Big Apple Circus & Circus Theater Roncalli: Journey to the Rainbow

More a combination of European Circus (the plus side) and Las Vegas Follies (the minus side) than two circuses, the new Big Apple/Roncalli is decidedly a mixed bag. On the one hand, acts are skilled and theatrical; clowns more subtle and enchanting than American circuses. On the other, the amount of time the presentation gives to leggy dancers or just slowly circling, elaborately costumed women is considerable. It’s not that they aren’t attractive and talented, but rather that they quickly feel like filler. The Show:

Ademir Augusto

Ademir Augusto performs Fabrico Nogueiras Bicycle Act driving around the sides of a bottomless, slatted basket suspended from above and swinging …without a net. (There are no nets tonight.) I’ve seen this done with a motorcycle in a metal hamster wheel, but never anything so wide open, pitting an innocent bicycle against a frankly perilous drop. Augusto grew up in a town with bicycle races.

Tall, thin Andrey Romanovsky climbs a high, freestanding stovepipe wearing a stovepipe hat. Flexibly draping himself half in, half out of the open top, the clown seems made of rubber. Bending in half, his head inside the cylinder, he loses his hat. We can’t imagine him falling in – because surely no one could fit – but he does, somersaulting through an opened door at the bottom. A jump rope attached to his feet, Romanovsky then threads himself through horizontally on his hands.

Paolo Carillon

Paolo Carillon and Nox (his daughter) offer a lovely vignette. The poet clown (formerly a mechanic) drives a wonderful Steampunk vehicle with a woman’s torso mannequin in back. Removing his tall hat reveals a red topknot that spins! He courts the female form, then lifts her from a stand. They dance, or he does – she literally floats. Placed back in the truck, his lady turns into a real woman and sings – alas, not in English, as Paolo manifests a wide variety of bubbles. Utterly charming.

Duo Another Love: Iryna Galenchyk and Vladyslav Drobinko, hang from two lowered ropes with hand rings. They curl around one another, slip past, suspend themselves attached to one another by a hand, a knee, a foot.  It’s an intimate aerial ballet ending with an applauded kiss. The program says they met online.

Iryna Galenchyk and Vladyslav Drobinko

Duo High Tension: Julian Kaiser (who was a lighting technician before becoming a trapeze artist) and Christoph Gobet offer strength, balance and codependence on a trapeze. Letting go and catching with unexpected limbs elicits gasps.  Acrobats Trio Adagio, two men and a woman wearing togas and entirely painted in gold, emulate Greek statuary entwining themselves on each other’s backs, shoulders, and arms in configurations that look impossible to maintain. Elegant.

The Kirichenko Acrobatic Group – presenting Banquine

The Kirichenko Acrobatic Group, costumed like the Louis XIV court, all hold Masters degrees in sport. Balance and trust propel flyers from one awkward, unstable position to another with fluency.

Oriol Boaxader/Clown Oriolo is enchanting, all the more because he doesn’t find himself funny. Clown Paquin Jr. is physically broader but in the graceful manner of Harold Lloyd. Both have wonderful costumes and splendid make-up. Clown Angelo, costumed in the Comedia del Arte fashion is a quiet musician. Born into a circus family, Devin Bognio has neither costume (he’s dressed like one of the equipment handlers) nor or distinctive stage traits. The former undoubtedly affects the latter.

Angelo, Devin Bognio, Paquin Jr, Oriolo

Noel Aguilar juggles silver pins faster than anyone I’ve seen to date. Reflecting light, they spin, cross over, rise and fall over his head, behind his back, between his legs. Emma Phillips is a Chinese style foot juggler. Laying on a slant board, she deftly juggles parasols with her feet. Geoffrey Berhault nimbly hops from one tightrope to another, but executes nothing we haven’t seen and is notably wearing black jeans rather than lower costume. La Fiesta Escenica – Polar Bears, features three ersatz white bears that are called animatronic in the program, but appear to be men in good costumes, and a “trainer.” It’s stiff.

New York dancers Amanda Magee, Grace Sautter, Lexy Bittner, Lindsay Carroll, Olivia Tarchick, Paloma Santos, and Reagan Davidson are attractively choreographed by Kim Cravan and Ron Todorwski.

Curiously nothing in costuming or set makes any reference to the rainbow in the title. Early on an ersatz hot air balloon (with unnecessary signage) lands. That’s it. A wildly missed visual opportunity. Costumes are often fun but have no overall point of view.

The band is excellent, arrangements suit.

Photos by Christine DiPasquale

Big Apple Circus & Circus Theater Roncalli
Under the Big Top Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center
Directed by Patrick Philadelphia
Musical Supervisor –  Pgorg Pommer