TED Talks: Moschen

Michael Moschen puts on a quietly mesmerizing show of juggling. Don't think juggling is an art? You might just change your mind after watching Moschen in motion.

A high school dropout turned MacArthur 'genius grant' recipient, Michael Moschen is an art juggler, spawning scores of imitators and an entire methodology of crystal-ball juggling he likes to call Dynamic Manipulation. (The previously mentioned imitators call it 'Contact Juggling,' a term that Moschen himself despises.)

With a penchant for discipline, choreography, and catching flying balls -- and using props that include flaming torches, hoops, rods, and a ten-foot plastic triangle enclosure within which he stands, bouncing balls against the sides to achieve incredible patterns and velocities -- he creates illusions of speed and light that push the envelope of what is possible within this age-old circus art. Many of his techniques and routines are showcased in In Motion with Michael Moschen, a program produced in 1991 for National Public Television's Great Performances series.

'Mr. Moschen is a juggler. But that simple statement, though accurate, fails to do justice to the enchantment of his presentation. Mr. Moschen turns juggling into a fine art, so that it grows akin to dance ... Mr. Moschen creates what could be called a visual music in space with his juggling.'
--New York Times