Juggling

Juggling is a physical skill, performed by a juggler, involving the manipulation of objects for recreation, entertainment, art or sport.

The words juggling and juggler derive from the Middle English jogelen ("to entertain by performing tricks"), which in turn is from the Old French jangler.

[1] Although the etymology of the terms juggler and juggling in the sense of manipulating objects for entertainment originates as far back as the 11th century, the current sense of to juggle, meaning "to continually toss objects in the air and catch them", originates from the late 19th century.

[6] David Levinson and Karen Christensen describe juggling as "the sport of tossing and catching or manipulating objects [...] keeping them in constant motion".

Beni Hasan tomb of an unknown Egyptian prince, showing female dancers and acrobats throwing balls.

[10] Juggling has been recorded in many early cultures including Egyptian, Nabataean, Chinese, Indian, Greek, Roman, Norse, Aztec (Mexico) and Polynesian civilizations.

[14] In Europe, juggling was an acceptable diversion until the decline of the Roman Empire, after which the activity 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.

They would perform short, humorous and bawdy acts and pass a hat or bag among the audience for tips.

Some kings' and noblemen's bards, fools, or jesters would have been able to juggle or perform acrobatics, though their main skills would have been oral (poetry, music, comedy and storytelling).

In the early 19th century,[15] troupes from Asia, such as the famous "Indian Jugglers"[16] referred to by William Hazlitt,[17] arrived to tour Britain, Europe and parts of America.

In the early to mid-20th century, variety and vaudeville shows decreased in popularity due to competition from motion picture theatres, radio and television, and juggling suffered as a result.

The IJA continues to hold an annual convention each summer and runs a number of other programs dedicated to advance the art of juggling worldwide.

The scene revolves around local clubs and organizations, special events, shows, magazines, web sites, internet forums and, possibly most importantly, juggling conventions.

There will also be more formal workshops in which expert jugglers will work with small groups on specific skills and techniques.

Traditional circus-style juggling emphasises high levels of skill and sometimes large-scale props to enable the act to "fill" the circus ring.

French juggler Gaston Palmer, for example, gained a kind of notoriety for his comedic execution of gentleman juggling tricks.

Some of the greatest jugglers from the past 50 years are from Eastern Europe, including Sergej Ignatov, Andrii Kolesnikov, Evgenij Biljauer, and Gregory Popovich.

Vaudeville in the USA and Music halls in the UK regularly featured jugglers during the heyday of variety theatre in the first half of 20th century.

In many countries such as the UK, USA, Australia, Spain, France jugglers perform on the street (busking).

This was accomplished initially by Don Williams, as part of a Houston scientist's "Toys In Space" project, with apples and oranges.

[33] Diagram-based notations are the clearest way to show juggling patterns on paper, but as they are based on images, their use is limited in text-based communication.

Various heights of throw, considered to take specific "beats" of time to complete, are assigned a relative number.