Vova and Olga Galchenko
"The Galchenkos", more commonly known as "Vova and Olga", are a brother and sister juggling team. They specialize in club juggling, particularly technical solo juggling, technical club passing and numbers club passing.
History
Vova (real name Vladimir) and Olga Galchenko are originally from Penza, Russia, and both started juggling at a very young age. Vova (b. September 15, 1987) first performed as part of a four person club passing team with other young jugglers from a local circus school, performing in both in Russia and in Europe. He left the team in 2001 and started performing with his younger sister, Olga Galchenko (b. July 31, 1990). Their first routine mixed ball juggling and passing while one or both played classical pieces on a piano. They also performed a technical club passing routine with added acrobatics.
Vova and Olga soon became widely known in the European juggling community for their high level of technical ability, both on and off stage, especially as they were both very young. Even at the ages of 12 and 15 they were featured performers at many large juggling conventions and festivals in Europe, including the British Juggling Convention 2002, Dresden Juggling Convention 2002 and 2003, the European Youth Circus Festival 2002 and the European Juggling Convention 2003. They also performed at the Israel and Japan juggling conventions.
In July 2003 they moved fromRussia to the USA. Also in July 2003 they travelled to the International Jugglers' Association Summer Festival in Reno, Nevada. Many expected them to win all three stage championship categories (Individual, Junior and Team). However, due to their lack of experience on a competition stage, they failed to take gold in any category, though as a team they won a silver medal, and many awards in other events.
From the summer of 2003 to the present they live and attend school in the USA. They often travel to regional juggling conventions to perform, including conventions in Portland, New York, Madison, Boston and elsewhere. During 2004 they trained with American juggler Jason Garfield, who worked with them on applying new practice techniques and improving consistency. Also with Garfield they worked on a new club passing routine for the 2004 IJA team competitions. By concentrating on the team routine instead of their solo acts, they entered and won the competition with relative ease, performing one of the most technically challenging club passing routines ever with only one minor mistake.
In December 2004 they also took part in the first World Juggling Federation competition in Las Vegas, Nevada. Vova won the Advanced Clubs, Five Club Moves, Three Club 360s and Five Club 360s competitions, and came second in the only other event he entered. Olga won the Junior Clubs and came second in the Ladies Advanced Clubs. Together they won the Teams Six Club and the Teams Seven Plus.
In 2005, Vova and Olga started working separately, performing solo club juggling routines at juggling conventions arround the United States. They are still expected to perform and compete together at the IJA and WJF conventions in the future.
Skill and influence
Vova and Olga could be considered child prodigies. With the combined age of just 26 they broke their first juggling world record. Over the next few years they broke the 9, 10, 11 and 12 club passing endurance records. They regularly perform club passing routines that are more demanding than any performed by any team in the past. In practice they manage tricks that were commonly thought impossible just a few years ago.
Individually, Olga is one of the most profficient female club jugglers at the moment, despite the fact she is still in her teens. Olga is also very, very good at 3 Club Combat. Vova is constantly improving his club juggling skills and is now one of the most technically competent jugglers in the world. With clubs, many jugglers think he is only second in the world to Anthony Gatto, though at technical 5 club juggling he is arguably better.
Due to their young age, remarkable skill and high exposure at juggling events and online, the Galchenkos showed that anyone of any age can become a very good juggler in a relatively short time. For new jugglers in isolated locations, the edited highlights of Vova and Olga's skill was their main or only influence, via the video files on the Galchenko website. They are a big influence on other young jugglers, and now it is common to see teenagers who have only been juggling for a year or less to be juggling 5 clubs and managing other very technical tricks.
Records
Olga and Vova hold several Juggling World Records for team club passing. (See Clubs). Some of their records include:
- Ten Clubs - 378 passes caught
- Eleven Clubs - 152 passes caught
- Twelve Clubs - 54 passes caught
References
- The Galchenko.com website. Vova and Olga.
- The Juggling Information Service. JIS Numbers Juggling Records.
- The International Jugglers Association. The IJA