Some of the earliest jugglers in Australia were circus jugglers. In the 19th Century, the circus jugglers, many of them women, juggled props on horseback. The horse galloped around the ring, and the juggler, precariously balanced on the bareback horse, juggled various props to the delight of the audience.
The English Lee family, which was internationally famous, were noted exponents of juggling on horseback. The patriarch of the family, Henry C Lee married three times and had 16 children. At least three of these children, Polly, Levater and Rosa were equestrian jugglers.
Rosa and Levater came to Australia and New Zealand in 1879/1880 with Chiarini’s Circus. On this tour Rosa was the featured juggler.
Rosa Lee was born in the United States in 1862, to Henry and his second wife Juliet. Rosa was born in a circus and born to be a circus performer. Her elder sister Polly was a juggler on horseback and Rosa followed in her footsteps.
In 1879/1880, Rosa, her brother Levater, and her father, Henry, featured in Chiarini’s Circus’ tour of Australia and New Zealand.
In New Zealand Rosa rode a bareback horse and juggled knives, plates and balls whilst it galloped around the ring. Rosa’s feats were considered the finest display of equestrianism ever seen in the colony. Her feats were described as ‘Indian juggling’ but this referred more to her use of knives rather than clubs. There is no record of Rosa juggling clubs on horseback in Australasia.
Rosa juggled three and four balls in the air, she juggled three knives from hand to hand, she juggled two balls in one hand whilst spinning plates in the other, she also juggled flaming torches. In addition she balanced plates on a knife and held the knife in her mouth as the plate teetered upon it. She was an extremely talented juggler. As an encore she did gymnastic feats on horseback.
Most of the New Zealand critics raved about her performance, but there were a couple of naysayers.
One was convinced she was a man pretending to be a woman. This was due to a controversy in December 1879, when after a rapturous round of applause, Rosa, with youthful enthusiasm, she was only 17, did a couple of somersaults after alighting from her horse. The critic looked on in horror;
‘and then she did an act which was unfeminine and ungraceful. She turned several somersaults and then, being applauded by a section of the audience, repeated the indelicacy. This, at once, to our mind proved that the woman was no woman at all, but a boy or a young man.’
In Wanganui ,another critic also derided this extra show of somersaults, but did not question Rosa’s gender, merely saying that ‘ her vanity was in excess of her ability.’
Rosa attracted less attention when the circus came to Australia later in 1880. In June, the Sydney papers called her one of the ‘cleverest jugglers ever seen here.' In July she was still finishing her act with somersaults but the Australian press did not deem them unladylike or vain. Perhaps she had changed her costume or the Australian press were less judgmental than their New Zealand counterparts? In Australia she was considered one of many high class acts, including brother Levater, in the show.
After leaving Australia, Rosa left Chiarinis. She had a very long career in the circus and performed professionally until aged in her 50s. She spent a lot of time in the United States, married, and died in Los Angeles in 1952.
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