Some stuff that happened in what we have named ‘Week 3 in León’.

We finished last weekend with a big show in the central park, with the largest cathedral in Central America as our backdrop. Two other groups joined us, a local stilt dancing group called ‘Fuego y Son’, and some really funny jugglers/clowns from Estelí called ‘El Nido de las Artes’. With just one afternoon to collaborate, we put together an enormous and fantastic two hour long show. It went really well, was enjoyed by the large crowd and by us too, being the most fun we’ve had performing so far.

The jugglers from Estelí stayed the next day and performed for the children at El Barrilete and helped with teaching the workshops.

We also had two early morning shows at schools this week (Asarias Apalache and Ruben Dario), with most of their 600 and 700 children excitedly watching us. At both the encroaching audiences throughout the show left us with a shrinking stage area, tested our crowd control skills and then they mobbed us when we finished!

As usual the afternoons were spent teaching at Barrilete. This week the kids have decided on their two favourite circus props and are now focusing on these, honing their skills ready to perform at the end of the project.

We also did some extra skill swap sessions with the local stilt walkers, we taught them acro, juggling, hoop and clowning, and they taught us to salsa dance – so on Friday night we got to impress the locals in the nightclub with our fancy new moves, and our even more impressive old moves.

With our free time at the weekend some of us took the last opportunity to relax and enjoy the beach at Las Peñitas, while others found out what a Nicaraguan punk gig is like.

Just one more week to go now before we leave León, in which we’ll be getting the kids to make their own show to demonstrate what they’ve learned – check back soon to find out how that goes…..

PWB Nicaragua

Graham