Hosted by the Atlanta Jugglers Association
The t-shirt design this year (shown to the right) was drawn by John Lind.
Go to page 2 for the story and pictures of the Late Night Cabaret and Sunday activities.
The preliminary count shows 148 jugglers registered for the 23rd annual Groundhog Day Jugglers Festival, held February 2,3, and 4, 2001 at the Grady High School Girls Gym in midtown Atlanta. Jugglers from Philadelphia, Ohio, and New York flew in for the two-day festival, as well as the usual crowd from most corners of the Southeast. Long-time AJA members Rick and L.J. Purtee lucked into cheap airline tickets and flew in from their new jobs in Seattle to take the "Furthest Traveled" record.
Reviews so far are that this was an unusually mellow and enjoyable festival,
even though the count of jugglers was well above past years. The weather favored
us mildly, and we also lucked into an extra half-hour or so of juggling time on
Friday evening, when the janitors simply told us to be sure and lock up, then
went home for the evening.
Two juggling vendors -- Infinite Illusions and Andy's Odd Sports -- set up tables full of colorful props in the gym.
The Seed & Feed Marching Abominable Band opened the show on Saturday with our own Bruce Plott as the band leader. Their ever-stylish attire this year was pajamas and bathrobes complete with hair curlers and fuzzy slippers.
As always, the festival heated up Saturday morning, with several carloads of folks waiting anxiously in the parking lot for the gym to open. Several very talented jugglers worked alone under large formations of props, while others beavered away at everything from shaky 3-ball cascades through complex club-passing patterns. Late Saturday evening, many of the club-passing groups managed to coalesce into one gigantic mob to practice arcane patterns like the 'Virginia Reel' and a Really Huge Weave, as well as more common large-group efforts such as feasts and rotating feeds. Many folks think that this is the primary purpose of a juggling festival. Patrick Clyne and juggler.net generously donated 40 pizzas for lunch, which were consumed in a short time by the hungry jugglers.
The Saturday afternoon competition featured eleven competitors vying for the coveted Groundhog Day trophy in front of three judges carefully picked for their complete lack of juggling knowledge. AJA founder Rodger French took MC duties. Three juggling teams carried off the prizes.
The Elsner Unijugglers, the family act of Jim, Diana, and Ian Elsner, won the Most Incredible prize with an act consisting of ball and club passing and a small girl riding a unicycle while juggling clubs. Both Elsner children are younger than 12 years old.
Another family act, Redefining Gravity, picked up Most Spectacular for their athletic club passing, which featured some unusual steals and ended with a long, solid run of 9 clubs passed between Heather and Darin Marriot. They also got points for costuming for their spiffy red sequin vests and black pants.
The Most Stupendous award went to the Original Jugglers, a team of Russians originally with the Russian circus which went broke here in Atlanta some years ago, stranding many performers. Now based in Athens Georgia, members Natasha Sarygina, Ivan Vlasov, and Mnir Bekchentqev put on a fast-paced show featuring 9-club feeds and back-cross lines presented from tall platforms and the ground. Natasha threw fearsomly rapid and flat back crosses as they ended their act with an 11-club (not 10-club) back-cross line to a gather and sprinting catch by the back man.
Other acts included Matt Henry's 5-ball act, with some fancy multiplex and pirouette moves, Seth Rider with an amusing cigar-box piece including some clever stage business, and Matt Gerdon's showing some clean bean-bag work, good stage personality, and very bare feet.
--Charles Shapiro (more of the story on page 2)
Winners of the competition were the Original Jugglers (Natasha Sarygina, Ivan Vlasov & Mnir Bekchentqev) for Most Stupendous, Elsner Unijugglers (Jim, Diana & Ian Elsner) for Most Incredible and Redefining Gravity (Heather & Darin Marriott) for Most Spectacular.
Go to page 2 (Late Night Cabaret and Sunday activities)
--pictures by Andreas Dieberger and Joyce Howard
--story by Charles Shapiro
Copyright 2000-2008 by the Atlanta Jugglers Association. All rights reserved.
Web site design and hosting by Advanced Systems