| Celebrate with the Big Apple Circus |
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Big Apple Circus presents Celebrate!October 19-January 13Admission: $28-84 for tickets click here Lincoln Center in Damrosch Park 62nd St (between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues) 800-922-3772 bigapplecircus.org The Big Apple Circus is back in town through January 19th, showcasing this year's show, Celebrate! Just next door to the Met at Damrosch Park, a huge tent beckons New York to its acrobatic show of dancing, balancing and aerials. It's no wonder that this classical circus will be performing in the heart of the city's cultural center. The company's story began in Kent, England in 1974, where American entertainers and Big Apple Circus Founder Paul Binder and Co-Founder Michael Christensen crafted a comedic juggling act. Over the next 18 months they took their act to the street corners of Europe. In 1976, a season with Annie Fratellini's one-ring Nouveau Cirque de Paris changed their lives. They returned home to America and one year later created what would become a world-renowned performing arts organization. Classical circus dates back only two centuries, but the elements that compose it can be traced back more than two thousand years. Philip Astley, the inventor of modern circus as we know it, who upon discharge from a career as a Sergeant Major became a horseback trick-rider in 1770. Combining equestrian showmanship, acrobats and jugglers into a one-ring show, the first circus ring was born. Part of the magic of circus comes in the ability to continually re-invent itself, to reach out to audiences in new ways, since there is no one-way to experience circus. The Circus of the Senses® is a special production of the Big Apple Circus designed to meet the needs of children who are vision or hearing impaired, and is performed in each major city throughout our national tour. The Big Apple Circus does more than put on a great show. In addition to its 325 circus performances each year, the Big Apple Circus administers four community programs aimed at making life better for disadvantaged, handicapped and hospitalized children with their clowns' 200,000 cheery visits with hospital patients. Other programs include introducing circus arts to at-risk youth, distributing educational materials and donating tickets to non-profit organizations- making their show more accessible to the disadvantaged. Whether bringing the kids, or returning to your own age of innocence, the Big Apple Circus is well worth juggling your schedule to see. Dikki Ellis performs on the slack-wire, in Oops! The Big Apple Circus Stage Show, "1999 Circus To Go." |
