The IJA is expecting an all-star lineup at its 44th Annual Festival next summer in St. Louis. Special guests Sergei Ignatov and Trixie Larue will receive IJA awards, and Anthony Gatto will be there to push on the boundaries of IJA numbers records.
The festival will be held July 16-21, 1991, on the campus of Washington University, a short city bus ride from the famous Gateway Arch. The main juggling venue will be the 18,000-square-foot floor of the university's almost-new, air conditioned field house. Housing will be in air conditioned dorms close by the field house, and juggler's will all eat together in one of the university's dining halls.
For those who recall the "varied" terrain of UCLA, festival coordinator Ginny Rose promises "no hills!" in St. Louis! More information on the festival, as well as a festival registration form, will appear in the Spring issue of Juggler's World.
New to the festival this year will be an IJA raffle. Beginning immediately, $5 buys you a chance at three prizes (or five chances at the reduced price of $20) - two round-trip American Airlines tickets to anywhere in the contiguous USA; a good-anytime IJA festival events package; and four IJA videos from the 1988, '89, '90, and '91 festivals. Also call if you'd like to help sell tickets. The raffle drawing will be held at the St. Louis festival, and you do not have to be present to win! To purchase tickets, send a check or money order made out to "IJA" to Tom Bennett at Box 3707; Akron OH 44314. To charge tickets on MasterCard or Visa call Bennett at 216/745-3552.
Folks interested in helping others become enthusiastic about juggling should keep a supply of the IJA's new membership brochures on hand. And every one you hand out could get you closer to winning a free trip to this summer's festival in St. Louis!
The attractive three-color brochure, designed by Sharon Jacobs, IJA art director, features Sergei Ignatov on the cover. Its inside panels include more photos and copy telling how the IJA serves the interests of jugglers.
There's a line on the membership application panel saying, "I learned about the IJA from..." By writing your name there, you win prizes in the IJA membership contest when a new member joins. The prize structure is: 5 referrals - IJA T-shirt; 10 referrals - free IJA membership plus the T-shirt; 20 referrals - free convention package, membership and T-shirt; 30 referrals - all of the above plus a convention room and board package; 40 referrals - all of the above plus up to a $500 airline ticket to the convention.
You can get the new membership brochures free of charge by writing or calling IJA secretary Tom Bennett at: Box 3707; Akron OH 44314; 216/745-3552.
The Theatre Union of Georgia in the USSR invites jugglers to a festival in that republic's capital city, Tbilisi, Sept. 8-15, 1991. The invitation arose from a visit to that city by European convention organizers Lee Hayes and Haggis McLeod.
Some details remain to be negotiated, but preliminary plans call for up to 300 jugglers to take a charter flight to Tbilisi from Berlin. There are two sports halls available for juggling, and accommodations will be in hostels at a university or in the homes of families in town. There will be public shows on three of the seven nights, two of which will be in the 1,850 seat circus building, and one in a 6,000 seat sports hall. Sightseeing trips will also be part of the package. It is probable that jugglers and teachers from several Soviet state circuses will also attend. Cost of the whole festival, including air fare, food and accommodations, is about $500.
The airline seats will be assigned on a first come, first serve basis, and visa processing takes some time. If you wish to reserve a spot, send a check for 50 pounds Sterling made out to "Tbilisi Juggling Festival" to: Haggis McLeod; 2 St. Edmund's Cottages; Bove Town; Glastonbury; Somerset; England. For more information, call England 0458-34484.
The Jugglers for Peace organization is expanding its efforts to promote peace through the common experience of juggling and other forms of play.
The group, founded about three years ago, has traveled to Nicaragua and Cuba to perform, and is planning future Central American trips. However, they now are also creating "The Full Spectrum Circus" as a school assembly team "promoting the integration of environmental and trans-cultural awareness... to encourage children of all ages to see a positive world outlook." In conjunction with the school assembly program is a "Sister School Friendship Program" to link American schools with Central American schools through their common experience of play.
The Full Spectrum Circus also plans to become involved with other groups fighting oppression to form an "Eternal Traveling Peace Festival." A caravan would be formed to travel this country collecting donations of seeds and basic living supplies to carry to Central America.
If you know of a school that would like to host a Full Spectrum Circus show, or if you're interested in joining the effort yourself, contact Kaj Fjelstad at General Delivery; Magnolia TX 77355. Or call and leave a message at 507/645-5763.
IJA members wishing to run for one of the 11 spots on the Board of Directors must send in a self-nomination form by April 1 to register candidacy and appear on the first ballot. The ballot will be included as part of the festival registration flier to be mailed to members shortly thereafter.
Persons who do not file nomination form with the IJA by that time may still register their candidacy at the general business meeting during the St. Louis festival. A final ballot will be compiled for members to vote on during the festival, but those who file after the April 1 deadline will lose the benefit of the absentee ballots mailed in earlier. People who vote on the first ballot may pull that ballot at the festival in favor of the final ballot if they wish. For more information, or to register your candidacy by April 1, contact IJA secretary Tom Bennett, Box 3707, Akron OH 44314. Call 216/745-3552.
If you have access to a computer service at a university, government, scientific or business site, you may be only an e-mail message away from joining the new computerized juggling network.
Last fall Duane Starcher (duane@kean.ucs.mun.ca) sent a message to an electronic bulletin board service called Usenet, which lists hundreds of interest groups, asking for contacts with jugglers. Within a week he had replies from about 30 jugglers from as far away as Australia, New Zealand, England, and Germany.
In the meantime, Phillip Paxton (ipwp400@indycms.bitnet) had, on his own, set up a "listserver;" one computer which would receive all the messages mailed to it and automatically re-mail them to people on the master list. Jugglers at Purdue and Indiana universities were already using it to exchange messages about their meetings.
Starcher sent Paxton his list of names, which were plugged into the listserver. By early December, more than 150 jugglers were happily and constantly swapping ideas about juggling, and leaving the tiresome electronic details to little silicon chips. And all of this took place in about the time it would have taken to get one letter through surface mail.
The two main networks involved are Bitnet and Internet, which connect not only with each other, but with other networks like Ca*net and ARPAnet. On Bitnet alone, you can send and receive messages from people and information from machines at more than 1,300 locations in 38 countries.
How do you get in on the fun? If you have e-mail privileges at a site on one of these networks, send the following message: SUB JUGGLING *Your Name, to this electronic address: listserv@indycms.bitnet.
How you do that varies with the computer you use at your site. If in doubt, ask your operations staff. By the way, the asterisk in front of your name identifies you as an IJA member.
That one message is all it takes. You will then be subscribed to the service. If you have spelled everything correctly and the message was received, you will get a message back from the listserver telling you about things you can do. For example, you can receive the complete list of jugglers on the system so that you can e-mail to your friends individually. You can also request archive files of all the messages that you missed by coming in late. And best of all, you will begin getting mail from other jugglers right away.
To access the network from CompuServe, go to E-Mail and send the following message: SUB JUGGLING your name to the following address: INTERNET:listserv@indycms.bitnet. Once the listserver has your name, you'll send and receive the messages just like ordinary CompuServe E-Mail, at standard CompuServe rates. Once you're on the network, address bulletin board messages to INTERNET:juggling@indycms.bitnet, and they'll be forwarded to all jugglers on the list.
What else can electronic jugglers do? Already, Bengt Magnusson and Bruce Tiemann have sent out a program to compute juggling patterns. Starcher, from his home in Newfoundland, was able to pass on names of Australian IJA members to a juggler there. He sent addresses of American equipment suppliers to someone on England, and received in turn some tips on the five ball half-shower from jugglers who were farther along.
Some jugglers may use services such as CompuServe. Neither Paxton nor Starcher knows how CompuServe jugglers can access Bitnet or Internet, but believe it is possible. Anyone who knows how this can be done should contact Starcher via e-mail at: duane@kean.ucs.mun.ca or Paxton at: ipwp400@indycms.bitnet. They'll make sure the information gets both on the network and into Juggler's World. If you can't reach them electronically, Starcher's surface mail address is: Duane Starcher; 123 Rennie's Mill Rd.; St. John's, Newfoundland; Canada A1B 2P2.
Article courtesy of Duane Starcher and Phillip Paxton