One of the most mesmerizing scenes in the “Labyrinth” at least for me has always been when Jareth does contact juggling with a crystal ball. I’ve always wanted to learn how to do it since I first saw it. Unfortunately I never did but I did successfully pick up glowsticking from my raver days. Now as a new quarantine project I’ve decided to pick up the art of contact juggling and I think I’ve just found the best resource out there to do it.
Ok so it wasn’t really David Bowie doing the contact juggling but hey, it fit the character well enough that we actually believed the Goblin King could do it. Michael Moschen was the real magician which you can see in the video below:
The Amazing Kenny on YouTube has quite a few breakdown videos on the dynamics of juggling a ball. He makes it sound and look so easy that you can’t help but have confidence enough to pick it up yourself.
There is actually a whole blog dedicated to teaching people how to do this. And it doesn’t cost anything to check it out. Some of the methods shown in the blog are the Cradle Holding which Kenny shows us in the video above. You hold the ball with three fingers and move it around to get your hand used to holding the ball in all directions.
Then you have the thing that blows our minds in the “Labyrinth,” Hand Flips. Hand flips are when you gently toss the ball up in the air and catch it in your palm. Practice this enough and you can get a seamless motion that looks magical.
After you master it with one hand it’s time to move on to the other and try out the Palm Cradle Transfer.
And there are many more tricks you can teach yourself how to do. I recommend checking out Contactjuggle.com. And if you get it please send us a video! Bonus points if you do it in Bowie cosplay!
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