Juggling in Movies
Daring Circus Youth (1953)
[Oleg Popov, Eduard Sjereda, Artisti Shubini, Manuela Papyan, Abdulayev]
USSR. Original title: Arena smelykh. Alternate title: Ring of Daring. This film features many of the greatest circus stars of the USSR in the early 1950s. The famous clown Oleg Popov is the master of ceremonies. In addition to all of the juggling described below, there are many other high quality circus acts in this film.
At 01:47, in the opening parade, the Artisti Kozhukovoi, consisting
of a woman and 4 men, all march out
juggling 3 clubs each
for 10 seconds.
At 09:24, Abdulayev performs a very interesting and
creative routine,,
juggling with knives, fruit, plate, stick, and 12 boxes, for 2 minutes.
At 11:21, a very young and not yet world famous Oleg Popov does a
routine as a chef,
juggling 2 knives and a potato, and then 3 potatoes while he eats one
of them, all for about a minute.
At 12:27, Artisti Kozhukovoi do a quick 30 second club passing act with
clubs made of flower bouquets,
with the woman first feeding the 4 men, and they then form a star pattern.
At 12:55, Aleksandr Kiss and his sister Violetta Kiss perform
alternately for 3 minutes, in one of the most
technically challenging juggling acts
one can hope to witness. They did this act night after night in front
of live audiences, and reports confirm that a drop was an extremely
rare occurrence.
- This begins with Violetta foot juggling a barrel while doing a handstand on Aleksandr's head.
- Next Aleksandr awesomely juggles 7 rings for over 40 throws while balancing a sword on his forehead, before dropping the sword down to Violetta who uses it to catch all of the rings.
- Then Aleksandr balances the sword on his forehead again, now with a large rubber ball resting on top of it, and he begins a long run of 6 rings. He uses one of the rings to knock the sword back to Violetta, causing the ball to fall and begin bouncing on his forehead while he continues the 6 ring pattern smoothly.
- Aleksandr sends the ball back to Violetta and continues to juggle the 6 rings, doing a series of full pirouettes before finishing cleanly.
- The focus returns to Violetta who does more foot juggling with the barrel.
- Aleksandr balances on a rola bola set on top of a platform 4 feet off the ground while balancing a tall stool on his forehead and juggling 5 batons.
- Violetta does a one arm handstand on Aleksandr's head while spinning a ring on her other arm and foot juggling a pole, all while Aleksandr juggles 4 batons.
At 19:04, someone juggles 3 knives while walking on a barrel, then jumps down and continues juggling the knives while dancing. He then juggles 4 knives while dancing, and does the 4 knives in a shower pattern. He finishes by spinning a large bowl on a long stick balanced on his forehead, while he continues to dance.
At 53:04, Oleg Popov returns, walking on a slack wire for just over 2 minutes, while juggling 4 rings with a stick balanced on his forehead, and then spinning 6 rings on his arms, leg and the rope, while spinning 2 plates on sticks in his mouth and mounted on his forehead.
