By Craig Green ©1999 Our Juggledancing ethic is very consciously not "performance" oriented. While Juggledancing is quite beautiful to behold, it is done primarily for the pleasure and exhilaration of the participants, not spectators. We see it as a "people's art", accessible to folks of average dexterity and limited time and money. Our vision of Juggledancing is that it develop primarily as a vehicle for weaving community. A big inspirations in creating Juggledancing has been the contra dance "movement" which has created so many nodes of gracious ecstasy throughout the cultural landscape. We find Juggledancing with juggling bags to be a juicy context for propagating evolutionary ecstasy in a similar manner to contra dancing. In the course of exploring Juggledancing, we've also invented a revolutionary new juggling prop: the Jugglebelt! More about that later. The Basics Our approach to Juggledancing is based on a simple correspondence between rhythmic elements of music and juggling. I'll begin by describing this correspondence and defining a terminology that gives us a common language to practice and experiment with. These instructions will make the most sense if you have juggling bags (or balls) in hand and a good piece of juggling music cued up. I've listed some widely available pieces that are suitable for juggledancing at the end of these instructions. Paul Simon's song "I Know What I Know" on hisGraceland album is a widely available piece that's perfect for Juggledancing. Let's start with this example: synchronizing a simple 3 bag (or ball) cascade with a piece of music in 4/4 time (the most common musical time signature.) To begin with, just listen to the music and count out the rhythm: "1 - 2 - 3 - 4" So, the basic relationship is this: each toss of a juggling bag equals a "beat" of the music. In 4/4 time there's four beats per measure. In juggling to a 4/4 beat, we make 4 tosses per measure of music. Right - Left - Right - Left. Try it yourself! Pick up three bags. Start with two in the right and one in the left. With a little experimenting you'll find the right height for matching your tosses to the music. Count the beat as you juggle, like so: Right - Left - Right - Left - Right - Left - Right - Left
- etc.
It's useful to actually count aloud when first learning to juggledance, though some people feel this just makes an already challenging project even harder. It's sufficient just to count silently if that's your preference. OK, on to the next level: Phrases. Many 4/4 pieces have a clear musical structure in which 4 measures make up a musical "phrase". Thus a phrase has 16 beats/tosses (1 phrase = 4 measures = 16 tosses). Some jugglers have a harder time hearing the phrases in a piece of music, and they're certainly more pronounced on some pieces than others. Persevere! As you practice listening and counting, the phrases will eventually come in focus. I've found this structure of measures grouping into phrases to be incredibly common in all sorts of music: folk, pop, world beat, reggae... (The phrases on "I Know What I Know" don't become apparent until Simon begins singing. Once he's singing, they're plain as day.)If you can't hear the phrases in a particular piece of music, don't sweat it. Just keep count of your measures in groups of 4. (i.e., "ONE two three four, TWO two three four, THREE two three four, FOUR two three four", etc) Or you might want to simply count out a cycle of 16 beats as you juggle with the music. So, we use this rhythmic framework to choreograph passing patterns (for groups of 2 to 4 people) to the accompaniment of music. It's a blast! Juggling in time to the music is exciting and energizing. Matching the music's tempo gives a sharper focus to our practice. Juggling without musical accompaniment seems sort of pale now... Conversely, juggledancing also deepens our enjoyment of music: I feel a wonderful sense of participating in the music as I juggledance. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me just spell out a sample Juggledance for two people. Any juggler who's competent in "passing" will have a good time learning this little progression. Here's a recap of our story thus far: 1 toss = 1 beat
(All the pieces listed in the discography included at the end of this article exhibit this musical structure.) So, do you have the feel for juggling in time to the music? This takes longer for some folks than others. WHile we think of juggledancing as being primarily an emsemble art, it's good to get a feel for it juggling solo. I've had great fun creating solo "juggle dances". I run through a variety of well known three bag patterns (cascade, reverse cascade, columns, dog paddle, rainbow, over the shoulder turn around, etc.), juggling 4 phrases of each. and you know how to pass, you're ready for the real excitement: partner Juggledancing. Here's an example of a Juggledanceing progression for 2 that we enjoy. May it spark your imagination to create your own Juggledances with friends. This progression should be well within the capacities of any juggler who's competent at the basics of passing. The one element some jugglers may be unfamiliar with here is the use of left hand passing. Don't worry though, left hand passes are easy to get the hang of with a bit of practice. Take your time learning each segment of this "choreography". Enjoy practicing each pattern over and over until you're confident with it. A 2 person Juggledancing Choreography: Music starts
-For the first 3 measure just listen, feeling and counting the beats. Make eye contact with your partner, gathering focus and attunement -1 measure salute By "salute" we mean the common jugglers' protocol of raising and lowering arms together to start a round of juggling. Synchronize the salute in the time of the music: the raising of the arms takes two beats and the lowering of the arms takes two beats. Try it. It's a comfortable tempo for the movement. It's important to coordinate your salute on the 4th measure of a phrase. This allows you to start juggling on the first beat of a phrase, which allows you to cue your transitions on the musical phrases (which, while not strictly necessary in Juggledancing, is very fun and artful to do.) -4 measure/1 phrase "self" That is, 16 tosses (4 tosses per measure), to oneself. (This can be spiced up with reverse cascades, etc., if so desired. Just stay on the beat! Feel free to let your hips move to the rhythm if you're so inclined and are steady enough in your juggling. I find that a little booty shaking helps keep me loose and supple as I juggle. Let the Elvis in you come out a little!) Stage 1 -1 phrase pass on the 1st right hand toss of each measure: Pass - Self - Self - Self. We call this pattern "first beat" -1 phrase pass every right toss: Pass - Self - Pass - Self. We call this pattern "every other". -1 phrase pass the first two tosses of each measure: Pass- Pass -Self -Self- We call this pattern "two and two". -1 phrase pass all 4 tosses: Pass -Pass -Pass- Pass. - We call this pattern "Heavy Traffic". - 4 measure switch, (i.e. A moves to where B was standing and B does the opposite. There are many artful ways to do this. Create your own choreography! Just keep juggling as you trade places!) Stage 2 The next sequence in this dance involves what we call "Cross passing". In a cross pass, both partners pass on the diagonal: e.g. A making a left hand pass to B's left, while B makes a right hand pass to A's right. Collisions are quite likely here. It's necessary that the two of you agree to have one of you consistently toss his or her passes a little higher while the other tosses a little lower. So the following patterns assume that one juggler (partner A) is tossing with the left hand on the 1 and 3 beats while the other juggler (partner B) continues to toss with the right on beats 1 and 3. Otherwise, the progression is the same as Stage 1, though the crossing of the passes adds a new level of thrill to the adventure! --1 phrase cross pass on each 1st beat. --1 phrase cross pass every other --1 phrase cross pass two and two --1 phrase cross pass heavy traffic From here you could either end abruptly, cycle around to the beginning of the choreography, or progress on to further patterns of your own design. That ought to keep you busy for a while. Hopefully it will stimulate your imagination as to other moves and patterns that could be created in this framework. We have been developing some more advanced moves which are beyond the scope of this introductory article. If we get much response to this piece, we'll make the effort of transcribing our more advanced patterns! Further Details The Music: How does one find suitable Juggledancing music? Well, first off, there's a limited range of musical tempos that work well for 3 bag juggling (and 6 bag passing with a partner). In musical terms, the workable range of tempos lies between the metronome speeds of 110 and 130. Within that range fits a vast assortment of suitable musical pieces of diverse genres and moods. It's easy enough to find workable pieces without using a metronome. Just pick a piece of music with a steady, dancable rhythm and start juggling a 3 bag cascade pattern to the beat. Discover what height is needed to keep your tosses on the tempo. If that height feels enjoyable and sustainable, you've found a good piece. (By the way, it's fun to juggle to different rhythms- Jugglewaltzing has great potential! But we recommend starting with a straight 4/4 rhythm.) As we said, you'll find many pieces are either too slow or too fast to comfortably juggle to. It's most convenient to work with a CD player when searching for tunes and just try juggling along with a variety of pieces! Soon you'll develop a feel for the sort of tempos that suits your juggling. Also, you'll also find that some pieces work "okay" while others provide thrilling accompaniment. We find dance music with insistent rhythms most enjoyable, but easygoing pieces can also work great for juggling. It's interesting to notice how pieces that have very different rhythmic feels can have the same juggling tempos! At the end of this article I'll list a number of widely available pieces of music that we find to be perfect for juggling. Equipment By far our preferred juggling tool is the proletarian juggling bag. Of course other juggling props can be used too, but we want to make a case for this unjustly neglected prop: It's inexpensive, lightweight, forgiving, safe for indoor use, unintimidating, easily manufactured at home (or on the road in a pinch. In addition, some of the most exciting patterns we've developed in our Juggledancing would be virtually impossible to execute with pins or rings. They're simply too big and clunky for the interweavings we create with bags. These advantages reflect a basic value that underlies Juggledancing. Oh right! We haven't yet described our revolutionary Jugglebelts! Click here! Recommended music for Juggledancing This list is sorted by broad genre categories. The format of these listings is as follows: Artist- Song Album [metronome tempo] length of piece If you discover pieces that work great for juggling, please submit them to us and we'll add the list! Percussion/World Beat Set Leon Parker- Calling Out Belief [121] 4:57
Dance Grooves/Hip Hop Sister Sledge- We Are Family- The Disco Years Vol.3
[117]
Rock/Pop Dave Matthews Band- So much to Say Crash
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