By Andy Mannix By Caleb Hannan By Olivia LaVecchia By CP Staff
By Aaron Rupar By Jacob Wheeler By Olivia LaVecchia By Aaron
Rupar And because the circus is a more respected art form in
Europe, expanding on a circus art like juggling--stretching it
in experimental ways--is also easier than it is in the United
States. Here the notion of juggling as a performance art is
rare, and very much a hard sell. "There's more tradition for it
in Europe," Gilligan explains. "They're used to it. They're more
tolerant of it and they'll follow you farther. It's like
'juggling and art, I can accept these two things together.'
Juggling in the United States is like, 'Are you a clown?'"
Juggling--as a game, a training regimen, an art form--has been
around for thousands of years. So long, in fact, that one could
argue that any new juggling techniques probably existed in some
form centuries ago. But there are some common threads that make
up modern juggling today, moving it far beyond the traditional
image of a clown in a funny hat