World News

Bringing juggling to the world

By Kate Moser
Star Staff Writer
05-31-2005

Ron Anglin uses a Chinese diabolo during his performance last weekend at Music at McClellan. The diabolo, a yo-yo that makes a whistling sound as it spins, is said to have been invented thousands of years ago. Photo: Trent Penny/The Anniston Star An aunt gave Georgia juggler Ron Anglin a Chinese yo-yo when he was 8 years old, and he’s never been the same since. Anglin said he taught himself to play with the yo-yo, called a “diabolo.” The diabolo is said to have been invented thousands of years ago in China. It makes a whistling sound as it spins. When he was 35 years old, Anglin joined the Atlanta Jugglers Association, and one of the members pointed out to him that he was spinning the diabolo backwards. “I grew up in the country, not in a circus family or anything,” Anglin said. Last Saturday evening, Anglin and his 14-year-old son Joel juggled for picknickers before the Alabama Symphony Orchestra performed at McClellan. He will perform again from 6 to 8 p.m. before the June 11 and June 18 Music at McClellan shows. In addition to the diabolo, Anglin regularly uses other international juggling arts in his work. He said he uses the “poi,” a ball on a string developed by the Maori people in New Zealand. As a former high school geography teacher, Anglin said he always likes to throw a little geography into his juggling shows. Some of the most amazing jugglers, Anglin said, are the women of Tonga who sing as they juggle seven objects—a world record, according to Anglin. “They don’t know it’s hard,” he said. Anglin returned to his home in Atlanta in late May from one week of training in Montreal with Cirque du Monde, a program started in the mid-1990s by the Cirque du Soleil, a worldwide performance group that combines elements from the circus, acrobatics, music, dance and other arts. The Cirque du Monde attempts to reach at-risk children around the world by matching them with circus artists.

Ron Anglin’s extensive training in juggling arts helps him concentrate while juggling sharp knives. Photo: Trent Penny/The Anniston Star “They remember when they were street performers,” Anglin says of the people who started Cirque du Monde to give back to their communities. “They’re trying to be a good world citizen.” Young people from Brazil to Cameroon to Las Vegas have participated in Cirque du Monde workshops. Anglin’s son Joel said he’s been juggling since he was 8 years old, when he picked it up after watching his dad. With a hint of pride in his voice, Anglin said he couldn’t believe how quickly Joel learned. “I turned around and he was juggling three balls and I was like, ‘Where’d you learn that?’” Anglin said. In one month when he was 10, Joel taught himself to juggle five objects, a challenge that Anglin said can take experienced jugglers months or even years to master. Wearing an orange and yellow tie-dyed T-shirt that matched his dad’s, Joel sported a good-natured nonchalance that belied his skill. “I don’t really practice any more,” he said. “I just whip ‘em out before a show and brush up.” Part of the father-and-son team’s routine is to “pass around” kids in the crowd—to juggle while tossing clubs back and forth to each other on either side of the child standing in between them. Anglin said kids love it. “Then we pull out all the machetes and the torches, and they disappear,” he joked. Though Joel has already done about 500 juggling shows, Kaye Anglin, his mom, said he will probably take it easy on the juggling this summer. “I think this year he’s going to take a break and kind of be a teenager,” she said. In addition to his role in Cirque du Monde, Anglin is a member of the Christian Jugglers Association. He has also recently become part of the Atlanta unit of the Big Apple Circus Clown Care. Soon he will begin visiting children in hospitals. Anglin’s not a professional clown, but he said he’s “been known to wear a red nose from time to time.” Because Anglin flew helicopters in the U.S. Army, last year performing near the helicopter pad at McClellan felt strangely familiar to him. “It’s very full circle for me,” he said.