When Sean Gandini juggles three balls, I get the sensation of being on a mountaintop high above the world and watching a snowflake feathering its way through the atmosphere, continuously falling and yet gracefully eluding the pull of gravity. What began as his own breezy, ethereal style has evolved into the Gandini Juggling Project, a post-modern quartet which has been kicking up a mild-mannered storm in British juggling and dance circles.

With the help of choreographer Gill Clarke and composer Merlin Shepard, the group has combined their skills to create "bEither Either botH and," a full-length work which challenges the intellect and tantalizes the vision.

It seems that only recently Gandini was an ambitious juggler's juggler, struggling to master advanced club tricks and achieving dazzling seven-ball runs. In his street show at Covent Garden in London , he performed to classical music with all the flair and technique of a traditional circus act. In 1989 he joined Ra Ra Zoo, a new circus ensemble renowned for its zany yet highly skillful theater pieces, and toured with them for several years.

But it was during one of his street shows that he met his current partner, Kati Yla-Hokkala, in England on a visit from Finland . A former national champion in rhythmic gymnastics, she was looking for a way to use her skills outside of the rigidly competitive system which dominates her sport. Likewise, Gandini had developed an interest in movement after seeing several dance performances in London which made him ponder the meaning of juggling on a deeper level than the typical act allows.

Yla-Hokkala quickly mastered the basics of juggling, and brought to it her unusual experience with club manipulation. "Kati is completely ambidexterous and has a very complex sense of rhythm, while I have to work much harder to reverse sides," said Gandini.

The two began taking dance classes together, along with Mike Day and Ben Richter. They studied release technique similar to the style of Trisha Brown, in which the body's weight shifts and momentum are used to make intricate movements with an acrobatic edge appear fluid and natural. Gandini wanted their movements to have more than a superficial connection to the juggling, both in the physical and intellectual contexts. Gandini said, "I have heard people say we are making 'shapes in space' but that's more like ballet or Cunningham. Our movement is all about getting from one point to another. We started working in a very disjointed way and ended up trying to make it as fluid as possible."