One of our very favorite acts at Disney World over the years was
"Cirikli: the Wandering Stilt-Birds". We accidentally
stumbled upon the performers as they were starting a performance
at Epcot one day during our October 1997 vacation to Disney
World. Their enigmatic act was so interesting that you had no
choice but watch.
The stilt birds entered from behind a gate
near Morocco along with their shepherd
Cirikli: The Wandering
Stilt-Birds
The Legend tells that in the
Beginning, there was no Sound and no
Light . . . Birds appeared in the
humans' dreams and introduced music
and color.
Their infinite and varied songs
hatched strange outgrowths on the
dreamers heads which allowed them to
delight in these new sensations.
They called these outgrowths THE
EARS.
The colorful richness and diversity
of the feathers created on the
dreamers' faces two deep lakes on
which this polychromatic symphony
was reflected. They called these
lakes THE EYES.
Captivated by these amazing and
exciting marvels, Men began to dream
so often and so intensely that the
birds became true and swept through
the Earth, for everybody's greatest
enchantment.
Since that moment, Human beings
became Advanced-Dreamers.
From dream to reality exists a
precarious balance . . . CIRIKLIS
are missioned to keep it going well.
Their "shamanistic-dreamers" trade
secrets and stilts permit them to
bring alive some symbolic-bird-like
creatures made of precious woods . .
. As "Spirit-Chasers" they
continuously ride their mythical
mounts in pursuit of the vanished
dreams to bring them back to the
real world and thus, keep the fire
burning . . . To assist them in
their quest, a shaman walks at their
side, carrying his instruments of
Power: a rain-stick to feel where
the dream spring could gush out: And
two dream-catchers, one to hold
prisoner the nightmares in his net
and the other one to let the most
beautiful dreams spread over the
Earth.
The Dark Bird Rider definitely had a "darker" side than the
other two.
But after following them for 4 days on their daily walks, we
found that he really had a friendly side, too.
One of the birds was interested in seeing what Carolyn had in
her bag - a banana
The Shepherd leads the birds from place to place with his
rain stick
As the Cirikli Stilt-Birds wandered around Epcot
you wanted to follow them and watch them just to see what they
would do next
The costuming and makeup added to the mystery of the Cirikli
Stilt-Birds
and as you can see on the Female & Male Stilt-Bird riders below,
no one ever smiled
We came back to Epcot on several days just to catch Cirikli
again - They did not disappoint
The act on this particular day consisted of the same birds
and rider costumes but all of the cast had changed except for
one
The Shepherd from the previous day had become the Male Rider
The Story This Day: The Dark Male Rider and bird are interested
in the Female Rider and bird - but they only has eyes for the
other Male Rider and his bird. A battle between the two male
riders and birds ensues but true love prevails in the end. The
Dark Male Rider and bird, however, are welcomed back into the
fold by the Shepherd.
The Chirikli Stilt-Birds stop for a drink of water from the
fountain in the France Showcase
The next time we vacationed at Disney World we were disappointed
to find out that CHIRIKLI was no longer performing at Epcot.