LETTERS

 

Let's Reform the IJA

If the goal of the IJA is to spread the joy of juggling to as many people as possible, then the organization is misdirected. The number of people attending the European convention has increased from a few hundred to a few thousand in the past decade, and retail juggling shops and prop manufacturers are all over the continent. Compare this with the roughly static IJA festival attendance and the organization's current financial difficulties and we have to ask "What are we doing wrong?"

 

I think there are two main problems in the IJA's approach: festivals are too expensive for many jugglers, while others are put off by the promotion of juggling as a male-dominated competitive sport.

 

These days I can afford to fly to festivals and stay in a hotel, but I can remember going to my first festival in a car with four other people (plus props and unicycles) and sharing a dorm room with up to six others to save money. Beginning jugglers may be able to get a ride or scrape up the fare to a festival, but do not have the cash for registration, accommodations, meal plans or $25 show tickets. Every year the cost of participating in an IJA festival increases, and it seems to get harder and harder to do it on the cheap. Partly this is because of the structure that the IJA wishes to impose, and partly because the festival is a money-making enterprise which subsidizes other IJA activities such as the affiliates organization, Juggler's World and payments to employees.

 

The IJA places too much emphasis on competitive juggling. Even things that started out as anarchic fun, such as Combat and Joggling, get organized, judged, pasteurized, sanitized and generally disemboweled. Someone has to win and everyone else has to lose. When I juggle for myself or for others, nobody loses. Juggling is about having fun, not about losing. When most of the competitors in the Juniors can do five clubs but hardly any of them look like they are having a good time on stage, something has gone wrong. The obsession with technical one-upmanship is very discouraging to beginners, particularly if they are not testosterone victims. Character and creativity are far more important than technique. Incidentally, replacing a competition which somebody wins with a competition which nobody wins is not much of an improvement. It is still a competition.

 

So what can be done to improve matters? There needs to be some basic changes in the way the festival is run. First of all, it should be moved to the spring or the fall. This would reduce the need for an air conditioned gym, and allow street performers to attend without having to take a break when they could be making the most money. Minimum requirements would be a large grassy area with parking, camping and a big circus tent that you can juggle in by day and sleep in by night. A hall for indoor juggling, a theatre for shows, shops for food and nearby hotels would be added extras. The shows would probably make enough money to pay for the field and the circus tent, so the whole thing could be free, or very cheap. Why not have a $20 festival?

 

Get rid of the competitions, and replace them with two extra public shows, one for juniors only. No judges, no prizes, and everybody wins. If anyone cares about numbers let them try to break Anthony's records in front of a video camera, and send the tape to Guinness. I know that competitors are a spur to technical excellence, and I happen to enjoy watching technical juggling, but I think we would see far more technique if there were another 2,000 jugglers at the festival, as well as far more comedy, creativity and character.

 

The Las Vegas mini-festival coming up in January is a step in the right direction, but a $20-a-night hotel room is still a lot more than a $20 festival. If the IJA continues to hold a winter festival in a warm climate, and can get the price down, I predict that in five years it will attract more attendees than the summer festival.

 

The IJA would have to make some changes to survive without festival income. I suggest ending paid positions, replacing the glossy and expensive Juggler's World by a cheaper newsletter and making affiliates pay the costs of the affiliates organization. I know that board members work many hours for the IJA and that the paid positions pay very little, but there are jugglers all over the country who run clubs and organize free or cheap festivals without getting a penny for it. If running a juggling organization is your hobby, why do you expect to get paid for your hobby? Juggler's World is a fine magazine, but if it cannot be self-supporting then it should not continue. A large base of jugglers will create a glossy magazine - witness the European magazine, Kaskade. However, it does not work the other way around. Let's build the huge base of jugglers first and the magazine will happen.

 

Every year I run a free festival in Lodi, Calif. We camp, we juggle, we eat cheaply and well, we put on a show and we party. Everyone has a great time. If dozens of local juggling festival organizers all over the country can put on almost free events, why can't the IJA?

 Andrew Conway - San Francisco, Calif.

New Championships Coordinator Issues Greetings

First, I would like to thank all competitors, judges, masters of ceremonies and organizers of the 1992 IJA championships this summer in Montreal. I encourage all those who competed in 1992 to enter again in 1993. By competing yearly, your own performance skills will continue to grow, and will in turn enhance the overall quality of the competitions.

 

Over the past 25 years, the IJA championships have grown and changed a great deal. Earlier organizers have experimented with scoring and judging systems in hopes of achieving a stable and legitimate competition system. The next step is to apply our knowledge gained from past successes and failures so that our finished product will be reliable and reputable. This will be attained through consistent judging and scoring, and by demanding high standards of excellence from competitors.

 

Why do I say "our" goals? That's where you come into play. If you have a suggestion, complaint or idea about the competitions, we assure you that we will listen. I spoke with as many people as I could in Montreal, and will be reviewing the competition surveys that many of you filled out last year, but there are certainly more ideas and suggestions waiting to be heard.

 

Finally, I would like to explain the Intermediate Championship in hopes of enticing more competitors to it, and to add a note to Junior competitors.

 

Two years ago the board approved the IJA Intermediate Championship for individuals 18 and older who have never qualified for the Senior Individual finals, and for any past Junior champion (including those under age 18). No one who is eligible for the Juniors may compete in the Intermediate Championship unless he or she has won the Juniors.

 

The Intermediates are intended to provide a stepping stone from the Junior Individual to the Senior Individual Championship, and to allow an opportunity for adults to gain competition experience. The scoring system is the same as the Junior Championship. Any Junior competitor who wishes to have assistance with a routine may contact Jonathan Rosenberg to help find a coach to meet your special needs.

 

Again, we encourage dialogue with all members, and urge those who are thinking about competing in Fargo to stay in touch with us throughout the year.

                                              Jonathan Rosenberg - Co-Director of Championships, Oswego NY  

   Laura Green - Championships Director, Baltimore MD