Ministry Research Labs
In our never ending quest to find the best equipment. We made and tested another ball.
The experiment: Will putting water inside balls help for juggling or contact?
The quick answer: No. This ball sucked and sucked hard.

Experiment #1 - Ball partly filled with water: Forget it, what you get is the slosh factor. The ball wobbles when it rolls or flies, water sloshing around inside. Failed.

Experiment #2 - Ball completely filled with water: Quick answer - it’s no good.
Long answer: Here the difference is more subtle. To throw and catch it is very similar to a solid ball, good weight for contact. It can be arm rolled and butterflied, but its much harder than a regular ball. the significant difference is that while the ball has linear inertia, it has almost zero effective rotational inertia. What this means for a contact juggler: when you roll it down your arm, it’s far more difficult to control, it has less stability. It’s a bit like having a very slippery ball, and slippery tights covering your arms. A solid ball must both rotate sideways and translate sideways in order to fall of your arm, a water filled ball has only to translate sideways, the water inside does not need to rotate. no rotation requires less energy, and so in feeling the ball is more skittish. It can be arm rolled and butterflied, but its much harder than a regular ball.

Conclusion: Don’t fill your balls with water, it won’t help. It reduces rotational inertia and so reduces stability. and what we need for hand rolling, arm rolling and body rolling is a bit more stability/ Coming soon, balls that are better not worse!

dzi3lak Kamil Dzilinski from Poland, who has featured in some of the best contact web videos in the last few years (see skills here) has reviewed Multiball Contact. Original Review:

“First thing - very good job I think this publication is something, that our community has waited for very looong time. The book is writed in considered way, touches an area of CJ that i’s not good known to everyone and because that, it is very inspiring^^

The Lessons section has good composition and organisation, it welcomes you to the world of Multiball Contact (that I really love ). The lessons and hints about every figure are very useful in progressing our skills. For me the lessons were very clearly explained, but I have been knowing most of the figures and transfers, so I know what’s happening with the balls, how the hand’s are rotating and so on. I’m wondering how it is for person that never held a balls in his hand’s, i think some moves ( like “roll down on page 39) may been difficult to understand from photos, but it’s my feeling, i think the best option is show some no-CJ’er this book, and see what his thinking about it

The Inspiration Section - yes yes yes ^^ the masterwork with so many figures and ideas. Great job. The morphing notations was like opening a big door for me … The double scoop is wonder for me…. you don’t want to know how i was picking 10 or 11 ball the small balls section was very mind refreshing, but I don’t think I’ll be doing anything with it

“The appendices are very useful, especially the 4 image quality diagram and morphing notations….”
_____________________________
Minor edits made to the spelling and grammar and for brevity. Hey Thanks dzi3lak (How do you pronounce that name?? Dizzy-three-lack???)

Ryan Mellors lead a Contact Juggling and Manipulation workshop in Vienna on May 16th, 2007.

Workshop Description:

What is manipulation? How can we tell if an object is isolated, and how do we correct our technique? How can we build more complicated illusions? And how can we use these techniques in our performances?

This one day intensive workshop is aimed at all levels of jugglers/circus performers interested in developing new material with a single prop. Through group work and individual skill-builing, Ryan Mellors (Canada / England) will lead exercises in movement and manipulation, assisting the students in developing new material and giving them a basic foundation in movement techniques such as mime, bodypopping, liquid and other illusional movement styles.

Contact Juggling techniques will be taught with 1 ball and this will serve as the basis for a lot of the exercises, but students will be encouraged to move beyond the ball and integrate their own props into much of the workshop. Jugglers of all skill levels and dancers are invited to attend, and they are encouraged to bring whatever props they wish to develop material with.

UPDATE:
Check THIS PAGE for an article detailing the workshop experience.
For more Info: contact David

The next contact juggling Convention will be held in Rennes, France this May. More details can be found here (pdf).

For a look back at the past conventions, check these video links:
CJC 2001 & 2002 (First ever CJC, held in the US)

CJC 2003 (Perth, Scotland) Video by Silver Paul. You must be a member at contactjuggling.org to download the video

CJC 2005 (at the Hangar, London. Featured on the In Isolation DVD)

and now CJC 2007 - France.

Moon has given Multiball Contact a thorough review over on the Italian Forum Giocoleria.
I love his closing line about Multiball Contact: “….in any case, a MUST HAVE for all the contactari (and in particular manipulators)”
Review Translated by google into English
Original review in Italian

Now that’s a REVIEW!
Congratulations to Moon and the Imperfect Cirque crew for winning the World juggling VIDEO federation competition over on juggling DB.
Smiles Drew
(pictured left: Colemans Cat testing Multiball Contact out for comfort as a cushion.)

The gang is away at BJC, and i’m feeling left behind.

Enjoy this humourous series of pictures with Sea Lions and Buckets
StealinMyBucket.jpg
walrus-kate.jpg
mahassociates.jpg

British Juggling Convention.
Got Ed, Got Jeanine, Get Colin Tomorrow.
Then it’s Roadtrip to BJC.
We;re doing a lot of workshops and Jeanine is doing the public show. woo woo.
Gotta pack
Smiles
Drew

Khan on HOP and .org Writes about Multiball Contact:

“My copy arrived today. I had it delivered to work as no one would’ve been home to receive it. I couldn’t really get into it properly at work, but upon first glance was really impressed with the layout and graphics, as well as the wealth of information. I went through the first 3 lessons tonight — since I’ve been playing with balls for 16 months now (still a noob, i know) the material in the beginning wasn’t new to me, and I was already doing a lot of it, but since I’ve focused more on body rolling all this time, I wanted to start at the very beginning and review the basics. I really focused on palm rolls and moving the ball around me in a different way, and 2 handed rolling is just not something I ever think to do, though I can. I guess I had the knowledge before but not the full understanding of those very basic concepts. The way the material is presented is very clear, and the way the techniques are sequenced make a lot of sense (I did flip ahead a bit, how could you not?). I’m so impressed with how much love & careful thought went into this book — Drew! you should be so proud. Hats off to you.”

Cool, Thanks Khan, glad you like it. and I can’t believe that it Got from London to San Fran in just 3 days.
That Review on CJ.org
The Review On HOP

For more info on Multiball Contact, click here

Suicas from www.contactjuggling.org writes:

Well.. my copy of Multiball Contact arrived today!

And…wow! I was really looking forward to this, and it’s every bit as good as I’d hoped, and a lot more.

The book is beautifully laid out, full of clear text, explanations and tips for a really wide range of multiball goodness. It’s a great visual guide to learning, there are tons of photos and diagrams to go with each lesson to get the point across. The visual presentation of it makes it something I’d happily leave out on my coffee table for non-CJers to flick through too.

For those of us who don’t any teachers nearby (or many contact practioners for that matter), having a resource like this which breaks things down into small steps, difficulty and practice times will be invaluable.

I’d seriously recommend that anyone who has the slightest interest in multiball goes out and orders a copy of this book now, preferably 2 copies to encourage Drew to write a followup (for 10 years down the line when you’re done with this one of course ).

I’ve only had time to go through the first few lessons, but had a good flick and read through later parts of the book. It’s good. Really good. Really really good. Also, it’s extremely good in case I forgot to mention it.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to make this happen Drew

For more info on Multiball Contact, click here

We are 1. Yes the ministry has been around for just over 1 year. So what should we do with this website next ?

• Move the Blog to the front page?
• Finish the links page?
• Code: Convert it to A full on CMS (probably Joomla) Rather than the current wordpress/css hack?
• Produce up the beginners guide to Ball Contact?
• Make another web video like hangar fun2?
• Make our own Television station?
• Post a whole week of hula hoop videos?
• Blog more videos of XXXXX?
• Insert your suggestion here in the comments?

8 Days to lift off. It’s finally very nearly here and we’ve set up what we laughingly called the Ministry Bookshop so its now possible to pre-order copies of Multiball Contact and ensure that you get your copy as soon as is possible. You can order it delivered to anywhere in the world.

We’re also offering a bulk discount for people who order 4 or more copies in one go, so if there are several of you in one city who want to order together, just e-mail: book@this domain.

Next we’ve got to get it into the juggling shops. UK distribution seems to be sorted ok, via Oddballs. After 2 years, Multiball Contact is finally nearly here and it doesn’t quite seem real….

Perhaps an odd combo, but Drew seems to know what he’s doing… its officially “Vernacular Jazz Dance and historic Chinese Ball manipulation week on the Ministry blog.