Juggling for laughter, delight and meditation

KIDS CALL HER “the juggle lady.” When Ellen Weissman substitutes at Sandpoint schools, she brings along the key to students’ obedience. Her secret ingredients are balloons, plastic baggies, and a scoop of dry rice.

“I say that I have something really cool for you in the afternoon,” she said.

She whips out her juggling tools and lines up kids for the five-person star formation. They start tossing one ball and wind up with three. The exercise breaks down barriers and is good for team-building, Weissman said. Her homemade juggling balls can be created anywhere.

As teacher, clown and workshop facilitator, Weissman has shared her philosophy on the power of laughter and play with educators, social service providers and religious groups.

This winter she revitalized the Sandpoint Juggling Club by inviting interested people to join her at the TEEN center after school on Tuesdays. The Adventist Community and Youth Center has been open for a year and provides kids with a safe hangout on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. Ping-Pong, air hockey and knitting lessons are on the agenda, but juggling with Weissman has a special draw.

“She’s got that dynamic personality that garners attention,” said Marilyn Fargo, TEEN center resource coordinator. “She just connects so well with these kids.”

Fargo noticed that juggling is especially helpful for children who are hyperactive.

“It has been so therapeutic for them,” she said.

That comes as no surprise to Weissman, who recommends juggling lessons for anyone who feels stressed.

“I want to get it accessible to lots of kids and adults,” she said. “It frees up your mind. It’s like meditation, but more fun. You end up being more relaxed and worries just kind of fade away.”

Her goal is to teach juggling to as many people as she can. Comedian Steve Allen’s son was her inspiration. He was at a laughter and play conference when Weissman began clowning in the mid-1980s. He had a grand goal. If everybody taught three people to juggle, in a few days the whole world would be juggling, he believed.

“If I can at least get Sandpoint to juggle, that would really be something,” Weissman said.

She volunteered to spend time at the TEEN center partly out of concern for kids who don’t have the same benefits that she had while growing up. She’s divorced with a 17-year-old daughter and has lived in Sandpoint for 12 years.

“So many of these kids are latchkey kids,” she said. “My mom was home when I got home from school. They’re getting into things they shouldn’t be getting into.”

The success kids have with juggling can translate into other achievements, Weissman believes.

“I grew up with three brothers who were sports-abled,” she said. “I wasn’t. It’s given me self- confidence.”

The first week she offered juggling at the TEEN center about 15 kids floated in and out. A few stuck with the entire session and were surprised that they could do so well.

“It’s something that looks really hard, it looks magical, but it’s not that hard to just get the basics down,” Weissman said.

The second week, she added her juggling-ball recipe and about 20 kids stayed for the hour. Showing kids how to make their own balls makes them more invested in the activity, Weissman said.

Her juggling students have ranged in age from 5 to 85. This month she and a friend created a new workshop they will be presenting at a conference for the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor in Tampa Bay, Fla. The audience will be physicians, nurses and other health-care professionals who are interested in laughter and humor.

Her co-facilitator, Debbie Dippre, is a yoga instructor, who recently moved from Sandpoint to Bend, Ore. — a fitting town name for a yoga teacher, Weissman notes. The two are working on a book of puns, “Yoga Yokes,” and have created “Juggle-asanas,” which are poses that combine juggling with yoga.

“Yoga is supposed to be so serious,” Weissman said. “I realized I can juggle and do poses at the same time.”

The women call their new workshop “Joga and Yuggling – Blending the Arts to Relieve Stress” and are offering it to groups to help fund their Florida conference trip. It’s designed to build rapport and lighten folks up.

With a master’s degree in education administration, Weissman realizes that her career has taken a different twist than those of her college peers. She’s taught physical education at the alternative high school, adult education at North Idaho College, and done birthday parties, fairs and parades in her clown attire. She’s earned money by painting faces in Arizona, and is creating a Web site at www.clownseling.com. Her goals include juggling around the world and advocating for Girl Scouts to earn a juggling patch.

“I haven’t done that 30 years of teaching the first grade, but I’ve stuck with the juggling,” she said.

She likes how juggling skills can build over time. Once you master three balls, you can move to four. Once you’re adept at balls, you can go on to clubs, then torches, then knives.

“It’s like being a voracious reader,” she said. “There’s always more.”