Beneath the chandeliers of the Lake Shore Center ballroom, a unicycle squeaks.
As first-year medical student Saranya Srinivasan unicycles across the glazed stone floors, her teammates juggle balls, clubs and rings. It’s a lazy Saturday afternoon on Northwestern’s Chicago campus, but for the Jugulars it’s time for practice.
The Jugulars is the Feinberg School of Medicine’s official juggling club. For seven years, it has performed regularly at hospitals and charity centers, including Children’s Memorial Hospital, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and various women’s shelters.
Their story began in 1992, when Jack Snarr, former Feinberg dean for student affairs, noticed juggling clubs sticking out a student’s backpack. Snarr, a seasoned juggler, approached Elisabeth Villavicenio, Feinberg ’02, and asked if she juggled. She did.
In 1993 Snarr, Villavicenio and Villavicenio’s future fiance performed a juggling act in Feinberg’s annual “In Vivo” variety show. They caught the attention of the NU community.
“After that, people would see us juggling, and they’d come in and we’d teach them,” Snarr said. “In the beginning, we were just a nucleus of students practicing and horsing around.”
This nucleus became an official student organization in 1999. Horseplay became talent as students juggled their way from balls and clubs to torches and seven-pound knives. After adding balloon animals, stilts, rola bolas and a few tricks into the mix, it became a show.
The club still performs quarterly at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.
For most club members, Jugulars is just a way to unwind after the stress of medical school studies and clerkships.
“It’s usually just time to hang out with friends, relax and get a little physical activity going,” said Feinberg first-year and former daily staffer Ananda Ray, one of the club’s six regular members. He also serves as club photographer and Web master.
Medical students like Ray make up most of the club, but law students and local jugglers will make cameos. An Evanston father-son duo and a traveling performer known as “Tom” occasionally join the team.
Snarr said retirement from Feinberg two years ago didn’t mean retirement from the Jugulars – he still joins in from time to time.
The Jugulars’ next performances are June 8 and 9 at a Marquette Elementary School festival in Chicago. Most Jugulars shows are at health-related institutions, but the Marquette show is “just for the kids,” said Catherine Chen, club co-president and a Feinberg first-year. Like all Jugulars shows, this one is free of charge.
“The most rewarding part of being a Jugular is the appreciation (the children at the Rehabilitation Institute) show for something as simple as watching us do what we love to do,” Chen said. “Just knowing we can make these people’s lives a little more enjoyable for those couple minutes is really something I can say drives me to continue doing what I do.”
Reach Jennifer Chen at [email protected].
