32-2,p3

Nature

During a practice break, somewhere between flying clubs and flying rings, I asked Ignatov about juggling practice and talent. He said a beautiful thing-- "The laws are all the same for everybody. Nature has set the rules." The point, I think, is that regardless of how much talent you start with, there is no success without much work. George Sheehan warns us that 'The urge toward excellence can breed a biological arrogance, a feeling that you are superior to the laws of Nature."

Practice

Ignatov stated his views on practice simply-"Practice. Think. Practice. Think. Many sweat. Many practice. Practice.

Think. Practice. Blood." He said you should practice, then stop and think. The two are inseparable. You think about the position of your hands, your shoulders, your feet. You think about the pattern and what you did right and wrong.

Then you practice again.

Ignatov believes that a juggling trick should be in your blood before it is performed. The reason for practice is to make your juggling almost mindless. This may sound a bit like Zen, but we do the same thing automatically with many things in our everyday lives.

Lewis Thomas refers to this concept in his essay on "Autonomy." He says, "Working a typewriter by touch, like riding a bicycle or strolling on a path, is best done by not giving it a glancing thought. Once you do, your fingers fumble and hit the wrong keys. To do things involving practiced skills, you need to tum loose the systems of muscles and nerves responsible for each maneuver, place them on their own and stay out of it...if you concentrate your attention on the details, keeping in touch with each muscle,...you will end up immobilized, vibrating with fatigue."

When Ignatov juggles 11 rings he is not thinking about the pattern or about correcting for a bad throw. He cannot change these things once the ring has left his hand. Therefore, he attempts only to make every throw exactly the same. He thinks, or more rightly--feels, that his feet and shoulders are aligned, that his elbows are at his sides, that his hands open fully and toss each ring in the same relation to his shoulder as the ring before and the ring to follow. This doesn't mean that he doesn't reach for a bad toss, but only that he would attempt to recover by throwing from his original position and therefore avoid over-correcting. If you suddenly throw a ring back into the pattern with an extended arm or while bent at the waist or stepping forward, then you're almost surely stepping into trouble.

Teaching

"You." "I." These were the two most important words in understanding Ignatov's instructions. He teaches juggling tricks more by demonstration and trial than by intellectual comprehension. The language difference was never a barrier to our communication. I have a feeling that, as a teacher, Ignatov would not talk you to death with theory. He believes in practice before principles.

While showing me and Franco his technique for back crosses Ignatov would first demonstrate our position and say, "You." Then he would demonstrate his position and say, "I." To make the difference more understandable he would repeatedly place my arm in both positions while saying, "You. I. You. I."

He wanted us to experience three major points-where to release the club, how to release it and the use of a slight knee lift. After a club is caught, the hand drops naturally to your side. At this point, your arm is straight and the bottom of the club is pointing towards the floor. From here, your arm is not swung, but lifted at the elbow so that your hand raises straight up along your side. Your hand does not cross your back. In this position, the club should be parallel to the floor and released with a slight push and fully opened hand.

The club does not slide out of the hand and the bottom of the club is not pointing toward the sky. From the catch to the release, there is a coordinated knee dip and lift. Done in a regular rhythm, this technique makes Ignatov's clubs appear to float through the air and descend at about shoulder width.

He emphasizes that the arm should not swing across the back, because this causes the pattern to become too wide and the clubs to descend out of reach.

Tips

Finger control is too frequently forgotten in club juggling. The fingers impart the last direction to the prop, sending it

either gyroscopically controlled or careening off course.

While Ignatov juggled rings, he indicated that his hands open fully. The ring is released with straight fingers so that his hand forms a rather proper V. He does not just release the ring and allow his fingers to maintain a natural curl. He feels that by straightening his fingers he launches the ring pointing in the right direction and avoiding erratic throws. Similarly, with clubs, balls or rings, each prop is released cleanly and close to the body with a slight upward push.

Warm-Up

Ignatov and Franco discussed how they warm up before a show. Franco juggles until the props feel right and then stops. It may be 5 minutes or 15, but he doesn't want to go beyond "the right feeling." Ignatov warms up for 30 to 40 minutes before his show and then changes into his costume. Ironically, they both agreed that some days you can feel great and do a bad show, and other days you can feel bad and do a great show.

Not surprisingly, Ignatov's warm-up conditions are not always ideal. At the Felt Forum, his act came during the second half of the show, so he began warming up on a cement floor during intermission. However, the horses for the Cossack act were also warming up then. Ignatov stood in the middle of a circle of pacing horses and repeatedly juggled 7 rings amid whinnies and horse manure. Later, and not so surprisingly, he performed like a star.

So, we've come the full circle in this article. Starting with the warm-up, it seems a fitting place to stop. For the reader, it may be a fitting place to begin. It is easy to become inspired by a great juggler--as long as we remember that he got to be great through "Many practice."