• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

Cindy Marvell

Juggler, Perfomer, Writer

Facebooktwitter
  • Home Page
  • News and Reviews
  • Articles By Cindy
  • Media
    • Videos
    • Photos
      • Nature
      • Locations
      • Hooping
      • Juggling
      • Family
      • Friends
      • Cindy
    • Writings
      • Poems
  • Products
    • Videos
    • Books
    • Music
  • About
  • Contact

Sosina Wogayehu

February 28, 2017 By cindy

SOSINA WOGAYEHU

Circus Oz, the celebrated circus from Australia, has a way of sneaking up on the viewer with quirkily unassuming yet spectacular and insightful productions featuring creative comedy, zany acrobatic formations, wild aerial stunts, and audience interaction. Given Oz’s habit of turning expectations upsidedown, would you be surprised to see a brilliant seven-ball juggler added to the mix? Would you be surprised to hear that she comes from Ethiopia?

Sosina Wogayehu performs with Circus Oz as “a contortionist and a juggler,” but you may as well put “juggler” first. This is someone with great control, talent and daring, and for the most part, she has been her own best influence from the start. Not many people in Addis Ababa, where Sosina was born, become professional jugglers. But Circus Ethiopia, founded in 1991 by Marc La Chance, has given training and performance opportunities to many local talents. Sosina herself became one of their early protégés.

Sosina, who has since made Australia her home, recently completed a run with Circus Oz at the New Victory Theater in New York. The New Victory is a renovated burlesque theater on 42nd Street that specializes in performances for young audiences, though many adults also attend. On the last night of Oz’s New York run, performing for a sold-out house, Sosina shone with a perfect, no-drop performance. Watching her, one gets the feeling that this great routine is a matter of routine.

It’s hard to find a costume that competes with a 7-ball pattern, but a lavender hair extension whose strands rise with static electricity, combined with a dark Archaos-style outfit and shiny black boots, could do it if anything could. Even Sosina’s hair could not upstage her sequence of 3-to-7 ball-bouncing variations, each artistically executed with white silicone balls. Sosina’s flamboyant contortions led straight into her juggling act as she performed on a platform that was gradually rotated by other performers. Somehow, she always knew which way to face for maximum effect. The platform is amplified so that the balls create different sounds upon impact.

The only act this recalled for me was that of Viktor Kee, because it was performed on a circular platform with balls falling from the ceiling, and because Sosina has such great body control and flexibility, enabling her to perform many original variations. In one of my favorite moves, she does a backbend and bounces three balls off the floor as if juggling them overhead.

One of the best things about Sosina’s act was that it was contained within a show that was so hot, and it was still a huge hit with the audience. This has been Circus Oz’s best year for jugglers: in addition to Wogayehu, the cast includes juggler and comedic improviser Joel Salom, who tickled audiences with his undressing-and-dressing-while-juggling routine and later wowed them by flying overhead while juggling three clubs. Salom’s work has been seen at the Edinburough Festival, the Sidney Olympic ceremonies, and on ABC-TV. Coldwell, now the show’s veteran and artistic director, takes pride in the 50/50 male-female ratio Oz maintains.

Wogayehu and Salom also joined other versatile cast members for some five-person passing patters. It takes a lot of focus and choreography to get an audience to appreciate juggling the way they appreciate, say, a bunch of “cockatoos” in a huge flying trapeze act, or Erik the Dog, Salom’s robotic creation, or Coldwell’s upsidedown saunter across the ceiling. The response Wogayehu got for her solo work was at least as good, thanks to her sophistication as a performer as well as to her technique.

Obviously, this did not come about by accident. Sosina began training in gymnastics as a child and rose to Ethiopian Gymnastics Champion at age 9, repeating at 11. In 1993, she joined Circus Ethiopia as a performer, touring with the troupe in Austrailia, England, and Holland. Some of the more memorable gigs included the Adelaide Festival, the Womad Festival in England, and a command performance for the Queen of the Netherlands.

As the daughter of one Ethiopian parent and one Australian one, Sosina has roots in both countries. She decided to attend university in Australia, and completed the Diploma in Small Companies and Community Theatre at Swinburne University. Her degree included skills and experience in the technical and backstage aspects of live performance. As a student, she had a one-month internship with Circus Oz, and became determined to forge a career as a performer. She helped support her studies by becoming a ‘busking hairdresser’ on the bohemian streets of St. Kilda in Melbourne. Thus her experience with hair extensions like the “do” she concocts for her Circus Oz act.

Sosina then enrolled at the newly-formed National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA) and, in 2001, became one of its first graduating students. In addition to ball bouncing, she developed a ladder-balancing act. While at NICA, she spent three weeks as a coach/performer in Far North Queensland, developing circus skills with a group of indigenous children. She has also conducted performance workshops for the Footscray-based East African Women’s Project, and theater workshops for migrants and refugees.

Aside from a recent trip to the Circus Princess competition in Scandinavia, where she met and performed with Shirley Dean and Francoise Rochais, Sosina has known very few jugglers. “I just started on my own,” she said backstage, as Circus Oz was packing up to return to Australia for more shows. “I don’t know too many other jugglers, but I would love to perform at an IJA festival in the future. It would be exciting just to be there.”

Cindy Marvell, May 2004

JUGGLE Magazine


Facebooktwitteryoutubeinstagram

Facebooktwitter

Filed Under: Articles By Cindy

Perfect Catch: A Throwmantic Comedy

February 28, 2017 By cindy

It takes ambition as well as wit to name a juggling show “Perfect Catch,” and Michael Karas and Jen Slaw Napolitano are just the duo to pull off this wacky combination of character work and skill. The show has played to rave reviews and many sold-out houses since opening last fall (it has also toured other east coast locations). I saw the show last fall at the Canal Park Playhouse in lower Manhattan, where it returns by popular demand this weekend. Occupy, jugglers!

In the guise of daytime office workers with adjoining cubicles, Karas and Slaw reeled in the giggles from kids as they started the linked antics by throwing wads of newsprint over the wall. This progressed to some cleverly caught (the stage is the size of an office) clubs, original umbrella techniques, face rolls with hoops by Karas and a tricky diabolo solo by Slaw. Karas and Slaw manage to accomplish quite a bit of juggling while never losing sight of their human qualities, and the audience responds with comedic comprehension. Jugglers and office workers may identify.

This “Throwmanic Comedy” is a perfect catch for Valentine’s Day. PERFECT CATCH performs on Saturday, February 11 and Sunday, February 12. Performances take place at Canal Park Playhouse (508 Canal Street, between Greenwich and West Streets in Tribeca). The performances are on Saturday and Sunday at 1 PM & 4 PM. The regular ticket price is $20. A Pre Fixe brunch at the Canal Park Playhouse’s Waffle Iron Café is available before or after the show. For tickets or more information, call OvationTix on 1-866-811-4111 or visit www.canalparkplayhouse.com.
http://reviewfix.com/2012/01/perfect-catch-a-throwmantic-comedy-returns-to-canal-park-playhouse-for-a-valentines-day-weekend-celebration-for-the-entire-family/


Facebooktwitteryoutubeinstagram

Facebooktwitter

Filed Under: Articles By Cindy

People of Choice: Gandini Juggling

February 28, 2017 By cindy

JUGGLE Magazine

August 1999

People of Choice: Gandini Juggling Project

By Cindy Marvell

The Gandini Project traveled from London to Niagara Falls to attend their first IJA festival. Though their primary goal was to perform an “event” of their own creation in the gym and teach workshops on juggling and movement, the four-person troupe completely immersed itself in the convention and ended up winning the People’s Choice Award.

They could easily be spotted throughout the week: Sean Gandini, the troupe’s founder, gracefully feathering his way through intricate ensemble maneuvers; Kati Yla-Hokkala, a former Finnish national champion in rhythmic gymnastics, competing as an individual with ring combinations and acrobatic poise; American Jay Gilligan, winning a bronze medal for his solo act between rehearsals on the side of the gym; and the latest recruit, petit 18-year-old Cecil, enchanting competition audiences with her inventive club juggling and using her dexterous, elusive powers to win numerous rounds of combat at the games.

Though veterans of the European convention scene, Niagara was the first IJA festival for the English troupers.

“We thought it would be very different, but in many ways it hasn‘t been,” Gandini said. “We have found the age range to be wonderfully bigger. Things are more organized, but one pays for that as well. It costs ten times more. But it’s worth it… one gets a lot of inspiration here.”

When not in residence at London’s Circus Space, the Gandinis tour in Europe, performing at dance and theatre festivals, including numerous concerts at Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland.

Sean first met Kati, who was visiting from Finland, during one of his street shows at Covent Garden. They joined forces soon after Ra Ra Zoo’s 1989 tour, which featured an early version of their intricate duet work with 5 balls, four hands, and lots of movement. Upon their return to London, they began taking dance classes together. They studied release technique similar to the style of American choreographer Tricia Brown, in which the body’s weight shifts and momentum take the dancer from one position to another with natural grace and fluidity.

“I have heard people say we are making ‘shapes in space,’ but that’s more like ballet or Cunningham,” Gandini said at the 1993 European convention in Leeds. “Our movement is all about getting from one point to another.” Since that time, the ensemble has only improved in complexity, rhythm and dynamics. Body percussion, in which Renegade club-whacking mingles with the sounds of stamping feet, is a new addition, and the troupe plans to spend the month of November exploring this with various teachers of the craft back in England.

In the Niagara “event performance,” as Gandini described it, one piece wove into the next purposefully yet without fanfare, drawing the spectators in as the variations took on an endless life of their own. Precise timing and concentration mingled with freedom of movement and incredibly sustained group interaction.

The bleachers were packed with attentive spectators throughout the hour-long piece, which was also flanked by curious onlookers, while the usual convention activity continued behind a blue backdrop. Given their post-modern style of dance, in which favorite T-shirts and dance pants are worn with natural elegance and aplomb, this set-up blends elements of street and stage work into an experimental whole.

It seems that juggling conventions, rather than just theatrical ones, have themselves played a part in the evolution of the Gandini Project.

A few hapless children wandered through, but without causing any disruption; in fact, they could become future members, or at least enthusiasts. After all, it happened to Jay Gilligan, who started training intensely with the Gandinis about a year ago and was thrilled to act as their American tour guide. With his incredible technique and ability to experiment with new styles of movement, Gilligan has been a welcome addition to the troupe.

Said Gandini, now in his thirties, “We have an American boy working with us now, and that‘s been very nice. It’s been a real treat working with him, he‘s very creative. Jay‘s prolific, he‘s fantastic.” Gilligan, an Ohio native whose work was a highlight of the European festival in Scotland last year, seems to be in his natural habitat here.

“We feel our work is seen better in the gym, where there’s no fake theatricality,” Gandini commented. “In the theatre, there are all these extra conventions that come in, which is a different ballgame.”

The Gandinis are also known among conventioneers for their movement workshops, which teach people to get from one point to another in the least obvious fashion. “I was particularly impressed by the people who came to the movement workshop,” said Kati, who was delighted to see so much movement in the youth showcase. “Everybody was so keen on moving and sometimes we have difficulty getting people into that idea, that it‘s okay to move around.”

The evolution of a Gandini project has followed a similar pattern; in fact it is one of the few styles of juggling to have absorbed new members and almost become a school of its own. No matter how chaotic and busy a convention floor seems, the mild-mannered quartet on the side of the hall always stands out for its posture, clarity of throws, and that distinctive ensemble flow. There always seems to be a bit more space hovering around their most complex variations because space is valued as a precious entity.

A recent change has been the addition of a second 4-limbed woman. Of course, most female jugglers have 4 limbs, but in this case the objects seem just as at home when circling around the ankles. Cecil Poncet was actually a pinch hitter for another Gandiniette who unfortunately broke her thumb and was unable to make the trip.

It seems incredible that Poncet had only been an official member of the troupe for one month before embarking upon her Niagara adventure. She has been training with the Gandinis as a student at Circus Space for one year. A native of Grenoble, site of this year’s European convention and coincidentally Gandini’s childhood home, Poncet studied intensely at circus schools in France for about 6 years before moving to London to continue at Circus Space.

In Niagara, Poncet and Yla-Hokkala both distinguished themselves in the solo competitions yet seemed to complement each other perfectly in the ensemble work. Yla-Hokkala, dressed in a white unitard, juggled rings in her competition act, which was actually a specially tailored version of a longer work. Like an egret that has found inner peace, she looped her pliant body around her innovative work with rings. Warning to potential imitators: use caution in attempting these moves unless you are a rhythmic gymnast, in which case take some classes from Michael Menes to bone up on ring twirling, tossing and interchanging of all kinds.

Poncet also captured kudos with her club work in the competition. Wearing a blue Chinese-style jacket, she exuded serenity and charm while performing gutsy tricks like 4 club flats, multiplex flings from the side, and a 5-club triple flash. In the Gandini tradition, props start on the floor and are worked in and out of the patterns.

One of Poncet’s most intriguing moves is her kick-up waltz, which suits the Gandini style to a tee, if not a T-shirt. Poncet adds a new spatial dimension to the upwardly mobile troupe, adding vertically linear possibilities. The music was a live mix, by turns meditative and percussive, with random text thrown in. Clips of Whitmanesque poetry enhanced the spatially oriented work.

“We had no idea what was coming,” said Gandini of the improvisational elements in the sound. From the juggling angle, however, it seemed little was left to chance. From “Window,” which Gandini described as “a simple weave with balls,” to the grand finale entitled “Loops,” which he calls “simple sharing patterns that constantly shift 90 degrees in space,” the collective hand and footwork kept the audience in a constant state of suspense and wonderment.

“Remembering Rastelli,” a ring quartet, was an audience favorite, as was Sean and Kati’s duet entitled “Ballroom,” in which their grace and elegance as a couple was allowed to shine through the most intricate combinations. Gandinis can come and go, but these two form the deep heart’s core of the Project, and it’s energy and radiance projects from them.

To have formed a style of “classical juggling” which carries over from balls to clubs and rings and accommodates the individualistic talents of diverse manipulators is quite an achievement, and obviously takes hours and hours of thought and practice. Gandini can site swap with the best of them; he also has a strong interest in mathematics as an art form unto itself, and this helps him create complex and untested passing patterns.

In his quest to combine art and science, Gandini found much to contemplate in Niagara. “I’ve particularly enjoyed meeting the Madison jugglers (the team of six that won the teams gold).

Gandini credits American jugglers such as Airjazz for influencing his work over the years: It‘s interesting that many of the people we looked to for inspiration, six or seven years ago, were watching us last night. That was a nice feeding-back into the machine.” Said Yla-Hokkala of her trip—not that she ever would—“I’ve enjoyed the festival. There’s lots of lovely people…I was impressed that there were all these very choreographed pieces, very nice

to see.”

Perhaps the ultimate review of the Gandini Project’s Niagara collage can be gleaned from Gandini’s own comments about the IJA’s 52nd Annual Festival: “What‘s wonderful is the sheer number of events happening. Unless you didn‘t like juggling, it would be very hard to be bored.”


Facebooktwitteryoutubeinstagram

Facebooktwitter

Filed Under: Articles By Cindy

Peking Acrobats: It’s in the Spirit

February 28, 2017 By cindy

The New York Times

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2001

PEKING ACROBATS: IT’S IN THE SPIRIT

By CINDY MARVELL

IN China, children as young as 5 with acrobatic promise are recruited to train at special schools, where they follow a rigorous program of contortion, hand balancing, object manipulation, martial arts and character dance. Some of those children grow up to perform with the Peking Acrobats, China‘s elite troupe of gymnasts, jugglers, cyclists and tumblers.

The skills have been so admired in the western world that modern-day troupes like Montreal‘s Cirque du Soleil, San Francisco‘s New Pickle Circus, New York‘s Big Apple Circus and Australia‘s Circus Oz have borrowed from the techniques. Many have had Chinese acrobats on staff.

Since 1952, the Peking Acrobats have produced a fast-paced showcase of skill and unmistakable style. The 30-member troupe is made up equally of men and women, including 21 acrobats (age 12 and up) as well as musicians, led by Liu Yen. Ken Hai (or Hai Ken Tsai, as he is known in China) serves as artistic director.

”In China, the name Hai is synonymous with great acrobatics,‘‘ said Don Hughes, who has been co-producing acrobatic shows with Mr. Hai for 27 years. Mr. Hai, a fourth-generation performer of the Hai family, also designs the special silky costumes for the troupe; some of his protégés are working on the remake of the feature film ”Oceans 11.‘‘

In the Peking Acrobats’ visit to New Jersey before a three-week run at the New Victory Theater in New York, look to see elegant choreography, lively energy and a concentration that borders on the sacred. While each performance is an individually crafted effort of will, with the program tailored to fit the performer‘s carefully honed specialty, it is the historic and mythological connections that give this progression of acts their depth and dramatic effect.

The Peking Acrobats are not to be confused with the Peking Opera, although some of the same physical skills are used in both forms. In Chinese Opera, a highly conventionalized form of theater, the emphasis is on Confucian ethics and morality. Although they frequently performed for Chinese royalty, the acrobatic troupes are more grassroots in nature. While the musical drama of the Chinese Opera began in the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368), the Peking Acrobats can trace

their origins to the Ch’in (Qin) Dynasty (225-207 B.C.).

During the reign of Qin Shi Huangdi there was a long and hard struggle to build walls, waterways and canals. Acrobatics evolved as a folk art, and Asian artwork includes images of contortionists and street performers.

The present troupe of Peking Acrobats began as an outgrowth of the Great China Circus, which achieved great popularity in the 1920‘s. The company then became an integrated professional acrobatic touring organization in 1958. The group leader is Cheng De Ping and lighting is designed by Rusty Strauss.

There is no singing or dialogue. Folk arts rooted in daily life form the basis of the entertainment. In the Lion Dance several performers inhabit a fleecy lion costume that quivers with life. The Lion Dance has Buddhist origins: the lion was believed to be a reincarnation of a woman who could be teased into revealing its true identity and granting protection from bad luck.

Look for jugglers and gymnasts, with a bit of a twist. Traditional Chinese jugglers manipulate jugs. A large ceramic vase is balanced on the head and shoulders and rolled around the body. The work of the antipodist, or ”foot juggler,‘‘ traditionally a woman, employs the complexity of a physics problem with the patience of an angelic artist. One of the most difficult forms of juggling, antipodism is performed lying on the back on a specially constructed stand. Up to four squares of fabric spin like magic carpets on the performer‘s hands and feet, wooden umbrellas are twirled and flipped, and mystery objects come into play.

The troupe does not like to ”glorify the individual‘‘ or invite comparisons by revealing identities of the performers, Mr. Hughes said. They prefer that audiences view the troupe as a whole in all its cooperative glory. Whether climbing a pagoda of chairs, balancing candles, spinning meteor bowls filled with water, or flying high in dive rolls over swirling flags, the Peking Acrobats are representing the People‘s Republic of China and they stand — on feet, hands or head — as a living tribute to a system driven to excellence.

PEKING ACROBATS

New Jersey Performing Arts Center, One Center Street, Newark. Friday at 7:30 p.m.

(888) 466-5722.

McCarter Theater, 91 University Place, Princeton. March 12 at 7:30 p.m. (609) 258-2787.


Facebooktwitteryoutubeinstagram

Facebooktwitter

Filed Under: Articles By Cindy

Motion and Commotion

February 28, 2017 By cindy

The New York Times

SUNDAY, APRIL 11, 1999

MOTION AND COMMOTION:

THE JUGGLER’S ART, FROM TWO VERY DIFFERENT PRACTITIONERS

By CINDY MARVELL

EXPERIMENT: hold a ball out in front of you at arm‘s length. Drop it. Now, try to catch it with the same hand before it hits the floor.

If you anticipate the forces of gravity swiftly enough to catch the ball, you are a good candidate to see Michael Moschen in ”On the Shoulders of . . .‘‘ at the McCarter Theater next week. If, on the other hand, you miss the ball but devise a clever song about it that makes your friends laugh hysterically, grab your kazoo and head for the Flying Karamazov Brothers’ presentation of ”Sharps, Flats and Accidentals.‘‘

Though legendary as jugglers, the two companies have come to symbolize the splits — acrobatic and philosophical — in the field of ”new vaudeville‘‘ since its rise in the late 1960‘s and early 70‘s, when Mr. Moschen first encountered the Karamazovs at a jugglers’ get-together in San Francisco. He remembers passing clubs with Tim Furst, the silent Karamazov, after discovering that they lived in the same apartment house a few blocks from Haight-Ashbury.

”We‘re the greatest opposites you could find,‘‘ Mr. Moschen said in a telephone interview last week from his present base in Cornwall, Conn., ”but there are two major differences between us: they have longer beards, and I‘m a recluse.‘‘

Their itineraries read like a novel titled ”East Meets West.‘‘ Mr. Moschen grew up in Greenfield, Mass., the small town where, as a teen-ager, he entered an unlikely collaboration with his schoolmate Penn Jillette (juggling spitballs?). The four, sometimes five, Karamazovs, some of whom met as students of perpetual motion at the University of Santa Cruz in California, now reside in Seattle (their original farmhouse-studio-theater in Port Townsend, Wash., has become a bed-and-breakfast) and Hawaii, where they are currently performing and visiting their hippie abode at a jugglers‘ commune in Maui. They have just completed a tour in the Netherlands and Berlin.

Even those unfamiliar with ”new vaudeville‘‘ have probably seen both acts on the screen. The Karamazovs appeared alongside Avner the Eccentric in ”The Jewel of the Nile‘‘ in roles ranging from the pivotal (a knife-wielding assassin) to the percussive (culinary cacophony with pots and pans) to the perilous (juggling, eating and walking on fire). Rock-and-roll fans may be shocked to learn that Mr. Moschen did the juggling for David Bowie in the film ”Labyrinth”; he also juggled torches in ”Annie.‘‘ Both have made PBS specials.

The Karamazovs’ productions have titles like ”Juggling and Cheap Theatrics,‘‘ their immensely popular, Obie Award-winning show, or ”Juggle and Hyde,‘‘ for which they were nominated for an Olivier Award after a London run. Mr. Moschen‘s pieces have titles like ”Light,‘‘ ”S-Curve Dances,‘‘ ”Sticks‘‘ and ”Vectors.”

Mr. Furst began his Russian odyssey as the Karamazovs’ technician after graduating from Stanford University, running lights and sound and building props for the founding members, Paul Magid (Dmitri) and Howard Patterson (Ivan). The first time he joined the brotherhood onstage, it was only for one act: after materializing from the light booth, he ran through some passing patterns with silent dignity, then disappeared into the background. The trio received many compliments on the virtues of silence, and Fyodor was born.

Having found names in the Dostoyevsky novel (Rakatin, played by Michael Preston, will be the fourth Karamazov at the McCarter), the troupe had trouble finding audiences sophisticated enough to comprehend its jokes. Still, its popularity grew, fueled by intricate ensemble juggling and delightful groaners.

Back in the 60‘s they were performing at outdoor events like the Oregon Country Fair in Eugene. ”It was a lot harder to get booked then,‘‘ Mr. Furst recalled. ”Juggling, to most people, meant circus and children‘s shows.‘‘

Once they took the stage at the Goodman Theater in Chicago with their own rendition of Shakespeare‘s ”Comedy of Errors,‘‘ they never relinquished it. When the show repeated its sold-out run at Lincoln Center Theater in New York, nobody could deny that vaudeville was making a comeback, big time.

“If juggling is rhythm and rhythm is music, then juggling is music,‘‘ Mr. Patterson says. The Karamazovs play their own music, whether as a traditional chamber orchestra (if you consider Peter Schickele traditional) or when juggling marimba mallets or clubs with sleigh bells fastened on (particularly effective for renditions of the ”Mission Impossible‘‘ theme in the key of C, for chaos). Mr. Moschen performs to experimental instrumental music by David Van Tieghem, with choreography by Janis Brenner.

Mr. Moschen has always been in a class by himself. Other jugglers make objects agitate; he makes them levitate. Hoops, sticks, even a tetrahedron appear to float through his fingers and above his undulating, open hands. ”I made a rule that I would never close my hands around the object, and this led me to a new technique,‘‘ he said in 1992 at the International Jugglers’ Convention in Montreal.

In the early 80‘s, he was performing a lighthearted three-ball routine and spectacular fire-swinging finale as an original cast member of the Big Apple Circus. Seeking simplicity and isolation, he withdrew to a rustic studio in Vermont, far from the circus crowds. There, he laid down the law and kept his hands open, learning to slide them under, over and around a set of crystal balls purchased at a drugstore.

It was ”the first time my instincts kicked in and drove me to create a whole new technique,‘‘ he said. ”It was my first powerful creation experience.‘‘ When he caught a crystal ball on his forehead and balanced it as he knelt down and stretched out on his back, gazing intently at the sphere amid an invisible field of dreams, he took juggling into a new dimension.

If there is one old-vaudeville performer with a broad enough talent and scope to have influenced both, it was Bobby May, the consummate American juggler from Cleveland, a pioneer of the technique known as head rolls, in which balls roll around a juggler‘s head, chin and neck. In his arm-stretching three-ball routines and leg-lunging club acts he might have been the first juggler to combine modern forms of dance and movement with inventive technical juggling. He also had musical leanings, bouncing five balls off a drum while standing on his head and playing “Yankee Doodle‘‘ on the harmonica. Although Mr. Moschen cites May, who died in 1981, and the former Ringling and Big Apple Circus juggler Francis Brunn as his inspirations, he has largely been left to find his own path.

A compulsive risk-taker who works on the edge, Mr. Moschen is the second new-vaudevillian to have been awarded a MacArthur fellowship. (The first was Bill Irwin.) Despite his early success in ”Foolsfire,‘‘ a collaboration with the physical comedians Bob Berky and Fred Garbo, there are some who find Mr. Moschen a puzzling anomaly in a free-spirited profession. As he deftly rolls or spins a leaf-shaped object he calls the teardrop around his body, the physical properties of nature unfold. Substituting quiet intensity and almost mystical concentration for piquant flamboyance, Mr. Moschen gradually weaves his way into the heart and mind.

If you attend the International Juggling Festival at Niagara Falls this summer, you may see Mr. Moschen and Mr. Furst recreating their early forays in club- passing. You might see Mr. Furst temporarily on his own, kicking up clubs with his foot or recounting his adventures on the open road. If you sneak down to the basement, you may see Mr. Moschen rehearsing with a mystery object he describes as ”simple yet complex,‘‘ and seeking out new collaborations and branches to hang them on, if, as he says, ”I can just hang in there long enough to clone myself.‘‘ His future, as always, depends on the shapes of things to come.

FLYING KARAMAZOV BROTHERS McCarter Theater 91 University Place, Princeton Thursday to 8 P.M.

John Harms Center for the Arts 30 North Van Brunt Street, Englewood Friday at 8 P.M.

MICHAEL MOSCHEN McCarter Theater April 20 at 8 P.M.


Facebooktwitteryoutubeinstagram

Facebooktwitter

Filed Under: Articles By Cindy, featured

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to page 4
  • Go to page 5
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 7
  • Go to Next Page »

Copyright © 2023 Cindy Marvell

Website Design by Spiezz Digital