Stick of the devil
The stick of the devil belongs to what one calls arts of the Cirque, and more precisely of the Jonglerie.
A whole of stick of the Devil or golo or spinstix is composed of three elements: The principal stick and two rods. The principal stick is approximately 70 centimetres long (the sticks commercial exist in 65cm or 75 cm), the rods 45 cm (for 1 cm diameter) approximately. In order to facilitate the behavior between the various elements, the rods are most of the time covered with a clutching matter, a tube of Silicone.
The goal of the discipline is to maintain the stick in the airs by printing to him a movement using the rods held in each hand, and to make him traverse figures.
Typology of the sticks
There exist two big families of sticks:- the stick of the traditional devil is of biconical form, less broad in the center than at the ends (3 cm diameter at the ends against 1,5 cm in the center approximately);
- the stick known as right or flower is a simple right cylinder, provided with additional masses at its ends, in the shape of flexible material parts (leather, fabric, plastic…) cut out in fringes from 5 to 10 centimetres length on a few millimetres broad, then rolled up with each end of the stick and whose visual aspect in flower gave its name to the stick. There exist however sticks right without flower with the end, with tubular weights or spherical. The right sticks can thus have a great diversity of forms.
The stick flower is often used because of its gravitational visual aspect and of an increased handiness. Indeed, its lightness (it is often lighter than the stick of the biconical devil) and the fringes which slow down its speed and stabilize it allows the " bâtonneur" to carry out figures more easily.
Contrary, the fact that the biconical stick is slightly more difficult to handle in fact a good tool of training: an error is detected more quickly on the conical stick, and can thus be caught up with immediately. The greatest stability of the stick flower encourages with less taking light guard with the drifts of the movement, and thus leads to a less precise control.
The stick flower presents a disadvantage compared to the use of the traditional stick, namely that certain figures are impossible to realize with the stick flower because it does not rebound when its end runs up against the ground contrary against certain sticks of the devil equipped with a rubber plug at their ends.
On the other hand, certain figures are not possible with a conical stick: those where one supports the rod under the edge of the flower, to retain or make turn the stick.
The professionals have tendency, in spectacle, to use conical sticks, which have an aspect less " jouet" that flowers. But the flowers allow figures quite as difficult as the conical ones.
There exist many other kinds of sticks of the devil like the flexible sticks (??) or the sticks of the devil ignited where the ends of the stick are covered with a wick which one soaks with Pétrole ded-aromatize (the most famous manufacturer being the mark “kerdane”, so much so that the name passed in the current language to indicate fuel of the jugglers of fire, even if it is about another mark which is used). The central part then makes up of a nonflammable material, in general of the metal, covered with a matter (grip) resisting heat well.
Figures
The beam
This figure, so called Tick-tock or idle or metronome , constitutes the basic movement with the stick of the devil, the first which one learns because it is essential to be able to progress then. The goal is to make pass the stick of one rod to the other thanks to a movement of the rods directed upwards. The rods must take delivery of and return the stick of devil in concerning to a quarter its length approximately (on the basis of the top).It is not the wrist which works more, but all the arm, because the rods must always remain parallel possible, so that the stick does not escape.
It is necessary to deaden the stick when it arrives on a rod, in order to be a good control the speed of beam. The more one places the rod close to the end of the stick, the more the movement will be fast. The more one places the rod close to the center, the more the movement will be slow, but there is then the risk to see the stick turning over the rod, which is not the goal of this figure.
When the stick arrives on the rod, this one should very slightly be lowered, by lowering all the arm, and by maintaining the rod quite horizontal, to deaden the reception. It is this " stage of the amortissement" who is really important to control the stick, and thus less to make it fall! It thus facilitates the access to the other more complex figures.
The beam is a simple figure but which, with the image of the stick of the devil in general, requires a long and difficult training (it is necessary to carry out many tests before reaching that point). It is thus necessary to persevere and not to be let go to the discouragement! At the beginning, it is normal that falls.
A current practice to begin is to make it vertically leave the ground then to go up it in Tick-tock! This last practice besides is advised and it can prove to be judicious, for starting, to pose the stick on a table so that it is positioned with an optimal height which will facilitate the training of the beam.
But an easier method, although less spread, consists in horizontally wedging the stick, one of the rod being below close to the center, the other being towards the end of the stick, but on the same side. If one looks at from left to right, one can see:
1 of the stick boils;
Left rod with end 1 of the stick (a few cm) above;
Right rod close to the center of the stick below, always on the side of end 1;
Center stick;
All the other with dimensions of the stick with end 2.
The position obtained is stable if one holds the left rod (at the end of the stick) slightly higher than that of the lower part (close to the center), the weight of the stick stabilizing this one by naturally making it “hang” slightly in oblique.
Then, it is necessary to maintain the rods parallel, and not to move of the whole that of the top (left).
That of the lower part (line) will give a very small dry and vertical movement, to give an impulse to the stick. Then it returns immediately in its place.
One SHOULD NOT accompany the movement by the stick with the right rod, nor to cross the rods. Just a VERTICAL impulse of the rod of the lower part, to launch the stick, and one returns, the two rods parallel on the ground and between them.
The stick swivels then between the two rods, under the effect of the impulse, and naturally comes to be blocked in the following position:
Always from left to right:
Boils 2;
Dimensioned 2;
Center;
Left rod which is now under the stick, close to the center;
Right rod, which is on the stick, close to end 1;
1 boils.
It is seen that the rods did not move, but that the stick, made him a half-turn. The position is stable also.
One can remake the movement in the other direction, by giving a vertical impulse with the rod of the lower part, the left now.
The movement is identical. To block the movement each time, to stabilize it. Then, when to and from occurs without problem, connect several movements in the two directions.
If the stick is run away, block the movement, and stabilize the stick while raising the rod of the top, as it is known as higher. If the stick leaves towards outside, it is that your rods are too ahead leaning. If the stick seems to attack you, it is that your rods on the contrary are raised too much.
When you made the movement as described above, the two rods touch the stick each time, on the same side of the center (side 1, if one takes again the starting notation.)
When you manage to make continuous outward journey and return in this position without too much concern, to draw aside the rods slightly one of the other. The stick will be centered naturally, and each rod will touch with dimensions stick now, alternatively. One starts with really juggling.
Of course, the position is not stable any more, one cannot stop any more the movement right by blocking the rods.
At the beginning, you will do one or two outward journey and return before that falls, but you will have the air of a juggler.
One arrives in general at this stage at the end of 5/10 minutes of drive, for first discovered stick.
It is not rare that with the method consisting starting from the ground, one remains more than one half an hour without having the real impression to make progress, which is discouraging for much.
With horizontal starting, one is done also less badly with the back or the thighs, while bending down or accroupissant themselves to leave the ground, since one can start upright.
Thus you do not trust the apparent complication of the explanation: The fact of detailing each movement well is there to save to you time at the beginning. This manner is simpler to carry out than the departures on the ground.
When you manage to make some outward journey and return, it is nothing any more but one matter of time to make some more and more, until the total control.
When you again hold to and from in this position, it will be necessary to work deadened about which we spoke higher:
When the top of the stick arrives on the rod, one lowers this one horizontally, without inclining it (if not, that rolls!), to deaden the shock.
Initially, when the left rod blocks the top of the stick, the line always come to block bottom, and conversely. When you work deadened, you will be able more and more to reduce to touch it rod of bottom, until more not touching the stick but in its high part.
You will control the Tick-tock then.
The sword or the beam with a hand
The beam carried out with a hand is a figure definitely more difficult than the beam with two hands. Indeed, this one requires even more speed and of precision in the movement of the rod, and thus of the hand and the arm. A movement of tick-tock is launched, then at one time, when the left rod returns the stick, one highly makes it pass on the right from this one, to receive same with dimensions stick. And one returns with the left rod, but as if it acted as right rod: … and so on in order to create a movement of continuous beam. One thus finds oneself with a kind of tick-tock with only one hand.The name comes from what one with the air to reinforce as in a duel of sword, our rod used making our sword, the stick simulating the sword of an imaginary adversary.
Of course, it is necessary to work this movement with the two hands, to be involved to pass by again in normal tic TAC etc This figure is very useful to make work its hand " faible" like for all the figures and sequences " arm-croisés" (beam, helicopters…). The beam with a hand belongs to the base to the stick of the devil and is the second figure to be learned after the beam.
The somersault (double, triples…)
Starting from the beam, a strong impulse makes it possible to launch the stick to the top while whirling on itself in a vertical plan. Its recovery can be done with any rod and can be connected for example with the beam or the vertical propeller.Moreover, the somersault offers certain variables. For example, it is possible to make a somersault and to drop the stick on its foot then a small kick makes it possible the stick to go up while making him remake a somersault. Those which are more at ease with this figure can more complicate it by giving kicks much more powerful in order to multiply the somersaults (but in this case, the height makes the correction much more subtle).
It should however be noted that the references with the foot or the knee, when they are made in the central part of a biconical stick, can cause the rupture of this one: It is indeed the central part who is most fragile, and one often less better proportions the force applied by a foot or a knee that by the rod. The problem is less with the cylindrical sticks, which do not have a weak point in the center.
The roof is of being able " to juggle with the feet in somersaults " then to succeed in rectifying the stick to take again a normal beam. In addition, let us recall that an imperfection in the reception of the somersault does not have practically any effect on the following sequence if one evolves/moves with a stick flower because one can catch up with the stick with the flower if it took a bad direction. On the other hand, with a stick of the devil, an error at the time of the reception can be fatal.
The helicopter and propellers
The helicopter is the fourth figure to learn with the stick devil. It is relatively simple to control and paramount because it is at the base many other combinations. It consists in making turn the stick in a horizontal plane by making it pass from one rod to the other, one can visualize it by representing the image of a wheel which one turns while imagining that the rods are the hands and that the stick is the flying one.With regard to the propellers, the principal stick is put in rotation around one or of two of the rods which ensure at the same time the rotation movement and the support. The propeller can be in a vertical plan (the rod of support is then horizontal) or in a horizontal plane (the rod of support then makes a from top to bottom movement but also remains almost horizontal it). The horizontal propeller is more delicate to obtain. It is possible to connect vertical propellers in the two directions, of a rod then other.
One can transform this horizontal propeller into helicopter while typing towards the center of the stick with one of the rods in order to make it rise in the airs, more one deviates from the center and less the stick will go quickly and, contrary, more one is in the center and more the stick will go quickly (more difficult has to maintain). The reception of this figure is particularly perilous at the beginning.
The success of a propeller lies in the flexibility of the wrist (this one must make small rounds with very brought closer intervals) and in the capacity to maintain the propeller when this one takes speed (it is a question of drive). The propeller is thus named because of its movement similar to the propellers of a plane. It is a basic figure which, once one can make well it, gives access to a figure much more complex than one calls the bicycle (it is necessary to make a propeller but in a plan which aligns the stick and the " bâtonneur") : it is one of the basic figures most difficult. Also let us recall that it is necessary to work the propeller of the two hands and in the two directions in order to be able to leave itself any imbalance and that a good exercise of drive consists in making a propeller the closed eyes.
A point remains to be specified: the propeller must be absolutely controlled to perfection because (considerable detail) it is truly the most used figure with the stick and it is, just like the helicopter, the base of the majority of the sequences as well as the reference for any batonnor wishing to progress. It thus forms an essential base and crowns the panoply of the batonnor beginning who extends to five figures (beam, sword or beam with a hand, somersault, helicopter, propeller) and perhaps a sixth (namely the bicycle).
Advanced tricks
These figures are those which one can carry out as soon as a certain control of the simple figures was acquired (helicopter, propeller, bicycle, sword). Indeed, they are of a technical level higher good and asks an assiduous and regular drive. One notes for example alternatives of the mill' S mess (mill' S mess under arms, chris' mess, mill' S mess in helicopter), helicopter (heli above wrist, one hand tapped helicopter, both hand tapped helicopter, helicopter above the head), of the propeller and the bicycle (ex: to pass the bicycle above the head, bicycle on a rod). It is however advisable to insist on a very particular variation of the helicopter which is one of the figures most coveted with the stick of the devil because it makes it possible to preserve the stick on a rod all while making it turn in all the directions and without it falling (it is literally hung with the carrying rod). This figure is called the infinity roll and must be learned with the two hands because its visual aspect illustrates well all the technique of the batonnor (who to be even more impressive can carry out this figure by putting speed in his wrist). The stick remains maintained on (or even under) the rod in spite of the changes of management and the various orientations of the rod (directed to the top or bottom) chosen by the juggler.In addition, of many figures are possible to realize with the wrist. To slip the stick under the wrist, it is enough to bring it in the hollow of the wrist and to wedge it between the space which separates the end from the rod and the place where hold it to you.
Lastly, more the high level of the advanced tricks breaks up into two stages of training:
- It is necessary to learn how to handle the figures with only one rod (ex1: one takes only one rod of his two hands and one makes figures in this posture; ex2: the timothy roll , in addition very difficult, which consists in making turn the stick around one only rod held by the two hands respectively placed at each end of the rod in question).
- During the figures, one can send the stick in the air and launch its rods at the same time so that they make one or more rotations then catch up with them avnt to take delivery of the stick).
Carried upright or balances vertical
It is for example on the basis of a rather slow somersault that one can manage to carry out this figure (1 half-turn in general): the stick must fall down to the vertical with a minimum of rotation around its axis, one of its ends finding itself in balance on one of the rods held well with the horizontal one. The objective is then to keep it in balance, then one can set out again then by starting again the stick by a vertical impulse to initiate a jump. To take delivery of a stick balances some after a somersault can prove very difficult, one can thus make it leave the position of horizontal balance to have a slower movement, by giving an impulse right beside the center (1/4 of turn instead of 1/2 turn).For those which control this figure still better, on the basis of this balance one can also launch the stick, make him make a half turn and always catch up with it in vertical balance.
This position can also make it possible to place the stick balances some on its chin, or the foot.
The passing
Just like the jugglers of bludgeon, it is possible to make passing, i.e. to exchange sticks between several jugglers. The practice of the passing is definitely less current in stick of the devil than out of bludgeon.----
Starting from these basic figures, innumerable alternatives are possible, such rotation of the stick around a member of the juggler, or variations in the rate/rhythm and rotations. The " batonneur" can then alternate these figures and innovate in their sequence in order to create a strong visual impact, which will arouse the interest of the possible spectator.
----
Technical limits
As an instrument of juggling, all choreographies and figures are of course not defined, the talent alone is the limit.Of term of pure performances, one of the limits consists in juggling with two sticks and two rods, each rod managing a stick or both simultaneously. Juggling with two sticks remains rather rare nevertheless because it is despite everything the exercise most difficult to control. The concepts which come into play when one starts to juggle with two sticks are firstly the will (not to give up), deuxio perception and the glance (to be able to maintain them in the air) and tercio the harmony and the coordination of the hands (principlamement for a question of rate/rhythm and esthetics). Few explanations are found well which describe juggling with two sticks nevertheless it is possible to give a certain approach of it: start on the basis of the ground and by making simultaneously two propellers (one with each hand) then once the two sticks are in the air avoid looking at them but rather fix a point in front of you and let your hands make the remainder. If you have a perfect command of the propellers with two sticks you can launch out in the training of the exercise incontestably most difficult which consists in making turn the sticks in all the directions by combining changes of management and simultaneity. Obviously, these councils are only of general order, they are only of the theory because in reality the training of juggling with two sticks depends especially on the way in which the batonnor conceives the difficulty and on the way in which it approaches it.
There exist demonstrations with three sticks (those are extraordinarily rare).
The juggler can temporarily block one of the stick by a grip of wrist or another part of the body, to give the impression which he really juggles with three sticks. Where one of the sticks is always launched in the air, a little as if one juggled with three balls. The dynamic figures really using three sticks are extremely limited, even non-existent.
Of course, that concerns very an high level of control.
It is possible also to juggle with the golo the bandaged eyes: The figures are then limited, and in particular all launched in heights are prohibited. The stick remains in contact with the rods or of the body, and moves away from there only prudently.
One can also combine the practice of the stick of the devil with other disciplines circassiennes, like the monocycle, the scale or the ball of balance…
Safety regulations
A stick of the devil, even light a priori , can store a certain kinetic energy when it turns. This is why it is always necessary to take guard with the children who tend to run in the middle of the jugglers: if a very light stick flower can just make a slap on the head, a stick of the heavy devil and in full movement which runs up against the head of a child can cause an accident, or in any case a very painful experiment.
Fire:
In the event of stick of the ignited devil, the safety regulations of any juggler of fire applies:
In certain place, fire is strictly prohibited, conform to the local regulation.
Delimit the zone of juggling clearly, and ensure that the spectators do not penetrate there.
The zone of juggling must be released, and nothing to contain the flammable one.
Think of providing you with water and an extinguisher (in the event of public representation, it is even an obligation)
Never wear synthetic matter clothing, which burns while sticking to the skin.
If you have long hair, shelter them under a stringcourse or a bonnet.
Use only standard fuel, the best solution being aromatized oil dice.
Methylated spirits at a temperature of flame much more important, which can give rise to more serious burns, in addition to one accelerated wear of the material. The others liquid flammable will have to be employed only by very informed users, and any experimentation in public is a danger.
Use only wicks reinforced with the kevlar, which one finds in the suppliers of accessory of juggling: any wick of less quality (sock fixed with wire, for example) is an important danger to the public or the other jugglers, when the `wick' will be detached while burning, and to be ejected does not import or.
Pour only one small quantity of product in the steeping room (container or one plunges the wicks of the tackles, to soak them with fuel), and juggle far from the zone of steeping.
Always stop the bottle of fuels right after having réalimenté the steeping room.
Lastly, and it is simple good sense, try with ignited tackles only the figures and movements which you control without fire.
Do not have any activity of fire if you are exhausted, alcoholized, or under the effect of psychotropic. the juggling of fire requires a full clearness to be practiced without danger.
Cost
The stick, with its special rods covered with silicone, can be in France (2006) between 10 and 15 euro. It is a question of course of the simplest, but amply sufficient model to start.
Certain model, entirely covered with silicone decorations (non-skid which is) can cost 50 euro. The sticks conical are rather around the 20 to approximately 30 euro in the store of juggling. The sticks of fire are more expensive than the average golo, between 20 and 40 euro, for the majority.
The luminous sticks are even more expensive: They function with piles or batteries, which feed from the electroluminescent diodes. The prices go from 50 to approximately 300 euro.
But a stick lasts only seldom a whole life: It ended up breaking, and it should then be replaced: to repair a stick is often a lost cause.
If the coating is damaged, one can remake the decoration of the stick as long as wood is healthy.
One can replace the broken wood of a rod, by recovering the silicone sheath.
The weak basic investment made of the stick of the devil a rather economic discipline. Only its difficulty and its specificity (one does not take the object juggled with the hands, but with the rods!) return the practice of Golo less popular than the balls or the bludgeons.
External bonds
forum:- http://www.jongle.net/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewforum&f=13
- http://www.devilstick.de/english/animationen/animation01.htm
- http://www.stixguru.com/new/Tricks.htm