It was a dark and stormy night. Really, it was dark and it was stormy.

The crew was set to perform at a private resort sitting on the steep hills of the Pacific with luxury treehouses dotting the hillside. We pushed and pulled a massive portable aerial structure into the air, each of the three legs buried into the sand a few feet from the tide. We stoked the bonfire, prepared the audio, set-up an intimate seating arrangement. The chords of a perfectly planned performance were about to be cut as the rains of the season came weeks early. The dry Nicaraguan earth was quenched from a life-altering three-year drought, but the performers and audience were thirsty for a show.

Under a too-small overhang, the Collective huddled to discuss an alternative indoor show while splashes of rain blew in to meet our cheeks. Instead of orchestrating a make-shift, low-impact show, the decision was to surrender and pray for the clouds to disperse and the rain to stop. In dramatic and perfect timing, the sound of rain quieted to silence.

I ran down the dirt steps as my flip flops suctioned to the muddied path with every step. Out-of-breath, resort staff and our team acted in a flurry to get the fire roaring again, the mic ready, and the seat cushions dried. I was in my element with a sweat-soaked shirt and a grin on my face.

The show must go on.

And it did.

Nima, the clarinetista opened with her improvised sound track. Each performance a dance between music and performance—aerials, fire, and magic. The scenes almost unreal amongst the crackling fire and smoke, crashing waves, and the lightning pulsing off to the west. But real it was as the eyes of the audience followed every move and they knew they had been a part of something special.

I had transformed again; I joined the circus. Not only had our two teams taken inspiration from each other, I became a groupie to the core. Here, self-love was effortless. A place where others found value in what had been my most insecure flaws. Reciprocity flowed as I would offer my thoughts about how Momentom could elevate their impact, and in return they showed me how to apply flow and movement to my work as an ecological designer.

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