New
System Proves Again You Can't Please Everyone
by
Bill Giduz
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A
new Kapell System of judging the Senior Individual and Teams
championships was approved by the IJA board of directors
before the
St. Louis
festival as a more equitable system of rewarding acts. But in
practice in July, the system created a popular outcry as being
grossly inequitable.
The
Kapell System allows any number of gold, silver and bronze
medals to be awarded (including none). Each act competes
against a juggling standard instead of against other acts.
But
after the judges gave out only one silver and one bronze medal
in the Teams Championships, and one silver and three bronzes
in the Seniors, scores of disgruntled festival goers signed a
petition asking for reconsideration of the whole system, and
another petition that asked for a reevaluation
of medals in the Teams, based on the outcome of the Seniors
Individuals.
The
main points of friction were that the judges did not award a
gold medal to Doubble Troubble, the Baltimore-based twins Alex
and Nick Karvounis, and that medals should have been awarded
to additional teams. Even as producer Steve Salberg placed the
silver medal around the Karvounis twins' necks at the end of
the evening, the crowd booed and took up the chant,
"Gold! Gold! Gold!" The only bronze in the teams
went to Clockwork, Jack Kalvan and Rick Rubenstein. Five acts
won no medal at all.
The
silver in Senior Individuals went to Andrew Head, while Dana
Tison, Jason Garfield and Tuey
Wilson
were awarded bronze medals. Just two acts won no medal. The
fact that more medals were awarded to individual acts than
teams also seemed unfair to many people, who felt that the
team acts were much stronger as a whole than the individuals. |
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The
Kapell System calls on analysis of acts based on "an
understood level of excellence and achievement," rather
than ranking competitors in an order of finish. It recognizes
performance juggling as an art, similar to music, rather than as
an athletic event where one individual tries to out-perform
others. The system was proposed in the IJA after the
Denver
festival in 1988 by Dave Finnigan, and studied by this year's
board championships committee. Members of the committee which
drew up the Kapell rules ' were Laura Green, championships
director, Martin Frost, Benji Hill, Arthur Lewbel and Steven
Salberg.
The
committee's final recommendation was not approved by the board until
late in the spring, too late to notify
competitors and the membership before the festival. Many were
taken by surprise when they showed up in
St. Louis
and found the rules had been changed.
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Despite
the outcry, Green said she felt the system worked in
St. Louis
. "It has eliminated the problem of trying to select one
style of juggling over another - the old apples and oranges
problem. I am satisfied that the system works, but I think
the judges were cautious because it is was something new. Like
any new product, it may still need refinement."
The
charge to the judges for awarding a gold medal was strict:
"It reflects the finest mix of technical prowess and
professional performance marked by perfection of execution,
artistic creativity, originality, invention, choreography,
personal style and sensitive interpretation. A gold medallist
must push the limits of the art form, lifting performance
above standard patterns."
The
judges were instructed that although multiple gold medals
could be awarded, the gold medal shouldn't be diluted and
made easy to obtain. They had to make their always-difficult
decisions while simultaneously acting as a "supreme
court" to interpret the never-before-used laws.
The
audience gave Doubble Troubble a standing ovation at the
conclusion of their act, which included two-person cigar box
work never seen before on the IJA stage and a club passing
routine that ended successfully with ten clubs passed. But
it required five of the seven judges to vote for gold, and
that level was not reached. The judges therefore awarded the
silver based on the written criteria: "A fine mix of
technical and artistic performance, marked by excellence of
execution, artistic creativity, originality, invention,
personal style and sensitive interpretation. However, the
competitor has suffered from minimum drops, miscues, minor
unpolished detailing. .. or other mistakes."
The
bronze medal criteria were written as follows: "To
recognize special achievement in technical juggling,
artistic interpretation, creativity, to encourage an act
that shows great promise or has distinguished itself in some
unusual way. The bronze medallist may have suffered from
minimal drops... technical problems or other mistakes."
Nevertheless,
after the Teams awards some judges had second thoughts. When
the judges convened after the subsequent Senior Individuals
competition to consider those awards, the question of
reconsideration of the Teams awards was raised. It was
agreed, though, that a change in the awards would be awkward
and bear heavily on future judges. Although it was pointed
out that a change would correct a mistaken interpretation of
the new rules and that future judges would not be dealing
with such significant rule changes, a majority of the judges
decided not to correct their Teams decisions. They did,
however, change their interpretations of the rules before
applying them to the Senior Individuals competitors. As a
result the Senior Individuals field pulled down four
medals - twice the number received by the Teams field.
Steve
Salberg, producer of Senior Individual and Teams
championships and supervisor of the judges and competitors
meetings, said changes will be made between now and the
Montreal festival. He said, "The championships
committee is aware that the gold and bronze award standards
have to be refined, but we believe for the most part that
the system held up. Next year under the new administrative
championships director, Carter Andrews, the award levels
will undergo further clarification."
In
an open letter in this issue of the magazine, Andrews called
for input about the system as he considers the future of the
Kapell System in the IJA. Contention is nothing new in
the IJA championships ring. The competitions have changed
radically some years and been refined incrementally in others
as the organization searches for a way to compare the merits
of different juggling acts.
The
brouhaha in St. Louis simply shows the search is not yet
complete!
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