Juggling is the oldest form of art that previously belonged to the category of combat skills. With his help, a warrior could frighten the enemy with the ability to manipulate his weapon in the air, which often ended the conflict that had not yet flared up.
A little later, when this skill fell out of favor with citizens, it flowed into one of the types of circus art, thanks to Philip Asley, who opened his amphitheater. Then, the popularity of juggling increased again, and the technique of its execution began to improve actively, as a result of which several classifications appeared.
Features
Contact juggling got its name due to the method of manipulating objects. Unlike the classical way of performing a trick, this technique involves rolling objects around the body and close contact with the shoulder girdle and the hands of the juggler.
Some people call this type of art magic, because it often strikes the imagination of a simple viewer with the harmony of plasticity and artist’s dexterity. In fact, the performer’s movements resemble an elegant dance that creates the illusion of unity of the juggler’s body with an acrylic sphere acting as an inventory (many believe that his role is a glass ball, but it’s too fragile for this purpose).
Kinds
Nowadays, there are several types of contact juggling:
- Bodyroall - skating several balls on the shoulder girdle, arms and head. Sometimes, with sufficient flexibility of the performer, other parts of the body may be involved in the process, but this phenomenon is quite rare.
- Isolation - the creation of the illusion of the stillness of the ball due to its monophonic shade. It seems that the acrylic sphere stands still or soars, while the artist moves around it. It is the most common technique for beginners to master contact juggling.
- Multibol - rotation in the palms of up to eight balls in order to form various shapes and compositions from them. Requires a special warm-up for the hands, which improves the motor skills and flexibility of the fingers.
Many artists, when performing, also use some types of modern dance to give entertainment and completeness to their actions.
How to choose a ball for contact juggling
The right choice of ball for a beginner juggler is fundamental to the success of further training. Everything matters: texture, color and size of the sphere.
The diameter of the ball is selected depending on the length of the palm and the constitution of the performer. After all, a 10-centimeter sphere weighing 650 grams can be a problem for a fragile girl. To pick up the inventory, you need to measure the palm from the tip of the middle finger to the fold of the wrist.
If this segment reaches 21 cm, then the optimal size of the ball is 7.5 cm, with a smaller value, for example, 16 cm, the acceptable size of the sphere will also be reduced to 6.5 cm. At first, the weight of the inventory is also very important, because It should be taken into account, since it will be difficult for a novice juggler to demonstrate tricks with an object that he is barely able to hold in his hands.
It should also be remembered that the glass ball is categorically not suitable for training or for the performances of experienced artists. This material is extremely fragile and its alignment is much worse, therefore, such a sphere is very easy to damage, in addition to working out the technique with its help will be even more difficult. The ball can only be made of unbreakable materials such as acrylic, rubber or silicone. The latter are used for training stageballs, less heavy and noisy when falling.
And the last: balls for contact juggling have a wide color palette. In addition, they are fluorescent, interspersed with sparkles, matte and glossy. However, if inventory is required to perform tricks such as insulation, a transparent or solid glossy ball is best. Its external qualities are capable of producing a visual illusion of immobility, in contrast to two-tone and foreignly interspersed spheres.
Tips
Contact juggling is not the most difficult type of circus art, however, to achieve better results, it is worth listening to a couple of tips:
- At first, it is better to train over the bed or on soft surfaces to reduce the time it takes to find the ball and avoid annoying noise when falling.
- When juggling, use the whole hand. When working in its individual parts, avoiding mistakes is much more difficult.
- Holding the ball is required in a lightproof material, since the acrylic sphere is a powerful lens that can cause a fire.
How to learn contact juggling
To learn this juggling technique, it will take some time to train the hands, in particular the palms, since a lot depends on their flexibility. For this, a set of exercises called finger fitness is the best fit. It is publicly available on many sites and video hosting networks.
Next, beginners to master contact juggling will learn the simplest tricks - isolation and a butterfly (rolling the ball from the back to the inside of the palm of the hand), and after that you can move on to bodyradol.
For six months of constant training, you can master this juggling technique quite well.