Good, Bad or Super?
Today, we went on a water hike at Senir Stream Nature Reserved and then to Kibbutz Shamir where we did a show and workshop. The only difference between our group and others who were there is that we stop to do pyramids for photos! You can see some at: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153340383204041.1073742169.147975014040&type=1
We are staying at the kibbutz tonight. But there are no beds because they have taken in so many people from Tel Aviv who wanted to get away from the bombing. We are sleeping on our tumbling mats. An older man came over to talk to us in the communal dining hall, after our show. I was sitting with our two chaperones, the coach of the Galilee Circus who is Jewish and the co-director of the circus who is Arab. The man told us how much he loved the show and how important the work we are doing is. Then he mentioned how it was good and maybe unusual that stones were not thrown at us when we played Arabic music (it is an Arabic song called Sawah but we brought it from America because we use it in our show!). He also said one of the children from Tel Aviv asked if those were “good Arabs” or “bad Arabs” who were in the show. He told us this and I was wondering if he realized that one of the people he was talking to was an Arab?! It was surreal to me but very real here.
While we were here in Israel, back in St. Louis, the local PBS station did a piece on me for their Art Fusion series. I’m honored they included me as they asked for insights from arts leaders in St. Louis. I spoke on how circus is about people becoming super human: http://ninenet.org/archives/20245.
Our Circus Harmony mission statement talks about helping children “defy gravity, soar with confidence and leap over social barriers, all at the same time.” Our flying children and the Israeli flying children have to fly over so many challenges. Physical issues are the least of their obstacles. Prejudice is a subtle evil they all have to fight way to often! So, yes, there are bombs falling here in Israel but the Galilee Arches are soaring over them.