It's all up in the air for this MSU student

Repertoire includes juggling knives, clubs, fiery balls and Chinese yo-yos alongside maintaining his everyday life

By Craig Trudell (Last updated: 08/28/09 6:30pm) Alex Bellinson spends most of his day studying for mechanical engineering classes and with his girlfriend, Laura. When the pressures of balancing his time gets to be too much, the MSU senior juggles - literally.

Bellinson has juggled balls, clubs and knives since the age of 12, when he picked up the hobby from his dad, who juggled before his son was born.

"He learned immediately," said Alex Bellinson's father, Tom Bellinson. "Within a week, he was better than I was, and it was off to the races from there."

His son's abilities were "fascinating," said his father, adding that most jugglers get better with age.

Juggling became such a large part of Alex Bellinson's life that he had three fiery juggling balls tattooed on his left arm.

"It's relaxing, and at this point artistic because I've learned so many tricks," he said. "I can put them together, come up with different variations and be creative."

For a choreographed performance to one of his favorite bands, Muse, Bellinson won $1,000 for his first-place performance at last year's Showtyme at MSU, an annual talent show held on campus.

After the show, Bellinson began performing across campus.

"Those performances are high profile, so I was able to get some gigs off of that," he said, adding that he relies on word of mouth to promote his talent.

At Showtyme at MSU this year, he choreographed his act to the saxophone play of jazz studies junior Herbert Scott, his neighbor in Gilchrist Hall.

Scott said he was "astonished" when he first saw Bellinson juggling five or six balls.

"I was very interested in his craft," Scott said.

The two decided they would combine Bellinson's visual act with Scott's musical talent and began preparing for the event months ahead of time.

The performance included "Everyday I'm Juggling," a song cover of "Everyday I'm Hustlin'," by rapper Rick Ross.

While the act didn't win over the judges for first place this year, Scott said Bellinson had the audience on his side.

"We had the crowd screaming, 'Everyday I'm Juggling,'" Scott said. "I thought it was a performance worthy of first place."

Bellinson estimates he's done approximately 20 shows in his career, including birthday and fraternity parties, residence hall programs and talent shows.

Cascadia, an annual juggling event in Ann Arbor, is one of the juggling conventions Bellinson has attended to polish his act. It is hosted by the Ann Arbor Juggling Arts Club and attracts some of the most talented jugglers from the Midwest, his father said.

"He's remarkable," he said. "There's not many people in the state who have the skills he has."

Alex Bellinson's girlfriend, English sophomore Laura Sherman, said her boyfriend often will try to teach someone how to juggle when he first meets them.

"I wasn't a natural," Sherman said. "But he has that kind of personality where he can be patient and figure things out. I get too easily distracted."

For juggling beginners, Bellinson said the trick is to not get frustrated.

"The key is always patience," he said. "You're going to suck when you first pick something up, almost guaranteed."

Alex can juggle as many as eight balls with a technique called "flashing," where each ball is thrown and caught once.

For his shows, Bellinson also uses a diabolo, a juggling prop that evolved from the Chinese yo-yo. The diabolo consists of a string attached to two sticks that the juggler waves up and down to whirl and toss an hourglass-shaped spool.

"The idea is to pull the sticks apart and create friction, which keeps (the spool) spinning quickly," Bellinson said. "If it starts slowing down, it wobbles and falls off the string."

Another juggling technique Bellinson uses, called poi, involves swinging a ball-like object tied to strings in circular patterns. He has used fire and glow sticks to create a light show effect when performing poi, but the first tools he used were a set of shoelaces with balls of duct tape tied to the ends.

If Bellinson doesn't get a job with an engineering firm after graduating, he would consider pursuing a career as a cruise ship juggler.

While there are other tricks, such as spinning plates, that he has yet to learn, Bellinson is content with the tricks he now uses.

"At one time I was adding new props to my repertoire, but I know pretty much everything I want to do at this point," he said.

Craig Trudell can be reached at trudell6@msu.edu.

Originally Published: 05/22/07 12:00am