NOTES

 

Spanish-speaking jugglers may esmy to get a copy of "El Ambidextro," newsletter published by the Asociacion de Malabaristas in Madrid. Write to: Javier Jiminez, 47 - Madrid, Spain.

 

Airjazz sends along a performance schedule that includes spring tours through the Northeast and West. Dates and places include: May 5 - Greeley, Colo.; 6 Pine Bluffs, Wyo.; 7 - Morcroft, Wyo.; 14 - Morris, Minn.; July 15 - Lakeside, Ohio; 17-19 - Lee, Mass.; 29 - Orono, Maine.

 

Dai Shucheng, the Chinese boomerang master who was an IJA guest at the '86 San Jose convention, was back in the US performing last May to October with his new associates, the Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe. A highlight of his experience was presentation of two Chinese boomerangs for display in the Smithsonian's

National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 30.  Dai wrote, "The artistic props of Chinese acrobats are not commodities to be traded or sold. This was the first Chinese boomerang presented to a foreign country." In fact, Dai had to get permission from the Chinese ministry of culture to give the two "fei pan" (boomerangs) to the museum.

 

The Jugglers Network has booked two acts for Nagasaki Holland Village in Japan. The Gentleman Jugglers, John Webster and Robert Steverud, and Cindy Freidberg "Cindy Marvell" will be working there March 18 through May 7.

 

A juggling friend tells us to keep an eye out for Alberto Sforzi, "the living Rastelli." This Italian juggler does a highly technical 40-minute juggling act with Circus Medrano. He works on slack wire and performs many Rastelli-inspired combination tricks. He also performs 10 and 11 rings in his act daily!

 

Visitors to Reno between now and July should see the Esqueda Family juggling and unicycle riding at the Circus Circus. They spent the month of January in a show in Osaka, Japan. Alejandro and his wife, Karen, perform with their children Alana (13), Leticia (12) and Alex Jr. (8).

 

Karl-Heinz Ziethen, keeper of the world's largest juggling archive has taken on new duties as performance director at the new Tigerpalast in Frankfurt and Stuttgart's Variete Killusberg.

 

Francois Chotard, the French ball spinner who performs as "Frank Spinner" is presenting his one-man show this spring in Italy and Spain. He presents a variety of tricks and stories in the guise of a middle­ages troubador.

 

Michael Davis helped usher George Bush into office in January. Davis was included in the televised variety show the evening before the inauguration. With Bush sitting on the front row watching, Davis presented some topical comedy as he juggled knives during a three-minute routine. His trouble with juggling knives was like the president's, Davis said, "The problem is how to disarm!" He's now writing a new one-man show that will premier in April in Mill Valley, Calif.

 

The inventive Jay Green says he's at it again. Green, creator of the plastic juggling club in 1964, says tie will debut another revolutionary product at the convention in Baltimore this summer. He's not telling secrets, but says the balls, clubs and rings that his new Supersonic Juggling Company will market are "as revolutionary to polyethlene as polyethlene was to wood."

 

"Markus Markoni" Richardson is back in his home state of Hawaii after an extended performance tour through the U.S., Canada and Europe. He won first place at the Sint Antonisbreestraat Festival in Amsterdam, and performed at the European convention in Bradford in September and at Octoberfest in Munich.

 

 A note in the last issue of the magazine incorrectly identified the wife of Mark Nizer. Her name is Scott.

 

Stephen Baird, a long-time advocate of rights for street performers, invites them and their friends to join the new Street Artists' Guild. The guild, which has received a challenge grant from the Ben & Jerry's Foundation, will devote its efforts to making street performing legal in cities everywhere. Members will receive a regular newsletter. Individual membership is $25. Mail a check to "Folk Arts Network" (temporary nonprofit umbrella organization) to Baird at Cambridge, MA.