Editors: Don Lewis and Martin Frost
ijanews@juggle.org
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CONTENTS
- Chair’s message
- Use Amazon Smile – Support the IJA
- Sam Williams, aka Smerdyakov Karamazov
- IJA Honorary Awards nominations open
- IRC South America 2016 Santiago: November 6, 2016
- Our thoughts are with the circus community of Colombia
- Latest articles in eJuggle
- Upcoming juggling festivals
Chair’s message, by Nathan Wakefield
For nearly every established organization, an ever present challenge is to adapt to emerging trends, technologies and standards. Thankfully, we have extremely dedicated team of officers that are always working to make the IJA the best it can be. One of our biggest challenges we’ve faced over the past few years has been modernizing the functionality and image of our website — or, to be accurate, websites, as various parts have been maintained in different places.
This has been an incredibly laborious endeavor, as in there are many features (membership management, festival registration, historical content, eJuggle articles, etc.) that need to be integrated in addition to modernizing the look and feel of the website.
Last year, we made major strides with our online modernization efforts by integrating an AMS system (YM) to help streamline some of our online processes. Now we are taking it to the next level.
For a number of months, we’ve been working with a vendor to improve how our online systems are integrated and to update the look of the website. It’s been a lot of hard work and testing both from our end and on the vendor’s side, but now the time has come for the great unveiling!
For the functionality of the new site, logins have been homogenized between our membership (YM) pages and eJuggle. Browsing has been made much more user friendly with improved navigation, and editing is now much easier for our website maintainers, so program pages can be updated with less effort from our volunteers.
This is not to mention that this new website features a snazzy new look and modern design. Our historical content will still be available on our old site, and our new website will include plenty of information about the IJA’s illustrious history in addition to all the new content.
The new website has just become available, at: www.juggle.org. We are still fine tuning a few things, but we hope you like the new site. We’ll have more info about it in the next eNewsletter.
Preserving our history while looking toward the future,
Nathan Wakefield
IJA Chairman
Use Amazon Smile – Support the IJA, by Don Lewis
A lot of people shop on Amazon these days. Did you know that Amazon has a program called Smile that supports the IJA (and other non-profits)? You can select the IJA as your supported non-profit and the IJA will get a small fraction of what you spend at Amazon. There is no additional cost to you — you just use Amazon like you normally would except that you start at smile.amazon.com. As more people choose to support the IJA this way, our small donation from this online seller will grow.
The first time you visit smile.amazon.com, it will ask you to pick a charity from a very long list. The International Jugglers’ Association is on the list. Click to select the IJA, and then shop as usual. The IJA has absolutely no idea who is buying what. Each time you shop Amazon, start at smile.amazon.com and shop as usual. Everything is the same once you’ve selected the IJA as your designated charity. Set up a bookmark for smile.amazon.com and shop with merry abandon.
Sam Williams, aka Smerdyakov Karamazov
Sam Williams, former member of the Flying Karamazov Brothers, died in Seattle November 17, 2016. He suffered a heart attack while driving a RapidRide city bus. Passengers helped him to stop the bus, but they were unable to revive him. Sam toured for 18 years with the Karamazovs in the iconic role of Smerdyakov. In later years he drove hybrid buses for Seattle Metro while staying home to raise his children. Sam Williams was 63.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/viaduct-heartattack/
IJA Honorary Awards nominations open
The IJA Awards Committee is seeking nominations for honorary IJA awards that are given out at the annual festival. See the awards descriptions and past winners. Who do you think deserves an IJA award? Send nominations or comments to: awards@juggle.org right away as the deadline is nigh.
IRC South America 2016 Santiago: November 6, 2016, by Erin Stephens
The second IJA Regional Competition – South America of 2016 was held November 6 in Santiago, Chile. This event was held in partnership with Organic Juggling, an organization focused on the promotion of “urban juggling”. On the Saturday before the IRC, Organic Juggling held its 31st monthly juggling event in a centralized public park of the capitol city of Santiago. It was attended by over 500 people, though Jorge Vilchis (the other IJA Representative present for the event) and I were told that this was small attendance compared to the usual 1,000 to 1,200. Throughout the day, there were games, workshops, live hip hop music and a freestyle best trick show to close out the evening. The skill level of the Chilean jugglers is incredibly high, and I was quickly reminded of why the jugglers of Chile are called “Maquinas” — or, in English, “Machines”.
Eight finalists made it into the IRC. The competition was held in a classy cinema turned into a stage theater. The audience was packed. The competitors were nervous. The wifi wasn’t working, but the lights and sound were — and that’s what’s important. As the organizer of the IRCs, I am always in awe when, after months of organizing an event, the competition actually happens, the audience is thunderous, the routines are impressive, and the scores are determined.
After the eight routines unfolded, in a myriad of chaos and perfection, the judges exited to review the final scores. As the competitors waited anxiously in a line on the stage, the following medalists were announced.
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Gold Medal: Jose Louis Concha Vargas Silver Medal: Carlos Araya Gomez Bronze Medal: Darwin Ignacio Vergara Góngora |
The 2016 IJA Regional Competitions have proven to be more than I ever could have dreamt of when I started this program in 2011. With five IRCs throughout the world and over 40 competitors, I was blown away by the skill levels showcased in these competitions this year. I have been impressed and inspired by the world-wide unity of the juggling community that is now following and supporting the IRCs, as well as the motivation this has provided for juggling progress in the regions where it has been held. I am excited to see how these competitions continue to grow into 2017.
Our thoughts are with the circus community of Colombia
On November 9, as a bus load of circus artists was on its way to the National Colombian Circus Convention, a horrible bus accident occurred. This was a chartered bus, hired to transport festival attendees to the convention. Approximately 40 people were taken to the hospital to be treated for injuries ranging from minor to severe. A talented 18-year-old acrobat, Angie Liseth Gutiérrez Villabon, suffered a severe head injury and passed away 5 days later.
Four of the competitors from the recent IRC South America 2016 Bogotá were in the accident:
Gold Medalist, Israel Frutos Alejandro (Niño Topo), fractured his elbow and was in the hospital for several days.
Emerson Noise had to have surgery on his knee and is still in the hospital.
Erika Garcia fractured vertebrae in her neck and is now wearing a neck brace.
Silver Medalist Anderson Pereira da Silva was in the accident and was admitted to the hospital, only receiving a minor scratch on his arm. Two of his best friends are Emerson and Niño Topo.
The organizers of the Convencion Colombiana de Circo, who had chartered the bus, were also the group that partnered with the IJA to organize the IRC that had taken place in Colombia a couple weeks before. They were amazing to work with, well organized, incredibly honored to be working with the IJA and excited to talk about other future collaborations. Our thoughts are with this organizing team, as it can only be imagined the types of challenges they have had to face throughout this incident.
This has been a huge tragedy for the Latin American juggling community and beyond. Juggling and circus groups in several countries are organizing variety shows to raise money to send to those who are now facing enormous medical bills, and many have been sending photos, videos, drawings and kind words to all who were involved in the accident. While it can be challenging to look at the positives during times like this, the things that have come out of this are an incredible outpouring of appreciation for life, unification of the juggling and circus communities, and an outpouring of love and support for all that have been affected by this incident. The IJA joins in sending hope for speedy recoveries of body and heart for all.
Latest articles in eJuggle
IJA Tricks of the Month November 2016 Japan by Kouta Oohashi
Kouta Oohashi is a 21-year-old juggler from Nagasaki who has been juggling for around 7 years. Unfortunately, he broke his wrist last year and had to stop juggling for a while. Although he was able to record this video, he is not completely healed but he will soon be able to fully get back to […]
Young Juggling Stars of The Lone Star State
Historically speaking, the state of Texas (United States of America) hasn’t really had a huge impact on the world of juggling, at least not for an area of its size. However, that may be changing. There’s no doubt that there are some very good jugglers there now (though many are not native Texans), or that […]
The Indian Brothers Medua and Mooty Samme
The first time I read about the brothers Medua and Mooty Samme, I was looking for the obscure Chinese origin of devilsticks and one of the oldest sources I could find was an article from Mary Saucier (1) where she wrote that: “Ricky Jay, a Hollywood magician/juggler and collector of juggling information, dug up from […]
Cobra Coin Catching – A Skill You Can Learn In A Day
The first time I saw the skill now known as cobra coin catching was in the 1980s, when famed comedy juggler Michael Davis performed it in his television special. However, the trick is more than 100 years old. It was included in the book Juggling Secrets by Will Goldston, which was published in 1911. Here […]
Asaf Mor Profile
Asaf originally started juggling at a young age in Israel. When he was in high school, he decided he wanted to pursue juggling professionally. This began a journey through several circus programs and currently has him in France. Tune in to this episode to learn a little bit about how Asaf creates his acts and […]
Museum of Juggling History Adds The Paul Bachman Collection
In late October of 2016, juggling historians David Cain (me) and Scott Cain traveled to a suburb of Chicago, IL (USA) to acquire the late Paul Bachman’s enormous historical juggling collection to add to the Museum of Juggling History, which is located just north of Cincinnati, OH. The Bachman Collection contained hundreds of amazing props, […]
Spoilt for Choice Comic
click to enlarge
Franco Piper – The Banjo Juggler
One of the most unique juggling acts of all time was performed by South African juggler and musician Franco Piper. Piper was born in 1881 and was a child prodigy at playing the banjo. He wasn’t content to simply play the instrument in a standard way, but constantly experimented with methods that allowed him to […]
A Message from The Chairman, October 2016
We’ve got a lot of great things going at the IJA with our programs right now. The IRC program continues to take off at a rapid speed. In fact, as I write this, IJA IRC Coordinator Erin Stephens is in Colombia for the Bogotá IRC. This event has one of the highest number of competitor […]
Juggler’s Scoop- October 2016
Juggler’s Scoop is a monthly collection of the latest juggling videos and news bits from around the web. Here’s the latest scoop! – Marvin Ong and Wyatt Davis team up to get creative with partner club manipulation. – Nathan Biggs-Penton experiments with different 423 variations. – Andrew Olson continues his three ball research in ‘Schiftosity.’ […]
Upcoming juggling festivals
Below is a list of some upcoming juggling festivals. For a list of even more fests, check the worldwide juggling event listings on our website at: dev.juggle.org/events.
To get a festival listed here for free, just drop a note to us at ijanews@juggle.org. Hey, jugglers want to know about juggling fests. Help them out and get more jugglers to your fest at the same time.
Juggle Vegas
15 Dec – 18 Dec 2016
Las Vegas, NV USA
https://www.jugglevegas.com
WJF 12 – Skillcon 2016
16 Dec – 23 Dec 2016
Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino, 3700 W Flamingo Rd, Las Vegas, NV 89103 USA
https://www.thewjf.com/
Turbo Fest 11
5 Jan – 8 Jan 2017
750 2e Avenue, Quebec, Canada Canada
https://www.turbo418.com
Dansk Jonglørtræf 2017 (Danish Juggling Convention)
6 Jan – 8 Jan 2017
Skanderborg Denmark (Danmark)
https://www.dansk-jonglor-traef.dk/
Nederlandse Kampioenschappen Jongleren 2017 (Dutch Open Juggling Championships 2017)
7 Jan – 8 Jan 2017
De Cacaofabriek, Cacaokade 1, 5705 LA Helmond Netherlands (Nederland)
https://www.nkjongleren.nl
InJuCo 2017 – Indian Juggling Convention
16 Jan – 22 Jan 2017
Arambol Beach, Goa, India India
https://www.injuco.org
Newcastle Juggling Convention 2017
26 Jan – 29 Jan 2017
Callaghan College Waratah Technology Campus, 24 Turton Road, Newcastle, New South Wales 2298 Australia
https://www.facebook.com/events/1196910387039966
The 10th Western Australian Circus Festival
27 Jan – 29 Jan 2017
Lunar Circus Site, Karridale, Margaret River, Western Australia Australia
https://westernaustraliancircusfestival.com
39th Annual Atlanta Groundhog Day Jugglers Festival
3 Feb – 5 Feb 2017
Yaarab Shrine Center, 400 Ponce de Leon Ave., Atlanta, GA 30308
https://atlantajugglers.org/festivals/upcoming-festival
Belfast Juggling Convention
10 Feb – 12 Feb 2017
Queen’s University Students’ Union, University Road, Belfast, BT7 1NF UK
https://www.facebook.com/events/1701010186883153
Austin Jugglefest XXIV
24 Feb – 26 Feb 2016
Seeger Gymnasium, Texas School for the Deaf, 1102 S. Congress Ave, Austin TX 78704
https://juggling.place.org/jugglefest
40th Annual RIT Spring Juggle IN
7 Apr – 9 Apr 2017
RIT, 1 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester NY 14623 USA
https://sites.sg.rit.edu/juggling/juggle-in/40th-rit-spring-juggle-in/
Manipulation 2017
27 Apr – 30 Apr 2017
Idyllwild, California USA
https://www.Manip2017.com
Air Raid Juggling Club 1st Annual Juggling Convention
20 May – 21 May 2017
Charlottesville, VA USA
https://juggler.bz/
70th Annual IJA Juggling Festival 2017 – Cedar Rapids
10 Jul – 16 Jul 2017
US Cellular Center Complex, Cedar Rapids, Iowa USA
https://juggle.org/festival