Warming Up by Steven Ragatz

Visualization and Juggling by Steven Ragatz

Numbers Training by Steven Ragatz

Throw height and rate by Steven Ragatz

Well, the first week of August is just around the corner and the IJA is gearing up for another annual Juggling Festival. Although I am always grateful for gainful employment, it usually means sacrificing the week off during the busy summer months to attend the IJA's annual gala. Again, I am in that situation this year, and will not be joining my friends in Montreal. However, I have been to several festivals over the past two decades and have found all of them to be worthwhile events, both personally and professionally. Whereas most posters to rec.juggling promote the virtues of the socializing that goes on at the fest, I wanted to offer some tips to those who will attend this years festival hoping to learn and develop there juggling skills.

For the first timers, the festival will be attended by between 500 and 1000 jugglers. The majority of these are "amateurs", that is, they make a decent living with jobs other than object manipulation. There will also be many "professionals", most of whom perform part time, with a few who make a full time career out of the vocation. Both recreational and professional jugglers volunteer or are asked to lead the week's workshops.

The Workshops:

In my opinion, the festival's workshops are the most valued thing that the festival offers to the eager juggler. Check the schedule once you get settled and mark off which classes you wish to attend. In spite of the fact that it is difficult to tear one's self away from the gym floor, I advise to take the workshop opportunity seriously and attend as many as possible. Don't worry, there will be plenty of time to stand in a sweaty gym and mix props with the masses in between.

Take a notebook and take notes. The first festival that I attended, I took a hand held tape recorder and dictated notes during the workshops. Although it got stares, I was able to reconstruct things that I never would have remembered if I had made a memo. Jot down tricks, ideas, techniques, any thing. The environment is a very stimulating one and can provide great inspiration. Don't loose that energy because you leave it behind when you return home. In spite of the fact that you are just sure that you will remember it, WRITE IT DOWN, then go over your notes each night in the hotel to refresh your memory.

A little anal? Am I taking all of the fun out of it? In that one festival that I took notes, I learned the repertoire for three entire manipulation routines that I still perform almost verbatim. Stuff, that to this day, still turns heads on the festival floor.

Also, take all of your props to the workshops as well. Most of them are "hands-on" and you will want to have your equipment on hand. Be prepared to provide loaners for those who didn't bring any (see below.)

Make Date's in The Gym:

If you want to learn in the gym, then I have one simple suggestion: Look around and find the best juggler that you can see. Then, go and ask them to help you with whatever you are working on. Usually, the apple of your eye will be furiously working on some high-tech trick that they can get one time out of ten on a good day with the wind to there back and you will not feel comfortable interrupting. As well you shouldn't. It can be most annoying to be interrupted during a training session, even if it is in public. So, make a date. Set up a time and a place where you can meet with the demigod of juggling, an write it down in your notebook. Plan on keeping it short, but with the number of talented jugglers at the festival, you will have a virtually endless supply of built in coaches, not to mention all of the new friends that you will make.

So many people are shy. Both the old pros and the new kids. Everyone tends to be so polite and unobtrusive that they all miss out on a wide host of opportunities standing all around them. It's quite simple really. If you are a talented juggler, and you are juggling in the gym at the annual festival, it means only one thing - that you are showing off.

Do not be mistaken, this is not a bad thing. I am a performer because I thrive on showing off. Oh yeah, there is an "artist" component, and a "sheer love of the form" component, but underneath it all, I am a petty, petty man with a frail ego that needs shoring up by total strangers to validate my naïve career decision. I don't sweat in training for months for my own amusement. When I get going, I want everyone to look at me (and only me!)

After all, those jugglers who are so good practice all the time anyway, so this week does not offer any new routine. It's no secret, juggling is not a very popular performance medium with the public. For someone who has devoted the time and energy to develop such a craft, the chance to have his or her work appreciated by peers in a welcomed change to "Yeah, but can you do it with fire?" Juggler's are, by nature, friendly and outgoing about their craft. Unlike magic, there is little to hide in a juggling technique.

Props:

Take extra props. If you are interested in passing, then make sure that you bring enough clubs that match. It will help out. If you are like me and are not interested in passing, or if you are a bit compulsive about other people handling your props, you can do what I do: only carry at most five. "Gosh, I'd love to pass, but I only have five. Maybe we could use yours?"

Have an extra set of props that you are willing to loan. Since I don't like to have others handle the props that I use, I often carry additional sets. Inevitably, someone will start to reach in my prop bag eyeing my clubs curiously, asking "Can I try these?" If I have a "slop set", I don't mind loaning them out.

The Shows and Competitions:

Go to them. Enjoy them. But please, PLEASE, be polite and courteous, not just to the performers, but to the facility providers as well! As cheesy and hokey as it sounds, as a member of the IJA, you are representing yourself, your organization, and your country. The IJA's membership are guests in the festival's city and should act accordingly. If the juggling community desires to have a more respected reputation, then one place that they can start to change the bad rep is by changing their collective behavior during the annual festival. Every year that I have attended the festival I have been disappointed and embarrassed by the crowds behavior during the public shows. Save the rudeness for the nightly open-mike Renegade stage where it can be appreciated in an appropriate setting.

Pace Yourself:

Don't blow out on the first day. Keep your enthusiasm and excitement under control. The first big festival I attended, I was working on passing seven clubs. To find a partner who could keep seven in the air with me was heaven on earth! We passed for hours and hours that first day. My hands were so blistered and sore that I didn't juggle again for the rest of the week. (As it turned out, it was a good thing, because that was why I went to so many workshops and started taking notes!)

I won't bother to say "Have fun!", because you will do that anyway.

Hope this is useful!

- Steve