Our show began with a parade of musicians, jugglers, ribbon twirlers and stiltwalkers. It evolved into the opening number with an Afro-Caribbean style still dance. I performed cigar box solo, representing them as defective boom-boxes that only played music correctly if I manipulated them right.

 

Susan Seizer executed graceful, ballet moves on the slack rope while Miller (as a clown) valiantly tried to copy the elegance of the dancer.

 

Deborah Davis, Seizer and I passed clubs in the guise of street kids out for a good time on a summer night. But the patterns were interrupted by Christine Lewis (as clown), who tried to get into the act. Miller joined us later for a fire piece with torch juggling and swinging. Our two musicians, Leslie Lind and Camilla Saunders, played a variety of instruments to enhance our performances.

 

The army loved these acts, but it was even more gratifying to perform for school children in Managua during the last week of our tour. The children have a keen grasp of politics, and appreciated our one overtly political act.

 

To the backdrop of three of us juggling cans filled with pebbles and doing assembly-line type patterns with them, Davis explained life as a cannery worker in the United States and the need for unions. In the end she vowed to fight the people who run the company and the people who run the country until the time returns when "life and work are sacred." We were trying to convey a sense of the similarities and differences between our political work in the United States and the struggle in Nicaragua .

 

Our group has now disbanded to pursue individual priorities. But we are confident that the Women's Circus will reincarnate in different forms as needed. If you'd like to join our network of women jugglers and circus artists, write Deborah Davis, Franklin , WI .