26th Annual RIT Spring Juggle-In

Workshops


Exact topics covered will depend on those attending, but a general outline is below. For workshop times, see Schedule of Events.

The Beginner 3 Ball Workshops will be held in the back corner of the gym. The Advanced Unicycling Workshop will be held outside. All other workshops will be in the small gym just behind the stage.

Beginner 3 Ball Juggling (The Rochester Juggling Club): This is a must if you don't already know how to juggle. You will probably discover that juggling is easier than you thought it would be. Most people will walk away from this being able to juggle 3 balls. The rest will know enough that with a little practice they'll be juggling 3 balls very soon. If you can already juggle 3 balls but don't know what to do next, you might consider asking the instructors here for some advice.

Beginner Club Passing (The Strong Jugglers): This workshop is intended for people who can already juggle 3 clubs comfortably on their own, but have little or no experience passing clubs with other people. The focus will be on elementry two person patterns, but some 3 or more person patterns, and a few basic tricks may be demonstrated as well.

Advanced Ball Juggling (Dave Nager): This will cover ball tricks involving 3 to 5 (or perhaps more) balls. Topics covered will depend on the interest of those attending, but will probably include pirouettes, site swaps, various body throws, pirouettes, combining tricks, and if there's time, pirouettes.

Advanced Club Passing (Nat Kinsey, Jeff Lutkus, Greg Owsley, Jeff Peden): This will start with demonstrations on where and how to add tricks to basic passing patterns. It will then move onto various ambidextrous passing patterns where many of the previously learned tricks will no longer work. The focus will be on patterns involving 2 and 3 people, and a few with more. Most of the patterns covered will involve an average of 3 clubs per person.

Ring Juggling (Alek Speck): This workshop will begin by covering the basics of ring juggling. Then, more developed and advanced tricks, such as pancakes, flats and pulldowns will be both demonstrated and broken down. Lastly, practice techniques for numbers (6, 7 and 8 rings) will be shown. Workshop attendees are encouraged to bring specific questions regarding what he or she wishes to learn to the session and also to ask questions during the workshop. Following the workshop, those wanting one-on-one assistance are welcome to stay.

Diablo (Jeff Peden): I have to talk to Jeff on this one, but I suspect it will start with an introduction on how to use a diablo, and branch out from there to various tricks with one and possibly two diablos, and will include standard and the stickless diablo.

Site Swap (Greg Phillips): Siteswap notation is a concise way of describing certain kinds of juggling patterns using strings of numbers. Have you ever wondered what 53, (4,2x)(2x,4) or [32] could possibly mean?* Then this is the workshop for you! In this workshop you'll learn to understand siteswap notation including the asynchronous ("vanilla"), synchronous and multiplex versions, and you'll practice juggling a variety of simple siteswap patterns. You don't need to be a math god (or a juggling god) to understand and enjoy siteswaps! Bring your beanbags. A handout will be provided.
*The four ball half shower, The Box, and five ball splits.

To be determined (Denis Paumier): Once I know what this is going to be about, I will write about it. The workshop will probably last 2 hours, and may require people to sign up in advance.

Advanced Unicycling (Jeff Lutkus): This is intended for people who already know how to ride a unicycle, and can do a few tricks. It will cover various standard freestyle tricks from one footed idling to wheel walking and gliding. There will also be some discussion on mountain and trials unicycling. (Anyone interested in trying some trials obstacles on campus, please bring safety gear -- helmet, gloves, shin pads, etc.) Since this workshop will be outside, it will only take place if the weather is good.