Majka: Do you think its possible to juggle more than 11 objects?

 

Ignatov: I don't know. I've done only 11, but I suppose that it is possible. It would be necessary to be able to juggle 10 very well.

 

Majka: I'm very interested in knowing how jugglers meet with one another in the Soviet Union . Do they have opportunities to help one another, to work on routines together and so on?

 

Ignatov: In the Soviet Union we generally meet only when one juggler is finishing performing in one city and another one arrives to take his place.

 

Right now in the Soviet Union , there are only three really strong soloists - Evgeni Biljaur, Gregor Popovitch and myself. These three are soloists on a world standard of juggling. Gregor Popovitch is start­ing to perform very well. His routine with five club back-crosses on a free-standing ladder is an astonishing trick. He also began to juggle very early, but he started gradually.

 

There are quite a number of younger jugglers who are doing interesting things, but to this point none of them are doing more than eight objects. "Actual" juggling begins from nine objects. That is really "super." Eight is a ceiling which is very hard to break through. That extra ring is somehow an indication of the fixed limits of human possibility. It is still possible to do 10 in a continuous and stable fashion. But 11 is a record on a par with any Olympic world record. It is not possible for everyone to achieve this. You can prepare all your life and still not be able to attain this goal.

 

Majka: How does a young juggler in the Soviet Union learn his or her skills? What is the pattern of training?

 

Ignatov: Most young jugglers attend circus school. Popovitch and Biljaur are both from circus families. I, however, am not from a circus family at all. My grandfather was an equestrian, but he wasn't a performer or anything of that kind. There are two excellent teachers in the circus schools - Violeta Kiss and Firs Petrovitch Zemtsov, who was Biljaur's teacher. These are the two teachers who really know. what juggling is all about and who know how to teach.

 

At the beginning of training the emphasis is primarily on numbers. Several years ago there were jugglers like Petrovski. Now I represent what might be called the middle generation of jugglers.

 

Majka: What new directions are you working on in your act? What are your interests?

 

Ignatov: I very much regret that here in Canada I am not able to show the routine which I am now working on in the Soviet Union . The routine which I do there is to a taped musical accompaniment of Chopin - an etude and a nocturne that create a very interesting impression.

Unfortunately, on this tour we were unable to work out the musical accompaniment. I've been working on this for the last six or seven years. I've developed a routine where the mood of the music parallels that of the juggling routine and the tricks. There is a contrast, in that some of the very fast routines are done to quite slow-paced music so that each trick takes place on a new phrase of the music.

 

Majka: Have you had an opportunity to see a number of western jugglers?

 

Ignatov: I have seen the routines of very many jugglers. I've seen Francis Brunn, Rudi Schweitzer, Kris Kremo, and I've seen a great deal that has interested me.

 

In particular, I must say, Michael Moschen. He works with one transparent ball and what he does is astonishing. I've also seen the films of Francis Brunn in his youth and he was also amazing. Your jugglers here in the West often work in cabarets rather than circuses. As a result they often cannot work with large numbers of objects, but do some technically amazing things with a comparatively small number of objects.

 

This also gives them more opportunities to express their acting skills and abilities. If you are juggling nine objects little room remains for character or acting. You have to, as they say in hockey, "chase the puck." Western jugglers such as Brunn, Sweitzer and Kremo are actors. They work at developing their rapport with the audience. In the Soviet Union there is more of an emphasis on working with numbers. Our jugglers are perhaps more reserved in their presentations, more closed-up inside themselves because of the more taxing demands of numbers. I consider that numbers juggling is the most difficult of all aspects of juggling.

 

There is no one in the Soviet Union who is yet close to the excellence that some western jugglers are achieving in terms of artistic presentation. You in the West have achieved perfection in this respect.

 

For me it is necessary to spend approximately an hour preparing myself physically and psychologically for a performance.  One advantage of working in the Soviet Union is the stability of work. When one job finishes there is a maximum of ten days break and then we have an engagement in a new city for perhaps the next several months. This kind of stability is conducive to working on numbers. We work ten months a year with 35 or 40 performances a month. It is a lot of work, but in order to attain a mastery of your art and a quality of performance it is necessary.