Acrobatics is the performance of human feats of balance, agility, and motor coordination. Acrobatic skills are used in performing arts, sporting events, and martial arts. Extensive use of acrobatic skills are most often performed in acro dance, circus, gymnastics, and freerunning and to a lesser extent in other athletic activities including ballet, slacklining and diving. Although acrobatics is most commonly associated with human body performance, the term is used to describe other types of performance, such as aerobatics.
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a 16.3-acre (6.6-hectare) complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 million visitors annually. It houses internationally renowned performing arts organizations including the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Ballet, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Juilliard School.
La Nouba was a Cirque du Soleil show that ran for 19 years in a custom-built, freestanding theater at Disney Springs' West Side at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. It was a contemporary circus performance featuring acrobats, gymnasts, and other skilled performers. The show's creation was directed by Franco Dragone, who also directed many of Cirque du Soleil's earlier shows. Its title derives from the French phrase faire la nouba, meaning "to party" or "to live it up".
Circus clowns are a sub-genre of clowns. They typically perform at circuses and are meant to amuse, entertain and make guests laugh.
Franco Dragone was an Italian-born Belgian theatre director. He was the founder and artistic director of Dragone, a creative company specializing in the creation of large-scale theatre shows. He was also known for his work with Cirque du Soleil and Celine Dion.
Cirque Éloize is a contemporary circus company founded in Montreal in 1993 by Jeannot Painchaud, Daniel Cyr, Claudette Morin, and Julie Hamelin. Its productions combine circus arts with music, dance, technology, and theatre. "Éloize" means "heat lightning" in Acadian French, a dialect spoken in Acadia and the Magdalen Islands, where the group's founders are from.
Dimitri Jakob Muller, known as Dimitri was a Swiss clown and mime artist. He later changed his name to Jakob Dimitri.
James Spencer Henry Edmond Marcel Thierrée is a Swiss-French circus performer, violinist, actor and director who is best known for his theatre performances which blend contemporary circus, mime, dance, and music. He is the son of circus performers Victoria Chaplin and Jean-Baptiste Thierrée, the grandson of filmmaker Charlie Chaplin and the great-grandson of playwright Eugene O'Neill.
Sergey A. Pavlov is a Russian actor, clown, television director, writer and composer
Barnum's Kaleidoscape was an American circus staged by Feld Entertainment, the owners of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, at a start-up cost of $10 million. It ran for one season, 1999–2000. Inspired by both European traditions and the contemporary circus movement, it was the first Ringling show to be held under a tent since 1956 and also its first one-ring presentation in more than a century. The tent was carpeted with wood flooring and amenities to create an intimate setting with seating for 1,800 on cushioned seats and sofas and no one further than 50 feet from the circus ring. Besides traditional circus fare like popcorn upscale items such as cappuccino and veggie wraps were offered. The show consisted of 62 performers, 54 crew members, 8 horses and 27 geese, with 50 trucks involved in moving it from site to site.
Les Objets Volants is a juggling group from France that mixes juggling with humor, movement and theatre. The group has been producing shows in France and around the world since 1999, including elements of circus, theater, visual arts and even mathematics. It is under the direction of Denis Paumier, and focused on the experimentation with objects and new techniques of manipulating them.
Martin Eli Segal was a Russian Empire-born American businessman who co-founded the Film Society of Lincoln Center in 1969 with two other Lincoln Center executives, William F. May and Schuyler G. Chapin. He also served as the Film Society's founding president and CEO until 1978. Segal was founding chair of the Commission for Cultural Affairs, the Cultural Assistance Center, and the New York International Festival of the Arts.
René Bazinet is a German-Canadian clown, mime, and stage and film actor. He is known for his work with Cirque du Soleil, first as a performing artist touring extensively with Saltimbanco, and later as the clown act creator and acting consultant for the show as well as for Cirque du Soleil's 2011 production Zarkana. He has also starred in shows at the Berlin Wintergarten and the Circus Roncalli.
Jim Moore is an American photographer who has documented the variety arts since the 1970s. His photographs helped Philippe Petit plan his tightrope-walking stunt between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in 1974 and were prominently featured in the Oscar-winning film Man on Wire.
Raffaele De Ritis is an Italian theatre director. He is known for having created and directed numerous circus productions that have been seen worldwide through his association with Cirque du Soleil, Big Apple Circus, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, and Franco Dragone, among others, He wrote and directed Barnum's Kaleidoscape for Feld Entertainment (1999), one of first one-ring under-canvas "boutique circuses" that toured the United States, and was the writer/director of two shows for Big Apple Circus. For Cirque du Soleil, he co-wrote the original circus dinner show concept "Pomp, Duck and Circumstance" (1997). Other directing credits include: Monte Carlo Magic Stars (1998–99); Wiesbaden Youth Circus Festival (1998); Tournai New Circus Festival ; and associate director for the first Moscow Circus Festival (1996) and variety shows in Italy. He also directed Italian clown David Larible's theatre show concept.
Burt Blague is a 4th generation artist, circus performer, comedian, director, teacher and producer.
Raphaëlle Boitel is a French circus performer, contortionist, acrobat, actress, theatre director, and choreographer. She started as a contortionist street performer as a child, then appeared in internationally touring works by James Thiérrée and others, including La Symphonie du Hanneton . She founded her own company, Cie L'Oublié(e), in 2012, and began to produce and direct as well as perform, creating the internationally touring productions L'Oublié(e) and La Chute des Anges among other works. Boitel has also worked as a television and film actress, and as a choreographer for opera, including at La Scala.
Gypsy Snider is a Canadian–American director, choreographer, and former acrobat. She co-founded The 7 Fingers, an artist collective, and choreographed Pippin in 2013.
Amy Gordon is an American actress and singer based in Brooklyn.
David Gonzalez is an American artist. He has developed a career as a storyteller, poet, playwright, musician, public speaker, actor, and producer. His creative work has been included in several anthologies and albums and his productions have been performed in major theaters in the U.S. and abroad.
