Me and Caitlin always joke about running away and joining the circus. Now that I've come face to face with one I'm wondering if I should put the jokes aside and dive straight into it. I am still in Pai and mentioned before that I had been working with the Paradise kitchen, paradise is a bar that sits on top of a hill down a slip road and hosts Circus shows every Sunday and Thursday. There is also open mic nights and workshops every day. It's a space dedicated to flow art and all around creative activity. There's a lot of energy poured into the venue and you could call it some kind of multi faceted creative hub. It has a classic unhealthy bar but right opposite you have a health bar, there is two stages, once for the musicians and one for the circus participants, which can also be used for workshops and practicing with your choice of toy, that could be the Levi wand, staff (contact staff, dragon staff), fire fans, juggling, poi, hoops, nunchucks, or that thing that you flip like a pizza and that I cant remember the name of. From a quick read I've found that juggling dates back to way back in the BC times, in the Egyptian tombs and hoop dances were used in Native American communities. The rest I believe are fairly new and starting to become popular in the late 90s, a long with the rest of the best things. What really intrigues me is dancing with or playing with fire, since I watched my first proper fire performance at Ozora festival in 2022, I've been chasing the motivation to get me started and see what type of performance I can go onto creating from what I learn. Now, 3 years later I find myself here and have had the opportunity to meet with some very talented people and collect my own staff to play around with.
One thing I've observed here is that there is a lot of space and time to create and manifest what it is you need/want.
Pai is not considered a sacred place for no reason, the energy here is magnetic and very very strong. The clarity I have felt is notable and all I have to do is think about something and it happens. I do not feel blocked and feel to do things with more vigor than I have ever felt. I know that every place, person and object has its honeymoon phase, and that one day this will be a passing memory yet I am sure that the sensation will remain, this place is one that I am happy to have as a mark on me. I will mention however that the hysterics witnessed at the circus have not only been positive ones, within the laughter and the clowns there is hints of moonless nights and deep sorrow, a lot of performers have struggled or are struggling, many people that create laughter for a living spend stretches of time without a smile. Overall, what I've seen has been amazing and life changing, the creativity around here is what keeps people alive.
I don't have much else to write about this but if I don't come back home I may well be spinning fire through the night in some tropical country, it doesn't sound like a bad idea. 

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