A separate subculture exists around fire dancing, which is essentially object manipulation where specially designed props are soaked in fuel and lit on fire.

Juggling is a physical human skill involving the movement of objects, usually through the air, for entertainment (see object manipulation). The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling, where the juggler throws objects through the air. Jugglers often refer to the objects they juggle as props. The most common props are balls, bean bags, rings, clubs, and bouncing balls. Some performers use dramatic objects such as chainsaws, knives and fire torches. The term juggling can also refer to other prop-based circus skills such as diabolo, devil sticks, poi, cigar box manipulation, fire-dancing, contact juggling, hooping and hat manipulation.

The word juggling derives from the Middle English jogelen to entertain by performing tricks, in turn from the French jongleur and the Old French jogler. There is also the Late Latin form joculare of Latin joculari, meaning to jest.”Juggling” has come to mean, colloquially, any activity which requires a constant refocusing of one’s attention from an overall goal to multiple subsidiary tasks, for example “Juggling Work and Family”, the title of a PBS documentary.

Contact juggling

Contact juggling is a form of object manipulation that focuses on the movement of objects such as balls in permanent contact with the body. Having little in common with “toss” juggling, it most typically involves the rolling of one or more completely transparent balls on the hands and arms to create visual illusions, such as that of a ball fixed in space. It is divided into three main schools of technique:

1. Body rolling is the manipulation of one or more props (usually balls) around the hands, arms, and body, usually without the prop(s) ever being thrown into the air. This includes tricks such as head rolling, isolation’s, and the butterfly.

2. Palm spinning is the manipulation of two or more balls in each hand wherein at least one ball is always in continual motion. Balls may be transferred from one hand to another to form graceful and fluid patterns, but rarely are they ever released into the air.

3. Isolationism is categorized by manipulation of usually one prop (again, a ball of some sort or other toy such as fire staff) such that the prop appears to be suspended in time and place while the performer dances around it, usually in the Popping and locking styles.