Sean McKinney Freestyle Competition

The 2nd Sean McKinney Freestyle Competition will be held at the Boulder Juggling Festival. I'm not sure which day during the June 9-11 event the competition will be held since the schedule has yet to be published.

You can view a clip from the 1st comptition here. I believe there were four competitors in the 1st competition and the winner was one of Sean's close friends. From the video, it looks as if Bill Berry was one of them. The clip is essentially the winner's routine and commentary made by Peggy Reuss and John Wee (?) from the Passing Zone.

Peggy said, "Right now what we're looking for is the competitor who embodies Sean's energy and spirit. That's what the judges will be looking for."

I think that's great, but then Peggy says this during her commentary, "I really do wanna see more specific Sean sequences, specific Sean signature tricks... I don't want someone getting up there and copying a Sean routine, but I do wanna see some Sean tricks."

I like what Peggy said in the first quote, but I'm not convinced that using specific Sean signature tricks as a criteria for judging someone's embodyment of "Sean's energy and spirit" is a good idea. I believe it would be best to let the competitors decide which tricks they include that represent, to them, what Sean's energy and spirit is.

To put a demand/expectation on competitors to produce certain tricks in a freestyle event is contradictory in an absurd way... particularly to honor an individual who was famous for his creativity and for being different.

My suggestion to Peggy is to let the competitors "do their thing" which will honor Sean much more than repeating his tricks.

Respectfully...

~Ed

Quote of the Day

I sought advice and cooperation from all those around me - but not permission. ~Muhammed Ali

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