Stop motion, a technique of modern juggling
“Juggling is no more a mechanical sequence of movements than Mont Blanc is a pile of rocks.”
– Philippe Perennès, Meeting with Juggling, 2004.
The cascade* is generally considered as the fundamental structure
1
of today’s juggling. In any case, it appears to most people as its most elementary figure*, its gateway to the practice and its stylized representation. One thinks of the iconography of juggling from its origins, such as the women represented on the Beni Hassan stele. Since the end of the XXe In the 19th century, another technique developed, particularly in Europe, based on what can be called “blocking”. I propose to call it “stop motion” and to examine some aspects of the technical and aesthetic (r)evolution that it has generated.
After having specified the contours, I will study more precisely, through its typical form that is the W, how the
stop motion
is different from the waterfall and can enrich it. Then I will establish the interest of the choice of this name and its implications, before evoking the conditions of its development. We will see how it fits in the evolution of the writing of a juggling “in movement
2
” , which seeks to inscribe the manipulation of objects in the body and the scenic space, and offers new rhythmic possibilities.
1. Properties of stop motion
1.1. A different relationship to stops
The principle of
stop motion
is mentioned by the American juggler Jay Gilligan in a lecture given in 2013 in Helsinki, entitled “The Evolution of Juggling. This artist, who is both a theorist and a teacher, relates his discovery of European juggling in the 1990s. He distinguishes it from the “American style of juggling” which is based mainly on technique (skills) and would always be symmetrical* and periodic*. In aerial juggling, when the throws are made symmetrically and repeatedly, with a regular rhythm, we generally speak of
pattern
* to qualify their structure
.
Jay Gilligan illustrates this characteristic feature of American juggling by performing… a stunt.
In this “classical” juggling, the continuity of the flow of the stunt is often enhanced through sequences of various tricks in a sustained rhythm. Anthony Gatto, a precocious American juggler and holder of numerous world records, illustrates this principle well in an excerpt from his act in the show
Kooza
(2007) by Cirque du Soleil. The audience does not let up during the minute that his five-ball sequence lasts; indeed, there are no stops to speak of, even if the balls sometimes remain in hand. It is rather a question of linking patterns that are “held” long enough to be identified, then quickly move on, staying in the flow of the stunt without “breaking” the rhythm. One can speak of a “cloud” of objects to characterize this aerial juggling: the objects overhang a body that is very dynamic, but whose movements remain limited in the scenic space. Some of the stops allow the juggler to change space in the ring; others serve as exclamation points at the end of the sequence, for example to get applause. But the stops in this “classic” juggling are still considered dead time that should be minimized and used wisely to keep the audience on its toes. This can be seen in particular in the Russian juggler Serguei Ignatov who, in his number (1981)In his act (1981), he only interrupts himself to change the apparatus or add an object.
The
stop motion
instead relies on the recurrent blocking of objects within a juggled sequence. Jay Gilligan recounts his discovery of this trend when he arrived in Europe at the turn of the year 2000. A The stylistic distinction seems to me to be more relevant than its geographical attribution, as it can be observed today in many countries, such as Japan for example. LJay Gilligan’s expression has, however, the interest of underlining the geographical area from which this technique has progressively developed.
1.2. Uses
This other relationship to stops, which I call
stop motion,
is a major and relatively recent trend in juggling today. Its use has two main modalities:
– on the one hand, it brings another answer to the principle of continuity of the flow: the stops are used as hyphens, articulations between series of passes; they link them by respecting a globality of movement and a continuity of the gesture;
– on the other hand, the
stop motion
inspires another way of composing juggling sequences: it assumes a diversity of stops to enrich a punctuation adapted to a more or less fragmented and willingly asymmetrical writing.
Indeed, the systematic use of blocking allows us to free ourselves from two decisive constraints induced by the structural form of the waterfall and its derivatives:
– each ball must be thrown before the previous one is caught: there is always an object in the air that must be caught, which determines the time available – this can be seen in the video
Parade
(2020) by Wes Peden ;
– juggling is based on a succession of
patterns
The figures are performed in a symmetrical and repeated manner, with a regular rhythm.
In a passage from Jimmy Gonzalez’s (2015) issue.The balls are very often blocked in different ways and free up time for movement and address to the audience during the sequence. Comparing the excerpts of Anthony Gatto’s and Jimmy Gonzalez’s numbers, we can see on the one hand how much the stop motion can facilitate the body’s involvement in “number” juggling (with more than three objects), as well as the management of support changes and a greater organicity of movement. On the other hand, spectators can catch their breath at moments when the flow of juggling is not as obviously interrupted as in “classical” juggling. On the other hand, the number of objects thrown and manipulated varies more often with Jimmy Gonzalez, even though he keeps four balls with him: he integrates different patterns such as the fountain* or the waterfall, as well as simple poses, balances and throws with one or two balls.
If many of the current juggling variations are based on or borrow from
stop motion
Each artist is unique: he or she develops his or her own methods of expression and often uses different techniques. Some passages in Jimmy Gonzalez’s issue are clearly of the stop motionsome of the cascade; several also combine these two structures. While it goes without saying that all the works mentioned cannot be reduced to the subject of this article, they nevertheless make it possible to analyze certain uses of stop motionand illustrate its dissemination. The variety of these modalities can be appreciated among the short sequences of the exquisite corpse initiated by Luis Sartori do Vale and published in 2020 under the title
Co-vid 3b
.
At Ricardo S. Mendes (
Coffe Checkpoint
, 2020) and Onni Toivonen (
Clubbed to Death
, 2015)Two jugglers who respectively graduated from the Centre national des arts du cirque de Châlons-en-Champagne (Cnac) and the Circus Department of the Stockholm University of the Arts, the stunt and its derivatives have totally disappeared. But this does not prevent them from articulating the continuity of the movement with more or less affirmed blockages.
1.3. A typical form of stop motion: the W
The “W” can be considered as a typical and schematic form of
stop motion.
As such, it cannot be reduced to one of the multiple patterns or figures derived from the cascade, and deserves to be studied as an elementary structure. Although the W as such is rarely found in juggling writings, its form can be present in different variants, as in Komei Aoki. In his video “Daggle freestyle 42” (2013)the
stop motion
resonates with a work of decomposition: the flow of juggling is particularly chopped up, through very short and jerky sequences of movement.
The detour through the
pattern
W is triply useful. First of all, it allows to better visualize the stop motion and to apprehend its contours. Secondly, it provides a better understanding of the logic of differentiation and articulation to the waterfall. Finally, it is a practical tool to raise awareness and share the potential of this technique in terms of composition and transmission.
Like the waterfall,
– the W is a pattern with three objects;
– the W is periodic (in the sense of cyclic, the sequence is repeated);
– the W is symmetrical (both hands perform the same succession of actions);
– all throws are of the same height.
But the W differs from the waterfall in three ways:
– the structure of juggling is “discontinuous”: each ball is caught before making the next throw – whereas in a stunt, each ball is thrown before catching the previous throw, each of the hands not being able to
a priori
each hand can only contain one ball;
– each hand makes two successive throws: a cross (towards the other hand) and then a column (the vertically thrown ball falls back into the same hand) – whereas in a cascade each hand throws a ball in an alternating manner;
– the throws do not cross each other – but in a stunt, all throws cross each other.
1.4. Why this term of ”
stop motion
” ?
Although this technique is widely used, it seems to me that it has not been named until now. It has also not really been described or properly circumscribed.
I prefer this expression to the qualifier of
broken down
“This is the term used by Jay Gilligan in the video “The Evolution of Juggling”, which can mean “broken down” or “unstructured”, but also “out of order” or “broken down”! His reflection remains on the structural form of juggling and the trajectories of the objects. However, to speak of ”
stop
motion” is to emphasize what seems to me to be a fundamental aspect of this technique: its relationship to the body and to movement.
I borrow the expression
stop motion
to the cinematographic lexical field. It is a frame by frame animation technique implemented with real objects in volume, at a rate of twenty-four images per second
.
While the objects are immobile, the succession of shots puts them in movement in the image, creating the illusion of a gesture or a move. Famous films
3
have been made with this technique since
King Kong
(1933) to
Isle of Dogs
(2018), or in France
My life as a zucchini
(2016).
The expression “stop motion” may seem counterintuitive
a priori
because it can evoke the jerky character of the attempts of frame by frame films that one realizes in amateur. But in Aardman Studios’ claymation films, such as Wallace and GromitThe slightly shifted or delayed effect is not due to the inherent limitations of the animation technique. On the contrary, this effect is sought after because it makes the charm of this handmade work compared to computer-generated images.
On the other hand, the
stop motion
of the jugglers is one of the ways to find more “continuity” or “concordance” (to use a theoretical term used in rhythmic and sports gymnastics) notably between the body and the objects, between passes and non juggled movements. The composition of a juggled sentence is not considered as a succession of passes (
tricks
*) inscribed in a continuous flow of stunts, but as an alternation of holds (
catches
) and aerial trajectories. The stationary object is not inert, deactivated or canceled when in hand, and this is also valid for blocking on the foot for example. On the contrary, it is “hand-held”, i.e. kept in the flow: it remains part of a body writing that also includes throws. This writing sometimes involves the body in a very committed way as proposed by Miguel Gigosos Ronda (Pink Balls Downstairs, 2020), as well as acrobatic movements that could not be included in an exclusively cascade juggling, as is the case with Ricardo S. Mendes (Checkpoint, 2020). As Nikolaus, a juggler and clown specializing in head juggling and stage disasters, would say, we are looking to juggle with the object, i.e. by paying attention not only to the point of balance of its trajectory (also called ” point of suspension*“) and to the modalities of the grip, but also to the relationship of continuity between the body and the object.
The English term “motion” is valuable because it evokes a triple meaning of
movement
,
gesture
and
mobility.
These three dimensions, that the
stop motion
allows to emphasize, are associated with the bodily and rhythmic writing characteristic of many current jugglers:
– the quality of the
gesture
is to be understood not only in the sense of precision or efficiency, but also in the nature of the touch (notably determined by the variety of the grips), or the fluidity in the sequence of the passes;
– the “continuity” of the
movement
(in the corporeal sense) that precedes, accompanies and prolongs the throwing of objects;
– the
mobility
allows the jugglers to inscribe their bodies and their manipulations in the scenic space.
Mayfa Bérenger, dancer, choreographer and teacher of contemporary dance, expresses well how suspension and continuity of movement are articulated:
In dance, there is no stop but a suspension of movement. It is the continuity of a word that the body supports. To stop would be to exclude oneself from the time of the dance. The figure of silence in music concretizes this suspension. Nothing happens or is heard on the surface, but a “whole” is present. This open space between the before and after is an unspoken link that reinforces them. Alwin Nikolaïs, choreographer and educator, callsmotion this pulsation that vibrates with the dancer. It persists when the body remains motionless. […]. If this pulse stops, life stops
4
.
In the field of juggling, the term
stop motion
seems to me just as appropriate: it reminds us that the interruption of the object’s aerial trajectory does not necessarily imply the stopping of its movement, nor that of a juggler, nor
a fortiori
of what is played out in the scenic moment. The stop of the objects in the
stop motion
remains a suspension for juggling, and we have a glimpse of it with several extracts from
Let Them Come
(2012) by Neta Oren. The slow motion gives you the opportunity to see and feel how the stops are part of the flow of his juggling. The use of water emphasizes and amplifies the trajectories. In an excerpt from the play
Puddle
(2014)of the Defracto company, we can see the two types of stops previously distinguished. The movement persists in each solo sequence, which nevertheless incorporates numerous stops in stop motion. Only when one of the performers picks up a ball, does the juggling of the initial performer become “flaccid”.
One can notice in these sequences the use of many multiplexes*, which consist in throwing several objects at the same time with one hand. The most common is the duplex, which is a double throw with one hand. Nowadays, catching is more and more often done with an object in each hand – this is called “multiplex split “(which “divides”, “separates” in English). However, multiplexes are more easily compatible with a W-shaped structure since this one implies the systematic passage by a position with two balls in a hand. We can suppose that their development is correlated to that of the
stop motion
We can assume that their development is correlated to that of stop motion, as well as other recent evolutions such as the return of bean balls (more adapted to multiple catches) or the development of foot juggling.
The expression
stop motion
thus evokes the rhythmic potentialities of the technique it designates. The flow of the waterfall no longer conditions the writing. This one is enriched by an alternation of flows and stop motionThe tempo can be adjusted without affecting the fluidity of the juggling and the continuity of the movement. The
pattern
is no longer the cornerstone of the composition, as seen in the video
Marin Box
(2020) by Kouta Oashi, a young Japanese juggler who is little known to the general public but is popular in the community of practitioners. Idriss Roca (
Juggling is a Combat Sport
, 2015) also integrates the stops of his clubs into the composition of the movement, and varies their values and duration. As for Emmanuel Ritoux (
Winter is Over
, 2021), the throws participate rather in a rhythmic punctuation of the taking of space, the changes of orientation that the
stop motion
facilitates.
If the
stop motion
is a major trend in juggling, it is not present everywhere in its recent history, nor even in its latest developments. Jugglers often cited for their technical contribution and inventiveness since the turn of the 20th centurye century such as Jerome Thomas or Jay Gilligan use it very little5.
2. Origins and first developments
We have seen that many jugglers use
stop motion
It is not uncommon for people to build their routines around this technique, and some no longer even use the stunt. The pedagogy of juggling is certainly not foreign to this major trend. Moreover, I notice this dynamic and I contribute to it in a certain way within the framework of my interventions and the follow-up of the students, in particular at the Cnac, at the Ecole supérieure des arts du cirque de Bruxelles and the Ecole de Cirque de Lyon.
In order to better understand the conditions of appearance and the rise of the
stop motion
I conducted a few interviews with jugglers and consulted numerous videos available on the Internet and at the Cnac resource center. These investigations have allowed me to sketch out a few paths that shed light on the origins of this technique, which accompanies another relationship of the jugglers to the body and to movement.
2.1. In circus schools
First of all, we can identify the first episodic blockages in the flow of the cascade in the final numbers of certain jugglers trained at the Cnac, as early as the middle of the 1990s, such as Jörg Müller or Laurent Pareti. In other videos that can be consulted in Châlons-en-Champagne, students at that time took singular paths to renew the writing of juggling: Mads Rosenbeck, for example, developed a research of movement around the swinging* with clubs, while Nikolaus is already exploring the clowning dimension of his contact and aerial juggling… It is likely that these embryos of stop motion also exist in the productions of jugglers from other schools. We are thinking in particular of the Lido of Toulouse (now the Toulouse-Occitania Higher School of Circus Arts), since a few sketches of it can be seen in the show
Visa for Love
(1998) by Vincent Bruel and Lionel About (Vis-à-Vis company), former students directed by the artistic referent of their school, Christian Coumin [sequence available on Vimeo, from 11’33]
.
Tim Roberts, a teacher and then head of professional training at the CNAC in the 1990s, saw in this technique “the future of juggling
6
“. Without claiming authorship, he considers that the appearance of of the s
top motion
at the Cnac at the time is undoubtedly favored by the context of revision of the program of studies under the impulse of Bernard Turin. Indeed, during his tenure as director, there was a greater diversification and alternation of speakers from other artistic practices than those related to the circus:
The students come to me with sequences that they have worked on in dance classes, and that they would like to be able to transpose into the work with their objects. From there we start looking for ways, and the development of blockades is one of them
7
.
If the contribution of body practices other than circus is remarkable in other schools, for example with the integration of somatic practices at the Lido, Tim Roberts evokes here in particular the intervention of choreographers from contemporary dance such as Francesca Lattuada, François Verret or even Héla Fattoumi and Éric Lamoureux. Their respective influences on the jugglers would have to be understood in the same way as those of Laurence Levasseur, Martine Evrard or Dominique Dupuy, who were teaching regularly at the Cnac.
This movement of crossing juggling with contemporary dance, crystallized in 1995 with the creation of
Cri du Caméléon
by the 7e promotion of the Cnac under the direction of Josef Nadj, can already be observed with the works of the choreographer Hervé Diasnas, author and performer of
Naï or crystal which dreams
(1981). Through his program “Présence Mobilité Danse”, he inspired and trained many jugglers in what he called the “practice of the dancer” since the 1990s, such as Phia Ménard or Jérôme Thomas – who collaborated with the same choreographer for the creation of his solo Extra ball (1990). Since then, dance has become an increasingly important part of the jugglers’ background and practice. Indeed, it occupies an increasing place in professional training and influences a whole work on weight, space or feeling for example. We can thus assume that the rise in the 90’s of practices involving less than three objects (such as contact juggling or
swinging
), is part of this movement. By decentering the relationship to virtuosity, these practices place the technique elsewhere in the body and prioritize the
flow
*. The
stop motion
would thus be part of the articulation of dance and juggling, and would participate in the transformation of the uses of the jugglers’ bodies and their techniques.
2.2. In professional juggling
We can identify the use of
stop motion
in at least two shows and a video produced at that time by young juggling companies, which mark its history.
On one side,
Caught – ‘stilL’/hanging…
(1994), one of the first shows of the Gandini Juggling Project, choreographed by Gil Clarke, shows how much the articulation of the dancing bodies in this collective juggling “constantly in stop and go, to the point of seeming non-existent8 is already dedicated to “deconstructing” it
9
“. The choreography is based on more or less marked blockings of the balls which voluntarily “fragment” the juggling vocabulary, with more static moments realized in cascade or multiplexes. Founded in 1991, this British company has helped popularize many juggling techniques as well as the
siteswap
*, in particular through the
passing*
A group practice appreciated in the amateur environment, especially in conventions*. Many professional companies, such as Gandini Juggling from its beginnings, participated in these conventions and presented their latest explorations, whether in the form of performances at galas and open stages, or through workshops. The frontier between the two worlds of professional and amateur was much more porous than today, and there was more back and forth, especially the circulation of techniques such as the
stop motion
.
On the other hand, Phia Ménard (Non Nova company), in a sequence
of Ascenseur, a phantasmagoria to raise people and burdens
(2001) [sequence available on the site of the INA, from 0’50]which is also one of his first works, resorts to the
stop motion
in the typical form of the W. This technique allows the engagement of the body according to a plurality of orientations in space and a rhythmic writing. Since Phia Ménard was a member of GR 12, a group of jugglers initiated by Jérôme Thomas within his company in 1996, we can assume that the latter’s cubic approach contributed to the advent of a juggling in movement and volume that the stop motion irrigates. Indeed, cubic juggling, developed at that time, assumes that a specific relationship between the body and the object is determined by the juggling, whether it be with or without the object
10
. The practice of cubic juggling is based on writing what Jérôme Thomas calls “new pages” in the space of a juggler’s body
11
. Without denying or interrupting patterns such as the cascade, such research involves distinguishing between juggled and non-juggled materials, and possibly combining them later.
Finally, we can also refer to the iconic video
3b Different Ways
, directed in 2000 by Ville Wallo, Maksim Komaro and Jay Gilligan. It belongs to the series of “Peapot Videos”, a major reference for the community, which draws up a valuable inventory of the forms of juggling in vogue at the time, in particular bounce juggling, rings or movements with the head. The last chapter entitled “Maksim Komaro putting it all together” proposes a development that integrates stop motion. In the first sequence, it is used in sequences with a fragmented rhythm, punctuated by multiplexes and insistent blocks on the upper body. It is clear here that a pass in stop motion can be considered as “discontinuous” since each thrown ball is blocked. In the second sequence where Maksim Komaro is dressed in black, the
stop motion
is sometimes used as a punctuation mark but it is mostly developed as a transition mode, a connection without interruption of the flow, between
patterns
in cascade. The impression of continuity is obtained thanks to the modulation of the
dwell-time
* (i.e. the retention time of the object in the hand) according to the throws, as well as by drawing the gesture prior to the throw.
3. Perspectives
These initial explorations of the recent history of professional juggling should be continued by studying other video traces of juggling from the 1990s and even before that decade. But access to resources is doubly problematic. On the one hand, the generalized use of video tools and approaches consisting in filming and sharing publicly recordings date rather from the 2000s. On the other hand, the video resources produced before this period were often private because they were filmed by individuals, or were not digitized.
To deepen the archaeology of this technique of
stop motion
would thus allow us to verify whether its premises could be found in a broader geographical framework, particularly across the Atlantic. An example is the juggling style called “claymotion” in honor of the British juggler Ricard Clay, to whom it is attributed. The popularization of this style, which is based exclusively on multiplexes, in the amateur world
split
is observable during the same period as the premise of
stop motion
previously discussed. It is a possible source of development of this technique as it is based on a blocking principle as an alternative to the cascade. On the other hand, it seems rather choppy rhythmically and much less linked to a body writing. The identification of the
claymotion
from 1996-1997 in the United States – first at “Madfest”, the convention in Madison, and then at the International Jugglers’ Festival (IJF) in Rapid City – reported by James J. Barlow12 testifies to the importance of the role that these gatherings of jugglers have in the transfer and circulation of know-how. Bringing together amateurs and professionals from different countries, the conventions already abounding in Europe at the turn of the XXIe century appear more broadly as a field of study conducive to the identification of new technical and aesthetic trends in juggling. Such an observation could also be made in the context of European Conventions (EJC) such as those held in Grenoble in 1996 and 1999, which already brought together more than two thousand jugglers.
We have chosen to limit this study here to aerial juggling, but the notion of
stop motion
could be mobilized in the analysis of formal and aesthetic evolutions of other juggling specialties or apparatus, in particular balance and contact. Some of the issues that could be addressed include the practice of diabolo, as the
stop motion
has been one of the strategies for getting out of the frontal axis imposed by the rotation of the diabolo in the string since at least the 2000s. This technique could thus be apprehended in parallel with two other recent technical evolutions specific to this codified object: on the one hand the practice of theexcalibur*(also named “vertax”) radically changes the inscription of the horizontal trajectories of the objects and the body in space; on the other hand, the diabolo with ball bearing makes it possible to work differently on the continuity of the movement since the object can remain a long time in the string before its rotation is interrupted.
The notion of
stop motion
helps to shed light on the way many jugglers practice and compose today. An increasing number of them assume the stops within a more or less fragmented, non-periodic and voluntarily asymmetrical writing. Even if we can “reattach” the
stop motion
to the three-ball stunt by relying on the types of connection envisaged by Erik Åberg in his definition of juggling13 (imitation, kinship and reduction), this
pattern
is no longer as authoritative among juggling practices. Also, we can no longer consider that the intrinsic periodicity and the continuous character of a juggler’s movement distinguish juggling from object manipulation, as Jean-Michel Guy proposed
14
theorist of these questions. On the other hand, we join him in considering
the
sentence
as an elementary semiotic unit of current juggling, by analogy with music15. Alongside the stunt or the balances* for example, the
stop motion
would then be for the juggled sentence one of the resources of punctuation but also of syntax16. Here we touch on what makes up the writing in juggling, and more broadly on what makes up the dramaturgy.
The technique of
stop motion
enriches juggling by contributing to the development of diversified body and rhythmic writing. If it thus opens the way to new variations of this discipline, she also questions the notations intended to transcribe the juggled movement. This is particularly the case for the
siteswap
: exchanges with the juggler and pedagogue Jonathan Lardillier led me to realize that this notation was rather adapted to forms derived from the cascade.
The study of this technique offers valuable pedagogical extensions. While students in vocational training use it widely today, they do not always appreciate its potential. The W is also a a precious tool in the initiation of juggling for beginners, allowing them to easily approach it in its physical, expressive and creative scope. Stop motion thus encourages alternative approaches to juggling, whose sporting approach is supported, for example, in the United States by the International Juggling Federation (WJF) and, to a lesser extent, by the International Jugglers Association (IJA).
Thanks
I would like to thank the team of the Cnac Resource Center, the jugglers and teachers with whom I was able to exchange (Jonathan Lardillier, Denis Paumier, Tim Roberts), as well as the students and alumni of circus schools who supported me. Thanks also to those who kindly read and enriched the first versions of this text with their feedback: Gentiane Guillot, Juliette Hébert, Marie Guillerminet, Nicolas Burlaud and Alain Brissard.
Notes
1 The Swedish juggler Erik Åberg refers to the stunt as the “default form” (default form) in his definition of juggling, which he shared during a lecture at the 70th International Jugglers Association (IJA) Festival in Cedar Rapids, USA, on July 13, 2017. See also the podcast series called “Object Episodes” which chronicles his discussions with Jay Gilligan since 2020 about the past, present and future of juggling. URL: https: //podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/object-episodes/id1533424295.
2
The term “movement juggling” refers to the name ” movement juggling trainer ” given to me when I was invited to the National Circus Institute (NICA) in Australia, the Australian national school, in 2004.
3
See in particular the article by Arthur Bayon, “Dix films pour découvrir la richesse de l’animation en stop motion”, Le Figaro, October 5, 2020, accessed on February 17, 2022, URL: https: //www.lefigaro.fr/cinema/dix-films-pour-decouvrir-la-richesse-de-l-animation-en-stop-motion-20201005. See also the thirty or so film clips selected by Vugar Efendi in his video “The Evolution of Stop-Motion,” 2017, URL: https: //vimeo.com/180025799.
4
Mayfa Bérenger, “La danse, mise en scène”, Études, 2002/3, p. 375-390, accessed February 17, 2022, URL: https: //www.cairn.info/revue-etudes-2002-3-page-375.html.
5
Wes Peden, an American juggler who is particularly well liked and followed by the community, does not use it much either, with the exception, for example, of a sequence in his duet with Patrick Elmnert, Between Someonesons (2014), accessed 26 February 2022, URL: https: //youtu.be/JimdZVIN_ek?t=161.
6
These words of Tim Roberts are reported by the French juggler Denis Paumier, in a telephone conversation in March 2021. Also a teacher, he directs Les Objets Volants, a company he co-founded after his studies at the Cnac in the late 1990s.
7
Tim Roberts, telephone conversation, April 2021.
8
I translate the words of Sean Gandini reported in Juggling Trajectories – A History of Gandini Juggling, London, Gandini Press, 2016, p. 68.
9
Thomas J. M. Wilson, Juggling Trajectories, op. cit., p. 65 (for this and the next quote). I translate.
10
“S’occupe à pratiquer les objets” : les objets du jugleur”, interview with Jérôme Thomas conducted by Émilie Charlet and Aurélie Coulon, Agôn, n° 4, Enquête ” L’objet à la loupe “, 2011, §39-44, accessed on 18 February 2022, URL : https://journals.openedition.org/agon/2070.
11
See the second step that Jérôme Thomas details in his “Preparatory text for the Rain/Bow show. Écrire Rain/Bow ” (p. 90), proposed as an appendix to the book Jérôme Thomas : jongleur d’âme (ed. Claire David, interview conducted by Jean-Carasso and Jean-Claude Lallias, Arles, Actes Sud, 2010).
12
See this juggler’s website dedicated to claymotion, accessed on March 11, 2022: https: //claymotionjuggling.com.
13
According to Erik Åberg, juggling is first and foremost the three-ball stunt and everything that is remotely related to it. See Erik Åberg, “The Definition of Juggling,” lecture, 70th IJA Festival, Cedar Rapids, July 13, 2017.
14
See all of Jean-Michel Guy’s contributions in the “Juggling and Magic” section of L’Encyclopédie des arts du cirque, a project carried out by the Cnac and the Bibliothèque nationale de France since 2016, accessed on February 18, 2022, URL: https: //cirque-cnac.bnf.fr/fr/jonglerie-et-magie.
15
I am referring to remarks made by Jean-Michel Guy on February 21, 2022 in comments prior to the publication of this article.
16
See Michel Favriaud’s article about extended punctuation: “Les problèmes de ponctuation générale soulevés par la poésie contemporaine,” Pratiques, 179-180, 2018, accessed 11 March 2022, URL: http: //journals.openedition.org/pratiques/5101.