Balls In The Air
By Chris Wadsworth
The most common things to juggle are – of course – balls. Almost as popular are clubs (which look a little like bowling pins) and rings. Other items include something called “flower sticks” and – for the much more advanced and daring – even swords and torches.
You won’t find any flaming torches at the Ashburn Library on Hay Road where the Ashburn Juggling Society meets monthly. These are family-friendly affairs where members practice together and show off their latest skills while also teaching the basics to novices and newcomers.
“Since we moved to the library, there are so many kids who walk by, so we often get a lot of families and kids that we teach,” said Adam Belsky, the club’s founder.
Belsky, who lives in the Broadlands, has been fascinated with juggling since he attended an afterschool program in middle school in Rockville, Md. He honed his skills at summer camps that focused on the so-called “circus arts” and then he joined his college juggling club when he attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York.
“They were pretty serious, and this allowed me to practice a lot,” Belsky said.
When he moved to Northern Virginia, he originally attended meetings with a juggling club in Fairfax County. But in 2017, tired of the long drive, Belsky created the Ashburn Juggling Society. Juggling is still a niche hobby, and the club has roughly 10 to 12 core members. If a meeting draws 15 participants, it’s considered a strong turnout.
Jerry Higginson has been a member of the club since about 2018, but, like Belsky, he’s been juggling for decades – so much so that he’s actually turned it into a lucrative side gig. You see, Jerry is also known as Jester Jerry and has performed at more than 2,500 community events and birthday parties around the region.
“I saw my first circus when I was 10 years old and I came home … and I taught myself to juggle three oranges in my front yard,” Higginson said. “That turned into a lifelong hobby and avocation.”
A typical meeting of the Ashburn Juggling Society includes catching up, talking to newbies interested in the hobby and working on skills together. One of those skills is the passing of juggled objects back and forth. In other words, one person starts juggling some clubs and then passes them while still in motion to another person.
“It’s really fun to practice that, so that’s a big part of the meetings because you can’t do it at home alone,” Belsky said.
On occasion, the club members will take their “show on the road” so to speak and appear at local events either as entertainment or to just simply spread the love of juggling.
And that love of the hobby is the one thing that all the members have in common.
“The International Jugglers’ Association is a worldwide body, and their purpose is to, quote, ‘Render assistance to fellow jugglers,’” Higginson said. “Adam embodies that spirit in the Ashburn Juggling Society as well. What we do is render assistance to fellow jugglers.”
To learn more about the Ashburn Juggling Society and its monthly meetings, visit ashburnjuggling.club