In its general sense, juggling can refer to all forms of artful or skillful object manipulation. This includes most prop-based circus skills such as diabolo, devil sticks, cigar box manipulation, contact juggling, and hat manipulation.

However, this page focuses on the stricter definition of juggling - the art of repeatedly throwing several objects into the air and catching them in the hands. Jugglers refer to the objects they juggle as props, the most popular being specially made balls, beanbags, rings, clubs, or bouncing balls. Some performers also use "dangerous" objects such as knives and fire torches.

To distinguish this kind of juggling from other circus skills, it is sometimes called Toss Juggling.

Contents

1 Origins and History, 1947 B.C. – 1947 A.D. 2 Modern Juggling History 1950-2005 2.1 Professional Performers 3 Popular Forms of Juggling 3.1 Solo Juggling 3.1.1 Balls 3.1.2 Rings 3.1.3 Clubs 3.2 Multiple Person Juggling 3.2.1 Passing 3.2.2 Other Two-Person Forms of Juggling 4 Juggling World Records 4.1 Solo Records 5 Forms of Juggling Performance 5.1 Classic Forms 5.2 Modern Juggling Performance (avant-garde) 5.3 Postmodern Juggling Performance 5.3.1 Example of Postmodern Juggling 6 Common juggling patterns 7 Juggling Notation Systems 7.1 Diagram Based Systems 7.2 Numeric Systems 7.2.1 Siteswap 7.2.2 Beatmap 8 External links

Origins and History, 1947 B.C. – 1947 A.D.

1994-1781 B.C. - Egypt
The earliest known record of juggling, from the 15th Beni Hassan tomb of an unknown prince, depicting female dancers and acrobats throwing balls.

770-476 B.C. - China
Various jugglers are mentioned in histories, usually warriors who would display their skill to their enemies, sometimes managing to end a conflict before they began. Some jugglers are named, including:

• Lan Zi, from the state of Song, credited with juggled seven swords.
• Yi Liao of Shinan, who juggled balls, and the conflict between two houses was eliminated.
• Xiong Yiliao, in a battle between the states of Chu and Song, juggled nine balls at the same time.

400-200 B.C - Greece
Juggling recorded in Greek writings. There is also terra cotta statue of a man with balls balanced on different parts of his body, from the time of Ptolomaer of ancient Thebes.

50-400 A.D. – Roman Empire
Juggling recorded in Rome. Tagatus Ursus, a Roman, claimed on his grave inscription to have been the first to juggle with glass balls, and Sidonius Apollinaris, an officer in a Roman Legion, entertained his troops by performing juggling tricks with balls.

400-600 A.D. – Ireland
Irish hero Cuchulainn juggles nine apples. A few centuries later Tulchinne, the royal buffoon of king Conaire, is described as juggling nine swords, nine silver shields, and nine balls of gold.

500-1500 A.D - Europe
Juggling was an acceptable diversion until the decline of the Roman Empire, after which it fell into disgrace. Throughout the Middle Ages most histories were written by religious clerics who frowned upon the type of performers who juggled, called 'Gleemen', accusing them of base morals or even practicing witchcraft. Jugglers in this era would only perform in market places, streets, fairs or drinking houses. They would perform short, humourous and bawdy acts and pass a hat or bag among the audience for tips. Some king’s and noblemen’s bards, fools, or jesters would have been to juggle or perform acrobatics, though their main skills would have been oral (poetry, music, comedy and story telling).

1066 - England
Taillefer, the warrior-bard of William of Normandy, juggles before the enemy lines and makes the first kill at the Battle of Hastings.

1528 - India
The Emperor of Hindustan described jugglers with wooden rings.

1528 – Central America
Christoph Weiditz draws Native Mexicans juggling and foot juggling/antipodism, which is also often found in Aztec art.

1680 - Germany
The first recorded juggling workshop, the Town Council of Nuremberg hired a "ball-master" who juggled and taught others juggling and other skills.

1700’s - France
The earliest known representation of juggling as a single arc of props over widely separated hands, from an 18th century French wood cut. Before this time, all images of jugglers show the hands close together with their props in columns above each hand.

1768 - England
Philip Astley opens the first modern circus. A few years later he employs jugglers to perform acts along with the horse and clown acts. From then until the modern day, jugglers have found work and have commonly been associated with circuses.

1774 – Pacific Islands
First record of hiko in Tonga, young girls throwing limes, gourds, or tui tui nutsin the shower pattern, by George Forster, aboard Captain Cook's second Pacific voyage.

1793 – North America
John Bill Ricketts presents America's first circus. In the opening show, watched by George Washington, Ricketts juggled on horseback.

1795 - China
Foot juggling/antipodism recorded at the Court of the Emperor of China.

1821 - England
William Hazlitt writes the essay "The Indian Juggler" describing a four ball juggling routine in detail, probably performed by Ramo Samee, considered to be the first modern professional juggler. In his day Ramo Samee was a well-known British celebrity.

Mid-Late1800’s – Europe and North America
Variety and Music Hall theatres become more popular, and jugglers are in demand to fill time between music acts, performing in front of the curtain while sets are changed.

• Performers start specializing in juggling, separating it from other kinds of performance such as sword swallowing and magic.
• The Gentleman Juggler style is established by German jugglers such as Salerno and Kara.
• Rubber processing is developed and jugglers start using rubber balls. Previously juggling balls were made from balls of twine, stuffed leather bags, wooden spheres or various metals. Solid rubber balls meant that bounce juggling was possible. Inflated rubber balls lead to ball spinning.

1883 – North America
In Boston a new style of variety show is born. The format is a continuous show, the same 8-10 acts repeated over and over, the audience coming and going when they had seen all the acts. This was later known as Vaudeville.

1885 – England
Paul Cinquevalli (1859 – 1918) made his debut at a circus in Covent Garden, London. Cinquevalli was the first juggling super-star, and was referred to by the British press as the world’s greatest juggler.

Late 1800’s – Early 1900’s – North America
In the USA the popularity of variety shows and vaudeville shows created great demand for professional jugglers. To distinguish them from other entertainers, jugglers were constantly developing new tricks, props, styles and characters, many of which survive to this day.

Here are some juggling "firsts" from America, based on anecdotal evidence.

• Jim Harrigan was the first tramp juggler, using cigar boxes and balls. He was also one of the first talking comedy jugglers, putting jokes into his routine.
• DeWitt Cook was the first to perform with "juggling clubs". Previously jugglers had only used sticks, torches or knives. Instead Cook juggled 3 Indian Clubs, normally used for arm-swinging exercises. Indian Clubs were made from wood, were very heavy and were shaped like a modern bowling pin. This design is still recognizable in today’s specially manufactured, light, plastic juggling clubs.
• Charles Hoey was the first to juggle 4 clubs, though he could not stop juggling without dropping. When performing on stage the curtain had to be closed while he was still juggling so the audience wouldn’t see him drop.
• Ben Mowatt was the first to juggle 5 clubs.
• Pat McBann was the first to juggle six clubs. He did 4 in one hand and 2 in the other, but died before he had it ready to perform in public.
• John Breen juggled 7 clubs for 35 right-handed throws. Breen also managed other very technical tricks such as a 5 club shower, as well as 5 club cascade with a head balance. He performed 6 clubs on stage. He died aged only 21 in 1912.
• The first record of two-person club passing is in 1885 by the juggling team “The Murdock Bros”. They passed four clubs side-by-side them while standing on pedestals.
• The Devine Bros perform 6 club passing, facing each other, for the first time.
• The Three Mowatts were the first three-person club passing act, first performing in 1895. John Whitfield left the Mowatts to set up his own troupe called the Juggling Johnsons and created the first 4 and 5 person juggling.
• Jack Greene and Joe Piche were the first to pass 8 clubs.

1896 - Siberia
Enrico Rastelli is born. Rastelli (1896-1931) is considered to be one of the greatest jugglers who ever lived. He is recorded as juggling 10 balls (though never 9), 8 sticks (small clubs) and 8 plates. He was also one of the first jugglers to use footballs (soccer balls) and other large rubber balls.

1912 – North America
Glow-props are invented. Adolf Behrend, the German Gentleman juggler Salerno builds a set of clubs with electric lights inside which changed colors as he juggles them. [6]

1930-1950 - Europe and North America
Variety and Vaudeville shows start to decline in popularity due to competition from motion picture theatres, radio and television.

1947 – North America
The International Jugglers' Association is formed

Modern Juggling History 1950-2005

Professional Performers

During the early growth of movies, radio and television, juggling, as a form of popular entertainment, suffered more than other variety acts. Music and comedy transferred very easily to radio but juggling, being mostly physical, didn’t. In the early years of TV, when variety-style programming was very popular, jugglers were often featured, but developing a new act for each new show, week after week, was impossible. Comedians and musicians could have other write material written, but jugglers can’t get other people to learn new material for them.

Venues for professional jugglers today.

Circus. Wherever there are circuses, there are jugglers, though usually only one or two jugglers per circus. This means that only the best, most advanced jugglers perform in traditional and established circuses. Most circus jugglers are from Russia and other Soviet block states, products of very prestigious circus schools. Some of the greatest jugglers from the past 50 years are from Eastern Europe, including Sergei Ignatov, Evgenij Biljauer and Viktor Kee (featured in Cirque du Soleil productions).

Variety Theatres still do business in Europe, particularly Germany. In North America the closest thing to variety shows are in casinos, in places like Las Vegas, where jugglers perform alongside singers, comedians and others. As with circuses, the demand for jugglers to perform in variety theatres and casinos is far lower than jugglers seeking work, meaning only the best, most dynamic performers find regular work in the top venues. Germany and the USA have also produced some of the greatest jugglers from the past 50 years, most notably Francis Brunn from Germany and Anthony Gatto from America.

More to come here

Popular Forms of Juggling

This is a brief outline of the most popular forms of juggling as practiced by amateur, non-performing, hobby jugglers. This list is based on the current trends in the western world (Europe and North America) for ball, club and ring juggling, and is not exhastive. Jugglers do not consciously isolate their juggling into one of these categories; most jugglers will practice two or more forms, blurring the lines between them.

Some forms are commonly mixed, like Numbers and Patterns with balls.Others are rarely mixed, like Contact Numbers Passing.

Solo Juggling

Balls

For the purposes of record keeping and ease of communication, the terms balls and beanbags are generally interchangeable in the juggling world.

Contact Juggling - Instead of throwing balls, a juggler may roll them over the hands and body. Usually “crystal” balls (actually acrylic or plastic) are used. There are two distinct forms. A. Rolling one or two balls all over the hands, arms and body. B. Controlling three to eight balls, revolving them in stacks in the palms of the hands. Both forms often use the idea of "isolation". The impression is given of one ball being fixed in space and the jugggler, or the other balls, moving around this stationary ball.

Numbers Juggling - Always try to juggle one more ball, or try to get one more catch. Most people try to beat their own records though some are only interested in beating world records. There is no set number that “Numbers Juggling” starts as it depends on the skill of the juggler or the size of ball being juggled. Even so, the overriding thought of numbers jugglers is that they’ll be happy when they are able to juggle the next number or make the extra catch.

Pattern Juggling - Juggle as many mathematically generated patterns as possible. Siteswap jugglers focus on aesthetic variations but also the longest patterns, the most complex patterns, or the patterns with the highest throws.

Trick Juggling - Jugglers learn or make up as many tricks as they can and link them together in unique sequences. Usually the juggler focuses on: body throws, tricks with crossing arms, multiplexes (throwing two balls at once from the same hand), carrying balls around other balls and different styles of catching. Typically three, four or five balls are juggled. The juggler is generally stationary and only uses their hands.

Technical Juggling - Concentrating on usually four to seven balls, a technical juggler will work on a limited number of traditional tricks, not straying far from a basic skill set, but pushing themselves to the highest limits of their juggling capability. The skills are typically pirouettes, juggling above the head, backcrosses (throwing balls behind the back) and a few other types of body throws. Also popular is juggling with an object such as a club or pole balanced on the forehead, or ball being bounced on the head.

Full Body Juggling - Awareness that the whole body can be used for controlling or influencing the balls, including catches with the head, arms, back, legs and feet. A full body juggler may also be influenced by forms of dance and won’t stay still for very long, opting to move their feet, their stance, their posture and their orientation. There may be influences from contact juggling but most of the skills are based on throwing and catching.

Bounce Juggling - Using silicone or rubber balls, the balls are allowed to bounce off a hard surface, typically the floor, before catching again. There are a few distinct tricks with bouncing balls, mixing up different rhythms, speeds and types of throws, but most popular is numbers bouncing.

Football Juggling - Juggling footballs, basketballs, water polo balls or volley balls. The most classic skills are spinning balls, then stacking the spinning balls, bouncing balls on the head, shoulder, feet or floor. Elements of contact juggling are often mixed in, rolling the larger balls around the body.

Rings

Rings are less popular than balls and clubs. The main reasons are:

• they can be quite painful to catch, especially for beginners, as the very thin cross-section and hard plastic can act like blades. You know how you can jut cucumbers in half with a blunt knife? That is much like catching a thin juggling prop as it drops from thirty feet.
• they are affected by very light winds, meaning they must be juggled inside.

Numbers Jugglers - Rings lend themselves well to numbers juggling. They are easier to catch than balls and don’t collide as much as clubs. If they didn’t hurt juggler's hands so much they would be even more popular.

Trick Jugglers - Few people use rings to make up new tricks. Usually a juggler will just do tricks they have learnt with balls or clubs but happen to use rings instead. Even so, making up and juggling tricks unique to rings is becoming more popular.

Technical Jugglers - Concentrating on five to seven rings. Again, mainly pirouettes, juggling above the head, backcrosses and invariably collecting all the rings over the head at the end.

Clubs

Clubs (sometimes called "pins" because they look like Bowling pins) are very popular with solo jugglers. Again, only the most popular forms of club juggling are listed.

Numbers Juggling - Most jugglers consider five clubs as the start of numbers clubs juggling. Due to clubs being much larger and heavier than balls, numbers club juggling is much, much harder and not so popular as numbers juggling with balls.

Trick Juggling - Lots of tricks are unique to clubs. The size and shape opens up possibilities with balances, rolls, flourishes, swings, slapbacks, wrong end catches and more. Most tricks are done with the juggler standing still and mostly using the hands and head.

Technical Juggling - Technical juggling focuses on three to five clubs. The set skills are pirouettes, juggling above the head, backcrosses, shoulder throws, and kickups. Also juggling with a balance or head bounce.

Club Swinging - Two clubs are swung about the body in different patterns, speeds, directions, planes and phases. Sometimes the clubs are thrown but are usually held all the time. Some jugglers don't consider club swinging to be "real juggling" as the props are not thrown and caught enough.

Multiple Person Juggling

Instead of juggling on their own, a juggler will often find a friend or two and throw props about as a pair or group.

Passing

Two or more jugglers share a juggling pattern between them, usually facing each other. Passing has lots of forms, usually practiced with clubs.

Numbers - Popular with clubs, rings and bouncing balls, but not so much with balls. A team of two jugglers who work hard together can often juggle more than twice as many clubs between them as each can juggle alone. Very few people do anything but numbers passing with rings and bouncing balls.

Tricks - Usually two jugglers concentrating on the unique trick opportunities presented while passing clubs. This is often based on a single pattern, like 6 club 2 count (throwing to someone else every two beats) or 4 count (passing every four beats), with the tricks thrown within the regular beats. The basic throws are things like tomahawks, shoulder throws, flats, early and late doubles, multiplexes, and many more. Also solo club juggling tricks can be mixed in between the passes.

Groups - Typically there is one feeder (who passes to everyone else) and two or more feedees (who only pass to a feeder). Popular formations are the triangle, the Y, the line, the square and the star. The juggling patterns are normally quite simple with complexity being added by jugglers turning or walking around within the group, changing from feedee to feeder and back again.

Patterns - Keeping things interesting by working out ever more complex series of passes (throwing the club to someone else), selves (throwing to yourself), holds (not throwing the club at all) and zips (grabbing the club out of one hand with your other). These are set over varying number of beats and are repeated by each juggler. The most basic patterns are like pass-self-self-self. At the more complex end are patterns with four jugglers each doing something like pass-zip-self-pass-pass-self-zip-pass all out of phase with each other. Of course, with more than two jugglers involved they must also know whom they are passing to on each beat.

Technical - Based on the traditional skill set mentioned in the solo club section. Usually passing six to nine clubs either face to face or back-to-back. Technical passing is very difficult so sequences usually have to be choreographed in advance for the tricks to work, unlike regular passing tricks.

Other Two-Person Forms of Juggling

Sharing (sometimes called Buddy or Siamese Juggling) - Two jugglers stand side-by-side and juggle patterns that usually one person would do on their own, juggling the pattern in roughly equal halves. This can range from side-by-side numbers passing to very complex arm weaving patterns with only three balls. Sharing is most popular with balls.

Stealing - One person juggles a regular pattern. The other person steals all of the props and keeps the pattern going without a pause. Patterns can be stolen from in front, behind, above, below or from the side. This form of juggling is most popular with clubs and balls.

Takeouts (sometimes also called Stealing) - Instead of stealing the whole pattern, one juggler can steal a single prop form another juggler and replace it with another prop, or the same prop a few beats later. This form of juggling is most popular with clubs and balls.

Juggling World Records

Solo Records

Currently, juggling world records are tracked by the Juggling Information Service Committee on Numbers Juggling (JISCON). All the records listed on the JISCON page (http://www.juggling.org/records/records.html) represent the longest runs with each number and prop that has been authenticated using video evidence. As of January 2005, the top records for each prop are:

• Rings/Plates: 13 rings for 13 catches by Albert Lucas in 2002.
• Balls/Beanbages: 12 beanbags for 12 catches, first done by Bruce Sarafian in 1996.
• Clubs/Sticks: 9 sticks for 9 catches, first done by Bruce Tiemann in 1996.

Each of these records are what is known as a "flash", meaning each prop is thrown and caught only ONCE. Some jugglers, and some juggling competitions, do not consider a flash to be "real juggling" and use "qualifying juggle" (a term taken from the International Jugglers' Association's Numbers Competition) to denote a pattern where each prop is thrown at caught at least TWICE. The JISCON records for qualifying runs are:

• Rings: 10 rings for 27 catches by Anthony Gatto in 2001.
• Balls: 10 beanbags for 23 catches by Bruce Sarafian in 2001.
• Clubs: 7 clubs for 2 minutes, 49 seconds by Anthony Gatto in 2005.

There are other jugglers who have equaled or bettered these records but have not submitted video evidence to the JISCON. These non-verified records stand at:

• Rings: 14 rings for 14 catches by Albert Lucas.
• Balls: 11 beanbags for 18 catches by Peter Bone.
• Clubs: 7 clubs for over 3 minutes by Anthony Gatto.

One other solo (non-passing) record that must be mentioned is the bounce juggling record. This is tracked by the Bounce Juggling World Record (http://www.bouncepage.com/records.htm) page, which styles itself on the JISCON page, and also only lists records with video evidence. These records are:

• Flash: 11 bounce balls for 11 catches by Tim Nolan in 1990.
• Qualify: 9 bounce balls for 30 seconds by Antonio Bucci in 1988.

Forms of Juggling Performance

An outline of the most common and popular forms of juggling act on today’s stages. There are many others that used to be popular and there more from current times that are less known or harder to define. There will be more to come in the future too and maybe some new forms are being developed right now.

Classic Forms

Comedy Juggling - Generally the juggling skill takes a back seat to the comedy. A comedy juggler will tell lots of jokes, do lots of clowning around, use lots of audience participation, etc. Finally the performer will get around to juggling, usually with something “dangerous” like knives or fire torches, normally balanced on something high or unstable. For every minute of juggling there are ten minutes of banter, meaning not much juggling skill is needed for thirty minute or hour-long shows. Comedy juggling is good for street acts, cruise ship shows, corporate entertainment, theme parks, etc. Beware of “comedy” costumes and “comedy” props. Examples: Raspyni Brothers, Haggis and Charlie, Ben Cornish.

Traditional Circus / Vegas Style - This is all pure skill. Get on stage and blow people away with your amazing juggling ability. Nothing subtle, just “Look at me, I’m fantastic, you will never be able to do this in a million years”. Jugglers will typically stick to a predictable sequence of progressively harder tricks with a progressively higher number of props. First balls, then rings, then clubs, nothing but technical juggling except for the climax of the act, typically one or two feats of numbers juggling. Usually an act will last between five and ten minutes or until the juggler runs out of tricks to perform. Examples: Anthony Gatto, Sergei Ignatov.

The Gentleman Juggler - In the 19th century jugglers would dress in Indian or Oriental styles of clothing and present their juggling skills as something magical or mystical. Then the trend swung to dressing in the fashions of the day and juggling everyday objects such as hats, canes, cigars, coats, cigar boxes, spoons, knives, plates, cups, trays, flower vases, chairs, tables and anything else they could find. The audience could connect with the jugglers in a way they could never connect to a man in a turban. Fast-forward to the present day and jugglers are still wearing 19th century fashions and juggling with 19th century objects. One of the finest gentleman jugglers performing today is Kris Kremo.

Modern Juggling Performance (avant-garde)

During the last quarter of the 20th century, many jugglers saw a way to use their skills as a form of artistic expression. They put aside the goals of popular entertainment for the masses, and instead sought out new ideals, something more than just juggling.

Modern juggling begins again from first principles, abandoning traditional definitions and systems of creating new work. This dismissal of tradition also involves the rejection of conventional expectations, stressing freedom of expression and experimentation. Modern juggling often startles and alienates audiences unused to the bizarre and unpredictable.

Even so, the avant-garde approach has been very influential to the rest of the juggling world. Many performers working in traditional venues such as variety and circuses now mix modern juggling ideas into their acts.

While traditional juggling performers consider themselves entertainers, modern juggling performers will consider themselves artists. But just because a performer is artistic, it doesn’t mean they are particularly lacking in juggling skill. Many modern forms require a whole new set of skills to be learnt for each new act.

Some of the philosophies behind Modern juggling performances:

Concept - The traditional concept of juggling is “I will not drop”. Replacing or adding to that concept can create whole new and different styles of juggling. A good example is Michael Moschen saying “I will not throw” and almost single-handedly inventing contact juggling. In purely conceptual pieces, the performance itself is secondary to the idea, and could be left as a set of instructions that any other juggler could follow and perform. A conceptual artist will have a neutral character, dress in simple costume and use minimal stage set, letting their actions be their main form of expression.

Structure - An artist may have a strong tendency to be scientific in seeking out the underlying patterns or elements in juggling. They will take these fundamental building blocks and, in a methodical fashion, create a sequence of new tricks or patterns. Sean Gandini has worked a lot in this way, basing much of his juggling choreography on siteswaps and mathematical sequences.

Character - Create a new character and look at juggling through new eyes. An artist may play with props as someone else, or someone more than themselves, and find new ways to present juggling on stage. A large character can come up with someone outrageous new ideas. A shy character can be very interesting to watch too, especially as a withdrawn presence is a stark contrast to most personalities you see on stage. Think John Gilkey and Michael Menes and you have the right idea.

Theatre - Tell a story and juggle along the way. Characters are usually stock or stereotypes. The story is often simple. The juggling typically has nothing to do with the story or themes and seems to be shoehorned in there for apparently no reason. This approach is normally favoured by “new circus” companies and, by extension, many modern circus schools.

Object - Instead of using traditional juggling props, an artist often finds or makes something new and comes up with as many new tricks as they can. The new objects can be simple shapes or complex machines. Often an artist may try to select aesthetically pleasing tricks though often their main goal is to show the interesting possibilities of manipulation. Again, when an artist is concentrating more on what they do rather than on what they are, they will have a neutral character and simple costume. One performer who is very object orientated is Denis Paumier; he has full length juggling shows where he never picks up a single club, ring or ball, instead opting for his own creations.

Environment - Instead of just juggling on a bare stage, some jugglers will create a unique environment in which to juggle. It may be simple furniture or it may be a specially made set. Often the performer will use traditional juggling props and find new and interesting ways to juggle them in, on, under or around the obstacles they place in their way. Bounce juggling lends itself well to interacting with the environment. Michael Moschen’s triangle, the Gandini Juggling Project's cube and Greg Kennedy’s angled slabs are good examples environmental bounce juggling.

Some people would say that Modern juggling is now so well accepted by juggling audiences that it is no longer avant-garde. In juggling convention shows in Europe, Modern juggling is just as popular as Classic juggling, if not more so.

Postmodern Juggling Performance

In the past ten years a new type of juggling performer has emerged. They aren’t full-time, professional jugglers and they don’t create work for a non-juggling audience. Instead they perform exclusively at juggling conventions, to other people who share their own understanding of juggling performance and culture. This environment has produced a new style of juggling performance know as Postmodern Juggling.

Where Modern performers hoped to unearth universals or the fundamentals of art, Postmodern performers embrace diversity. They reject the rigid boundaries and favour eclecticism, the mixing of ideas and forms.

Postmodern performers use references to other jugglers, other performers, other parts of juggling culture or even to their own previous performances. This could be in the form of recognizable tricks, styles, characters or ideas. A postmodern juggling act taken out of context, to an audience of non-jugglers, could not be presented as a stand-alone work of art; instead it relies on knowledgeable audience members to find the meaning behind the act for themselves.

While Modern performers will usually use specially written music, or music specially selected to enhance the themes in the act, Postmodern performers will always use popular music, and their costume will typically conform to contemporary mainstream fashions.

Postmodern juggling performance also blurs the line between “mass entertainment” and “high art”. The artistic expression is in the repetition and distortion of currently accepted forms of performance. While the mindset of the performers are very different, most juggling audiences make no distinction between Modern and Postmodern juggling acts, they simply see both as Modern.

Example of Postmodern Juggling

A very clear example of a Postmodern juggling performance was Luke Burrage’s “3 ball and video” act that he performed at the 2003 British Juggling Convention in Brighton. First he selected a piece of popular music called “Not From Brighton” by Fat Boy Slim. He was unashamedly influenced by Sean Gandini’s work, especially the idea of calling out siteswaps as they are juggled, so Luke took this Structuralist idea but discarded the core principles behind siteswaps themselves. He made a video that would display the name or juggling notation of every throw, every trick, every pattern and every catch, appearing on the screen in the style of a karaoke video. Jugglers knew most of these tricks but some were only known to Luke or those who knew his juggling. The video was played alongside Luke as he juggled the tricks onstage. The act ended with Luke continually dropping the balls onto the stage, one after the other, and the TV displaying “caution, dropped balls”.

If that wasn’t enough, later in the same show Luke returned to the stage, again setting up the TV. This time the video showed Luke performing exactly the same routine as he had previously performed live. Luke stood beside the TV, flicking through eighty flash cards, each displaying the exact same notation as before, now describing what the video was showing.

Common juggling patterns

One of the most basic three-ball patterns, the first trick a juggler normally learns, is the cascade. Below is a list of other common three-ball patterns.

• Reverse cascade
• Shower
• Mills Mess
• Box
• Chops
• Columns
• Yo-yo
• Fountain
• Boston mess
• Rubenstein's revenge
• Multiplex

Juggling Notation Systems

It has often been said, of many juggling skills, that it is "easier done than said", while it might be easy to learn a given maneuver and demonstrate it for others, it is often much harder to communicate the idea accurately using speech or plain text.

To get around this problem, various numeric or diagram based notation systems have been developed. These are useful for communicating patterns or tricks between jugglers, as well as investigating and discovering new patterns.

Diagram Based Systems

While diagrams are the most visual and user friendly way to notate many juggling patterns, they rely on images, so are complicated to produce and unwieldy to share via text or speech.

• Ladder Diagrams - Each rung on a ladder is a regular point in time. The juggled objects are represented as lines, their paths through time and between a pair of hands.
• Causal Diagrams - Similar to the ladder diagram but doesn't show the props held in a juggler's hands. Instead it only shows the "problems", the incoming prop, and what the juggler should do to make space in his or her hand's to catch that incoming prop. It is usually used for Club Passing and can be displayed or edited in some juggling software.
• Mills Mess State Transition Diagrams - Mills Mess is a popular pattern where the arms cross and uncross. Mills Mess State Transition Diagrams can be used to track these basic arm movements.

Numeric Systems

The following notation systems only use numbers and common characters. The patterns can easily be comminicated by text. Also many patterns can be entered into software juggling simulators to view as computer animations.

Siteswap

First discovered almost 20 years ago, Siteswap is the most common juggling notation by far. In its most basic form, Vanilla Siteswap, it is very easy to use, as each pattern is reduced to a simple sequence of numbers, such as "3", "97531" or "744". However, vanilla siteswap can only notate the most basic alternating two-handed patterns.

For more slightly more complicated patterns, extra rules and syntax are added to create the following two siteswap extensions:

• Synchronous Siteswap - or "Synch" Siteswap. This is used notate patterns where both hands throw at the same time, rather than alternating left and right hands.
• Multiplex Siteswap - Multiplex, in the world of juggling, means "throw more than one ball from one hand at once". Multiplex Siteswap allows you to notate such patterns, and also can be mixed with synchronous siteswap.

Vanilla, synch and multiplex siteswap are the "standard" forms of siteswap. Not only are they understood by jugglers, there are also many computer programs capable of animating juggling patterns entered in siteswap notation.

Other extensions to siteswap have been developed for specific purposes. These are far less common than the "standard" forms of siteswap, understood by far fewer jugglers and only specialized software.

• Passing Siteswap - used for simple passing patterns.
• Multi-Hand Notation (MHN) - developed by Ed Carstens for use with his juggling program JugglePro. MHN can describe patterns with any number of hands and at any rhythm but use is limited due to it being as complex as a computer programming language.
• General Siteswap (GS) - developed by Ben Beever, GS places siteswap into a matrix that allows the addition of any other information about any aspect of juggling, including tricks such as backcrosses and hand movements.

Beatmap

Beatmap is a new juggling notation system, developed in 2004 by Luke Burrage. While there are some similarities between beatmap and synch siteswap, there are fundamental differences. The most important is that beatmap notates every "hand" on every beat during a pattern, unlike all forms of siteswap, which only notates each hand on every other beat. This means that beatmap can notate any number of hands and in any rhythm with no added complexity, unlike siteswap, which needs many extended sets of rules and syntax to be able to communicate the same patterns.

Beatmap doesn't only notate throws, but also the time and place of each catch. By including a simple indication of crossing and uncrossing arms, beatmap can notate Mills Mess style patterns. Within beatmap it is also possible and easy to notate not only the balls in a pattern, but also the hands or arms of the juggler, as well as the possition, location or orientation of the body of a juggler. Users claim that beatmap can more accurately describe more patterns than all ladder diagrams, causal diagrams, mills mess state transition diagrams, vanilla siteswap, synch siteswap, passing siteswap and multi-hand notation combined.

So far use of beatmap is very limited, as most jugglers and all juggling software understand only variations of siteswap.

External links

• The International Jugglers' Association (IJA) (http://www.juggle.org) - worldwide community of jugglers united.
• The Internet Juggling Database (http://www.jugglingdb.com/) - very current; very exhaustive; active wiki community.
• Juggling Information Service (http://www.juggling.org/) - dated but has a huge amount of information. Excellent.
• The World Juggling Federation (http://www.thewjf.com/) - private company aimed at promoting competition-style juggling.

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