Victoria (age 7), Gideon (20) and I all went to the Big Apple Circus yesterday and had a great time. There were two things that made it better than last year (see my post of Dec 10, 2017): the absence of the unfunny clown "Grandma" (Barry Lubin was fired for sexual harassment) and the precisely timed performances. And I do mean "performance," as the Circus is now more in tune with its origins in performance art, a term one does not hear much anymore. I was particularly entranced by Victor Moisev's horizontal juggling that was effectively visual (the red balls were on strings). Jenny Vidbel was back with her domestic animals (including a potbellied pig) and The Flying Tienzianis were back with their impressive trapeze performance. New this year was Emil Faltyny balancing on a free-standing ladder and kicking a ball into a goal while at the top of the ladder, Duo Fusion --Ihosvanys and Virginia Tuiells -- who did handstands on each other's abdomens -- and Valeriy Dynochev and Eraterina Abakarova, who did a beautiful and sexy aerial ballet.
"Grandma" was replaced by juggler Adam Kushler (who did wonderful things with piles of boxes) and Mark Goudich, who played an aspiring circus performer; they even used elements of Barry Lubin's routines, without the nastiness. The show was written and directed by Mark Lonergan -- who never let any routine go on too long -- and choreographed by Grady MacLeod Bowman, who made much of performance seem like dance. We all loved the show, for various reasons, and Victoria loved the cotton candy and popcorn.
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