La Strada (the street circus)

A few weeks ago a street circus came to Bremen and so we thought we would head on over and check it out.

There were numerous acts going on at one time spread across a few different locations. After catching a few minutes of a rather strange puppet show we meandered over to a small stage that was playing enticing preshow music. Probably not the best way to judge the quality of the act to follow but we didn't have anything else to go on but we were hopeful that it would be something that the kids (and us) would be a little more interested in. (and with that said, I would like to add the thought that other kids and parents seemed to be enjoying the puppet show just fine so maybe all those German jokes that they kept laughing at were flying right over our heads.)

Our method of decision making seemed, at least, to work somewhat in our favor. The show we ended up watching was a modern dance/acrobatic duet consisting of a man and a woman. They made huge facial expressions, grunted a lot, danced with exaggerated movements, climbed poles and flipped around them time and again. 

The act was a little strange but oddly enjoyable. The kids sure enjoyed it. Atticus was completely glued once the guy started climbing the pole. He just couldn't believe that someone could climb so high. He was pretty impressed.

Milayla was a little more critical of the act and did sit to watch a good majority of it before she snacked on some food and made friends with some of the people sitting nearby. 

During the show they pulled up a number of people from the audience. What surprised us was how eager the people they pulled up were to 'ham it up' for the audience. One little girl of about 10 years old danced, chased, played musical chairs and even made very witty fun of the male performer. I was impressed as if I were pulled up at 10-years-old I would have looked like a scared little dear without preplanned choreography.

At the end of the show they pulled people up from the audience to dance with strangers. Yes, I know, it was odd. Jason and Milayla headed up. Thankfully, they didn't try to have Milayla dance with a stranger; that would have not been cool. Unfortunately, I didn't get a very good picture of them up there, but that's them in the picture below - Jason in a white top and jeans and Milayla in her little sun hat dancing away.

After the act was done, we took a walk around to see what else there was. We snacked on a delicious falafel and checked out some original art that was quite creative and diverse.

We walked over the hill that looks over the Weser River before heading back to the bikes to head home.

While we may not make it a point to head to this particular street circus next year, we certainly did enjoy our time out together.