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Posts Tagged ‘acrobat’

Acrobats vs Stalled Traffic

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 25, 2026| 3 Comments »

Photo: AP Photo/Brian Inganga.
Street acrobats entertain motorists stuck in the notorious traffic of Nairobi, Kenya, last August.

Where career options are few and far between, people make a living however they can. Consider the traffic-jam acrobats of Nairobi.

Nicholas Komu and Moses Ndung’u report at the Associated Press (AP), “As the light turns red at a busy intersection in the Kenyan capital, a young man costumed in leopard print emerges into the street to perform somersaults. He is joined by five others, dressed similarly, as they execute a combination of acrobatic stunts.

“One of them, juggling woven hats, breaks away and approaches the drivers of vehicles that have come to a halt. He’s hoping for generous tips as he presents his hat to driver after driver while his mates continue their routine. The group breaks away as soon as the traffic lights turn green.

“Nairobi’s street acrobats first began appearing in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and they have since become normalized at traffic stops in and around the city, with acrobats taking advantage of gridlocks to perform in exchange for cash tips. It is how they earn a living.

“Mohammed Nyale, 22, said he started doing acrobatics hoping for a life-changing occupation.

“ ‘I have always loved acrobatics since I started performing at 15 years old,’ he said.

“He and others in his group left their homes on the Kenyan coast with dreams of on-stage careers and sold-out theaters, but they have so far settled for the streets, performing their stunts for motorists in Nairobi’s never-ending traffic.

“Nyale’s group gathers in the early mornings in an abandoned field in Nairobi’s impoverished neighborhood of Kawangware to rehearse their routines. Next, they move into the streets as traffic starts to build up during the morning rush hour. …

“They usually perform until noon, taking turns to collect tips from motorists. The amounts given tend to be small, usually no more than 50 shillings (about 40 U.S. cents). Because many Kenyans keep money in mobile wallets, the acrobats also hand out slips of paper with their phone numbers to which tips can be sent.

“On a good day they might each earn roughly $6, enough to look after their basic needs, though on some days they make more.

“That is equal to the daily wage of most casual laborers in construction or agriculture in a country where unemployment is widespread. …

“Some motorists see the acrobats as a nuisance. Others welcome the distraction.

“ ‘They are a source of entertainment here on the road. They entertain us and we feel good,’ said Geoffrey Kioi, a Nairobi entrepreneur who regularly gives tips to the acrobats. ‘They are young people. They need to hustle.’ ”

More at AP, here.

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Acrobatic Construction

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on August 7, 2021| 9 Comments »

Photo: EdiliziAcrobatica.
A construction worker has a great view from Santa Croce in Florence.

So many different kinds of jobs in the world! Today’s story is about construction workers with specialized talents that might just as easily have gotten them hired by the circus.

Rebecca Ann Hughes has the story at Apollo. “Beneath the celestial vistas of Parma Cathedral’s frescoed dome, two men swing like trapeze artists from ropes crisscrossing under the roof as though in a circus tent. They seem to be attempting to join the swirling vortex of angelic limbs in Correggio’s scene of the Virgin’s Assumption above them. But they are actually members of EdiliziAcrobatica, an Italian construction company specializing in rope access building interventions. On this occasion, the company has been drafted in to repair a bell in the cathedral.

“EdiliziAcrobatica’s team has rock-climbed up and abseiled down some of Italy’s most significant historic monuments. The company has worked on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, Siena Cathedral, and the Roman Forum, to name a few. It has also intervened in banks, apartment blocks and various other public and private buildings. Suspended from ropes, the acrobatic technicians can perform a whole range of tasks, from the waterproofing of roofing to welding – all the necessary tools in bags and buckets attached to their harnesses. To watch the team at work is a breathtaking and nail-biting experience. From street level, they are minute figures poised on the roof of Parma’s dome to replace copper panels damaged by rain or casually dangling above the waters of the Arno to repair a leaking fountain on the Ponte Vecchio. …

“The building company didn’t choose to specialize in these acrobatic techniques just for the spectacle. Rope access, a construction work-at-height technique that started to become popular in the 1980s, comes with a multitude of advantages over traditional scaffolding, as Riccardo Iovino – who founded EdiliziAcrobatica in 1994 – explains via email.

“At the forefront is safety. Workers are attached by two ropes, one for safety, and ropes can also relay equipment. Although founder Iovino was, as a skipper, at home shimmying up and down rigging – and was thus inspired to adopt the technique professionally – EdiliziAcrobatica’s workers are not expected to have a mountaineering or caving background. The company assists the construction workers – who are overseen by specialist surveyors – with training and obtaining the required permit for rope access work. Thus, suspended from the side of a building, EdiliziAcrobatica’s technicians can carry out restoration work, paint walls, clean windows, replace gutters and repair unsafe elements of a building in total safety.

“That’s not to say that these strict safety procedures dampen the thrill of the work. Enzo Spitale, who began as an acrobatic builder and now acts as coordinator overseeing the team in Italy, returned from his interview 10 years ago thinking it was all completely mad. But he now says his employment at EdiliziAcrobatica was a life-changing opportunity. Dangling from a Renaissance dome or a medieval bridge, ‘you feel one step away from the sky,’ Spitale says. ‘It is unique and unimaginable for those with their feet on the ground.’

“This aspect of the job comes with its own risks. ‘It is always important, as I remind the new company recruits, never to lose concentration at work,’ says Spitale. ‘We are suspended from ropes several metres off the ground, we have to pay attention to what we are doing and not get distracted by the clouds!’ “

More at Apollo, here.

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The Ballerina and the Breakdancers

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on May 4, 2018| 2 Comments »

Photo: Jorge de la Quintana
A ballerina admired impoverished acrobats performing at Lima, Peru, traffic lights and decided to offer them a better opportunity. In the photo, members of her D1 Dance Company rehearse.

Once upon a time, a privileged young lady, a ballerina with an international reputation, saw the face of aspirational poverty on acrobats performing in traffic and decided to offer them an opportunity.

Dan Collyns writes at the Guardian, “Vania Masías vividly remembers the first time she saw acrobats somersaulting at a traffic light on a visit to her home city in 2004. She was at the peak of an illustrious career as a ballet dancer in Europe – but before long, she would leave it all behind it to nurture the raw talent she found in the streets of the Peruvian capital. …

“She was so inspired by the abilities of the teenage acrobats she encountered in Lima she set up a pilot project to teach them to dance – not ballet, but hip-hop. …

“It began on the self-taught gymnasts’ home turf in Ventanilla, a tough neighbourhood near the city’s port. Masías arranged to meet them on the shanty’s sand dunes where they practised their flips. The response was overwhelming.

“ ‘I thought I was going to meet with three kids,’ she said. ‘When I arrived, there were more than a hundred kids.’ …

“In 2005 Masías formed the D1 Cultural Association: part dance school, part non-profit organisation seeking to create young leaders and promote positive social change through the arts.

“D1’s social arm, which is 85% self-sufficient thanks to the school’s private classes, works with 7,000 children and young people in the capital and has schools in the Peruvian cities of Ica and Trujillo. More than 100,000 children have passed through the programme over the years, says Masías.

“Among them is Eddy Revilla, who at 13 became his family’s breadwinner somersaulting at traffics lights in downtown Lima.

“ ‘I was earning 300 soles a week [£66/$92] and here in Peru – that’s money! I could help my family and they started to thank me,’ says Revilla, now 25.

“But after blacking out in mid-air doing a somersault, Revilla auditioned for D1, and is now a member of the group’s professional dance company.

“ ‘When we started nobody thought that you could make a living from dance. Now it’s an amazing opportunity for young people,’ says Revilla, who also teaches hip-hop to paying students at D1’s dance studio. …

“Masías acknowledges that only a few of the young students will eventually follow a career in dance, but she says that the act of dancing itself gives them the confidence to transform their circumstances. …

“Masías has encouraged her dancers to embrace their provincial roots through fusing traditional Peruvian and urban styles.

“ ‘It’s in their blood, in their veins,’ she says. Dancers who had been ashamed of their origins ‘now fight to say where they come from,’ she says.”

More at the Guardian, here.

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