How Do You Communicate?
We did shows today mostly for Americans— one for a leadership training group called Dor le’ Dor and another for a group from Young Judea. During a Question and Answer session, the circus youth were asked why they were part of the circus. Answers ranged and were similar from group to group: “It’s cool”, “To meet friends”, “It’s fun”, “It’s different”, “I just love it”. Then the question was asked “How do you communicate?” All the kids looked at each other.
The obvious answer— and it was given– was that although there are three main languages spoken by the group, there are enough kids who speak at least two so that they can more or less understand each other or get another person to translate. There is also a lot of pointing and demonstrating.
Circus is, of course, a universal language. But, if you watch the show, you see moments where they have to throw and catch each other and sometimes they might want to say something but in the middle of an act that is not generally practical. Even though they have only worked together a few days, these is a non-verbal communication that occurs when you know what has to happen and you just make it work. Through eye contact, through feeling where someone is in your hands or on your shoulders, you do what needs to be done to accomplish your shared responsibility of correctly executing a trick.
The language is just that: responsibility and trust. Together we are responsible for making this work. I trust you to do your part and I will do mine. If something goes wrong, we both work to fix it. You do this without thinking. This is the communication that comes from caring. This is both how and why the Galilee Arches communicate.