Circus Minimus: Miller Wows 'Em in the Nabes!
by C. Carr in The Village Voice
7/14/98
Drawn by the oom-pah-pahs and the kindergarten colors, people drift into St. Mary's Park in the South Bronx from the projects or from East 149th. Backstage, in a patch of park behind the red curtain, seven Circus Amok troupers sit in front of open suitcases, applying makeup. Scattered around them on the lawn are all the accoutrements of low-rent razzle-dazzle: stilts and Indian clubs, giant giraffe and blue-jay heads, a cardboard ambulance, a cardboard Volkswagen attached to a hunk of road, a chute and a ladder, and costumes in various shades of spangly, fringy, garish, and clownish.
Step Right Up! See the Bearded Person!
New York Times' Weekend Section, 6/9/95
by Dinitia Smith
Three stiltwalkers are in a dusty yard on West 134th Street in Harlem, surrounded by abandoned buildings. The stiltwalkers wear tops with stars and multi-colored ribbons, striped pants, strange helmets with long plumes glittering in the sun. They are ambiguous figures. Male or female? One has a beard. But ... you can't be sure. This is the opening act of Circus Amok, an alternative circus performing in parks throughout New York City until June 18.
Now the band begins to play -- a samba on drums, trumpets, hubcaps, car springs. The stiltwalkers dance, chasing one another around the ring until the pace becomes frenetic. Suddenly, the stiltwalker with the beard falls backward and two roustabouts tear off the clothes, rip off the stilts. Underneath, the figure wears a dress of fuchsia satin. Slowly, the figure turns toward the audience. The hair is shoulder length and wavy, the beard about three inches long. Yet the shoulders are soft, feminine.
