For Michael Moschen, juggling is a lot more than keeping a bunch of objects flying through the air.
It is craft that combines dance, poetry, geometry, physics, martial arts, history, sculpture and music -- all of which Moschen has studied.
Moschen, who will perform tonight and tomorrow night in the Moore Theater, has been called the best juggler of the century, and is the only juggler to have been given a "Genius" grant by the MacArthur Foundation.
He calls himself a "visual story teller," and communicates with his audience through some fast and complex pieces -- and others that are amazingly simple and calm.
Moschen begins one of his most popular acts by lying on his back and watching a white ball rise and fall on his stomach as he breaths. The ball rolls down his body and sticks under his chin, and he sits up and starts rolling it around the floor like a child.
He soon starts playing with three balls, and the movements and music become more exciting, confident and complicated until he is standing up as an adult street juggler.
The stage curtain then rises and reveals a triangle with 10-foot sides behind Moschen. Before the act is over, the juggler is throwing all three balls against the sides of the triangle in a fast, percussive rhythm -- so quick that the balls seem to leave trails of light behind them.
"It's an essential in juggling. I get to make a lot of noise and have a lot of fun, and it's skill-oriented," Moschen told The Dartmouth. "It's a piece that I really need, and that the audience needs as well."
Moschen's juggling speed and agility astounds the audience, but his much simpler acts have inspired much of the critical praise directed at his work.
Burt Supree, a critic for The Village Voice in New York City, wrote, "[He] draws his audience into moments of ravishing simplicity, most ingenious paradox, and solemn truthfulness. With a smile in his hands and a rolling crystal ball, or two hoops, or a couple of batons, he gamely makes you privy to the secret of the universe, though, as with most epiphanies, it evaporates in a moment."
Moschen explained that it is not very difficult to mystify an audience with complexity. He likened a powerful artistic moment in juggling to the aesthetic manner in which a ballerina stops -- he tries to place "those excruciatingly simple wedge that you can drive between moments."
Moschen designs and perfects his acts over a series of months, and sometimes even years.
He begins them by reacting to something -- not usually a particular idea, but a specific shape that he sees.
He places tons of shapes, colors and inanimate objects around his home, in his backyard and even hanging from his trees. When something strikes him, he studies it, both physically and intellectually. That can mean doing work ranging from sculpture and photographic studies, to learning about ancient shipbuilding for an act based upon the surface of the ocean.
"I don't really work from the aspect of an idea," Moschen said. "I usually react to a visual -- something that I see, experience, or touch -- and that becomes a fascination."
In addition to his intellectual studies, Moschen must train his body to accomplish his feats -- many of which he does not know are even possible before he accomplishes them. He adjusts his physical training, which includes dance and martial arts, to the acts which he designs.
"In performing, it's like the decathlon," he said. "It's how many different skills can you force your body to learn and still have the endurance to do them."
Out of his intense work comes acts that not just amaze the audience members, but also communicate with them. He does not try to send a specific message to them but rather allows each audience member to find some personal meaning in the acts.
He has been described as getting out of the juggling balls' way and causing them to seem to float on their own.
Moschen slips between them and dances around them, amazing the audience with an artistic flow that has been a called a mix between dance, mime and sculpture.
Moschen said he has always had a "wandering spirit," and his juggling career has allowed him to satisfy his "natural curiosity about so many different things."
He has performed with the Big Apple Circus and toured to international theater and dance festivals.
His television appearances include "L.A. Law," "The Tonight Show starring John Carson," "Sesame Street" and "The David Letterman Show."
Tickets for Moschen's shows are sold out, for good reasons. Audience members should be in for a real treat.
