They arrive from the port with their colourful garments and their well-worn musical devices, parading by way of the village and performing on the varied squares. Islanders view them with a mixture of awe and marvel.
At instances they appear to be superheroes, transferring collectively to the rhythm of the music, conjuring tips like magicians.
I first heard of the Sea Clown Crusing Circus after I was following the tales of refugees crossing Greece. Members of the circus have been acting at a camp in Athens, attempting to win smiles from kids who had skilled an excessive amount of ache.
Later, I joined the performers in the summertime of 2020 on the storied island of Ithaca, within the Ionian Sea. Hoping to sail with the nomad crew, I occurred to reach the very day their engine broke down. Apparently it was a daily prevalence. A technician from the island mocked them: The engines have been rusting from lack of use, he stated.
It was true that Fred Regular and Alvaro Ramirez, the captains, by no means wished to make use of the engines, aiming as an alternative to sail with the wind as a lot as attainable — even whereas docking at and departing from the port.
Twenty years earlier, in the US, Fred, an Alaska-born circus performer, determined it was pointless to attempt to change the world whereas touring with gas-guzzling vehicles and caravans. As a substitute, he resolved to supply his type of utopia to individuals throughout the US and Europe by bicycle. He rode round along with his crew from one city to the following, staging pop-up reveals and sleeping beside campfires.
Ultimately, on the Southern coast of Italy, he met Nikoleta Giakumeli, a Greek acrobat, and Alvaro, a Uruguayan clown who had been touring round Europe. Collectively, the trio dreamed up the concept of a seaborne circus, despite the fact that none of them had ever formally sailed.
So that they discovered. For 13 years, Fred and Nikoleta lived on their boat, Surloulou, by way of summers and winters. After the delivery of their daughter, Sirena, who on the age of 4 is already climbing ropes and attempting her first tips as an acrobat, their lives modified dramatically. They now spend much less time with the circus, which, regardless of their absence, continues reinventing itself with new performers and new concepts.
Dozens of artists from everywhere in the world are related with the Sea Clown Crusing Circus. Some be a part of the crew for just a few days; others be a part of for the entire summer season. However a core group of round seven or eight persons are attempting to deliver the circus to a larger acclaim — not solely by roaming freely from one Greek island to a different, but in addition by producing extra significant, and extra philosophically partaking, reveals.
In the summertime of 2021, after I joined the Sea Clowns once more for a month, they have been producing a brand new present based mostly on Plato’s allegory of the cave. I noticed firsthand how devoted the performers are to their craft. Although their performances typically really feel impromptu, the Sea Clowns are in actual fact immensely disciplined of their preparations. Each act — from acrobatic reveals and fireplace juggling to aerial rope tips and slacklining — requires an incredible diploma of ability and coaching. And so they merely like to study.
Being part of the crew requires being good at crusing, music or circus acts, and ideally all three. However what’s most essential is the power to specific sufficient humor, kindness and respect to reside in proximity with a crew of curious artists day-after-day with out creating tensions.
It’s additionally a problem, in fact, to adapt to life on a shoestring finances. “We reside or we die by the hat,” Fred would say on the finish of each present, inviting the general public to supply a donation for the Sea Clowns’ survival.
The lifetime of a avenue (or water) artist is fragile, delicate — like a tightrope act, or juggling with knives, or crusing by way of a storm. But for a lot of the crew, nothing appears to supply them a larger sense of freedom. The Sea Clowns journey with their sails open to the wind, confronting each their goals and an unpredictable future.
“Our work goals to indicate that nothing is inconceivable,” Alvaro stated, “until your thoughts convinces you to consider the other.”
