New Orleans is known for its street performances. Street performers are a major part of New Orleans culture. Street performers are their own unique form of art. The performers are the pieces of art. They convey their art through how they look and their movements (or lack of movement). Street performers are part of what makes New Orleans so colorful and energetic. A wide variety of street performers can be found in Jackson Square. One example of street performers that can be found in New Orleans is human statues. Human statues stand completely still, pretending to be a statue. One such human statue is Maria. She stands in the French Quarter. Her skin is painted gold and she is dressed in a wedding gown. There is another human statue that will give you a fortune if you give her money and then returns to being a statue. *After visiting, we discovered that she covers her face with her fan if you try to take a picture of her without putting money in her basket
*While we were there we saw another human statue. He was there by Jackson Square every day that we were there. It is incredible how still they pose. You would not know they were a person posing unless you look very very closely and you can barely see them breathing. Besides the breathing, they do not move a single muscle. It was so cool!
Picture we took in New Orleans
There are people that are dressed in and completely covered in metallic silver paint that move and dance as if they were robots. There are also music performers. They play a variety of instruments and can be alone or in small groups. One such music street performers is a man who plays the harmonica and is known as Grandpa. He is recognized by his white beard, overalls, and silver framed glasses with no lenses.
There are a variety of street dancers as well. Street dancers dance to anything from hip hop to jazz.
A lot of street performers love their jobs and love that people travel from all over to see them. One performer stated “Even if I won the lottery tomorrow, I would still get up and perform” (McNulty). *While in New Orleans, we stopped and watched a group of three street performers. They did comedy as well as acrobatics. They engaged their audience and were a lot of fun to watch. They had been doing their show for 30 years and one of them was turning 50!
Picture of the group engaging the audience
*Another street performer we encountered while we were down there was a guy on a very tall unicycle that was juggling different items! We were on a tour so we did not have time to stop and watch him but I watched him briefly as we walked by.
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