In 1949, LIFE magazine sent famed photographer Nina Leen to document the daily life of a sassy troupe of young women who had run off and joined the famous Barnum & Bailey Circus in Sarasota, Fla. What developed was a portrait of a sisterhood formed over acrobatics that mixed high-flying wire acts with fashionable high-waisted shorts. Sarasota was once considered “the home of the American circus”. Here: an aerialist smoking while rehearsing for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Sarasota, FL in 1949. (Photo By Nina Leen/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)

Participants wearing costumes take part in the West Indian Day Parade in the Brooklyn borough of New York September 1, 2014. The parade, which draws a crowd of a million plus, celebrates Caribbean culture. (Photo by Eric Thayer/Reuters)

Moonfest 2012: West Palm Beach lures the undead out for a night of revelry. (Photo by Brynn Anderson/The Palm Beach Post)

Synalpheus iocasta; Singapore Marine. (Photo by Arthur Anker)

A Brazilian Navy member ejects spent cartridges while shooting rubber bullets during an exhibition of their operational capacity to combat terrorist attacks and riots ahead of the FIFA Confederations Cup and World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro on May 27, 2013. (Photo by Ricardo Moraes/Reuters)

U.S. Marine soldiers from 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, Battalion landing team deployed from Okinawa, Japan, participate in the U.S. and South Korean Marines joint landing operation at Pohang seashore on March 29, 2012 in Pohang, South Korea. Though South Korean has remained technically at war with North Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953, the tension of Korean Peninsula has again raised as Pyongyang's new leader Kim Jong-Eun administration announced to launch a “Satellite” between April 12 to 16. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

Jason Arnold, project manager from solarcentury walks between lines of solar panels erected at Weighbridge, Wheal Jane, Baldhu on July 7, 2011 near Truro, England. A ceremony was held today to mark the connection of the 1.4kw solar farm, which on a 6.2 acre plot is the first in the South West and biggest in the UK to date, using 5,680 panels. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

Britain Soccer Football, West Ham United vs Manchester United, Barclays Premier League, Old Trafford on May 10, 2016. Police play football with a young West Ham fan before the match. (Photo by Eddie Keogh/Reuters/Livepic)