ContactJuggling.org

Not that I have an issue with you using a public place to represent your opinions, but you could at least use proper <s>spelling and grammer</s> English in general. I am honestly ashamed to have someone from .org post such a thing on that group page. You really want to insult these other jugglers by saying that their palm isos and enigmas are sloppy? Yet you will try to turn around and save face claiming that you respect them for their art? Sir, I have lost my respect for you if you are going to jump against your fellow, like minded, men and women for nothing more than taking a job opportunity. If I'm not mistaken, you said yourself that you would do the same thing. You may have practiced your art to the point that it is presentable to an audience, but many of us are not at that level. You seem to have such an "elitist" attitude that really cuts through.

As I have said, I am not particularly happy about the commercialization of contact juggling nor some of the things that this commercial may bring about, but it has nothing to do with the jugglers that were present in that video. To be honest, I would LOVE to see this go the way of the yo-yo where it has a lot of hype at first, and dies down to the dedicated group of people who are truly interested in the art itself.

I feel as though you have crossed a line with your statement, and with that I leave this quote.

Btw Duke - if you speak with John again, it might be worth inviting him to this forum. He seems a reasonable sort of fellow, and it may be worthwhile engaging in a dialog with people here.

John,

I would love nothing more than to help you write your dedications, but unfortunately a phone call is out of the question, as I live in Denmark. I'm still happy to help in any way I can through the internet.

You may find help, inspiration, and understanding at various websites:
http://www.contactjuggling.org is a community-driven help page where beginners can go for the first few years of their practices to learn the basics, as well as hints on performing, stretches for before and after a routine, and reviews of other contact juggling-related media. The community itself stays connected through the forums at http://www.contactjuggling.org/mx, as well as through other language sites including http://www.kontaktjonglage.de/.

The Ministry of Manipulation is a small collective with a huge presence in the contact juggling world. Through their own innovations, and the collaborative blog they publish, the Ministry helps fuel the growth of our art. They also wrote an extremely helpful history of contact juggling, which you can find here: http://www.ministryofmanipulation.com/articles/.

These are kind of crude and incomplete distinctions, but contact juggling can be split into three basic categories: body rolling, palm spinning, and isolation. The first two have existed for thousands of years, evolving separately in the Mediterranean and ancient China. Isolation came a bit later, but flourished in the hands of modern mimes (perhaps you have seen one hold a briefcase in one place while moving around it, as though it's stuck in mid-air).

With a few notable exceptions, the three categories were never married until Moschen developed his crystal ball routine. He was loathe to name the art, but if forced into a corner, he called it "dynamic manipulation." In his 1985 routine, "Light", Moschen brought together the three disparate sorts of manipulation, and much of what he performed was completely original.

In 1991, James Ernest published the instructional "Contact Juggling." Most of the book mirrored "Light." Justifiably, Moschen did not approve of the outright theft of his routine, and as he is a well-respected member of the juggling community, "contact juggling" became a shunned art-form, not to be practiced or performed in deference to Moschen.

Unfortunately, the next decade saw the stagnation of all three "categories" of contact juggling, because each was now seen as the sole territory of Michael Moschen. The art instead grew in unusual places; Michael Glenn, Ferret, and others helped popularize it in the American Renaissance Festival. In Europe, innovation in contact juggling grew from the underground dance community. Tony Duncan, who had been performing body rolling and palm spinning since before Moschen's "Light", spent several years teaching the art in Japan.

Steven Ragatz, another tour de force in the juggling world, also developed an impressive routine involving body rolling during this time. A decade went by, and as the new millennium approached and passed, new groups sprang up all over the place. A Yahoo! online community formed that would eventually become ContactJuggling.org. Greg Maldonado and Owen Edson produced an instructional DVD with many new and innovative routines.

In your own state of Florida, Ferret, Rich Shumaker, and others helped organize the first few contact juggling conventions. In attendance were big names in the contact juggling community, including Greg Maldonado, Michael Glenn, Greg Irwin, and Daniel Kerr (who went on to help organize a UK contact juggling convention).

Soon after this, the Ministry of Manipulation formed. The UK-based troupe represented the growing trend to fuse our art with different types of modern dance, from modern contact improvisation all the way to break dancing and hip-hop popping and locking. This group consists of Drew Batchelor, Ryan Mellors, Jeanine 'Jea9' Ebnother, Ed Adams, Emanuele 'Moon' Marchione, and Colin Daniel. Their circle extends to other big names in modern contact juggling, including Matt Henman, Jago Parfitt, Bruno Labouret, Pich, Kyle Johnson, Dawn Monette, Mr. Om, Meg Pike, the Intrika duo, and the German sensation Kelvin Kalvus.

The history of contact juggling is a long and rich one, but also one deeply fractured by recent resentment. And keep in mind that my retelling is an incomplete one, biased like anyone else's might be; I'm only just one performer of many. To get the full story, and full cooperation, I encourage you to open a dialogue with the members of our main representative community, http://www.contactjuggling.org/mx. Some of them are angry at the commercialization, some of them are excited at the prospect of spreading the art, but all of them are reasonable people who will be happy to show you support if you show your respect for them.

The best thing you could do to show this respect is to register in the forum and introduce yourself, ask them what they think. As I said, we're reasonable people; I don't imagine many would be upset with your branding as long as you made the name "Contact Juggling" and a little bit of its history clear to the purchaser after they bought your product. I hope more than anything that you succeed in selling lots of your Magic Gravity Balls, and that this success fuels growth in our community and enriches our art. I'm sure many of my peers feel the same way.

Cheers,
Duke