Page 21 Winter 1991 - 92
Holz told me later that being in front of so many fellow jugglers had given him such stage fright that he failed to execute cleanly several of his most exacting juggling moves. Yet even with periodic drops the transitions and overall structure involved such exquisite and highly original sequencing that the majority of the audience clearly appreciated their enormous difficulty.
Imagine
going from standard head rolls to abruptly looking the crowd full in
the face with the ball standing squarely in the center of
your scalp. Add to this a quizzical look amounting to "Huh?
Where did it go?!"
Then he has the incredible control
to quickly turn his head first to
the left and suddenly dart it
back around to the right,
as if to surprise the vanished ball in its hiding place. All the
while the inanimate subject of all these furtive glances sat perched
almost mockingly right on top of its seeker's head. Control combined
with character, topped off by such an accurately tossed top hat that
after a double spin it simultaneously landed on his head and trapped
the mischievous ball beneath it.
Finally,
with a full foot extension reminiscent of Francis Brunn (and a wing
span all his own!), Holz tucked his head forward, snatched the ball
from the hollow of the hat in mid-descent and backhanded the hat
brim, causing it to turn another 180-degrees to land flush on his
right foot. As the piano struck its resolving chord, Holz
triumphantly foot-flipped the hat high above his head and, leaping,
speared it in mid-air.
Clearly
it was a tough act to follow! Fortunately, Foolsproof (Rob and Linda
Peck) for once really were foolproof in a flawless, but considerably
less demanding skit of staged marital strife incorporating
run-arounds, hat switches and prop takeaways.
Next
up was Alexi, a Soviet standout devoting himself to the devil stick.
Alexi was smooth and stylish with the standard centerstick
manipulations, then progressively interwove more unique and
increasingly difficult variations to culminate in a brilliantly
accurate double devil stick finish.
In
a delightful contrast to Alexi's unbending, almost martial music,
Cindy Marvell's artfully choreographed three club routine was set to
the title track of the musical
"Cheek to Cheek." With Fred Astaire's nimble spirit
emanating lyrically, Marvel\'s airy three club patterns perfectly
matched the music while her seemingly effortless execution belied
their technical complexity.
The next two acts featured Englishmen with different types of fire juggling. Chris, the first one, combined a classic English accent with some daring three and four torch throws while perched on a sixfoot unicycle. festival co-organizer Jules Howarth followed, skillfully presenting unaccompanied fire swinging with immense billows of flame fanning out from two of the widest wicks imaginable.
After
the smoke cleared, Foolsproof returned with an acrobatically
choreographed three club tango climaxing with a running leap frog
take-away which they missed, but made the most of with a comic
recovery. After two more unsuccessful attempts (and fortunately a few
more successful drop lines and sight gags) the leap frog finally
worked, as did the ending series of innovative behind the back
catches. To the Peck's great relief, their persistence paid off.
Michael
Menes began with four beach balls, then closed the first act with his
trademark three ball routine to
"Rootbeer Rag" and an artful five ring routine. The
latter made ingenious use of the round shapes to suggest imagery
ranging from ripples in a pond to a butterfly's wings.
The
second act featured primarily Soviet and European performers whose
names I either never learned, can't recall or couldn't begin to spell
even if! did! First
up was a wonderful tumbling and acrobatic trio composed of two men and
a woman known collectively as Tridomi. Next was Alexi Chaposhnikov,
whose style and choice of props strongly resembled his Soviet counterpart,
Boris Afanasier, who opened act one. |
![]() The Crocodile Style Band plays at the Verona Games (Karin Hertzer photo) |