Love in the Balance
This is the finale of the Flying Griffin Circus, a charming, ragtag little show put together by the Evanston-based Actors Gymnasium, and Lijana wants to give the audience a healthy thrill before they go home. Hanging midway through a line of straps by her feet, she’s “walking,” removing one foot from a strap and hooking it through the next, making sure the arch of her foot is nestled securely. Then she unhooks the other foot and repeats the process. Only her flexing toes betray how hard a trick this is.
In many respects the story Lijana and Tony act out in the Flying Griffin Circus recapitulates their own history. They grew up together in the insular circus world of Sarasota, Florida, the former winter quarters of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus and the place many circus folk still call home. “I never knew a time when I didn’t know Tony,” Lijana says.
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Ironically, the tragedy added luster to the Wallenda myth. Suddenly they were fearless but cursed–and consummate showpeople. Once the ambulances left, the two Wallendas left on the wire resumed the act, improvising a quick ending and giving the circus a graceful way to continue the show.
When Tony got old enough, he joined his family’s act and spent most of his adolescence performing around the country as part of Barnum & Bailey’s Greatest Show on Earth. When he wasn’t on the road, he was in Sarasota. He remembers one night there especially fondly; he was 19 and Lijana was 17.
“And she was cold.”
