IJA eNewsletter April 2024

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www.juggle.org		    IJA eNewsletter
   April 2024Editors: Don Lewis & Martin Frost
(ijanews@juggle.org)

CONTENTS

  • 2024 IJA Festival
  • 2025 IJA Festival Director — Call for letters of interest
  • IJA Juggling Championships entry closes on May 10
  • IJA Board nominations close on May 15
  • Visit Lambeau Field in Green Bay
  • Bring spring blooming jugglers to Green Bay!
  • IJA Board meetings
  • Latest articles in eJuggle

 

 

2024 IJA Festival  by Afton Benson, 2024 Festival Co-director

IJA 2024 Festival Green BayIJA 2024 Festival Green Bay

We’re about 2 months away from the 77th annual IJA Festival!  If you haven’t registered for the festival yet, register today to secure the best overall price for the festival.  Have you booked your lodging?  The main festival hotel has a few rooms left for the middle to the end of the week, but if you’re coming for the whole week we’ve secured a small section of rooms at the Hampton Inn which is also attached to the KI Center!  You can see both rates and information on the Lodging page.

We’ve been announcing special guests on Facebook and Instagram; follow us to get the most up to date information!

New for 2024!

The Interstellar Open Stage!
Are you interested in showcasing your juggling skills?  Looking for an opportunity to perform in front of an audience?  Volunteer for the open stage performance!  You’ll have the chance to dazzle your fellow peers and receive a video of your act.  Click here to find out more and to sign up!  The deadline for submissions is May 31, 2024.

 

Four Day Intensive on Mastering Form and Flow in Juggling with Cyril Rabbth!
July 10-13th, 2024 Noon to 4pm
Cost: $200, space will be limited to 20 and tickets will be on sale soon!

Cyril is a French artistic juggler living in America who has worked with world-class jugglers, notably Nadejda Akopovna Akvits at the Moscow Circus School and Italo Medini at the Ecole National du Cirque d’Annie Fratellini.  They have been performing for 30 years, with Cirque du Soleil, Absinthe in Las Vegas, and beyond.  While performing an average of 10 shows a week for a total of over 10,000 shows, he developed a series of exercises and routines to stay healthy and avoid injuries, all the while improving his skills.  This workshop is an intensive exploration of the tools he learned and developed to be optimal, grounded, and efficient in his juggling practice.

You will learn a series of comprehensive tools to structure and advance your juggling practice:

  • Optimize your body posture by uncovering deficiencies and making targeted corrections.
  • Master physical exercises to support your juggling practice, strengthen your body, and reduce the risk of inflammation.
  • Improve your number of catches by increasing your endurance, and progress to more advanced techniques.
  • Explore beyond the usual pointers and take a deep dive into your nervous system, visual field, and muscle chains to stabilize your juggling patterns.
  • Develop your creativity through guided exercises around research, performance, and composition at the end of each session.

You will work on each category every day and progressively increase the level of difficulty.  The workshop structure is designed to be adapted and tailored to you and your goals.  In the end, you are the one in charge of picking and choosing from the myriad of information, to decide which ones work for you.  Head to the Workshop page here more information and prerequisites.

Register today and we’ll see you in Green Bay!
The IJA Festival Team
Noel, Afton, Shivella, and Ross

 

 

2025 IJA Festival Director — Call for letters of interest  by Ross Berenson, IJA Board Chair

Call for letters of interest for the 78th annual fest happening during the week of July 14-20, 2025.

Are you passionate about curating unforgettable experiences for the juggling community?  Do you thrive in dynamic environments where creativity and organization intersect?  Join our team as a Festival Director and play a pivotal role in shaping the 2025 IJA Festival in Evansville, Indiana.  The IJA would love to hear from those who are interested!

Responsibilities:

  • Organize the week long festival.
  • Oversee all aspects of festival planning, from conceptualization to execution, ensuring seamless coordination and exceptional attendee experiences.
  • Collaborate with the board, volunteers, artists, vendors, sponsors, venues and local partners, to align on goals.
  • Develop and manage budgets, timelines, and resources.
  • Choose to lead a team of your choosing, providing guidance, support, and clear communication to ensure everyone is aligned with the festival’s vision and objectives.
  • Craft shows that highlight the vibrant spirit of our community and embody the core values of our organization.  Let’s showcase the very best of who we are and what we stand for!
  • Implement comprehensive marketing and promotional strategies to drive attendance and enhance the festival’s visibility and reputation.
  • Evaluate the success of the festival through post-event analysis and feedback collection, identifying areas for improvement and innovation.

Past festival directors are here to cheer you on and help guide you whenever you need it!  While some parts of the festival, like the competitions and shows, are tried and true favorites, there’s also plenty of room for you to toss in your own ideas and make this experience unique!  So, let’s team up and have a blast creating something unforgettable, together!

If you’re excited about the position and eager to learn more, don’t hesitate to reach out to the IJA Chair.  Send a letter of interest stating why you’d like to be the Festival Director, any experience you have organizing events and volunteers, and any ideas on how you’d make the festival great!

 

 

IJA Juggling Championships entry closes on May 10  by Martin Frost

IJA members can now sign up to compete in this year’s IJA Juggling Championships in Individuals, Teams, and Juniors divisions.  The championships will take place on Wednesday, July 10, 2024, at the festival in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Check out the rules and enter today.  The IJA draws jugglers from around the globe to compete in the Championships.  Don’t miss your opportunity to shine!  Deadline to submit your application, video, and fee is 11:59pm ET on May 10, 2024.

 

 

IJA Board nominations close on May 15  by Martin Frost

Nomination are open for members of the IJA Board of Directors.  Board members will be elected during the annual IJA Festival in Green Bay, Wisconsin, with all IJA members age 13 and over eligible to vote at the festival or online leading up to the festival.

The IJA Board of Directors manages this nonprofit corporation for the benefit of its members.  The board is composed of seven people, with elected directors serving two-year terms.  Approximately half of the seats are up for election each summer.

The directors are asked to meet in person at the summer festival.  Each board member is expected to communicate regularly by email, must have web access, and will attend online meetings once or twice a month.  Directors should expect to spend some hours each week on behalf of the IJA.

In addition, all candidates should understand that the members of the Board of Directors are legally responsible as fiduciaries in setting the goals and policies of the IJA, managing its finances, overseeing its employees (if any), and administering its programs.  At all times, the members of the Board of Directors must act in good faith and in the best interest of the corporation.  The IJA maintains Directors and Officers insurance as a protection.

This is a great opportunity for you “to render assistance to fellow jugglers.”  Nominate someone, including maybe yourself.  That’s right, it is perfectly acceptable to nominate yourself.

Information about the nomination process is available at juggle.org/business/nominations.

The nomination deadline is 11:59pm PDT on May 15, 2024.  Participate!

 

 

Visit Lambeau Field in Green Bay  by Mike Sullivan

Lambeau FieldTAKE IN BREWS AND VIEWS AND SEE THE SISTINE CHAPEL OF FOOTBALL

Jump on the IJA’s happy fun bus tour and pub crawl in Green Bay and visit world-famous Lambeau Field to start the week!

We have a few seats left on this great way to explore your IJA festival home for the week and tour one of the world’s most iconic stadiums.  Our bus will take us for a visit to all our IJA festival venues and the best close-by bars and restaurants, as well as the amazing National Railroad Museum and legendary Lambeau Field for a VIP tour.

During our festival week, you’ll have a special opportunity to tour Lambeau Field, the Packers Hall of Fame, the Packers Pro Shop, and even go down to field level and see where so much NFL history has been made, up-close.

It’s an incredible experience, whether you’re a Packers fan or not.  Even non-football fans will be impressed by it all, and it’s something you will always remember about your week in Green Bay.

The Lambeau Field tour is just one stop among several on the special IJA pre-fest bus tour of Green Bay, set for Monday afternoon, July 8.

We’ll depart from the Hyatt Hotel at 1pm and visit all our festival venues, including The Meyer Theater, the KI Center, many area restaurants and bars, the riverfront Hagemeister Park dining area, Lambeau Field and the amazing National Railroad Museum.

Lambeau FieldWe’ll slake our thirst along the way with a pint or two of some great local Wisconsin brews, including plenty of time at Lambeau Field and the 1919 Kitchen and Tap.  By dinner time, we’ll be back near the Hyatt for a final draft and optional group dinner at one of the great casual restaurants near the hotel.

Tickets for all this, including our custom charter bus, admission and tour at Lambeau Field, our tour of the National Railroad Museum, and two local drafts at our pub stops, are just $85 each.  Best of all, you’ll be with dozens of your new (or old) juggling friends!

Be sure to make your travel plans so you arrive into Green Bay in time for our 1pm CT departure on Monday afternoon!

Get your tickets now in the IJA Store.  Sign in to your IJA account and then look for 2024 Green Bay Bus Tour & Pub Crawl and Lambeau Field.

Any questions?  Please email vendors@juggle.org.

See you on the bus!

Mike Sullivan
Tour Organizer

 

 

Bring spring blooming jugglers to Green Bay!  by Don Lewis

It is spring in North America, or at least it is some days.  That means juggling outside is getting practical and pleasurable.  All those people you haven’t seen juggling all winter are beginning to reappear under the warmth of the sun.  Now that all those folks are coming out of hibernation, it is a good time to remind them to register for the festival.

Most of them will have no idea why they should make the effort.  Gravity is free wherever you are so why travel to use it somewhere else with a lot of people that you don’t know?

There are a whole lot of reasons.  After a week at a festival, you will know a whole lot more people.  Those people will be gently pushing you to a higher skill level, and you will barely notice at the time.  By the end of the festival you will be relaxed and juggling tricks that you didn’t even know were possible.  You will have been inspired by seeing some of the best jugglers in the world on stage.  You will likely meet some of them casually in the gym.  Sharing a hotel room with some friends makes the week very affordable since the IJA is getting some amazing hotel rates that permit up to four people per room.

Perhaps you have a silly trick you want to show off!  The Renegade stage is perfect for that.  It is a late night open stage where jugglers can show off crazy tricks that work some of the time.  Even if you don’t want to show off, you can enjoy watching others attempt tricks that won’t make it into a show.  It is a late night show for adults, cabaret style.  Some of the humor can be risqué.  It is common to see teenagers explaining some of the jokes to their parents.

Convince all those spring blooming jugglers to make the trek to the IJA festival.  They’ll be glad they did.  And we’ll all have a great time with more jugglers around!

 

 

IJA Board meetings  by Ross Berenson, IJA Board ChairIJA Board meetings

IJA Board meetings are open to all IJA members and are hosted on Zoom.  To find out the times of this month’s vision and business meetings, or to attend, please email ija.chair@juggle.org and say which meeting you’re interested in.

 

 

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