot and elbow. He juggled and balanced 3 in various clever ways.

General Marshall Stenka did a milatary themed routine with marches and poses. He juggled 3 wooden triangles and used them to create 3D sculptures.

Wang did super fast diabolo and it seemed like the handsticks were never in has hands. The crazy tricks got crazier, but it’s impossible to describe. His 3 and 4 had many tricks, seemingly done with eases. A great routine got a standing ovation.

Watch clips from the Open Stage in the video below (0:12-10:36):
0:12 Marvin and Melanie, glo-clubs
1:18 Junya, hoop isolations
2:26 Ryo Atami. clubs
3:15 Skorza, clubs
4:07 Emma Hornell, blind-folded hoop manipulation/juggling
5:07 Liri Kamai, 3 balls
6:14 Elvis, club juggling
7:07 Daniel, peacock feathers
8:31 General Marshall Stenka, Triangle juggling
9:30 Wang, diabolo

Special Show – “Footprints” by Zartinka

Teen youth circus with a lie musician playing electric guitar, keyboard, and singing.
Started with an ensemble of about 20 teen artists. There were many aerial acts: hoop in hoop, swinging trapeze, silks, straps, duo trapeze, single hoop. They had routines with trick bike, roller skating, acrobatics, Chinese pole, tightrope, and some juggling. A good variety performed professionally. But, honestly, the highlight was the musician.

Watch clips from “Footprints” in the video below (10:37-24:54):

 

Special Show – “Don’t be Shy” by Cirquencia @cirquencia

Thursday

Open Stage

Emcee: Bruno (and helper, Diego)

Alfredo Cornejo from Mexico did slick 3 clubs including a nice solid behind the head cascade and sevveral blind scorpion kicks. With 4, he did siteswaps and multiplexes, and a high throw with low backcrosses, and a high throw with treblas. He did 5 in doubles, triples, and singles as well as some tough siteswaps and multiplexes and ended with a 3-up pirouette.

Disco dance couple, Argan, did acro and gymnastics. They did upside-down connected cartwheels. With glo-clubs, they did a runaround and many takeouts and steas. All throughout they danced and had huge smiles on their faces. They finished with a shoulder stand with juggling on top.

Catalina from Chile started with a 6 hoop spinning combo and then did a costume changes before proceeding with hoop manipulations and tricks such as Bramson rolls, cascade lazies, rolling reverse shoulders, and balancing a hoop while spinning 2 on each arm. She ended with a very very long run of 5 hoops.

Yan from France juggled 3 balls in impressive and humorous form. He surprised with behind the back elbow traps and fast bdy placements and sudden stalls. His artistry and visual humor got a small standing ovation.

Alejo Santos from Colombia skated in on rollerblades and performed with a shiny golden diabolo. He did lots of body moves while in constant motion and did an endless suicide. He did a blind between legs behind whip catch and then moed on to two diabolos with many tricks and a 2-high pirouette. He ended with some vertax tricks.

Alejandra started by creating a pretty star made of 2 handsticks and 3 devilsticks. She did propellors in both hands while balancing the third stick. She had many pretty moves with her whole body including shoulder pads, belly rolls, and behind the back traps. She did above head helicopters and later a propellor pirouette. Her ending of 3 devilsticks earned her a partial standing ovation.

A quartet of club artists from Netherlands and France and Germany performed in white and turquoise. They did solo tricks and many synced routines with three, as well as some passing. Two passed through the handstand legs of the others, and later through the handstand legs while in a high hand-to-hand handstand.

Rikard from Sweden had unique oval rings that he manipulated and gracefully slid through each other.

Shion from Japan did stringless kendama. He did some wild cup and spike catches. He also did two handsticks and 1 ball as well as two balls and 1 handstick. He ended with 2 sticks and 2 balls.

Cindy Marvell (IJA Individual champion in 1989??????) from NY and Colorado performed her classic club routine. In graceful style, she included backcrosses on singles and doubles, and a stylish Mills mess. She started 4 clubs with a kickup and did several patterns. She ended with some magic cane spinning.

Christopher Silva from Brazil closed the show. He started with kicking a ball to a knee stall and then kicking the ball to a top of head balance. He juggled 4 with many tricks and body stalls, including a crazy 3 cascade throwing one high and kicking a ball to the head balance before resuming 3. He then went wild with 5 doing more tricks and stalls.

Watch clips from the Open Stage in the video below (24:55-36:45):
24:55 Alfredo Cornejo, club juggling
26:05 Argan, disco acro and juggling
27:03 Catalina, hoops
27:46 Yan, ball juggling
29:01 Alejo Santos, diabolo
30:17 Alejandra, devilsticks
31:21 A quartet of club passers
32:14 Rikard, oval rings
33:29 Shion, stringless kendama
34:22 Cindy Marvell, club juggling
35:32 Christopher Silva, ball juggling

I missed the special shows and Fight Night because I decided to be social and accept an invite to dinner with some friends at an airbnb. Between the 8 people in attendance, there were over 100 years of EJCs (1 first-timer, 2 more with fewer than ten, 3 in the teens, and 2 in higher double-digits). So many great stories shared and good times had by all.

Special Show – “BPM” by Cie Poc @ciepoc

Special Show – “Bal(les) by Compagnie Zalatai

See full article here.

Watch clips from “Bal(les)” in the video below (36:45-46:26):

Fight Night

Friday

Special Show – “Pyramid” by Dominik La Terra

This show is mostly an exploration of 2 skills. The multiplexes with 4 through 7 balls were various patterns combining all different manner of multiplex (often with 3 or 4 or more balls). The other skill was basically juggling while holding 3 balls in the hand and sort of bouncing the incoming balls of the handful. Of course the multiplexes and handful bounces were combined in eery conceiabel way. Aside from the juggling he had pedestals of different sizes that he moved around as useful structures to interact with the balls and also as stands for different pyramid stacks of balls that he bulit and rebuilt throughout.

Diabolo Battle

Fire Gala

 

Saturday

Games

Gala

Antoin Jacot @antoinejuggler come on with his faced wrapped in silk like a mummy, and he did club manipulations. He slowly let the silk unwrap as 3 industrial fans below him blew the cloth in a tornado above and around him while he juggled clubs. One club floated in and out of his patterns on a drone. He attached the silk to the handle of one club and was able to do sort of poi tricks with the tail. He did a lot of 5 club tricks including a solid 5-high pirouette, and ended with 6 in double-triples.

The emcee did spinning balls with curls, behind the back transfers, spinning during a one-handed cartwheel, 2 arms curls, and finished with spinning in one hand and juggling two big balls in the other.

Tony Balhausen from Germany did an accountant-themed act, starting with some cool magic with a pen. He juggled 3 balls and the pen, combining cool tricks and clever magic. He juggled 5 in the air and also bounced them, and he also bounced 6. He juggled 7 in the air, but missed one ball that bounced away. But surprisingly, he threw the other balls down and they were all beanbags.

Bow juggler @bow_juggler did manipulations with 3 ropes and then showed his mastery of poi juggling with 3 in many aesthetic patterns, and also a solid cascade with 5. He did manipulations with 2, incorporating blind catches. He ended by juggling 3 poi balls as the rope tails glided through the air.

Charlotte de la Bretèque @charlotte.multicordes performed a aerial from a fringed rope which allowed for many tangled wraps and acrobatic poses. Her specialty was the many (near) floor drops.

Francisco Contreras, the diabolist started with vertax with 1, 2, and even 3. He did 2 in vertax below his body and skipping the rope quickly. He shuffled 4 diabolos and did tricks. He used the whole stage and had a lot of charisma and energy.

Insomnia No Cirque @insomnia_nuevo_circo reprived some of their show the other night. They had many takeouts and exchanges with 2 and clubs, but the highlight was their 5 club side-by-side patterns.

Fernanda Sumano @lafersh started with club and hoop manipulations including a cool hoop head balance and doing a club headroll through the hoop. She sand a hip-hop song against violence against women (lyrics here). She did a 3 hoop routine and a short club routine. She balanced a club on her face and spun 2 on each arm, and then rolled the balance back to a foot spin behind her. And she proceeded to juggle the 4 hoops while maintaining the foot spin. Fernanda ended by cascading 5 hoops.

Kouta Oohashi @koutaoohashi from Japan was a virtuoso with 3, 4, and 5 balls.

Niels Duinker @nielsduinker from Holland did condenced highlights of his stage show including 5 balls in many patterns, a hat routine with 1 and 3 hats, 8 and 10 shaker cups, 3 glo clubs with super fast spins, and 8 rings. He’s a one-man variety show and a great showman.

Carlo Cerato @carlo.cerato from Italy did what I heard was called scarves 2.0. He juggled super light-weight paper cube-like structures in a floaty style. He dropped a square ring around a smaller paper cube and its impact brought the prop into flight. He blew it and swept it around the airspace in an ethereal manner.

Alexander Kublikov’s @koblikov famous sailor act was spectacular to see live. Such smooth perfection!

Manuel Mitasch @manuel_mitasch and Moritz Rosner @juggling__mo from Jonglissimo @jonglissimo did glo clubs with amazing light effects. Perfectly timed color changing props (and floor lighting) enhanced some of the most difficult synced juggling tricks and passing.

Watch clips from the Gala in the video below (46:27-59:35):
46:27 Antoin Jacot, clubs
48:16 Tony Balhausen, ball juggling and magic
49:17 Bow juggler, poi juggling
50:39 Charlotte de la Bretèque, rope aerial
51:40 Francisco, diabolo
53:12 Insomnia No Cirque, clubs
54:10 Fernanda Sumano, hoops
55:14 Kouta Oohashi, ball juggling
55:59 Niels Duinker, balls, hats, shaker cups, gloclubs, rings
57:39 Carlo Cerato, floaty paper
58:12 Alexander Kublikov, ball juggling
58:21 Manuel Mitasch and Moritz Rosner, club passing

Special Show – “E-nxada” by Erva Daninha

Hoes and chimes and water and agriculture theme

Watch clips from “E-nxada” in the video below (59:36-end):

 

I started the article by talking about my long lost friend and mentor, Raphael, whom I met at EJC after not seeing each other for decades. We enjoyed many of the shows together (and even sat through some that we didn’t particularly love). And bringing things full circle, 2 old friends I chatted with at EJC told me how influential I was in their early experiences with juggling. It’s great to receive from others and also to pass things forward. So the cycle continues…

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For additional coverage of EJC, see the following:

Luke Burrage’s youtube channel contains the following EJC videos:

• Sunday – Jonglissimo, ConCorda
• Exploring the Traders’ Area
• Monday Open Stage (feat. Masahiro Takahashi)
• Volleyclub Finals Highlights
• The Juggling Games!!!
• Weird Juggling Props and Projects
• Fight Night Combat!!!🥇🥈🥉
• How to Fix an EJC Gala Show

TW-Juggling’s channel contains the following:

• EJC Portugal Part1 including clips from the shows on Saturday – Tuesday.
• Portugal EJC – Part2 including clips from the shows

Thanks also to Paul Anderson for the photos in this article (and for being an EJC legend).