News Staff Reporter
The Juggling Club holds its meetings at 4:30 pm on the Squire Stanley Lawn every Sunday. Although only a few members attended the May 14th meeting (probably because of the rain and Mother’s Day), everyone practiced unicycling, juggling, Diablo, and many other circus tricks. Club president Zoe Gorman ‘09 taught the members everything from simple tricks like three-ball juggling to more complicated maneuvers including one involving multiple people juggling the same balls.
The Juggling Club members can throw up to four balls at a time and in many different patterns. Gorman said, “The most basic pattern is the inside cascade. Some other cool patterns are the shower, outside cascade, Mill’s Mess, and columns. Where there are many patterns of juggling, there are even more tricks. I really like a trick called, ‘eat the apple,’ where you juggle with two balls and an apple and take bites out of the apple while you are juggling.” The members can also learn juggling Diablo, a complex game with two sticks and a ball-like structure, and how to spin plates. Explains Gorman, “Diablo’s a lot of fun. The number of tricks you can learn on a Diablo is unlimited while it’s not hard to make up your own.” Gorman also teaches members how to unicycle. She commented that “unicycling is all about balance. It’s very challenging when you first start out, but once it clicks it’s just like riding a bike. As for myself, I am working on riding backwards, perfecting my rocking, and jump-roping on the unicycle.”
Gorman says that thirty-five people signed up when she first decided to make the club, but only about ten people normally can make it to the meetings. One avid juggler, Liz Walbridge ’07, commented, “The club’s a lot of fun. I love learning new tricks and the juggling improves my hand-eye coordination.”
Gorman has been unicycling and juggling since the 5th grade. Her great interest in juggling led her to enroll to a circus training camp called Circus Smirkus, which is an actual circus that tours and has its training camp in Craftsbury Common, Vermont. The camps are sponsored by the Vermont School of Circus Arts, whose goal it is to “continue to spread the joy and accomplishment of circus arts to kids.”
Gorman has not only learned how to juggle fire with torches and do tricks high above the air on a tall pole, but she also takes classes at the Trapeze School in New York.
Gorman says of her club, “Many people on campus can juggle or unicycle although a lot of them have trouble coming to the meetings. But I can’t wait until everyone in the club gets good enough to perform at a school meeting.” As well as teaching the fellow students how to juggle, Gorman has another plan for the club next year: “Next year I am also hoping to introduce a community service aspect to the club,” she said. “We will go to local hospitals, maybe an elderly home, possibly Moses Y. Beach and perform some juggling and unicycling. It will help spread the joy of circus to people who can’t go to one.”
