Feature: Havana's street performers on stilts bring carnival all year round

Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-21 12:24:00|Editor: Xiang Bo
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by Raul Menchaca

HAVANA, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- Whenever street performers on stilts show up to entertain crowds, carnival in Havana begins.

Dressed in outlandish brightly-colored outfits topped by high hats or turbans, the 12-member troupe, with musicians in tow, parades through cobblestone streets of the city's old quarter.

Wherever the parade go, they throw a celebration, dancing, singing, juggling, performing skits, all the while keeping balance on stilts, to the delight of onlookers, especially kids.

Known as "Giganteria" due to performers' great heights, the government-sponsored group has become a common and welcome sight in Cuba's capital, where it performs three times a week.

Every performance is turned into an impromptu block party, and the success lies partly in the fact that actors are having as a good time as audience, said Jorge Serpa, one of its newest members.

"Each street parade is a different experience, because you never know what you are going to find on the way," said Serpa, as his two-year-old son ran through other performers as they made up for next show.

Everything can happen on streets and performers improvise.

"It's not like in the theater" where actors have full control of the stage and the area audience occupy, Serpa said.

When a wayward dog or kid approaches, drawn by stilts, "we try to incorporate them into the story we are telling," he added.

A greenhorn who has practiced walking on stilts for about 10 months, Serpa has fallen twice but, luckily, only "in rehearsals."

There are of course old hands since the troupe was founded in 2000.

Elizabeth Marrero studied cultural management at a local college and wrote her bachelor's thesis on Giganteria. She became so deeply involved with the group that she ended up joining it.

People think "the stilt is an element of dancing or acrobatics, but we try to unite those two skills, to which we add acting," said Marrero.

Characters are based on actors' personalities, for example a mischievous youngster who loves interacting with audience, a flirtatious female clown, and a cantankerous elderly woman who scolds everyone.

Giganteria has Eugenio Cruz on percussion. The 51-year-old performer occasionally climbs on stilts to play music but only on major occasions as "it is very exhausting."

"I have played the drums before in several music bands, but the truth is I like it here much more, especially because of the constant interaction with people," said Cruz, who stays in the troupe for ten years.

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