5 years, 1000 posts, 1 000 000 views

LED type 02 / light painting
Five and a half years after starting MoM, we have; 1 book, 2 weddings, several MoM workshops, and over 1 000 000 unique visitors (according to our stats counter).
And this is MoM’s 1000th blog post.
Phew.
Thanks for reading, and here’s to the next 5 years.
The above image is from theFlickr acrylic balls pool. by Maido of Japan.
Smiles
Drew

Interview and Video – German

'German' contact juggling photo by Jorge Gera
'German' contact juggling photo by Jorge Gera

I remember when a short clip of german street performing at La Rambla was first posted on www.contactjuggling.org. Everyone on the forums watched in awe of his super-tight isolations, moving the isolated ball floating along a path before connecting it to his butterflies and bodyrolls. The result was long,  flowing lines of movement and a sustained illusion and tempo that was unmatched by other contemporary contact jugglers.

Interview and new Xotico video after the jump

Continue reading Interview and Video – German

Kyle Johnson – Interview and Video

Kyle Johnson - Interview and Video at www.MinistryofManipulation.com
Kyle - Interview and Video at ww.MinistryofManipulation.com

New video from the inhumanly talented Kyle Johnson, entitled “Smile, I know you want to…

Interview with Kyle:

> Where do you live?

I live in Rocklin, California

> Is there a community of contact jugglers where you are?

Not really, maybe one or two others in my area but they dont focus on it. But I do sometimes go down to The Vulcan in Oakland which has a plethora of new juggling tricks that are contact based with all kinds of props, done by the very talented jugglers that live there.

> How would you describe contact juggling?

oh man… I like in In Isolation when nobody knows how to answer this question, because I don’t either. : )
It is constantly being added onto and evolving so it makes it hard to describe. Like a non juggler trying to count how many balls while they are being juggled.

> Why do you contact juggle?

Well the reason has changed many times, but basically its to learn, and I’ve learned a lot! Not just about juggling but in life, that so much more is possible than you think, if you can focus.

> What is the best piece of contact juggling that you’ve ever seen?

Well, the body rolls done by Enrico Rastelli, Francis Brunn, and Jeanine Ebnöther for a start, palmspinning of Drew Batchelor and Moon, and for isolation type contact its got to be Ryan, Ed and Colin have the best stuff I’ve seen, pretty much all of MOM : ). Best “piece” would have to be Jeanine’s BJC routine that was posted not too long ago or Kelvin Kalvus’ Das Supertalent performance… and Manne Hanke. The best piece changes all the time, sometimes back to older videos… I watch a lot of them.

> What do you think about when you are contact juggling?

Doing the trick correctly, then if I stray I drop… and I’m easily distracted.

> What is the future of contact juggling?

I hope jugglers will start doing more full body rolls and/or using their legs more. I know that there are way more flexible people then me out there, with a lot more possible tricks.

> Anything else you’d like to say to our MoM audience?

Thank you for watching, and now go juggle!

Kyle previously on MoM:
Barefoot Contact Juggling

Ministry Workshop – Contact Juggling in Canada 2009 : Official Release

Contact Juggling in Canada

I (Ryan Mellors) edited most of this series in the passenger seat while Dawn drove the car; admiring the scenery in between stops at Tim Hortons (where we would recharge on caffeine and latop power) and late-night diners. We drove 2000 miles through a slowly changing landscape, our car loaded with balls of all sizes, hoops, tetrahedrons, bendy sticks, half-spheres, blocks and a video camera. Our objective: build the community, find others like us and explore what this ‘contact juggling’ thing is all about. Shoot lots of video and get to Montreal without running out of money.

Thanks to all who came to the workshops and to all the supportive musicians who offered music for the project. Today marks the official release of the series; 9 short videos documenting the journey. Click below for the videos (RT: 38min,) descriptions and prop contents, as well as a download link in 720×480 .wmv.

Continue reading Ministry Workshop – Contact Juggling in Canada 2009 : Official Release