Wednesday, July 17and Thursday, July 18 you will see the best of the Juniors, Teams and Individuals Championships competitors take the stage at the IJA Fest in Bowling Green, Ohio! Twenty-five individuals and teams vied for a chance to compete at the IJA Festival this summer. Potential competitors from seven different countries entered preliminaries! Here are the finalists for 2013…
Individuals:
Kyle Driggs
Kyle Driggs was born in Philadelphia. He grew up with creative parents and soon discovered, that he too had an artistic stroke. At the age of thirteen he discovered the art of juggling in a toy store. After years of years of invested practice he begun serious circus training at the philadelphia school of circus arts. Two years later he was accepted into the national circus school of Montreal where he continued three more years of training specializing in juggling. In his unique juggling piece, Kyle combines large white rings and a red umbrella to express a series of moments and expressions influenced by japanese culture and aesthetic. Entitled Enso, a japanese word meaning “circle” that is often associated with the ideas of Zen, this act symbolizes a moment in time where the mind is completely free. A blank canvas being drawn upon, a simple brush stroke revealing a perfect circle, the artist’s true Enso. His umbrella becomes an object of calligraphy that designs the space around him and the result is a fine harmony of delicate technique mixed with pure expression.
Jimmy Gonzalez
Jimmy grew up traveling between France and Spain. At the age of eight he began to juggle and perform in the street. After many years of practicing on his own he was accepted at the National Circus School of Châtellerault (France), and then continued his studies at the National Circus School of Montreal. Drawn to a multidisciplinary approach to the arts, he hopes to collaborate in diverse creations and experiences.
Wes Peden
Wes Peden designs juggling to perform in space stations and parking lots. He was born in Rochester, New York but now lives in Sweden where he makes shows with fashionable jugglers and eats sushi.
Kellin Quinn
Kellin Quinn has been juggling for long enough to know what a siteswap is and then some. He is coached by Richard Kennison at Circus Harmony in St. Louis, Missouri. His accomplishments include: 2012 IJA Juniors gold medal, two Groundhog Day Phils, and completing Pokemon Black 2 with a Tepig solo run. So, yeah. He’s pretty cool.
Also joining this field of individual competitors is Jacob D’Eustachio.
Teams:
Corporation of Jugglology
In the year 2012, the Corporation of Jugglology created a movement to ban symmetry. Over the next century this movement spread across the globe, imposing asymmetry on the masses. All humans are now fitted with gravity shackles to ensure compliance.
Kentikato
Mountain Motion
Mountain Motion is composed of 3 jugglers from the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. Erin Stephens, Kevin Axtell, and Jeremiah Johnston all graduated from the same high school and went off on their own to become highly skilled jugglers and performers. Now, they have all moved back to their mountain homes in order to perform together as Mountain Motion. They are excited to have qualified for the IJA Championships in their first year of juggling together, and can’t wait to see what the future holds.
Pastels
Our team consists of following 4 members of a juggling club at Tokyo, Japan: Daisuke Kitajima, Yusuke Onojima, Shinya Yokosaka and Yusuke Murakami. We’ve featured club passing by 4 or more people, and some of the members have won the Japan Juggling Festival Championship team section. This time, we made a new team and a new routine to compete in IJA championship.
Also joining this group of Teams Competitors is the Kikyo Brothers.
Also competing in Juniors Finals will be Ashley Ellis and Yusuke Yokoyama.
THESE ARE CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS NOT TO BE MISSED!
HOPE TO SEE YOU AT THE 2013 IJA FEST JULY 15-21 IN BOWLING GREEN, OHIO.