Moschen Searches His Soul For Creative Spark 

 

Prior to the beginning of the IJA Festival in Montreal, Michael Moschen had serious reservations about whether or not to attend and become involved. Until just a few days beforehand, he was considering whether he should accept an honor from a group whose values he seriously questioned.

 

Although he had enjoyed attending IJA festivals in his early years as a juggler, and had many fond memories of them, as time went on he felt that they seemed to emphasize competition over creativity. He stopped attending because of that. Another more recent issue was the publication in "Jugglers World" of a review of a book on ball rolling. Moschen considered the book an overt infringement to his proprietary material. He considered publication of that review, and the fact that it did not draw attention to the issue of stealing material in relation to the content of the book, to be antithetical to the IJA's  mission of ''fostering the art of juggling."

 

In the end Moschen did attend the Montreal Festival, in large part because he wanted to explain to IJA members his feelings about the creative process. His workshop, during which he heard comments, answered questions and explained to a large crowd his serious approach toward his work, clarified for many people the reasons that the IJA honoree takes such passionate exception to people capitalizing on his techniques.

 

We reprint here an edited version of his remarks.