IJA eNewsletter – August 2024

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

CONTENTS

  • IJA Board of Directors election
  • Beyond Metamorphosis: The Butterfly Man’s final stage
  • 2024 IJA Juggling Championships
  • 2024 IJA Numbers Championships
  • 2024 IJA Individual Prop Competition
  • 2024 XJuggling
  • 2024 IJA World Joggling Championships
  • IJA Board meetings
  • Latest articles in eJuggle

 

 

IJA Board of Directors election

Here are the vote totals from the 2024 IJA Board election.

Sofia Noethe   129
Benjamin Domask-Ruh   127
Noel Yee   121
Jonathan Perry   106
Albert Lucas    45

Six other people received 1 vote each.

And here’s the new IJA Board, which is already hard at work furthering various IJA programs.  At their first meeting, they elected Benjamin Domask-Ruh as Chair.

Benjamin Domask-Ruh, Chair
Aslynne Howes
Jonathan Perry
Luther Bangert
Neils Duinker
Noel Yee
Sofia Nothe

 

 

Beyond Metamorphosis: The Butterfly Man’s final stage  by Todd StrongThe Butterfly Man performing at Pier 39 in San Francisco

In 2004, the IJA presented Robert Nelson, aka The Butterfly Man, the Bobby May Award “in recognition of years of coaching and mentoring jugglers to help create and improve their acts.”  For many years, attendees benefited from Robert’s workshops on Street Performing and How to Handle Hecklers.  The Butterfly Man’s frequent appearances on the Renegade Stage are legendary.

Folks,

Robert Nelson passed away in 2012, but fairly late in his life, he asked me if I would help edit his writings and publish them as a book.  The project has been on hold for over a decade.  It is finally time.

Unfortunately, neither The Butterfly Man nor Robert (it wasn’t always clear who was doing the writing) was able to compose all the essays he/they had in mind.  I’m collecting the essays, poems, and letters that I can.  Plus, the concept has expanded to include contributions from his friends and colleagues.  Here’s where you come in.  Have you got any stories and/or photos you’d like to share?

The current plan is to include 1) Robert’s essays and other writings, 2) stories about Robert, 3) photos, and 4) emails and correspondence Robert had with folks who are willing to share.

The goal is to finish the book by early 2025.  The deadline to contribute any materials is November 15.  The cover page will show the authors as “Robert Nelson, The Butterfly Man, and Friends.”  Each story and submission will be credited to its author.

Please let me know if you would like to contribute and whether it is a story, photos, correspondence, remembrance, or a combination of items.

How long should it be?  Good question.  Robert’s essays ran from just under a thousand words to a bit over five thousand.  The stories I’ve written about Robert tend to be in the 750-1000 word range.  One longer story runs about 2,500 words.  You can visit my website to see the stories I’ve posted.

Something as short as one paragraph — if you think it’s meaningful to you and Robert — is welcome.  Oh, and please don’t feel limited to just one item.  I plan on contributing multiple, fairly short essays.

Another option is to arrange a Zoom chat in which I can record and transcribe your thoughts (or send me an audio file).

Finally, please pass this message along to others who knew Robert and might like to contribute, and have them contact me.

Thanks,
Todd Strong, tastrong@gmail.com

 

 

2024 IJA Juggling ChampionshipsDelaney Bayles

Below are the medalists in the stage competitions at this year’s festival in Green Bay.  With this year’s Individuals Gold, Delaney Bayles is the first person to win Gold in each of Individuals, Teams and Juniors.

All the scores from the championships are available online.  Thanks to all the competitors for putting in the time and effort to present entertaining and challenging acts, and to the judges for their work in carefully scoring all the entrants.

Gold Silver Bronze
Individuals   Delaney Bayles Galen Harp Gideon Elson
Teams Daniel & Julius Smile Group Canada
Juniors Stefan Hart Chu-Huan Wang Atticus Abraham

 

 

2024 IJA Numbers Championships  by Heather Marriott & Nick Thomas, Numbers Directors

Individual Balls
Gold: Matan Presberg, 9 balls, 46 catches
Silver: Noah Schmeissner, 9 balls, 25 catches
Bronze: Vasek Peca, 8 balls, 29 catches

Individual Rings
Gold: Danil Lysenko, 9 rings, 27 catches
Silver: Delaney Bayles, 8 rings, 27 catches
Bronze: Scott Sorensen, 8 rings, 24 catches

Individual Clubs
Gold: Delaney Bayles, 7 clubs, 64 catches
Silver: Noah Schmeissner, 7 clubs, 17 catches

Individual Ball Bouncing
Gold: Christian Kloc, 9 balls, 36 catches
Silver: Vincent Kaseman, 9 balls, 18 catches

Ball Passing
Gold: Chris Hodge & Kayla Malmgren 12 balls, 66 catches

Ring Passing
Gold: Chris Hodge & Noah Schmeissner, 13 rings, 58 catches
Silver: Delaney Bayles & Danil Lysenko, 11 rings, 45 catches

Club Passing
Gold: ChrisKan Kloc & Chris Hodge, 10 clubs, 148 catches
Silver: Sean Carney & Jack Levy, 10 clubs, 106 catches
Bronze: Justin Sheldon & Brian Austin, 10 clubs, 69 catches

Ball Bounce Passing
Gold: Christian Kloc & Suzanne Zaccour, 13 balls, 57 catches
Silver: Owen Morse & Josh Casey, 11 balls, 89 catches

Three-Person Club Passing
Gold: Sean Carney, Jack Levy, Ben Hestness, 13 clubs, 107 catches

Thank you to the volunteers who helped judge and coordinate during the event:
Jimmy Robertson, Will Murray, Peter Kaseman, Fran Favorini, Merry Spahr, Scott Cain, Edgar Yudkevich, Mark Nizer

 

 

2024 IJA Individual Prop Competition

Balls
1. Zak McAllister
2. Luther Bangert
3. Alex Rozanov

Clubs
1. Tim Air-Walker
2. Jared Athias
3. Zak McAllister

Open
1. Zak McAllister
2. Yum Yum Yamhari
3. Delaney Bayles

 

 

2024 XJuggling  by Jack Kalvan

Winners

3 balls Luther Bangert
4 & 5 balls Noah Schmeissner
6+ balls Zak McAllister
3 rings Jessie Patterson
4 & 5 rings Delaney Bayles
6+ rings Zak McAllister
3 clubs Jonathan Leal
4 clubs Delaney Bayles
5+ clubs Delaney Bayles
Anything goes Franchesco D’Oro

Host: Bill Biz Olbrisch
DJ: Mark Fiore
Judges: Will Murray, Chris Jost, Peter Kaseman, Kaylin Meyers, Jack Kalvan, Arthur Lewbel

Participants
Atticus Abraham, Jared Athias, Delaney Bayles, Caleb Black, Franchesco D’Oro, Ben Dobbeck, Gideon Elson, Jasper Fleer, Liam Halstead, Mark Fiore, Mazu Hicks, Jared Janssen, Lewis Kennedy, Keenan Lampe, Jonathan Leal, Daniel Ledel, Zak McAllister, Jesse Patterson, Julius Preu, Riki Rice, Bennett Santora, Noah Schmeissner, Josiah Smith, Masahiro Takarada, Jonathan Taylor, Nick Thomas, Jaydon Whiting, Amy Wieliczka, Dustin Wilson, Yushi Yahata, Edgar Yudkevich, Ty Zwisler

 

 

2024 IJA World Joggling Championships  by Sterling C. Franklin, IJA Joggling Director

This year was a very competitive year in joggling, with 12 IJA World Records and 26 Division Records being set!  We had a fun time joggling out at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin in beautiful sunny weather for our in-person meet, and even ran a very scenic 5K Road Race along the Fox River Trail in Green Bay.  Next year’s events will take place both online (Virtual) and in Evansville, Indiana (In-Person), so there will be much to look forward to and enter, whether you can make the festival or not!

Amidst the fun we had in this year’s competitions, we also took time to remember two figures from the sport who passed away this year:

Bill Giduz, the inventor of Joggling.  Did you know the first IJA World Joggling Championships took place all the way back in 1980?  Bill Giduz was the pioneer of the sport and partnered with the IJA to bring Joggling competitions to the annual festivals.  David Cain wrote a great article and obituary in remembrance of Bill Giduz.

Riley McLincha, the inventor of Drubbling (dribbling 3 basketballs while running) and Runyaking.  Riley was a Joggling gold medalist and competitor with us through 2023, and his obituary can be found here.

In memory of Bill Giduz, we have named the 1500m race the “Giduz 1500” since it was one of the two Joggling events that Bill initially held at IJA 1980 in Fargo, North Dakota.  In memory of Riley McLincha, we held a Drubbling 100-meter race, which was quite difficult!  A few of us shared memories and stories of Bill and Riley at the in-person joggling meet this year.

Full results from the year, including All-Time Division and Overall Rankings per performance, can be found here.

Thanks to all who attended and entered.  I hope you had great fun, and we look forward to another Virtual and In-Person competition in 2025.  Hope to have you joggling with us then!

 

 

IJA Board meetingsIJA 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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