How to select the best quality of Acrylic Balls and care for acrylic balls.

A new addition to the Ministry’s articles library a 2 page PDF extract from appendix 1 of Multiball Contact online for the first time, which explains how you can select the best quality acrylic balls and care for acrylic.

Not all acrylic balls are created equal.

Japanese contact juggler Metra blew us away with the release of his recent multiball video Free Drive and is leading the way for the new generation of isolation-heavy ‘popping and gliding’ contact juggling.

MINISTRY: Where do you live?
METRA: I live in Tokyo, Japan.

MINISTRY: Is there a community of contact jugglers where you are?
METRA: Yes, There is. Yoyogi park is a mecca for Japanese contact jugglers. Contact juggling conventions and meetings (gallery link) are held periodically there.

MINISTRY: How would you describe contact juggling?
METRA: Contact juggling is a lens of the contact juggler (in a figurative sense). I mean, we must project ourselves onto a spectator. The leading part is contact juggler, balls and moves are nothing but an instrumental.

MINISTRY: Why do you contact juggle?
METRA: Contact juggling is a spontaneous action for me. It is as natural as breathing or walking.

MINISTRY: What is the best piece of contact juggling that you’ve ever seen?
METRA: Tony Duncan. I started contact juggling under the influence of him.

MINISTRY: What is the future of contact juggling?
METRA: It is not fixed. Therefore, almost everything we can imagine will be possible.

MINISTRY: What do you think about when you are contact juggling?
METRA: I do not think anything, but I feel. Mostly I feel the weight of balls, and the sense of acrylics.

MINISTRY: Anything else you’d like to say to our MoM audience?
METRA: The world of contact juggling is full of glory. Go for it!
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Thanks.

Marco has incredible skills, and is such a fun and bouncy person to juggle with. This video shows quite a lot of Marco’s diversity. Looking at the youtube title of this video, he has a new DVD coming out soon as well…

This promo video is well produced, filmed and edited, as well as the amazing manipulations. Although 8 minutes long, a joy to watch, apart the moments of pure disbelief accompanied with ‘OMG he didn’t just do what I think he did!?’

Thanks Splinter for pointing me to this one

Fausses Notes et Chutes de Balles. Excellent juggling and contact juggling by Adrien Mondot in 2003.

Previously on MoM: 3 ball juggling

Nimi can usually be found in Barcelona, busking as his Tree character. Nice presentation, good character, and some awesome skills. check out his one (!!!) finger balance.

Thanks to the Silver Man for the video.

Metra dropped an unbelievable multiball video onto youtube.

2:41 made me go ‘oooooooooooooh aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah oooooooooooohhh’
Once again.
Previous Metra videos: Busker, Techno, Metrart, More popping.

See any similarity?

Ryan

First video in the new series; shot on Saltspring Island, British Columbia, Canada

Ryan Mellors and Daydream will be running a series of contact juggling workshops across Canada this summer. The aim of the workshop is to give students a foundation in contact juggling technique as well as introduce them to many of the concepts that form the basis of modern contact & manipulation. The unique workshop is divided into five parts, and will be structured as follows:
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Short Version above Longer version: Juggling and a bit of magic // Current
Profile of contact juggling street performer - Nimi Ben Shalom
Produced by Elizabeth Wood.
Yea yea. we know - we’ve been pushing the contact juggling videos a lot recently - normal diverse service will return to MoM shortly

Urban Cultural event in Spain, long video [8 Min] featuring some great dancing and occasional appearances by some weird British kid with a ball.

Mika Quartz seamlessly blends contact juggling with magic. Can’t find words to describe how good this is, Just watch it, and wish that Youtube was high resolution and 3D like real life!

It’s the dream for contact jugglers, to reach the point where the audience no longer know, if you let go of the ball, will it fall to the ground or float to the sky. And it’s rare joy for this jaded old hand of the Ministry to experience that sensation again.
Thank you Franck, One of the best clips we’ve seen this year.
Drew

Mika/Franck also in Frankfort previously on MoM.

SWARM is built to explore the aesthetic possibilities and the emergent behavior of artificial systems. As a first step, Orbs are remote-controlled by human operators, but each Orb’s sounds and color illumination is algorithmically generated in response to location and motion. Each Orb has sophisticated navigational sensors including GPS, accelerometers, and solid-state gyroscopes. We are progressing towards sophisticated navigational algorithms, exactly like those used in spacecraft, that allow each Orb to determine its location and trajectory with high accuracy. From this, we can explore emergent and cooperative behavior like flocking as well as new possibilities in machine choreography. SWARM is not a simulation. SWARM is a platform for the art of the 21st century.

Are you thinking what we’re thinking?
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Here’s a video of Thierry’s act from Cirque au Bout du Monde last year.

Video plays in reverse. I love the weird sounds, the starting with five balls, finishing with one, and how for a lot of it, you wouldn’t even realise he’s heading backwards…