Teams

The Teams field was definitely a veteran group, as every member of each team had previously won at least one medal in IJA championships events. Trivia buffs will be interested to know that at least one member of each team had also worked a summer at Kings Island Amusement Park in Ohio!

 

Gold Medal: Jay Gilligan (17) and David Cain (24), performing as "Crash & Burn," won with an act that included many innovative front-to-side ring and club handoffs and passes. They said their hardest tricks were back-to-back ultimate passes with seven clubs and back-to-back ultimate passes with eight rings. They completed the routine by passing eight and nine clubs. They each have competed at IJA events five times previously, and each won a championship at Fargo last summer ­ Cain was Intermediate Champion and Gilligan was Juniors Champion. They decided at Fargo to team up this year, but didn't have much practice.

 

They live 2-1/2 hours from each other, and were only able to get together about once a month in the past year. They also hadn't practiced their act for a month until they got together in Burlington. However, Gilligan won a total of five gold medals in Burlington, including four in the numbers championships. Combined with the three he won last year in Fargo, he is undoubtedly the IJA's leading "Golden Boy."

 

Silver Medal: Darn, Good &: Funny, the team that won the Los Angeles Team Championship in 1990, returned this year with a new team member and some new material. Kevin Holman and Paul Phariss are now teamed with Cindy Marvell, who brought new ideas to the routine through her work with a dance team in New York City. Their routine began with some work with balls and large tambourines, bouncing the balls off the tambourine heads in many different variations. They did club takeaways and takeouts, then passed clubs through hula hoops. They also repeated part of their Los Angeles routine, with two people each juggling balls and the end of a pole that both of them held.

 

Bronze Medal: Rick Rubenstein and Jack Kalvan, performing as Clockwork, have now won the bronze at three IJA festivals - Baltimore, St. Louis and Burlington. Their routine this year included an extended comic talking set with flower pots. They did simultaneous moves, rhythmically moved them around stage and created pyramids and sculptures with them.