The Flea Circus

Maria Fernanda Cardoso never seen a flea circus when she decided resuscitate the lost art of insect performance. For the three years, Cardoso -- a 34-year-old conceptual artist has painstakingly trained hundreds of fleas.

Fleas dislike light but attracted to all things furry as well as heat and carbon dioxide (animals emit both). Cardoso uses these elements motivators. She also manipulates with ultrathin wire leashes, looped around flea heads and bodies. A tug on the leash and a flea is dancing or at looks like it. Despite impressive results, there are still frustrations. 'Some fleas are just no good', she says, 'and there's nothing you do.

Wearing magnifying goggles and a silver cape and brandishing tiny whip, Cardoso conducts the extravaganza. under a dollhouse-size circus big top, Hercules, 'The Strongest Flea in the World,' pulls a toy locomotive many his size. Estrellita, helped by a harness, wobbles a tightrope on hind legs. Fearless Alfredo gears up for his high-dive stunt with a drumroll and spotlight. But alas, after making a ten-inch plunge, he misses his water-filled thimble, hits circus floor and dies.

Is Cardoso upset by the loss? Not really. "I treat them well and I think they know they are special", she says. "And if they die, well, that's life."