NEWS

 

Ignatov Says "Da!" To IJA for '91 Festival in St. Louis

 

Sergei Ignatov, the Soviet juggler considered by many people to be the world's greatest master of the art, has made a verbal commitment to be the IJA's special guest at the 1991 festival in St. Louis. He said he will be present the entire duration of the festival, which will be held July 16-20 on the campus of Washington University. Providing things go as planned, the IJA will present Ignatov with its Award of Excellence and he will headline the finale show and give workshops. He will bring with him his wife, Marina, who assists him in his act.

 

German juggling archivist Karl­Heinz Ziethen visited with Ignatov in Moscow before this year's IJA festival and brought news to Los Angeles that Ignatov would like to come to the 1991 event. IJA officials and Ziethen then telephoned Ignatov in Moscow during the festival and extended a verbal invitation, which he accepted. Ignatov speaks English fairly well, and explained that he will be in the United States beginning in December anyway on tour with the Moscow Circus.

 

Ziethen said that next year will mark the 20th year of performance for Ignatov, who is now 40 years old. Ziethen saw several of Ignatov's recent performances and said he is once again doing 11 rings in his act every day. According to Ziethen, Ignatov begins his act by running into the ring juggling five clubs. He continues with five stage balls, then seven. He starts juggling nine rings, then pulls two more from holsters to make 11. He does tricks with seven and then five rings, and then retrieves his clubs for routines with three and five. He walks around the ring doing back crosses with five clubs for more than 50 throws, then finishes the act with nine rings again.

 

Ignatov's wife, Marina, is a high wire artiste. Their daughter, 11-year-old Katya, was a rhythmic gymnastic specialist, but began juggling in February. With the expert instruction of her father, Ziethen reported that Katya is already juggling five clubs!

 

Moschen's Genius Rewarded With MacArthur Fellowship

 

Michael Moschen has received a $230,000 five-year fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation of Chicago. Moschen, a New York City juggler, was among 31 people tapped by the foundation for its "genius grants" this year.

 

The fellowships, which vary in value according to the recipient' sage, are awarded unconditionally to allow people more freedom to continue their life's work. There is no application process. Recipients are chosen in a closed committee process and simply notified that they have been tapped as fellows.

 

"It causes me to pause and get a wonderful warm glow inside," said Moschen. "It's nice to know that people have been watching and appreciating my work."

 

Moschen was notified just as he was preparing for a late-July show in the Seriously Fun Festival at Lincoln Center. Though the hoopla associated with the fellowship disrupted his preparations, he said it also strengthened his resolve to take risks in the show.

The show presented a whole new set of Moschen's work, including a new crystal ball piece and a piece about the juggler as architect. He said, "I've been fascinated with architecture and studied it for three or four years. Just as previous interests led me to present the juggler as jester, as alchemist and as dancer, this was about the juggler in an architectural environment."

 

With the show behind him, he planned to take a vacation with his wife and daughter before a scheduled three-month tour of Europe beginning in October. Then, he said, he planned to again "find something else interesting and let it take me."

 

Moschen said the MacArthur fellow­ship would certainly help him pay the rent, but moreover "it gives me and my work a slightly higher profile among people who may be able to help in broad ways ­ someone who wants to present it, or collaborate with me. I even got a call from someone at the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation who found out about the new architecture piece because of the publicity."

 

There will be no telecast of his Lincoln Center performance, but the Public Broadcasting System will show his new crystal ball routine in January as part of its Great Performances series.