Glossary

Juggling – a skill involving keeping a number of objects in the air at the same time as a result of their constant catching and tossing up. Most often it is associated with circus performances, although nowadays juggling is treated as an entertainment, hobby, sport, relaxation or motivation training. The most popular juggling props include balls, clubs and rings. More professional jugglers also use knives, fire torches or even chain saws.

European Juggling Convention (EJC) – is the biggest juggling convention in the world welcoming professionals, hobbyists and lovers of physically requiring arts of any kind. Despite its name - “juggling convention”- it is an event open to those who want to present their talents, teach others and improve their artistic, theatrical and acrobatic skills and abilities. You have the unique opportunity to meet in one place a number of people - jugglers, acrobats, mimes, clowns, magicians, street performers and the users of diabolo, flowerstick, poi, unicycles and stilts. During the meeting (lasting usually 7 to 8 days) workshops and presentation shows are held. In the latter, both, professionals and amateurs participate (open stage, renegade, evenings with national cultures). The juggling parade, Juggling Games (contests, plays) and the Gala Show (star performances on the last day of the festival) are part and parcel of the convention. The motto of our convention is “from jugglers to jugglers” which emphasises its non-commercial and social character. Since 1978, EJC is held every year in another European country. The EJC 2012 will take place in Lublin.

Juggling convention may last for up to ten days or so and is a periodical meeting bringing together individuals practising juggling, acrobatics, balancing acts or related acts either as a hobby or at a professional level. The conventions differ in terms of their range and character depending on their venue; however, most of them feature common elements such as: extensive training space, the gala show, an open stage show, workshops, and the games. The conventions, in line with the 'from jugglers to jugglers' principle, are primarily organised by volunteers. The largest juggling conventions are: European Juggling Convention, British Juggling Convention, Israeli Juggling Convention and IJA Festival. Polish juggling conventions are held for instance in Ostróda, Lublin and Srebrna Góra.

Open Stage - an evening show during which artists attending the convention show off their skills. On the stage, there may perform professional artists as well as individuals juggling only as a hobby who feel confident enough to demonstrate their skills in public. The only condition is previously signing-up with the person responsible for the programme as the Open Stage show has a specific timeframe, very often its own master of ceremonies (in the juggling sense of the word), and individual shows are put in an order so as not to juxtapose artists who demonstrate similar skills next to each other.

Renegade  – an evening show of juggling skills (usually held at night as it follows all other events planned for the day – sometimes lasting until early morning). All individuals willing to participate are very welcome, be they professionals or amateurs. The Renegade Show is hosted by a compère who takes details of subsequent acts and encourages artists to take the stage. A volunteer usually takes the stage “ad hoc” whenever they feel like demonstrating their skills (unless there are a lot of volunteers and they have been put on a list beforehand). The Renegade Show is not assessed in terms of its artistic value as much as other shows. This is more about having fun, experimenting, exceeding ones limits, creativity, provocation, and the use of crazy ideas. These performances may amuse the audience, provoke, outrage or make their hearts beat faster. During the Renegade Show the audience plays a very important part as it can comment on and applaud the performers or…boo them off the stage.

Gala Show – a spectacle usually prepared and directed during the juggling festival in which the artists as well as the convention’s guests take part. Similarly to the Open Stage, Gala consists of a number of individual artists’ performances taking place in a row. The difference between the Gala Show and the Open Stage lies in the fact that the artists performing in the Gala are specially invited and carefully selected guests. The essence of perfection, the best of the best.

Juggling Games – made up of games and contests in various juggling disciplines. The idea is that volunteers participate in previously planned disciplines. It is all about having fun and a bit of competition in compliance with fixed rules. There are many disciplines concerned: juggling with balls and clubs, tightrope-walking, diabolo, devilstick, unicycle. There are no disciplines determined in advanced – it is possible to make them up and adjust according to the number of participants or space available.

Exemplary games:
• Endurance – who can juggle with 5 or 7 balls for the longest time
• Box diabolo – participants spin their diabolo and try to throw it up to the air so that it lands in the box situated in a particular place
• Unicycle wrestling – participants in pairs try to overturn each other and make them touch the ground with any part of their body, then they fight with other unicyclists
• Juggling with coins – all participants start juggling with three coins. If a juggler drops a coin then they place all three of their coins in the hat. The last person left juggling at the end will hit the jackpot and gets to keep all the coins
• Club balance on chin or nose – whoever can keep a club balanced on their chin or nose for the longest time
• Unicycle races – who will be the first or the last to go from one place to another

"Kuglarz" is a Polish word for "conjurer".
It is derived from the German word ‘gaukeln’ (to clown about, to frolic, to juggle) juxtaposed with the Latin ‘iocularis’ (funny, amusing); formerly, it denoted a man presenting acts mainly involving great swiftness and dexterity, as well as an itinerant or a puppet master. Figuratively, it is used to denote an insincere person, a swindler, a cheat. Now this term is often used as opposed to the word “cyrkowiec” ("circus artist" - a professional working at a circus) when referring to a person practising disciplines such as juggling, acrobatics, object manipulation, balancing acts etc.

Sztukmistrz (literally "Magician") - formerly a conjurer playing tricks based on their unique sleight of hand or a prestidigitator, illusionist, acrobat, circus artist. The group of jugglers based in Lublin have taken their name "Sztukmistrze" after a famous book by Isaac Bashevis Singer entitled "The Magician of Lublin" [Sztukmistrz z Lublina] and conferred new meaning on the word to denominate a person with unique abilities, yet not based on illusion.

Contemporary circus - The origins of Contemporary circus (known as "cirque nouveau") have been lost somewhere in the mists of the 1970’s. Most often it is believed to have been born in France, Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom. The most important thing is that contemporary circus tries to convey a theme or a story, in contrast to the traditional circus which fails to present a story of any kind, usually comprising a set of acts of consecutive artists. Contemporary circus shows try to tell a story using circus and juggling disciplines as the narrative language. Other differences enumerated most often include only occasional use of animal acts and presentation of performances outside the circus tent. To begin with, it should be noted straight away that these differences began to be pointed out rather in order to define the new phenomenon than to determine basic constituents of the new form. Few people realise that the cirque nouveau phenomenon has not emerged in the opposition to modern circus in general, but only to the fossilised form of its latest incarnation. Modern circus surviving to present times has had a number of such ‘incarnations’.