Iraqis Enjoy a Show With a Familiar Ring, but a Few Differences
Baghdad JournalMauricio Lima for The New York Times
Performers and trained dogs prepared for a show last month at the Umbrella Circus in Baghdad.
Published: October 25, 2011
BAGHDAD — The circus promoters blanketed Baghdad with fliers that showed tigers balancing on pedestals, poodles standing on each other’s shoulders and a woman dancing with a massive snake. But when the circus finally opened here two months ago, there were not any tigers because the animals were stuck in Egypt. There were dogs, however, but they were not poodles. And the big snake, well, the snake had become sick and had to be evacuated from Iraq.
“Next week, the lions and tigers will arrive from Egypt,” one of the circus promoters, Ghassan Taha Mohammed, promised in September.
A month later, they still had not arrived.
For the first time in a decade, the circus — albeit an underwhelming one — was back in Baghdad.
A circus’ coming to town may be a routine event in most cities. But in battered Baghdad, even if it was not the Greatest Show on Earth, the arrival of the circus was yet another small step in this city’s efforts at building a more normal life, to move beyond the war, occupation and sectarian violence that made it hard for anyone to laugh, let alone marvel at dancers jumping rope.
The circus is called the Umbrella Circus. It has just one small ring, and there is not a commanding ringmaster. What it does have, though, are dancers jumping rope, a woman swinging from a trapeze (without a net, but with a harness), and a grand finale of a man clad in an Iraqi flag plunging swords down his throat.
Although the circus may not be as exciting as the advertisements, many children appeared transfixed by the sight of a large tent and the trapeze hanging over the ring. READ MORE AT:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/26/world/middleeast/the-circus-comes-to-baghdad-iraq.html?_r=1
“Next week, the lions and tigers will arrive from Egypt,” one of the circus promoters, Ghassan Taha Mohammed, promised in September.
A month later, they still had not arrived.
For the first time in a decade, the circus — albeit an underwhelming one — was back in Baghdad.
A circus’ coming to town may be a routine event in most cities. But in battered Baghdad, even if it was not the Greatest Show on Earth, the arrival of the circus was yet another small step in this city’s efforts at building a more normal life, to move beyond the war, occupation and sectarian violence that made it hard for anyone to laugh, let alone marvel at dancers jumping rope.
The circus is called the Umbrella Circus. It has just one small ring, and there is not a commanding ringmaster. What it does have, though, are dancers jumping rope, a woman swinging from a trapeze (without a net, but with a harness), and a grand finale of a man clad in an Iraqi flag plunging swords down his throat.
Although the circus may not be as exciting as the advertisements, many children appeared transfixed by the sight of a large tent and the trapeze hanging over the ring. READ MORE AT:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/26/world/middleeast/the-circus-comes-to-baghdad-iraq.html?_r=1
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