Richard Hartnell is one of the most distinguished contact jugglers in the United States. His graceful performances embody the art form's ethereal fluidity, mystifying audiences on stages and streets from Bourbon Street to Black Rock City, Bristol to Berlin. He currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Richard is a co-founder of the Bellingham Circus Guild in northwest Washington State; in 2009, he relocated to Vulcan Studios, a famous collective of prop performers in East Oakland. After his "Meaning of Flow" video went viral in the global object manipulation community, he was invited to an artist-in-residence position at Flowtoys in Berkeley, CA. During his travels, he's performed with several troupes, including the Dream Science Circus, Hellzapoppin Revue, Sweet Can Circus, and the New Old Time Chautauqua.

From the fundamentals to the far reaches, Richard has a renowned grasp of contact juggling instruction that brings him again and again to juggling conventions worldwide. In the past year, Richard has been invited to teach contact juggling in California, Oregon, Nevada, Colorado, Texas, Florida, Canada, the UK, and Germany.