When I was in Mexico there were a lot of “ambient” street shows. Those are shows like a guitar player that you walk by, maybe watch for a song, and then move along. There were very few “circle” street shows that were longer presentations that built a crowd.
There’s a lot that goes into a circle show, like getting people to stop, uniting those people into an audience and getting them to commit to watching the whole thing.
One of the few circle shows that I saw in Mexico City was a dance/acrobalance group.
The challenge with the spot that they picked was that right in front of their performing area was a road. I understand that they needed a larger footprint for their show, so they were pretty limited to locations and they fit in this one.
The active street meant they could build maybe one row between them and the street. Then the second row of people would be across the street. I’m going to bet you’re not surprised that no one really watched from across the street.
Ultimately with the challenges of this location, they only managed to pull a handful of people into their crowd.
They were doing some cool stunts, but this is a good example of where soo much more goes into street performing than simply having a good show!
-Louie