A Juggling Success Story

Source: U.S. Kids, June 1997 v10 n4 p30(2).

Title: Juggling Success. (13-year-old Gena Shvartsman performs as a juggler for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus)

Author: Kelly Milner Halls

When thirteen-year-old juggler Gena Shvartsman peeks out of her dressing room, she sees nothing but excitement! An explosion of light and color fills the huge arena where she's about to perform. Thousands of people are waiting for "The Greatest Show on Earth" to begin. Music rings out. Spotlights gleam. Kids are holding circus balloons and cotton candy. Grown-ups are holding their kids. And everyone is whispering.
According to Gena, the sound of so many people whispering is a little like rolling thunder. But she's hardly ever nervous. "I'm not really the person who is shy," she says with the slightest hint of a Russian accent. "I usually have shows without any dropping because I practice very hard. I love performing well. That's why I'm here." Gena has been "performing well" for almost seven years--the last two with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. "My father is a professional juggler and a coach," Gena says, "so I've really been around it all my life. When I was six years old, I started juggling with one ball and slowly added more balls, one at a time. Soon I was up to eight. Then I could juggle almost anything." Just after she turned seven, Gena started juggling for the Grimmy Family Circus. "We performed in the New York Catskill Mountains for groups of about 3,000 people. Much smaller crowds then, but it was still fun."

Today, Gena performs for audiences of up to 20,000. At thirteen, she moves like a tiny ballerina--delicate and gracefully smooth. Glitter sprinkled across her rose- and-lavender costume captures the spotlight and sends tiny flashes back into the crowd--flashes almost as bright as Gena's smile. Somehow she is able to dance and tumble while keeping half a dozen clubs floating through midair. Somehow the lovely young juggler makes it all look oh-so easy.
But Gena admits that being a topnotch juggler is anything but easy. "Being a juggler is fun," she says. "But my father and I practice very hard--for like eight hours a day--just so I can do my best. I think I do a good job, but I always want to get better. And I wouldn't want to do the same thing for two years, over and over and over. So in almost every city we visit, I change old tricks to new tricks. That takes lots and lots of practice."