MICHAEL
MOSCHEN
By Marilyn Hunt
It
has been a journey of constant surprise
to watch Michael Moschen over the last ten years expanding his
juggling from the spare beauty of a few crystal balls to the awesome
complexity of his 1988 one-man show at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's
prestigious Next Wave Festival. The objects he uses seem to respond to
him rather than being manipulated, and his lithe, mobile body responds
to them. His silent dialogues and rapt concentration convey a sense of
curiosity and wonderment about the world that can't be faked.
Metaphorically his gyrating circles, spirals and rods evoke the unseen
forces of nature in molecules and planets. Sometimes they move so fast
that they create new shapes existing only for the eye. The
review of the BAM show by New York Times critic Mel Gussow concluded
with the statement that Moschen elevates juggling "to visionary
heights."
Talking
to Moschen, one discovers that the way to those visionary heights,
over a period of 22 years in juggling, has been a very individual and
passionate journey, involving a superhuman amount of thought,
imagination, good old-fashioned patience and hard work and openness to
the world.
