BY GAM AND SIMON PIPE

 

The First Ever New Zealand Juggling Convention, held in Christchurch in mid­March this year, marked the fruition of 10 years of development of a previously uncommon New Zealand (NZ) pastime.

 

New Zealand / Aotearoa is a land now populated mainly by descendants of European and Pacific Island (Maori) immigrants. "New Zealand" was a name bequeathed by the explorer Abel Tasman in 1642, which reflected his Dutch patriotism. "Aotearoa" translates as "Land of the long white cloud" which expresses the view that the early Pacific Islanders had of a long narrow chain of cloud­and snow-covered mountains that stretch along two thirds of the country.

 

Juggling is an example of the imported European culture. Because the country is so young and still has the hangover of being an ex-British colony, prevailing fashions and trends follow those of Europe and the USA. New Zealand's isolation also marks it as a cultural backwater, if only in the eyes of its own inhabitants!

 

Tourists visiting NZ find it sparsely populated, but with surprisingly vibrant and novel city structures. Attempts to rework colonial attitudes have led to the creation of new cultural venues and organizations which promote the Arts in Aotearoa. The most notable example is the Arts Centre in Christchurch, which is situated less than a kilometer from the city centre of Cathedral Square. The move of the local university to a suburban campus in the mid 1980s allowed the city council to develop a full range of artistic pursuits amongst the quaint Euro-style stone buildings that remained.

 

The timely appearance in NZ of an English juggling thespian namedJohn Davey in 1984 established Christchurch as the centre of the NZ juggling universe. John Davey settled in Christchurch, became The Amazing Mr. Moon, and spread the word through workshops in the late '80s. He developed a ubiquitous cult following and legendary status. Many jugglers in Christchurch are still posed a puzzling question by young and old alike -"are you Mr. Moon?" - which can only be partially explained by the real Mr. Moon's penchant for crescent-shaped performance masks. His influence is hard to overestimate, as is his charisma and professionalism.

 

A small core of Christchurch youth, including notables such as Giles Hancock, Jason Henwood, Jeremy Dawson, Brian Ellens and Karen the Hat, quickly outstripped Mr. Moon's technical ability and moved on to numbers / passing without displacing Mr. Moon's performance niche.

 

The question has to be asked - is NZ's abnormal gravity responsible for the rapid development of juggling upon it's introduction?

 

Of course, there were jugglers in other parts of the country, but their relative isolation in an isolated land made it difficult for them to thrive or be accepted as worthy members of NZ society. I learned to juggle under the influence of the venerable Bruce Love, my high school math teacher in the North Island town of Hamilton. He was born in NZ and received his tertiary education in the UK, returning to NZ in the usual colonial style of the talented. Love has taught literally hundreds of pupils to juggle, and his legacy is formed by people like myself who have either moved on to continue and widen the circle, or are now able to at least claim that they are jugglers. He is also the developer of the Macintosh computer simulator software, 'Juggle," which is now available in the USA.

 

The other urban centers - Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin - languished despite their population bases. The Auckland scene was, and still is, dogged by the sheer vastness of the suburban sprawl and the lack of a widely accessible venue. As a result, there are several virtuoso solo jugglers, such as Mike Twist, and a solitary Auckland partnership formed by Steve and Shad, who are excellent club passers.