show in charan

note; photos curtesty of Tristan Wheelock - www.TristanWheelock.com

17th june 2009
20 children filed along the dusty dirt track through their tent village, past curious stares and calls of greeting from their families and friends -the vilage dwellers.- They squeezed past the small rickety stage and squeezed into the tuition tent to complete the face paints and practice in preperation for their first "circus stage show".
"get stretching" , "where's that hat" , does everyone know the line up?" i shouted amoungst efforts to get the rope walking structure set up with the help of local residents....
we had to put one of our matresses up to hide the excited jugling, acrobatics and last minute human pyramid preperation going on back stage as the smallest of the children were trying to peek in to see what we had in store for them.

before too long (maybe half an hour after the planned start time) we got the show underway, myself as self appointed ringmaster and "Vishal" the smallest of the boys burst on to stage and as it was our "great pleasure to announce" acrobatic acts, devilish deeds of diabolo, and loads of tricks and laughs with balls came poring onto the stage!

after the first 7 acts or so, the circus (spontaniously christened as "circus milega") took a 5 minute pause backstage while the health section of the tong len project played a medical skit encouraging the local people to use doctors and medicines which are being made available to them through the tong len charity to reduce illness and improve the quality of life in the village!

back to the show and the second half brought onto stage ropewalking, club manipulation and a few other acts... there were plenty of drops, some acts needed help to get there balance on ropes or unicycles, but most importantly, the object was accomplished! everyone got the cance to be up on stage, to taste the thrill of performing and to feel the rewards of audience apriciation!