My Final Shows
Immediately following our Cuddalore show we headed five hours north to Chennai (Madras), a sprawling city of seven million, sleeping in the office of the local social activist organization that was hosting us. That next morning we performed at a high school in a more affluent part of town and then made our way through the city to where we would stay for the week, at the Madras Christian Council for Social Services hostel and womens' shelter training facility.
Chennai was massive and took us an hour and a half to traverse by bus. It had stunning brick architecture that was a mix of Arabic and English colonial styles, more billboards and movie theaters (100!) than I'd ever seen, and huge and numerous waterways of sewage and trash. On our couple of days off I enjoyed riding the trains and checking out the most crowded beaches and searching for a good movie that didn't have ridiculous amounts of gratuitous violence. We found one romantic drama that was so corny and cliché, and we laughed so much that we were crying blissfullyfor most of the movie.
We did a show and poi-making/acro-balance workshop for hundreds of kids at an elementary school sponsored by the comparative-religion Theosophical Society. The next day we had a beautiful experience performing for Vidya Sagar, a school and training center for the mentally disabled. They were so endearing and excited about our show, and were very gracious hosts, afterwards giving us each a shoulder-bag and pack of mandala cards that they'd designed. A few of us had been making these patterns ourselves and were really pleased with this gift. The back of the card read: "YANTRA, energy made visible, links all life together. This demonstrates that the disabled everywhere are part of the pattern of life. We, at Vidya Sagar, celebrate this unity. It is through this that we hope to make the inclusion of disabled people possible." That evening we performed our fire show on the roof of our hostel for the women from the women's shelter. I think the impact of ten women in our group being fire performers was empowering and at the end all of them and our group (twelve women and three men) danced together on the roof under the moon and stars in another multi-cultural celebration of life.
After a week in the exhaust and sprawl and heat of Chennai we were ready to leave for the quieter beach and rock-carved temple town of Mamallapuram. We performed here for an English immersion school, Achiever Academy, for poor fisherman children and bright orphans. They were the sweetest kids I'd seen and they were pure joy during the theater games we played with them during the pre-show. I had started freestyle chanting at the opening of each show, as I entered as the 5th Element Rainbow Peacock, and I think I might have frightened these four year olds in my height and odd-singing style.
This would be my last show with the circus and I was feeling at once sad and extremely happy. As I sat out-of-sight alongside the school in my stilts and costume awaiting the closing section for the peacock, I was so satisfied and honored and grateful to have been a part of this amazing experience. As I was crying this beautiful joy I was certain that this was the most enriching and incredible experience of my life, and I had so much gratitude to Chris and Kfire for arranging this tour and for everyone else that had worked to make it possible. It had been my longstanding dream to be on this kind of a travel/social activism/performance tour and I was now completing the experience.
We had a bon-voyage party that night on the beach, admiring the phosphloressence in the ocean and spinning fire - as is our customary celebration ritual. The Dreamtime Circus had welcomed me as a stranger and I would miss this group of kind, talented, free-spirited friends and artists, but I left knowing that our paths would weave together soon again. I had four days left before leaving India and I followed a strong intuitive urge to return to Varanasi, a city in the far north where I nearly died and abruptly finished my last trip to India five years ago.
Chennai movie industry is a big deal, with lots of BLING.
This architecture is common in Chennai for government buildings.
I've never seen a more crowded beach in my life, granted it was a Sunday at the Bay of Bengal.
This girl's focus and talents were amazing.
Baba and monkey-friend.
Achiever Academy kids playing pre-show games.
Acheiver Academy teachers and Dreamtime Circus 'crazy' picture.
Mamallapuram is known for it's rock carvings, and less known for it's temple goats.
At one a.m. on my last night I nearly finished making three pairs of stilts (scary!) for the group, a process that took many many many steps of action here in India. Home Depot is a blessing, and so are pre-made 2x2's!!
My final night with the DreamTime Circus 2008 India Tour, I'll miss you all!!!
Chennai was massive and took us an hour and a half to traverse by bus. It had stunning brick architecture that was a mix of Arabic and English colonial styles, more billboards and movie theaters (100!) than I'd ever seen, and huge and numerous waterways of sewage and trash. On our couple of days off I enjoyed riding the trains and checking out the most crowded beaches and searching for a good movie that didn't have ridiculous amounts of gratuitous violence. We found one romantic drama that was so corny and cliché, and we laughed so much that we were crying blissfullyfor most of the movie.
We did a show and poi-making/acro-balance workshop for hundreds of kids at an elementary school sponsored by the comparative-religion Theosophical Society. The next day we had a beautiful experience performing for Vidya Sagar, a school and training center for the mentally disabled. They were so endearing and excited about our show, and were very gracious hosts, afterwards giving us each a shoulder-bag and pack of mandala cards that they'd designed. A few of us had been making these patterns ourselves and were really pleased with this gift. The back of the card read: "YANTRA, energy made visible, links all life together. This demonstrates that the disabled everywhere are part of the pattern of life. We, at Vidya Sagar, celebrate this unity. It is through this that we hope to make the inclusion of disabled people possible." That evening we performed our fire show on the roof of our hostel for the women from the women's shelter. I think the impact of ten women in our group being fire performers was empowering and at the end all of them and our group (twelve women and three men) danced together on the roof under the moon and stars in another multi-cultural celebration of life.
After a week in the exhaust and sprawl and heat of Chennai we were ready to leave for the quieter beach and rock-carved temple town of Mamallapuram. We performed here for an English immersion school, Achiever Academy, for poor fisherman children and bright orphans. They were the sweetest kids I'd seen and they were pure joy during the theater games we played with them during the pre-show. I had started freestyle chanting at the opening of each show, as I entered as the 5th Element Rainbow Peacock, and I think I might have frightened these four year olds in my height and odd-singing style.
This would be my last show with the circus and I was feeling at once sad and extremely happy. As I sat out-of-sight alongside the school in my stilts and costume awaiting the closing section for the peacock, I was so satisfied and honored and grateful to have been a part of this amazing experience. As I was crying this beautiful joy I was certain that this was the most enriching and incredible experience of my life, and I had so much gratitude to Chris and Kfire for arranging this tour and for everyone else that had worked to make it possible. It had been my longstanding dream to be on this kind of a travel/social activism/performance tour and I was now completing the experience.
We had a bon-voyage party that night on the beach, admiring the phosphloressence in the ocean and spinning fire - as is our customary celebration ritual. The Dreamtime Circus had welcomed me as a stranger and I would miss this group of kind, talented, free-spirited friends and artists, but I left knowing that our paths would weave together soon again. I had four days left before leaving India and I followed a strong intuitive urge to return to Varanasi, a city in the far north where I nearly died and abruptly finished my last trip to India five years ago.
Chennai movie industry is a big deal, with lots of BLING.
This architecture is common in Chennai for government buildings.
I've never seen a more crowded beach in my life, granted it was a Sunday at the Bay of Bengal.
This girl's focus and talents were amazing.
Baba and monkey-friend.
Achiever Academy kids playing pre-show games.
Acheiver Academy teachers and Dreamtime Circus 'crazy' picture.
Mamallapuram is known for it's rock carvings, and less known for it's temple goats.
At one a.m. on my last night I nearly finished making three pairs of stilts (scary!) for the group, a process that took many many many steps of action here in India. Home Depot is a blessing, and so are pre-made 2x2's!!
My final night with the DreamTime Circus 2008 India Tour, I'll miss you all!!!
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