Juggling

Juggling is a skill that has been practiced by many nations such as the Chinese, Indians or Aztecs at all times. The most recent findings show, that juggling combines the intercorrelation in between the left and right brain plus it is effective for learning motivation and concentration.

The history of juggling goes way back. One of the oldest image sources out of Egypt from a period around 1794 - 1981 BC show four juggling women. In the National Museum of Athens a Greek juggler statue can get admired. In China mainly warriors juggled, who demonstrated their martial arts with this artistry. Since then, in 1768, Philip Astley opened the first modern circus, professional jugglers found their jobs. The cabaret in circuses at times of industrialization was used for the entertainment of spectators during the breaks, while employees reconstructed the stage behind the curtain.

Nowadays, in addition to throwing juggling, other art forms have evolved. These include various forms of spinning and contact juggling. Objects are not just thrown, but interlaced in skill games. Things are kept rotated around a center or around itself (spinning) or balanced on the body (contact juggling). Known spinnings are Astrojax, Diabolo, Meteor, Poi`s and Jo-Jo`s. Ball or ball-include balance, the torsion bar (Twirling) and the hula hoop count to the contact juggling. Many people know, for example, the bowl-balance of artists who slide a crystal ball over her or his body without the ball loses body contact. Even the poi game is widely practiced at festivals, often at night with fire pois. Thus impressive light variations are created.

Every year there are many so-called juggling conventions across the globe. Here, the most different juggling games are performed. For example, there is the so-called "Combat" at large juggling conventions. At this juncture jugglers try, to make other jugglers drop the juggling objects. Furthermore, the game "Endurance" is also very popular, in which all participants simultaneously start juggling. The winner at the end is, who holds out the longest. On the website "Jugglingedge" all juggling events in the world are listed. The world's largest convention is the European Juggling Convention (EJC), which takes place every year in a different European country with several thousand participant since 1978.