Correspondence finishes a weak second place to travel when it comes to finding out more about the wide world of juggling. After sending letters across the Atlantic for more than five years for Juggler's World and the IJA, I finally got a chance to visit my foreign correspondents during a trip to the European convention in September.

 

Some scenes were familiar. When I walked into the sports complex at Louvain­la-Neuve, Belgium, what I found was a gym floor crowded with jugglers, just like a Stateside festival. The 500 or so registrants spoke a half-dozen different languages, but the process of meeting, greeting and juggling under vaguely green light on a gymnasium floor appeared to be universal.

 

The European accent on it all was strongest in an outing on the Grand Place in Brussels on Saturday of the five-day event. Colorful costumes included balloon hats, bare chests, tuxedos and leopard skin tights. Tourists who happened onto the festive scene crowded around with the jugglers in a tight ring to watch "the games" and impromptu street performances. They seemed delighted at their luck of being in the right place at the right time, relieved from a scene that otherwise appeared to be ornate sooty facades round a field of cobblestone.

 

The appearance of Gregory Popovitch at the convention also represented a significant difference from the garden variety juggler's festivals I've attended. His delicate skill with seven rings and five clubs ten feet in the air hinted at a Euro­pean juggling tradition far deeper than any I had experienced in the U.S. And, indeed, Popovitch is descended from a long line of Russian performers. His father, Alex, proudly traveled with him .and helped in the act. He carefully watched the feet of the ladder as his son shuffled them around the tabletop, and called out to him when he was too close to the edge in Russian so thick that even a translator on hand had trouble understanding.

 

An interview with Popovitch is printed elsewhere. But being personal witness to that sort of talent was educational and thrilling. But I sure had to go a long way from Davidson to get to it! Not many folks have that chance and I consider myself lucky. Well, it's the duty of us lucky ones who publish this magazine to report what we discover to subscribers. From that point of view, the European jaunt of this joggler brought riches I hope are evident as you turn these pages.

 

Another highlight of the trip was a pilgrimage of sorts to West Berlin to visit Karl-Heinz Ziethen, the world's leading juggling archivist. Again, it was an opportunity for exposure to the juggling world available only through travel. During a short stay with him, I watched hours of videotape of jugglers new to me. Many were taken from East German television, which Ziethen can pick up from his Berlin apartment, but which is not otherwise accessible to Western jugglers. From that exposure, I'd like to pass on some of my notes on currently performing professional jugglers you may not know of either:

 

· Four Afanasjews - Sergei Ignatov's younger brother is a member of this Russian club passing quartet associated with the Moscow Circus. The younger Ignatov passes six clubs with a partner, then absorbs all the clubs to juggle six by himself!

 

. Gratchinov Duo - This couple present a comedy routine to East European audiences that includes playing catch with a trained monkey.

 

· Manuel Alvarez Jr. - A Spanish juggler who appears in bullfighting garb. Alvarez may be the master of kickups. He can kick up one on each foot simultaneously to begin a juggle and catch behind the back tosses on a foot to kick them back into his pattern.

 

. The Castors - The foremost French antipodists, these three brothers beautifully manipulate objects and each other. At one point, one of the troupe does a front flip from a seated position on his brother's feet, and at another point he is passed from one sibling to another. (l had a chance to visit with the Castors in Paris and will include an article on them in the next issue of Juggler's World.)

 

· Evgani Bilauer - Listed by Popovitch as one of the top trio of Russian jugglers today. Bilauer can pirouette under a five club cascade and somersault under four.

 

· Anatol & Victor Mjagkostup - Two young Russian jugglers who perform five club takeaways from all positions and briefly pass ten clubs.

 

· The Formella Duo - These Poles juggle in synchronized fashion and pass rings. They also pass six, eight and ten balls after individually juggling three, four and five.

 

· Eric Brenn - An Austrian comedy juggler who works fast and frantically to keep five bowls spinning on canes and eight others on a tabletop as he works on the side at flipping spoons into cubs.

 

· Duo Lanka - A Phillipino juggler and assistant who perform breath-taking balance stunts. At one point Lanka hefts a tower of glassware on a violin bow held in his mouth, then slides the violin around under the bow to playa tune. He also plays the flute while balancing the classic golf club and ball formation.

 

·Sandro - This Spaniard performs a rollover while maintaining three spinning balls, one on each hand and one on a mouthstick.

 

· George Solveno - The only person I've seen bounce juggle five rings, tossing them off a floor pad situated in front of him.

 

These were just the jugglers I knew little or nothing of before visiting with Ziethen. The tapes I saw also contained clips of Francis Brunn, Rudy Cardenas, Ernest Montego, Rob Murray, Rudy Schweitzer and Kris Kremo. The viewing pointed out again the wisdom of the adage, "The more you know, the more you realize that you'll never know it all."

 

But the European convention was a superb occasion for learning. For all those who stayed behind, I urge them to make plans now to visit Europe and learn more first hand about the wide world of juggling in which we live.