Ancient foot coordination skills included
Juggling Bowls and Kicking Balls. Juggling Bowls is similar
to present-day Juggling Objects with Feet. In the Han Dynasty
(206BC-220AD), people paid much attention to hand skills and thus foot
coordination skills did not become an independent performance item.
In the pre-Qin period and the Han
Dynasty, Cu Ju, which was originally used to train army cavaliers, fully
displayed foot coordination skills. In ancient Chinese, Cu means kick,
and Ju means leather ball. However, this ball wasn't filled with air like
it is today, but with feathers. It was so popular in the Song Dynasty (960-1279)
that everyone from the emperor to the ordinary people liked it.
In most performances that show foot
coordination skills, the performer lies on a small table or frame and uses both
feet to juggle and toss various objects back and forth through the air. In the
Song Dynasty, performers juggled and tossed objects such as vases, plates and
bells and so on. No matter the shape or weight of the objects that found their
way onto the feet of these performers, all were effortlessly juggled aloft into
a wide variety of flying configurations.
Books such as Recording the Marvels of
the Metrocapital, The Past Things in Martial Arts Circle, and so on
have the recordation of foot coordination skills, and renowned artists included
Ya Jinjiao, Shua Datou and Wu Yaozi, etc.
Today, Foot Juggling has become an
indispensable part of Chinese acrobatics. In foot juggling with light objects,
items such as parasols, wooden blocks, fans, mats, and gongs are used as props.
In Parasol Juggling, for instance, six parasols are opened and closed
with feet while kept flying through the air. In foot juggling with heavy
objects, the props become heavy and bulky.