IJA eNewsletter – December 2018

  

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December 2018

Editor: Don Lewis
(ijanews@juggle.org)

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Happy New Year !

CONTENTS

  • Chair’s message
  • Film Festival
  • IJA 2018 Festival Video
  • Unna Med Festival Scholarships
  • Post Holiday Pickups
  • Latest articles in eJuggle
  • Upcoming juggling festivals

 

2019 IJA Festival – Fort Wayne, Indiana – June 24 – 30, 2019

Yes, exceptionally the festival is in late June this time!

Check out Fort Wayne at https://www.visitfortwayne.com/#

Chair’s message, by Exuro Piechocki

The new year is almost upon us! Whether you’ve held true to your past resolutions or not, it is never too late to set new goals.

 

2019 is looking good for the IJA with a number of amazing things in store thanks to our ambitious volunteers. The 2019 Festival in Fort Wayne, Indiana is shaping up to be stunning thanks to the capable hands of Festival Director David Cain. The IJA Regional Competitions (IRCs) are lining up for another ambitious run in nine locations, and World Juggling Day is set for June 15th, 2019.

 

If you’re looking for some motivation or direction for your resolutions, consider volunteering with the IJA or bringing juggling into the spotlight in your local community. The IJA is always looking for article writers and content contributors for the eNewsletter, as well as for eJuggle, and translators for our push toward having multilingual content. 

Looking forward,

Exuro Piechocki
IJA Chairman

 

Film Festival, by David Cain

2019 IJA Film Festival – For the first time ever, the IJA Festival will include a film festival event as part of their annual get together. We are looking for juggling-themed films between 5 and 15 minutes in length. Films can be of the following genres; comedy, action, drama, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, musical, parody, or mystery. We’re not looking for juggling trick videos. Instead, we want films with a plot that somehow involves juggling in an important way.

The films don’t even have to included juggling, but could take place in the juggling community or be about juggling. Please keep submissions PG-13 or lower in rating. So, if you’re a filmmaker and a juggler, here’s your chance to combine these two arts.

If you have any questions, please contact David Cain at davidcainjuggler@hotmail.com. Films need to be submitted by May 20th, 2019. Those films selected will then be screened at the IJA Festival in Fort Wayne, Indiana during the week of June 24-30, 2018 and a winner will be chosen by the audience. And please remember to not publicly show your film before the festival in order to maintain eligibility.

2018 Festival Video, by Nathan Wakefield

I am pleased to say that the 2018 IJA Festival video is completely done!

The DVD is up and can be purchased in our online store here: https://ym.juggle.org/store/ViewProduct.aspx?id=12959088

See the trailer here

Unna Med Festival Scholarships, by Exuro Piechocki

Do you know a juggler that should receive a scholarship to attend the 2019 IJA Festival? An anonymous donor known only as “Unna Med” has committed to a very generous donation of $15,000 in the form of scholarships that each include a 2019 Festival Package and $500!

Nominate any juggler that you think should attend the 2019 IJA Festival by completing this form. Applications are open until January 28th. Twelve winners will be chosen from the people you nominate here! The scholarships issued in this way will be given with consideration to jugglers who a) Might not be able to otherwise afford the trip to the festival, b) Would add something special to the IJA Festival by being present, and/or c) Have never been, or have only been to a couple of IJA Festivals. Eight More of these scholarships will be given out in other ways!

A huge heartfelt thanks goes out to Unna Med for their generosity!
https://tinyurl.com/UnnaMedScholarships2019

Post Holiday Pick Ups, by Don Lewis

Now there’s a title that can be taken a number of ways!  The holiday giving period is over, and a whole lot of non jugglers have received sets of juggling things from friends and family who were desperate to find something “different” to give a particular someone.  And now some of those same recipients are desperate to prove that they can master this unusual skill so as not to admit failure, or at least to been seen to try.  

It takes some patience on our parts to get these unsuspecting jugglers to understand that they are not going to be overnight stars, but that with a bit of perseverance on their part they can master the basic cascade fairly quickly.  I’ve written about the realities of teaching in this circumstance before and you can find those articles in previous newsletters.  The most important thing to understand is that these students fall into two basic classes; those who really want to succeed, at least briefly, and those who have to try but are essentially invested in proving that they can’t learn to juggle.  Both groups will probably try hard, in opposite directions.  The situation can be simultaneously both fascinating and frustrating to observe.

There are going to be some students who are naturally good at things and will have a three object cascade in the air in fifteen minutes or less.  That is lovely – sign them up for your juggling club and watch them advance quickly to an IJA stage.  

What do you do with a student who wants so badly to succeed that he/she explodes with frustration when brute energy doesn’t deliver instant results?  Tell them to get a coffee or something and calm down.  Then break it down in parts so that they can get a series of small successes.  The exercise of sharing three balls between four hands is really great at installing a basic rhythm. Once they understand that they can catch the balls at normal cascade rhythm they just need to work on accuracy and height. Sometimes you get a student who masters the cascade, does a brief happy dance, and then walks away – never to be seen again.  Their ego has triumphed over a skill they have absolutely no interest in pursuing.  Oh well, perhaps they’ll give their toys away to someone who actually does want to juggle.

Now on to the more curious situation, the person who almost desperately wants to fail, but has to try.  We could delve deeply into the psychology behind this phenomenon, but it isn’t really that helpful except in extreme situations which most of us will never encounter.  Suffice it to say that these people have a certain self image that includes not being capable of some things while probably being good, or even superb, at at least one thing in their lives.  For these people you have to creep up on success so that it comes as a surprise to them.  I think that this is a group of people that can be converted to very enthusiastic jugglers.  They may well never go beyond the hobby juggling stage.  Indeed, they may take a strange comfort in seeing expert jugglers doing things that most of the rest of us will never do either.  They are often thrilled and mystified that they have learned an unexpected skill.  It can go the other way as well.  I once saw a lady break down in tears because she had just juggled and it set her up for a conflicting view of herself.  That can be frightening for some, because if they can succeed at juggling, what else in their life that they have been comfortably avoiding might they be able to do?  Be gentle with these souls.  They may eventually be able to see a place for themselves in the juggling world.

Fortunately the IJA has some resources to help new jugglers see that there is a place for them in the juggling world. Take advantage of this initial enthusiasm and suggest that they join the IJA. They’ll get access to all the members only content in eJuggle and a membership card to prove that they belong to something interesting. An excellent thing to do is to convince these new jugglers to come to a festival, even just to watch.  Beginners who have never been to a festival are intimidated by the very idea. Once they’ve been to just one they realize that there really is a place for everyone at a festival.  The 2018 festival video is now available.  New jugglers can buy that and see the vast variety of things that go on at a festival.  Just as importantly they will see a whole lot of people with smiles on their faces.  

  

Latest articles in eJuggle

 

Upcoming juggling festivals

Below is a list of some upcoming juggling festivals.  For a list of even more fests, check our worldwide juggling event listings.

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.

ClubCon 2019
3 Jan – 5 Jan 2019
Saint Petersburg, Russia Russia (Россия)
https://vk.com/conventionpiter

Turbo Fest 13
03 Jan – 06 Jan 2019
École de Cirque de Québec, Quebec City, QC Canada
http:/turbo418.com/

41st Groundhog Day Juggling Festival
25 Jan – 27 Jan 2019
Atlanta, GA USA
https://www.atlantajugglers.org/festivals/upcoming-festival/

Mondo Juggling Festival
8 Feb – 10 Feb 2019
St. Paul, MN USA
https://www.mondofest.org/

British Juggling Convention
10 Apr – 14 Apr 2019
Nottingham, UK
https://www.bjc2019.co.uk

2019 IJA Festival
24 June – 30 June 2019
Fort Wayne, IN USA
https://juggle.org/festival/

European Juggling Convention
3 Aug – 11 Aug 2019
Newark, NG24 2NY, UK
https://www.ejc2019.org

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