A summer evening in Boulder, Colorado. The mountains provide a backdrop for the city, and downtown on the Pearl Street Mall, late night shoppers and strollers enjoy the bookstores, restaurants and cafes. Along the mall, various street entertainers have set up shop. Jugglers, mimes, clowns and magicians vie for passing attention.

 

In the middle of the block, however, is an enormous crowd of children and adults, laughing and cheering, and seemingly encamped on the sidewalk. At the center of the crowd, inevitably, is Airjazz.

 

Airjazz is the three-person team of Kezia Tenenbaum, Jon Held and Peter Davison. As a team they have won an IJA Team Championship and established a national reputation, while keeping Boulder as their home base for developing their work...

 

A winter evening in Boulder. The mountains are snow covered, and the downtown mall is now the home of ice sculptures and snow creatures. In a small house on Boulder's north side, Airjazz talked about their work past, present and future.

 

Coming from different backgrounds and locations, the trio first met at the IJA convention in Eugene, Oregon, in 1978. In 1980 they had all settled in Boulder, though they didn't begin working together as Airjazz until the end of 1981 or, depending on who is telling the story, the beginning of 1982. The actual beginnings of the company are mixed with their work with other jugglers, jobs and teaching stints. But at some point...

Kezia: The three of us said, "let's do it." We were just going to do it for birthday parties.

 

Jon: No, wait. Was it just that we were going to do it for birthday parties? We were going to try to stay together then... to build some sort of reputation.