PLATE SPINNING POSITIONS

I don’t see many plate spinning acts these days and most of them consists of a rack on which the plates are spun. One person that has deeply developed contemporary plate spinning is Masayuki Furuya. A Japanese plate spinner who has even gone as far as to make and sell his own plates and sticks. I have had the privagae to play with one of these plates and I must say they are amazing but are also £100 per plate. Ouch. Though I believe they are 3D printed and hand sanded which can’t be a cheap process for such a niche market. You can see these plates and Masa in this video from the International Jugglers Association competition in 2018. https://youtu.be/NB4hzg4k7_A

In may 2020 (while in lockdown) I explored some plate spinning tricks. I wanted to focus on the the spinning start as I found when trying the plate Masa uses this was virtually impossible. They are better spun if thrown and caught on the stick. As the plates I have do this start very well this seemed perfect for some play. To create variations on the start I used different body positions to make some new tricks. It was super fun trying these tricks as once you are able to spin a plate consistently these moves aren’t too difficult. My favourite type of success. I have been practicing spinning two plate at the same time, one in the right hand and one in the left. I tried some of these body trick starts with two but it is significantly harder though defiantly a place for much more research in the future. It’s nice to be silly.