Affiliates are invited to consider hosting an IJA annual convention. Proposals for the 1989 IJA convention site are being solicited for presentation at this summer's Akron convention. Call Rich at 716/876-5331.
Please note that your membership renewal date is now printed on your mailing label. Renewals are still $15 per year, or you may renew for multiple years.
Anyone interested in running for IJA office should note that elections will be held at the annual convention. Ballots with the names of candidates entered so far will be mailed to all members before the convention so that people who can't come can still vote.
The IJA is still asking affiliates to sponsor an award for a deserving competitor at this year's convention. The Atlanta Jugglers Association kicked off this idea with its "Wild Style Award" to Bob Nickerson at the 1986 convention. There are plenty of other ways affiliates and clubs can contribute as a group to the success of the convention. Contact Kevin Delagrange, convention chairman, at 216-724-0649.
Thousands of people across America will head for the mall to learn to juggle on nine successive Saturdays beginning in early May. Walden Books and the IJA are sponsoring the 1987 World Record Tour for "The Complete Juggler" to try to break the Guinness world record for number of objects juggled in one place at one time. The current record of 1,865 objects was set at the 1982 IJA convention in Purchase, N.Y.
Dave Finnigan, author of "The Complete Juggler," invites IJA members and juggling clubs to join him in the instruction. Instructors who sign up in advance at Walden Books will receive a complimentary t-shirt.
The tentative tour dates and sites will be:
The tour will also cover Boston, San Francisco, Cleveland and New York, with dates and places to be announced.
The Women's Circus, seven performers from San Francisco, New York City and London, planned to tour Nicaragua in March as a display of solidarity with the Sandinista revolution and protest against American support of the Contras.
By invitation of the Association of Sandinista Cultural Workers, the Women's Circus planned to present a broad spectrum of juggling arts in their three week visit.
Members of the circus -- Deborah Davis, Sara Felder, Christina Lewis, Jennifer Miller, Susan Siezer and musicians Leslie Lind and Camilla Sanders -- present a show that includes dance, song, wire walking, fire and ribbon swinging, and jugglers on stilts, unicycles, slack rope and two-highs.
The IJA is promoting a National Juggling Day on June 20 to celebrate its 40th anniversary in cities across America. It was 40 years ago on June 17, 1947 that the IJA's founders gathered at a magic convention in Pittsburgh to first plot their collective futures. Clubs and affiliates are asked to host an afternoon juggling festival in their locale as a way of honoring the organization that got it all started back in 1947.
Tricia Allen, chairman of the 1988 convention in Denver, is coordinating efforts. Those clubs choosing to participate will receive a complete packet of materials telling how to stage the festival, plus forms for entering the juggling instruction contest associated with it. Members of the club teaching the largest number of people to juggle on June 20 will receive 10 percent convention registration discounts, and the club will be featured in the Fall issue of "Juggler's World." Props and other prizes are also available for both juggling groups and individuals. For more information, write to Tricia Allen at Box 61423, Denver, CO 80206. Or call her at 303/32B-ALLS.
The IJA would like to thank the following people who have signed on as IJA Life Members since publication of the last issue of this magazine:
For more information on the Life Member program, contact the IJA office, Box 29, Kenmore, NY 14217. 716-876-5331.
A Pepsi/IJA Field Day on Wednesday of the 40th Anniversary Convention week will provide an opportunity for the public to meet jugglers, and for jugglers to meet some professional soccer players! The Pepsi Cola Bottlers of Akron are sponsoring the afternoon of joggling races, workshops, stage performances, juggling lessons and a softball game between IJA all-stars and the Cleveland Force indoor soccer team.
Following the game, members of the Force, which ranks at the top of the Major Indoor Soccer League, will present a workshop in foot juggling and body bounce. It's all part of a major effort to get the public involved with the convention, according to Kevin Delagrange, convention chairman. "We want to provide a forum where people can come watch juggling and learn to juggle themselves," he said. "The Pepsi bottlers are generously providing a stage and plenty of their product, and the Cleveland Force is a guaranteed draw around here. We anticipate a highly successful outdoor event with a lot of fun and a lot of people."
Pepsi will also sponsor a special 4-by-400 joggling Pepsi Relay race and give warm-up jackets to the winning team.
The 40th Anniversary Convention will also feature a historical theme. The welcome party on Tuesday night, July 14, will be an IJA birthday party. The IJA private show Wednesday night will be "Old & New Vaudeville," featuring some of the long-time members who founder Eddie Johnson is recruiting to attend. On Friday afternoon, Johnson will moderate a workshop panel of early members who will reminisce about juggling days of yore. A special history lounge will provide a respite from the activity of the gym for those who want to talk juggling, get a cup of coffee and watch some of the historical videos provided by special guest Karl-Heinz Ziethen, one of the world's foremost juggling archivists.
Delagrange said the Rubber City Jugglers of Akron also hope to organize IJA Games that will feature a race with balanced oatmeal boxes.
There will be shows aplenty. Warm-ups for the Grand Finale Public Show Saturday night in the Akron Civic Theatre include the above-mentioned "Old & New Vaudeville" show, the midnight Club Renegade cabaret, a Benefit Show at Children's Hospital and exciting IJA championships events.
For those who want to escape the juggling scene altogether, Excalibur Excursions will be offering tours of historic Akron sites and gardens.
A convention registration form and more information will be mailed to IJA members on May 1. However, reserve the dates now -- July 13-19 in Akron, Ohio. In the meantime, if you've got questions, call the following people responsible for these aspects of convention activity:
Besides a full schedule of free one-hour workshops, this year's convention will feature three extended workshops. Allan Jacobs, 1983 US Nationals champion, will teach a 4-hour workshop in club swinging and another in intermediate club passing.
A three-hour workshop designed to help you build a juggling (or any other) team through investigation of team-building skills will be taught by Dave Finnigan, a Performax-certified human resource development consultant.
With the use of a highly refined research instrument, Finnigan will help jugglers learn why some partnerships last while others fall apart. Participants will learn to minimize interpersonal problems by gaining insight into their own behavioral style and that of actual or potential partners.
All workshops will be held on successive days during regular convention hours. There will be a $25 fee for club swinging and club passing, and club passers must sign up with a partner. Both these are limited to 20 people each on a first-come, first-served basis. Team building will be offered at a $10 registration fee.
Make checks payable to IJA and mail now to Holly Greeley, IJA vice president, RFD 3, Amherst, Mass. 01002. For more information, you can call Greeley at 413-548-9621.
Internationally acclaimed mimes, clowns, new vaudevillians, jugglers, circus and movement artists will be featured at the 1987 International Mime and Clown Festival in Philadelphia June 1 - July 10.
About 50 performances highlight the festival, which is coordinated by the Movement Theatre International. Guest artists who juggle include the Pickle Family Circus, Michael Moschen and Michael Menes.
The festival includes five weeks of master classes and workshops in mime, clowning, juggling, stage acrobatics, antic arts and commedia. The fourth annual four-day National Movement Theatre Conference will be held June 13-17 around the theme, "clowns, fools, & buffoons."
MTI was founded in 1979 in Elkins, W.Va., to bring the movement arts to the public and encourage artistic excellence in the field by presenting performances and festivals, holding the annual conference and by providing learning opportunities.
For more information on this year's festival, write MTI at Box 12897, Philadelphia, PA 19108, or call 215-592-7733.