History of juggling

Juggling and stunning manipulation of various objects is an excellent example of human yearning for a perfect activity, giving fun, entertainment, education and even being a kind of religious prayer at the same time. Looking back at the history of juggling, we shall see that this art was approached differently over the centuries.

ANTIQUITY

It is impossible to determine one place being the very cradle of juggling but one thing is sure that it was practised long before modern times. For centuries, the art of juggling had been known in different forms in China, Japan, Egypt, Iran or Tibet.

Asia

For centuries, juggling was an important element of numerous rites and holiday celebrations in countries of the East. For a long time, it had been the privilege of rulers and shamans or served as an initiation element in oneąs spiritual development.

In China and adjacent lands, it had not been initially treated as an amusement but rather as a meditation exercise helping to find a balance between the body and the spirit. What is more, Fu Qifeng describes cases in Chinese history where jugglers appeared on a battlefield or they were referred to when speaking about the art of war. Very often, these jugglers, acrobats etc. were entertaining feuding families before the fight. And members thereof, highly impressed by skills of the performers, not infrequently resigned from the battle.

North and Central America

Notes about juggling or balancing with various objects also appeared in cultures of ancient Aztec and American Indians from Central America. In these primitive and ancient cultures, juggling was often associated with religious rites. Even now, juggling (as well as performing other feats of agility) is practiced by primitive tribes, usually by shamans.

Africa

The oldest notes about juggling come from about 2000 BC (period between 1994 and 1781 BC) in Egypt to where juggling was ?imported? from India. In Beni Hasan, a place located on the east bank of the river Nile, next to Speos Artemidos, there are 150 graves. On a side wall of one of those tombs (the fifteenth in a row), there are paintings depicting acrobats, dancers and people juggling and throwing balls.

Greece and Rome

Another proof showing that juggling has been known to people for ages comes from the period of the ancient Greece and ancient Rome. About 400-500 years before Christ, jugglers started to appear in Greek and Roman art, in poetry, sculpture, in the form of clay figurines, pottery ornaments, in wall paintings and in written records. At that time, juggling was treated as a form of relaxation, recreation and not just pure fun. It was also dealt with by women. 

Juggling was even more popular with Romans whose interest in the art of war led to development of interesting manipulations with arms and weapons (even in the palaces of Julius Ceasar). Among other things, it included balancing with spears, shields or even entire chariots. Juggling was accepted in Europe until the fall of the Roman Empire, after which it fell into disgrace for as long as until the end of the Middle Ages. There are scarce records of juggling coming from 4th to 10th centuries.

THE MIDDLE AGES

The Middle Ages was the time of jugglers, wanderers, bards and minstrels. Juggling was very often associated with magic and the performers had bad reputation in the society. Their low social status made them stand a small chance of winning social respect and making juggling develop into a form of entertainment in the full sense of the word.

Paradoxically, during that period jugglers appeared in numerous religious paintings and illustrations, e.g. in the Bible. Alan Fletcher, a researcher dealing with the history of juggling recalls psalter illustrations from 8th and 9th century depicting triumphal bringing of the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem featuring jugglers, which is a certain inconsistency with biblical accounts that mentioned singers, cymbalists and trumpeters only. He also speaks about similarity of juggling acts practiced by Celts and Anglo-Saxons (e.g. they used balls and knives), which may evidence their cultural connections in the 10th and 11th centuries.

MODERN TIMES

Towards the end of the Middle Ages, juggling slowly began to regain due respect which it maintained for subsequent centuries. After the Age of Discovery, it began to be practised by the increasing number of people and regarded as an art. The press started to publish short notes on juggling and performing jugglers. They were often linked to other types of amusement such as acrobatics or miming. In the Renaissance period, travelling theatres became very popular which often made use of jugglers and acrobats. In that period, development of juggling was strongly influenced by contacts with the increasing number of countries from different continents where these skills had always been mastered to the highest level. Jugglers from all over the world started to travel, watch the shows, perform and learn new things. They were developing different forms of juggling ? they improved the existing ones and created new routines inspired by different cultures and religions. From that period onwards, we speak about juggling understood as an art discipline.

Jugglers in Europe

Since the first half of the 19th century, we may finally speak about specific places in Europe, scattered from England to Russia where jugglers coming from all over the world started to settle down. At that time, juggling was soaring and despite competition on the part of circuses and theatrical plays, it became the favourite pastime in many countries.

The fashion for juggling in the 19th century came from Paris where already about the year 1810 juggling meetings were organized on Champs Elysees, first informal juggling clubs were being established and skills of foreign performers were admired at the court of the emperor Napoleon I. The biggest journals published at that time said that juggling was the most popular social entertainment. And this lasted until the outbreak of the World War I followed by a boom in mechanical toys produced in large amounts, which again left out juggling somewhere in the shadow. Fast media development also contributed to waning of its popularity.

PRESENT DAY

The vaudeville era (lasting from the end of the 19th century until the 1930?s) moved jugglers from the streets and circuses to theatres. At that time, vaudeville made juggling achieve the peak of its fame. Never before was it admired and appreciated to such an extent. When variety theatres vanished into thin air and the circus was sinking into oblivion owing to development of the cinema, television and other entertainment, jugglers started to come out into the streets again and in 1947 in the United States, International Juggling Association was established. The association played a highly important role in promoting juggling among ?ordinary? people (that is people with average hand-eye coordination). Since the 1950?s, once again juggling turned into a highly popular form of recreation. In 1978, the first European Juggling Convention was held in London, whereas in the 1980?s the European Juggling Association was established gathering artists and fans of this art from the Old Continent.

By: Mirosław Urban

References:

1.Gillen, B. "Remember the Force Hassan!" Juggler's World: Vol 38, No 2

2.Karl-Heinz Ziethen and Andrew Allen "Juggling, The Arts and its Artists" Karl-Heinz Ziethen and Andrew Allen Berlin 1985

3. Fu Qifeng. "All our Yesterdays-Early Chinese jugglers quell war, entertain royalty." Juggler's World. Vol. 39 No. 1, 1987.)

4..Lewbel, Arthur. "Research in Juggling History". http://www.juggling.org/papers/history-1/ November 1995

5.Fu Qifeng ?Chinese Acrobats Through the Ages?

6.Fletcher, Alan J. (1990), "Jugglers Celtic and Anglo-Saxon," Theatre Notebook, vol. 44, # 1, pp. 2-18.

7.Truzzi Marcello, Truzzi Massimiliano "Notes Toward a History of Juggling" Bandwagon, vol. 18 (March-April), pp. 4-7.