Contact juggling is the art of plastics and grace

Juggling is the oldest kind of art that used to be a combat skill. With his help, the warrior could frighten the enemy with the ability to manipulate his weapons in the air, which often ended the conflict that had not yet erupted.

Later, when this skill fell into disfavor among citizens, it flowed into one of the types of circus art, thanks to Philip Asli, who opened his amphitheater. Then the popularity of juggling increased again, and the technique of its execution began to be actively improved, as a result of which several classifications appeared.

Features

Contact juggling has its name due to the method of manipulating objects. Unlike the classical way of performing the trick, this technique involves rolling objects over the body and close contact with the shoulder belt and juggler arms.

Some people call this art form magic, because it often amazes the imagination of a simple spectator by the harmony of the artist's plasticity and dexterity. In fact, the movements of the performer resemble an elegant dance, creating the illusion of the unification of the body of a juggler with an acrylic sphere serving as an inventory (many believe that a glass ball acts in its role , but it is too fragile for this purpose).

Kinds

Now there are several types of contact juggling:

1. Bodirol - skating several balls around the shoulder girdle, hands and head. Sometimes, with sufficient flexibility of the performer, other parts of the body may be involved in the process, but this phenomenon is rare.
2. Isolation is the creation of an illusion of the immobility of a ball due to its monochromatic shade. It seems that the acrylic sphere is standing still or floating, while the artist is moving around it. It is the most common technique for beginners to master contact juggling.
3. Multibol - rotation in the palms of up to eight balls to form different 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 during the performance 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 a ball for a beginner juggler is the fundamental success of further training. Value has everything: 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 with a weight of 650 g can become a problem for a fragile girl. To pick up the inventory, you will need to measure your palm from the tip of the middle finger to the wrist fold.

If this segment reaches 21 cm, then the ball size of 7.5 cm will be optimal, with a smaller value, for example 16 cm, and the allowable size of the sphere will decrease to 6.5 cm. At the beginning, the weight of the inventory is also very important, therefore its Should be borne in mind, 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.

Also it should be remembered that in the glass sphere is absolutely not suitable either for training, or for the performances of experienced artists. This material is extremely fragile and its centering is much worse, so this sphere is very easy to damage, in addition to practicing the technique with it will be even more difficult. The ball can only be made of non-breaking materials, such as acrylic, rubber or silicone. The latter are used for training stagedballs, less heavy and noisy in the fall.

And finally: balls for contact juggling have a wide color palette. In addition, they are fluorescent, with splashes of glitter, matte and glossy. However, if the inventory is required to perform such tricks as insulation, the best is a transparent or one-color glossy ball. Its external qualities are capable of producing a visual illusion of immobility, in contrast to the bicolour and having foreign spots of spheres.

Advice

Contact juggling is not the most difficult kind of circus art, however, to achieve better results, it is worthwhile to listen to a couple of tips:

1. The first time is better to train over the bed or on soft surfaces, to shorten the search time of the ball and to avoid annoying noise in the fall.
2. When juggling, use the entire hand. When working its individual parts to avoid mistakes at times more difficult.
3. Hold the ball is required in a light-tight material, since the acrylic sphere is a powerful lens that can cause a fire.

How to learn contact juggling

To learn this technique of juggling, it will take some time to take to training the hands, in particular the palms, as much depends on their flexibility. For this, the complex of exercises, called finger fitness, is the best. It is publicly available on many sites and videohosting the network.

Next, beginners to learn contact juggling should learn the simplest tricks - isolation and butterfly (roll the ball from the rear to the inside of the palm), and then you can go to the body-gogo.

Already for half a year of constant training can be quite good to master this technique of juggling.