Tossing and Turning : Balancing Act Is a Hit at Children’s Museum
Her job has its ups and downs, Laura Green admits.
But what else can you expect when you are trying to teach 50 squirmy schoolchildren how to twirl plates on sticks and catch flower pots flying through the air?
On one hand, you want to make certain each child gets a fling at it. On the other hand, you do not want all that flinging to result in poked eyes or smashed heads. Especially your own.
If anyone knows how to strike the right balance, though, she does. That’s because Laura Green is the Juggling Queen.
For nearly two decades the 43-year-old Westside resident has been teaching youngsters how to keep bowling pins, baseballs and household items in the air. Some years she helps as many as 10,000 schoolchildren try their hand at it.
Green is at the Los Angeles Children’s Museum through Friday, teaching juggling at noon and 2 p.m. Everything else may be flying, but she keeps a firm grip on the kids’ attention.
“Your right hand throws up and then your left hand throws up,” she explained Tuesday, tossing two rubber balls skyward. “You throw up, throw up, throw up, throw up.”
There was a slight pause, then Green asked: “How many of you can throw up?”
The kids howled with laughter at the joke. But they turned serious when it came time for their own plate-twirling, peacock-feather balancing, flower pot-catching and juggling of scarves and balls.
Green demonstrated each trick, showing the wide-eyed youngsters how to start the plates spinning and how to toss balls upward and catch them with a smooth downward motion.
Soon, the air was full of excited screams and flying objects.
Anna Camacho, 10, of Pasadena quickly lost one of her juggling balls when it bounced under the museum meeting room’s bleachers. The plastic plate wobbling on the end of the stick being waved by Brianna Roth, 10, of Alta Loma sailed into the seats and landed in the lap of Ryan Parents, 7 of Redlands--who was waiting his turn.
“How are we doing?” Green asked amid the confusion.
“Not so good,” replied Mark Quillen, 10, of Redlands as his plate fell and rolled between another juggler’s legs. Mark retrieved the plate and Green helped him get it spinning again. Soon he was trying to balance the stick and twirling plate on his knee, circus-style.
Across the room, Kristin Gardner tried to toss a plastic flower pot from hand to hand, hoping to catch it in two other pots she was clutching. She missed--but her pot dropped miraculously into a pot held a few feet away by Cassie Wilson, 9, of Palos Verdes.
Green, who serves as championships director of the 4,000-member International Jugglers Assn., said juggling is a perfect activity for kids. “It’s non-competitive and non-sexist. Boys and girls do it equally well.”
More important, it puts smiles on faces.
“Remember,” Green said, tossing one final piece of advice the kids’ way. “There’s much call in this world for people who do silly things.”
