If confetti supplies have plummeted and a sequin shortage now afflicts Manhattan, a tent at Lincoln Center is to blame. Yes, the Big Apple Circus is back and New York will shine brighter until January 1st.
In recent years, his return had been less certain. In 2016, after operating as a nonprofit for nearly 40 years, the original company closed and filed for bankruptcy. A subsidiary of a business restructuring company bought it in 2017 and then changed its management and character several times. In 2021, it was sold again to a corporation that counts famous trapeze artist Nik Wallenda as a minority owner, and defied death a little more.
This season, Big Apple has imported the German company Circus Theater Roncalli. Roncalli stands as a skilled and endearing example of this form, a company steeped in circus classics, but capable of adapting to the times.
Some may find it sad that New York can no longer maintain a circus of its own and that Big Apple has become an intellectual property asset, rather than a group immersed in the life of the City. But there’s nothing like an aerial balancing act — or two, as in “Circus Theater Roncalli: Journey to the Rainbow” — to make audiences forget all that.
During a recent performance, the atmosphere in the tent was euphoric. A clown wandered between the rows while an orchestra played playful versions of classic and popular songs.
The show opens with Noel Aguilar’s effervescent juggling act. (Have you ever caught a kernel of popcorn in your mouth? Imagine that, but to the beat of music.) The finale involved straw hats, thrown like Frisbees. Aguilar lost a few hats, which made the routine more impressive because it showed what it took to do it.
He gave the stage to rubber-legged contortionist Andrey Romanovsky, in which he jumped rope while leaning backwards. He was replaced by a tightrope walker (the ropes, fortunately, were low to the ground) and then by an acrobatic act in which the performers were dressed as members of Marie Antoinette’s court. They gave way to Iryna Galenchyk and Vladyslav Drobinko, whose romantic aerial act as a couple was a marvel of strength and grace.
Throughout there were appearances by four clowns, all legitimately funny, a circus rarity.
Roncalli has renounced using live animals. But the second half began with a baffling routine in which three performers dressed in furry costumes pretended to be trained polar bears. This was followed by a bicycle act and a sequence in which three gold-painted performers balanced on top of each other, like living statues. A trapeze act, in which Christoph Gobet and Julian Kaiser balanced, impossibly, foot to foot, drew exclamations of astonishment from the audience.
This is the gift of the circus, wherever it comes from: a glimpse of the extraordinary within the everyday. And accompanied by cotton candy? What a joy.
By: Alexis Soloski
The New York Times
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/7015370, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-12-05 20:40:07
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