Early History of the AJA

Newspaper article - December 4, 1977

Jugglers Organize for Fun of It

By Cliff Green

No one brought flaming torches or razor-sharp knives or battle axes.

Most stuck with the old standbys:  rubber balls, rings and clubs.

It didn't matter.

The dozen or so jugglers who showed up on St. Charles Avenue NE Saturday afternoon were not there to dazzle an audience with flashy displays of dexterity anyway.  They were trying to form their own organization.

If the first meeting of the fledgling Atlanta Jugglers Association didn't attract a large crowd of people who like to throw things up in the air and catch them, that didn't bother Rodger French, the young man trying to get the city's jugglers together.

"This is just a handful of the people in Atlanta who juggle," he said, sounding confident that he'll eventually get all of them under one roof at the same time.

French said he wants to organize the city's jugglers so there will be a framework from which to spread the gospel of what he calls this "wonderful, fun thing."

The people who attended the Saturday meeting may have passed up the more daring instruments of juggling in favor of the more common, but they were good.

And if the crowd is any indication of the appeal of juggling, French shouldn't have much trouble spreading the gospel.  Men and women jugglers showed up and their ages ranged from the teens well into the middle.  Long-hairs mixed with the clean-shaven, the scruffy with the neat.

The Atlanta Jugglers Association will serve as a clearinghouse for anyone interested in juggling and the other circus arts, according to French.  It will pattern itself after the International Jugglers Association.

French said the organization first of all will serve as a way for jugglers to get together to swap ideas on "things to juggle, how to juggle and where to juggle."

Once the group gets under way, French said, he wants to put on shows for organizations sponsoring benefits or children's shows.

Although the outfit is not a working organization yet, French has jumped the gun somewhat by starting a program teaching elementary school students how to juggle.

Folks who want to learn to juggle, or hire a juggler or just talk about juggling should call French.

Newspaper article, 1978

His life is a balancing act.  He juggles music, radio and rubber balls.  And wooden rings, and clubs and torches.

For the many-faceted Rodger French, an employee of Radio Free Georgia, juggling is an "obsession that I'd like to become an occupation."  The operations supervisor with WRFG-FM began as a volunteer for the non-commercial radio station five years ago.  Since then he has moonlighted as an accordionist with a six-piece combo when he's not performing with LaCrosse balls on a stage or in a living room.

Recalling his introduction to the ancient form of manipulation, French smiles, "I learned on lemons because the sporting goods store was out of LaCrosse balls."  After a futile search for a local organization of jugglers, he decided to form his own group:  The Atlanta Jugglers Association.  Besides offering information and instruction to members and novice jugglers, the 31-member troupe performs at festivals and fairs throughout the city and state.  This spring they're scheduled to appear at the Inman Park Festival, which ends today, and at the Piedmont Arts Festival in May.

The Bureau of Cultural Affairs awarded the Atlanta Jugglers Assocation a $300 grant for the performance at the Crazy Culture Carnival for Children, held at the Civic Center during the Atlanta Dogwood Festival.

In describing the hobby that's evolved into a part-time occupation, he explains its charisma.  "There's a real sense of accomplishment when manipulating more things than you have hands.  It's good exercise and the results are readily apparent.  Almost anyone who is reasonably coordinated" can learn to juggle, he says.

And because of a growing interest in juggling, Roger French hopes to bring the International Jugglers Convention to Atlanta in 1979.

Back when the Little Five Points Community Center was still the Moreland Elementary School, the Atlanta Jugglers Association held twice­weekly meetings there in exchange for free juggling lessons for the students and an annual school assembly program by AJA co-founders Toni Shifalo and Rodger French as LENNY & LaBANANA. When the school closed the AJA met that summer on the lawn and when the L5PtsComCtr opened in Oct.

'82, the first tenant LENNY & LaBANANA SCHOOL OF CLOWNING with sub-leasees the ATLANTA JUGGLERS ASSOCIATION, helped establish the building as a community focal point.

 Since its formation in 1977, the AJA has maintained an active community outreach service thru participation in festivals, parades, neighborhood events and celebrations throughout the metro-Atlanta area, always with enthusiasm and a mission to share the joys of juggling with people of all ages and abilities. The AJA was started to teach juggling to anyone interested, to develop an audience for juggling skills, and to serve as clearing-house for those in need of juggling services. To achieve these goals we have maintained a regular meeting place and time at the Community Center, and to promote these goals we have held an annual public event, THE GROUNDhOG DAY JUGGLERS FESTIVAL, each February free to the public and at nominal charge to participating jugglers from the Southeast at first and now the entire US.

Attendance at our 1st meeting Dec 1977 was 35 people. Many of those same 35 are active members today, while our roster has grown to over 75. Our first public event, a festival in Piedmont Park Fall '78, drew over 100 people. Our First Annual Groundhog Day Jugglers Festival in Feb. '79 had 37 registered jugglers; our Ninth Annual, 103 with over 1200 specatators. In 1985 we hosted the highly successful International Jugglers Association Convention at Emory University with public shows at Symphony Hall.  Convention  coordinators  R. French and T.  Shifalo administered a $80,000 budget for that event.

 The 9 Groundhog Day Jugglers Festivals have brought Atlanta audiences a great variety of talent. Many competitors for the Coveted Phil Award, based on the Pennsylvania groundhog Punxsutawney Phil, have gone on to win National Championships at the IJA Conventions. The 2-day festival provides a welcome mid-winter break to jugglers of all skill levels and offers a unique opportunity free of charge to the public to participate in gravity defying adventures in a wholesome, supportive environment. Judges for the competitions have been local politicians, artists, athletes, public figures, journalists, and one grandmother chosen from the audience.