.

The Professor Confidence Corner

By Dave Finnigan, IJA Education Director, Edmonds. WA

 

Juggling games

Gunky- The first player executes a juggling move. The second player must then execute the same move, and add one of his or her own. The next player executes the two moves and adds a third, and so on. You may want to permit two tries for each turn, one for practice and one for real. Each miss gives you a letter in the word 'GUNKY.' First one to get to GUNKY is a GUNKY.

 

Combat Juggling - Combatants form a circle, facing out elbow-to-elbow. On a given signal every­one begins to juggle and to jostle the players on left and right. The objective is to make the other players drop or stop. The winner is the last gladiator standing.

 

A juggling circuit - When you teach large classes and students reach the stage when they can juggle continuously with bean bags or balls, you may want to set up a circuit for them so they can experience a number of different objects and begin to use their imaginations as jugglers. Stations on the circuit have piles of different objects with which the students can experiment. We generally set up the following stations:

1-Frisbees

2-Hula­Hoops

3-Scarves

4-Basketballs

5-Clubs

6-Rings

7 -Heavy things (indoor shot put, bowling pins, bowling balls, etc.)

8- Cigar boxes

9 - Devil sticks

10- Diablos

11- Human juggling (at this station players have to apply patterns they have learned to their entire bodies-running, rolling, jumping and leap-frogging over one another.)

 

If we have 80 participants we tell them to get into groups of 6 or 7. This gives us 12 groups, so we make one additional station at which each member has the duty of roving the circuit with a whistle, blowing it at each sighting of exemplary activity. Thus, those who are most capable or most inventive get immediate positive rewards when they are pointed out by the whistlers.

 

Each group is assigned to a station and everyone starts at the same time. Music plays throughout, but each time it stops, everyone puts down their equipment and moves on to the next station. The energy is incredibly high. Four minutes per station means 48 minutes total, just about the right length of a class period.

 

Five balls continued from November Newsletter

 

The transition from counting every throw and analyzing the pattern to a continuous flow of objects can be accelerated by realizing (as Tarmac the Magnificent tells us on page 9 of the November Newsletter) that the two halves of the brain experience reality differently.

 

The left side of the brain is specialized for language functions. This verbal side is closely linked to thinking, reasoning and analytical functions. It is the side of the brain that breaks the move down into parts and builds it up again, step by step.

 

On the other hand, the right side of the brain uses a mode of processing that is rapid, complex, whole-patterned, spatial and perceptual. It is the shift from left to right brain dominance that you want to foster, and this shift often comes in an "Ah-ha!" response when everything falls into place.

 

In her landmark book, "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain," Betty Edwards presents a course in enhancing creativity and artistic confidence by experiencing the shift from left to right. Her suggestions include:

1-work where no one will interrupt you

2-play quiet music

3-forget about any time commitments and

4-leam to sense and accelerate the move from the alert state of the left mode to the "day-dreaming" state of the right mode

 

Eventually the five object pattern can become as natural and automatic as the three object pattern. Then it's on to six and seven. Eureka!

 

Putting together a routine

 

Every book on juggling tells us how to execute particular moves, but putting these moves together into a continuous flow of entertainment is the key to the transition from backyard juggler to performer.

 

Elements to consider include getting your audience's attention, making a strong start, transitions, cover-ups, facial expression, posture and body movement, patter and jokes, length of an effect, how to take applause, music, costume, character development and gearing all of this to your audience's level of sophistication. Readers are requested to send in their suggestions on these points or on other elements in the process of developing a professional routine. Let's aim this discussion at street performance for now, since that is where most of us get our first extensive experience. We can develop this section as responses come in. Send your ideas or experiences in to the Newsletter editor.

 

You have three major tasks as a street performer: gathering your audience; entertaining them; and making them pay. Flames draw spectators like moths; a whistle also helps. Repeatedly reminding them not to miss your spectacular finale helps to keep them around. Immediately after that promised finale you bring your hat to their attention.