IJA Juggling Championships

Keith Nelson learned to juggle and eat fire at Hampshire College in 1989. He moved to New York City and almost instantly devoted his life to circus. Keith swallows swords, spins tops, juggles plates, balances glasses, and manipulates just about anything. He is co-founder and executive director of Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, one of the longest running circus and variety arts companies in New York. Keith has been featured on Late Night with David Letterman, Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Late Late Show with James Corden, and Oz (season one). He is a circus arts professor, and he has helped thousands be amazing. His newest focus is Flatbed Follies, a rolling free circus show playing to neighborhoods across New York. bindlestiff.org

Delaney Bayles is from Salt Lake City, USA, and has been juggling for 12 years. She is a graduate of Circadium School of Contemporary Circus and recently finished a year-long tour performing with Cirque Eloize in its show Entre Ciel et Mer. In 2016, she won gold in the IJA Juniors competition, and in 2019 she won gold in the Teams competition with Zak McAllister. In her free time Delaney enjoys drawing and snowboarding.

Masahiro Takarada: I started my juggling life about seven years ago. My main juggling prop is diabolo. I started making tricks using balancing skill about five years ago. Thus, I like the head stall. I have made the tricks until now.

Funny, curious, irreverent, and technically brilliant, Jacob D’Eustachio is a uniquely captivating juggler! Born to two New York City professors, Jacob became obsessed with juggling at age 10, took time off from high school to tour the US with the Zoppé Family Circus at 17, apprenticed to renowned Swiss juggler, Kris Kremo at 18, and was subsequently one of the first Americans accepted to Canada’s École de Cirque de Québec. Jacob has since performed in 15 countries. Highlights include juggling with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, performing at the Kennedy Center, being the only American to compete in Moscow’s 2018 Nikulin Circus Festival, and performing for Adele with England’s Giffords Circus. Passionate about using juggling for social change, he is especially proud of his work as a juggling and clowning coach to HIV-positive children in Cape Town South Africa with Médecins Sans Frontiéres and the Zip Zap Circus. Following a break to attend college, Jacob is ready to juggle for you!

I am a 19-year-old juggler from Penguin, Tasmania. I started juggling at seven years old at the local youth circus, Slipstream Circus, and haven’t stopped since. In 2021 I started an emerging artists program with Throw Catch Collective. This program, taught by Joe Fisher, Byron Hutton, and Richard Sullivan, was focused on act creation and creative development. It took my skill and inspiration to new levels, I was now living and breathing juggling. Over my career since then I have appeared on Australia Got Talent receiving four yeses, performed in the open stage at EJC 2023 in Poland, and performed in the gala show for Australia’s biggest flow festival, Spinfest.

Vinny Carter hails from Indianapolis, Indiana and has been juggling since 2009. Throughout the years, Vinny has taught workshops and performed several times in circus variety shows. Even today, they still love juggling and enjoy being involved in the community. Believe it or not, Vinny has yet to juggle chainsaws!

Gideon is a juggler and English teacher from the Bay Area, California, who fell in love with juggling at the age of 11. He loves creating patterns and shapes with balls, but most of all, he loves teaching people of all ages how to juggle.

Galen Harp is a performance art juggler based in Fayetteville, Arkansas, who works wherever gravity has an effect. His work as the Institute of Jugglology focuses on using object manipulation to draw out and explore the relationships humans have with objects and their environment.  Galen has juggled professionally for over 20 years, and in 2017 the International Jugglers’ Association awarded him the Excellence in Education Award for creating innovative new ways to teach juggling.  The Institute of Jugglology has performed and taught all over North America, including at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, El Paso Museum of Art, and the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute. Galen lives with his wife and daughter on the edge of the Ozark National Forest, where he experiments with new ways to throw and catch things.

“Smile Group Canada is the exclusive performing arts theater for teens and kids that works using unique techniques of performing arts–bubble, juggling, neon, and giant-doll shows. The shows, created and performed by the group, also include various specific techniques of street theater, elements of circus, acting, dancing, movement, and colorful music.

Smile Group represented Canada in the International Theater Festival in Italy, in 2016; in the Czech Republic, in 2017; in Washington DC, in 2018; and in Liverpool, NS, in 2022. In 2018, 2019, and 2022, Smile Group performed in the Toronto International Buskerfest, Canada.”

Daniel Ledel and Julius Preu got to know each other at a juggling convention in Germany. Daniel taught Julius how to pass. They decided to create shows together and performed them in several countries. Their newest act “Kings Gambit” is inspired by the last song of the act called “Kings Gambit.” This is the premiere of this act for a juggling audience, and they are happy to be able to show it to like-minded jugglers!

Harry Charles & Harrison Kendree are a comedy/music/juggling team hailing from Rock Hill, South Carolina. They have performed their two-man show extensively throughout the Southeastern United States. Their only goal in life is to become the first people to juggle on the moon.

Stefan was born into the performing arts. He started training in circus and dance at age five focusing purely on circus at thirteen years old. He currently trains with Circus West in Vancouver, Canada, and is now a senior member of its performance troupe, where he specializes in juggling, hand to hand, and more. He also has been coaching kids how to juggle and loves being a part of the juggling community, no matter where he is.

I am a 17-year-old professional diabolo player, and I go to Dulles High School. I have been playing diabolo for over seven years. I was raised in Taiwan, and I learned diabolo in Taiwan. This is my second year in the United States, and I really enjoy and love everything here. I am looking forward to having this opportunity here at the IJA festival. This has been my dream since I was in middle school in Taiwan, and I finally have a chance to compete this year. I really hope other people will love my show, and I am grateful for having this amazing talent.

Teo Massa Winger was born in Boone, North Carolina. When he was three month old, he moved to Beijing, China. He enjoyed going to the parks, trying different foods, and making friends with the guards. At the age of four, Teo moved to Minnesota where he resides now. Growing up, Teo watched his dad juggle and perform at different venues. It didn’t take long before he picked up a club. Teo started juggling at the age of four, and he was six years old when he performed his first show for his friends at his birthday party, juggling all kinds of props and even passing clubs with his dad. Teo is a very good student, is involved in his church, is the captain of his soccer team, and can solve all kinds of Rubik’s cubes. Teo loves to juggle and he hopes to be able to perform for the rest of his life.

Atticus Abraham, the youngest of three brothers, fell in love with magic and juggling around the age of ten years old. Since then, he has performed in a great multitude of settings and venues and has received several awards. In March of 2022, Atticus won the Gone Show, which is a competitive variety show held each year in the historic Palace Theater in Crossville, Tennessee. In February of 2023, Atticus competed with other renowned and professional jugglers in Atlanta, Georgia, and won the trophy for the Most Sensational. In September of that same year, Atticus won Crossville’s Got Talent. In August of 2023, the Amazing Atticus was featured on Living East Tennessee, a community program of WATE-TV, an affiliate of ABC. Atticus loves performing for many audiences. Using his skills as both a magician and a juggler, he performs often for kids, for seniors, and everyone in between. He also participates in variety shows with other performers.