Juggling - Popular Forms of Juggling

Popular Forms of Juggling

Juggling can be categorised by various criteria:

• Objects juggled

Balls, clubs, rings, diabolos, devil sticks and cigar boxes are several types of objects that are commonly juggled. Other objects, such as scarves, knives, fruit and vegetables (examples include pineapples, oranges, onions and apples), flaming torches and chainsaws, may also be used.

• Method of juggling

The best known type of juggling is (toss juggling): which is throwing and catching objects in the air without the objects touching the ground. Bounce juggling is bouncing objects (usually balls) off the ground. Contact juggling is manipulating the object in constant contact with the body.

• Performance style

This may include the gentleman juggler — using everyday objects such as hats, canes, plates, wine bottles and cigars; comedy juggling — the juggling skill is secondary to the comic character and jokes of the performer; sport themed — the performers dress in sporting attire and juggle sports equipment such as tennis racquets, footballs, or even snooker balls; traditional circus style — presenting pure skill with precision, skill and panache. Cultural extensions of the traditional circus style include: Chinese circus — using mainly rings and badminton racquets, fantastic costumes, concentrating on numbers juggling; Russian folk — colourful costumes and characters, unique props with acrobatics.

• Number of objects juggled

In trick juggling, the main aim is to perform exceptionally skillful and impressive manipulations with the objects juggled. Numbers juggling, by contrast, has the goal of juggling as many objects as possible.

• Number of jugglers

Juggling is most commonly performed by an individual. However, multiple-person juggling is performed by two or more people. Some method of passing between the jugglers is used — this can be through the air (as in toss juggling), bounced off the ground, simply handed over, or numerous other ways depending on the objects and the style of juggling. For example, two club jugglers may stand facing each other, each juggling a 3-club pattern themselves, but then simultaneously passing between each other. Back-to-back juggling is also possible, and other configurations.

• Sport Juggling

Juggling is sometimes done as a sport (competing in competitions such as the World Juggling Federation). Organizations such as the WJF promote sport juggling and reward pure technical ability and give no credit for entertainment, or for juggling with props such as knives or torches. In fact, the WJF has special rules that prohibit Knives,torches and bowling pins in the convention center.

The object, method, style and number of jugglers can vary. For example, a single juggler could be juggling different objects (say a ball, a club and an orange), could start by toss juggling them, then start bouncing the ball as part of the routine, and finally start passing the objects back and forth with a second juggler.