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Over
1200 jugglers from around the world gathered August 2-6, 1997 At Robert Morris
College in Moon Township near Pittsburgh for the 50th anniversary celebration of
the founding of the International Jugglers
Association. On Saturday night the Board chairman Perry Rubenfeld presented
awards to three of the founding fathers of the IJA -- Eddie Johnson,
Roger Montandon and Art Jennings. |
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The
large gym was the place for juggling, buying props, learning new tricks and
general fun. There were many impromtu shows by long-time crowd favorites such as
Waldo and Arsene. |
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The
numbers juggling competition took place in the gym on Tuesday. Here Todd of Flight
Patterns competes with rings.
Three new world records were set during the
Numbers Challenge on Tuesday. Bruce Sarafian and Joey Cousin juggled 13 balls in
the air for 176 catches. Morten Hansen and Ben Jennings bounce-juggled 15 balls
for 86 catches. David Cain, Jack Kalvan, and Scott Cain juggled 13 clubs for 184
catches.
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There
were many famous jugglers here from around the world. From Germany, Russia and
USA -- Neil Stammer, Katja Ignatov, Ernst Montego, Sergei Ignatov, Karl-Heinz
Ziethen, Karen Gersch, and Paul Bachman. |
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This
year's festival had many more families and children than in past years. Here
youngsters Ben Finnigan and Chad Patz juggle clubs. |
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There was even a "kiddie
corral" sponsored by the
Flamingo
Club. |
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The
Deluxe Vaudeville Orchestra from
Atlanta featuring Rodger French, Philip Solomon, Toni Shifalo, Bruce Plott and
Andy Ford provided live music for all the Renegade midnight shows and the
Competitions on Tuesday night. |
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A
favorite activity in the gym was club passing. Steve Howard and Dwayne Alvis
from Atlanta practiced a basic 6-club passing pattern. |
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Other groups tried elaborate patterns and feeds such as this Y formation
by Melonhead, Dan Howard,
Mike Newton and an unidentified juggler. |
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Martin
Frost, Melonhead, Jek Kelly, Dan Howard, and Steve Hirtle had fun
with a 5-man star pattern with left and right-handed passing. |
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I used a Nikon Coolpix 300 digital camera to shoot most of the pictures on this
page. As you can see it does a fairly nice job when
there's plenty of light, but the flash is only good for about 10 feet.
Unfortunately I could not take any pictures of the shows, but here's a list of
the winners: |
Juniors
- Adam Kariotis
- Emile Carey
- Rick Friscia
Teams
- Mark and Charlie Peachock
- Flight Patterns - Jimmy Robertson and Todd Blair
- Stoolies - Reid Belstock and Aaron Schettler
Seniors
- Vladik
- Brian Patz
- Matt Henry
Here's some
more
pictures from the festival on Dave de St. Germain's web page. |
