The Spontaneous World of a Roman Street Circus

A legendary Italian juggler and two enigmatic Greeks find their artistic calling, one cobblestone sideshow at a time.

It was the torrid Greek summer of 2009 when Aldo Scrofani — stage name “Viral Aldo” — a fifty-five-year-old juggler and groundbreaking Italian street artist, recruited two young men from the Greek island of Rhodes to join his fledgling “Bahalo Circus.” Passionate about juggling and seeking to travel the world, the two men, who go by the names Aimilios and Regas, left their homes and their lives to chase the dream of becoming circus performers in Italy. Their journey has taken them to the Circus School of Rome, and together with Aldo, they perform wherever there is an audience.

Bahalo is a Greek expression that, as Aimilios and Regas describe it, means "unruly, loud and crazy.” The trio gathers regularly at clubs, at traffic lights and in city squares. Aldo, Aimilios and Regas chose Rome for this span of life, but the world’s streets will always be their native place.