Just Throwing It Out There
Monday, July 22nd, 2024
GRASSY KNOLL circa 8:30pm—The Stilt Field and Big Top swarm with fanatic campers who dance, juggle, or run with reckless abandon. The cool of the evening mixed with the fuel of dinner have created a sustained explosion of activity. The mania which was naturally present immediately after dinner was subsequently catalyzed by the onset of blaring pop music over the PA system, surely audible for miles around, and which will continue until after nightfall. Camp’s Dance Party is in full swing.
String lights hung about the stilt poles glow orange in the encroaching twilight. Juggling rings and diablos fly in every direction, hitting the ground spinning and bouncing off in unpredictable directions. A set of light-up juggling clubs are produced, dazzling rainbow tones as they rotate through intricate patterns. Campers take turns standing in the center, clubs whizzing inches away. I find myself perched on a log bench at the so-called Grassy Knoll, a good vantage, yes, but also the site of today’s topic: juggling. Earlier today I met with a sampling of Camp’s juggling community to learn more about this quintessential circus skill.
“I first heard about Camp in 2003 at the Pittsburg Juggling Club,” said Head of Juggling Memo Gosnell. “At the time I was teaching juggling at a home for abused and neglected children; I think that’s why I got the job! 20 years later I’ve been teaching juggling at Camp ever since—and I feel like I’m starting to get better. My main reasons for coming to Camp were to work on my kid skills and connect with other do-gooders, and that’s exactly what happened.”
“I’ve taken my juggling around the world,” added Memo. “I worked with street kids in Mexico City, kids of workers at La Chureca landfill in Nicaragua, and with families in Haiti after the earthquake in 2010. In Haiti there was this big empty lot with lots of big rocks, so I started making a labyrinth, like the one here at Camp. The people were skeptical at first; they thought I might be experiencing heat stroke. But eventually lots of people joined in and it was a huge hit.”
“Juggling is inherently accepting,” said Memo. “We take everyone. Beginners are always welcome. You could even be in the act, even if you can only throw one ball. I heard a piece of trivia once that the collective noun for a group of jugglers is a ‘neverthriving’. But I think that might have been made up by a stilt walker; they’re always looking down on people.”
“I like how there’s a bunch of teachers because everyone has different tips,” said Roslyn, 12, of the Red Tipi. “I prefer ball juggling at this point; clubs and rings are too cumbersome. Right now I’m working on a reverse cascade. On the first day Deirdre helped me by correcting my form by bringing my hands lower and wider. Eventually I want to learn how to do clubs or four balls.”
“I like the teachers and their methods,” said Nylah, also from Red. “When I was learning one-ball, Deirdre said to scoop it like ice cream! This is my first time seriously juggling. I can do a cascade but sometimes I mess up; I’m still practicing. Practice makes perfect—I mean, it doesn’t actually make ‘perfect’, but it makes ‘pretty good’—it’s a lesson for life. There’s lots of applicable metaphors in juggling.”
“The secret of juggling is there is no secret,” said Juggling Instructor Theo Puleston. “You learn the technique, and then you practice until you build the muscle memory. There is a plateau new jugglers hit when trying to learn cascade. If you’re going to fall off regular practice, that’s where it happens. But if you can get over the threshold of learning cascade, the possibilities expand exponentially.”
“It’s soooooo fun,” said Rio, 10, of the Orange Tipi, actively spinning his diablo. “It’s fun to learn new tricks and the staff are really good at explaining. Like Kai just taught me this trick today.” He violently flings the diablo sticks around, creating an indiscernible flurry of motion. “It’s called an under-hand catch into a trampoline. It’s fun and really exciting to learn.”
“The juggling teachers are zero percent mean, one-hundred percent nice,” said Bean, 14, of the Ultraviolet Tipi. “I dabble in juggling at home, but being at Camp has accelerated my skill acquisition. There’s so much equipment to play with and so much free time. I like how you can really see progress in real-time.”
“Every class is a journey,” said Juggling Instructor Deirdre Baker. “Juggling isn’t meant to be practiced for 50 minutes in a row. It’s like riding a rollercoaster ten times in a row with no breaks. It’s a challenging skill. You have to accept that you are going to fail over and over again, and you have to choose to pick those ball back up every time. There’s no freebies, no easy victories—this ain’t cloud swing. It’s the training montage from Rocky, if the montage was 50 minutes long.”
“I learned how to juggle at Camp from Memo,” recalled Deirdre. “It took me three years. When I finally got my pattern down, he wouldn’t give me a certificate until I could do it with my mouth closed. The best part of juggling is the community. It’s not one person, it’s about the fun we have together along the way.”
“Juggling is hard unless you do it every day,” said Teen Staff Pharaoh.
“It felt great to dust off the rust,” said Director Ginger Jackson-Gleich who performed in the Teacher Talent juggling act last Tuesday. “It was an honor to be on stage with our incredible juggling staff. I look forward to more juggling extravaganzas this summer. I learned how to juggle here at Camp when I was 9. My teacher was Jory John.”
“Juggling class has been a delight,” said Juggling Instructor Eden Leeman. “There’s been so many lessons, for the kids and myself. I love figuring out which teaching techniques will work best for each kid. I try to spice up the class by having lots of water breaks and a variety of activities and workshops. You’ve got to break it up into sections in order to keep people’s attention.”
“I learned at Camp when I was 8 from Memo and Ellen Moses,” recalled Eden. “As soon as I learned I started teaching other people, friends, family. It’s about encouragement and accessibility. All kinds of juggling should be welcomed: numbers juggling, clown juggling, trick juggling, everything—but not diablo. Diablo is the hyper-active step-cousin of proper juggling.”
“Juggling is my favorite thing at Camp,” said Teen Staff Dreas. “It used to be unicycling, but in juggling I’ve found new horizons of challenges.”
“It is my opinion that every class should be juggling class, even aerials,” said Teen Staff Kai. “You can come to Camp if you don’t know how to juggle, but you can’t leave until you do!”
Stay hydrated,
—J. Payseno, Editor
