Foot Juggling and Foot Coordination Skills

In Foot Juggling, the performer lies on a small table or frame and uses both feet to juggle and toss various objects back and forth through the air. Records of Foot juggling appear as far back as the Tang Dynasty(618-907 AD), when most practitioners of the art were people with disabled or missing upper limbs, who developed their foot coordination skills in order to lead independent lives. Their use of thefeet for activities of daily life, such as combing the hair, manipulating chopsticks, and even embroider-ing, demonstrated not only the tenacity of the human will, but also the great potential of what the feet can accomplish. By the time of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127 AD), Foot Juggling had developed into a major acrobatic act, with performers referred to as “Kick Artists.”No matter the shape or weightof the objects that found their way onto the feet of these performers, be they vases, plates, vats, bells, brushes, or ink slabs, all were effortlessly juggled aloft into a wide variety of flying configurations. Today, Foot Juggling has become an indispensable part of Chinese acrobatics. In foot juggling with light objects, items such as parasols, wooden blocks, fans, mats, and gongs are used as props. In Parasol Juggling, for instance, six parasols are opened and closed with the feet while kept flying through the air.

In foot juggling with heavy objects, the props become heavy and bulky. In Vat Juggling, three or four members of the audience are invited to sit in a vat balanced on the feet of the performer, who then uses the feet to keep the heavy burden flying through the air in various patterns.

Falling Ladders is even more thrilling. In this act, the bottom performer lies on the back, balancinga ladder on the feet.A second performer climbs to the top and balances a second ladder aloft, while athird performer ascends both ladders and executes various stunts at the very top of the tower. Sud-denly, the tower collapses, performers and all! Unfazed, the bottom performer catches the top ladder on one outstretched foot, balancing it perfectly on a single upright railing-as the top acrobat blithelycontinues to perform on the top of the ladder, never missing a beat. This act, with its thrilling sense of humor, never fails to bring down the house.

People Tossing, by the Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe, is the newest variation of Foot Jugsling. In this in-novative act,a springboard is used to launch several people through the air one after another. Flippingand tumbling, they land on the feet of a catcher lying atop a high frame, who tosses them into a contin-uing series of breathtaking somersaults.

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