Dancing VS Juggling

[star reaper]

So, i was talking to my girlfriend the other day, and we were having a discussion about what we both are good at. She enjoys to dance, and is good at it, while i do juggling. The subject eventually changed to which is harder. I personally think they are about even in skill. Posting to see what others opinions are on the thought.

[YoshL]

Re: Dancing VS Juggling

reminds me of this. Too bad the guy is crap at DDR.

[Spenner]

Re: Dancing VS Juggling

They are both very different as far as what parts of the body are applied into making it work, but the psychological aspect isn't totally on a different wavelength. It all involves "listening" to each action your body makes and what carries on down the line, and finding balance and synchronicity with whatever tempo is being chosen or whatever happens to evolve with it.

It does take higher attention to detail and more skill on the immediate judgement front with juggling, and having confident muscle memory with repetition and subtle adjustments; but dancing is generally more fluid and since the complexity is all within the body (generally unless it's with a partner or a baton/hoola hoop/ribbon) it's a bit less necessary to have as much of a watchful eye to the same stimuli.

Once it gets into juggling on a unicycle and all that crazy stuff... then that's a bit different than standing in one place and juggling for sure. Same goes for partner dancing though, and on ice (which is pretty damn similar just adjusted to suit the different conditions and the fact that it is ice and not floor).

Thinking about potential, I think juggling certainly has the potential to drift into an area where more skill is required to perform it. That's simply because some people can dance and juggle so it incorporates both. A single steak on a plate being judged beside a steak with a side of garlic mashed potatoes.

[Ohaider]

Re: Dancing VS Juggling

If juggling were a dance, it would be exactly that. One dance.

There are millions of other possibilities in other styles of dancing.

Dancing is broader

[qqwref]

Re: Dancing VS Juggling

You can't compare the difficulty of the two, IMO. Juggling is more quantitative: this guy can maintain a 5-club cascade for a full minute, this other guy can get 30 catches of 8 balls, whatever. Every trick has a rough difficulty and your skill level is determined by the tricks you can pull off (and how long you can keep them going). But dancing is more qualitative: the skill is usually not in just pulling off the movements, but in how gracefully and artistically and rhythmically you can dance. If you compare doing a typical juggling pattern to performing a typical dance, getting to the bare minimum needed to do the juggling pattern will probably take more skill, but the juggling pattern will have a lower skill cap - if an incredible juggler does that juggling pattern, you won't see much of a difference, but if an incredible dancer does that dance, it will be obvious how amazing they are.

That said, if you watch top-tier jugglers when they're performing (rather than practicing, showing off, or going for records), there is a lot of choreography and dance-like movement in it. That opens a whole new can of worms. I still don't think you can compare the two, though, because there is such a gigantic range of skill in each one.

[star reaper]

Re: Dancing VS Juggling

If you compare doing a typical juggling pattern to performing a typical dance, getting to the bare minimum needed to do the juggling pattern will probably take more skill, but the juggling pattern will have a lower skill cap - if an incredible juggler does that juggling pattern, you won't see much of a difference, but if an incredible dancer does that dance, it will be obvious how amazing they are.

Actually, there is a certain fluidity that more experienced jugglers have. The difference is hard to notice sometimes, but over all, the same is true in dancing, and in juggling with seeing some one of a certain tier do something.

[star reaper]

Re: Dancing VS Juggling

If juggling were a dance, it would be exactly that. One dance.

There are millions of other possibilities in other styles of dancing.

Dancing is broader

Nope, Juggling is also just as broad. There are many different techniques, movements you can add with them, and different types of tools to do them with (clubs, bean bags, rings ect...)

[LLaMaSaUceYup]

Re: Dancing VS Juggling

Agreed with qqref somewhat, you really cannot compare difficulties between such flow arts. Each task is unlimited in possibility, which also means it is unlimited in mastery (difficulty.) This is like trying to compare ball juggling to clubs (or clubs to poi), ball juggling allows a totally different realm of style. Different moves requiring different skill sets, all transformed into one.

Juggling has always been transforming into a type of dance, & it will continue to grow in this direction.

http://vimeo.com/22936569

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra4ehrdLr7k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBE-XSQc5LE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33vAa4OrStU

Take away the prop from these jugglers, what you are left with is dance.