Circus

Finally, the long awaited post.  Awaited by me, anyways.

SenCirk is composed of somewhere around 12 young men and a woman named Valentina, who is French.  Anya is a Swedish woman who comes every year to help with training and shows.  Modou and Al Hassan are the leaders of the troupe.  Modou trained with Anya in Sweden in 2008 (I think?) and I believe Al Hassan trained at a Guinean circus school.

I paid 13,500 CFA ($27) to get 10 workouts with the circus people.  So far I've been to three morning practices and had two private lessons, so ten for the month will almost definitely not be enough.

I'm pretty definitely in the performance on the 25th, which is the one at the Olympic pool rigged under the diving board over the pool.  I've always (since I started doing silks) dreamed of doing silks over water, so I'm really excited about this

I'm pretty out of shape right now, given that I had 4 months with no circus workouts.  It sucks.  Still, I'm doing a lot better than I (or anyone else) expected.  I should be at about the same level as Modou (who I can call the national expert at aerial silks) when I'm back in normal shape.  He's a lot stronger than me, but I'm a lot more flexible, so it balances out.

Modou is great.  I'm really excited that he's the one I'm working with, because he's not arrogant, creepy, or discouraging.  He always seems a little sheepish, and his French is not very good, but he's an extremely nice guy and he knows a lot of tricks that I don't know.  We're doing a lot of exchanging, which is a lot of fun.  I'm thinking of ordering some rigging equipment to gift to SenCirk, because theirs is not nearly good enough.

I feel really lucky that everyone at SenCirk has been so welcoming and friendly, and no one has questioned my abilities or intentions.  It's great to see that circus people are circus people all over the world.  Everyone is silly and happy and loves playing around and making people smile.  No one is too serious to have a good time.  I feel really at home around them, and I can't express how glad I am to have found them.

Also, SenCirk is the top circus troupe in Senegal, and Modou is the best at silks, so I'm getting private lessons from the best guy in the country.  That'll be fun to put on my resume.  Bwahaha.

On a different note, my friend Rachel came to Dakar last night! She was one of my first childhood friends, and I had a great time hanging out with her and showing her around Dakar today.  I made her do a lot of walking, but it was fun (for me, at least.  Hopefully for her, too).

This weekend we're going to Toubab Diallo, which is a sort of resort.  They have classes in batik, ballet, acroyoga, drumming, and all sorts of other cool things.  I'm looking forward to it.