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The Big Apple’s one-ring intimacy returns to Boston
BY NINA MACLAUGHLIN
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With a diploma from Dartmouth and an MBA from Columbia, Paul Binder seemed poised to plunge into a lucrative life in I-banking and high finance. Instead, he learned to juggle — not numbers, or assets, or dollar signs, but oranges, knives, and bowling pins. Binder and his pal Michael Christensen took their juggling act to European street corners and eventually landed in Annie Fratellini’s Nouveau Cirque de Paris. In 1977, Binder returned to New York, wanting to bring what he’d learned across the pond — big-top theatricality and artistic intimacy — to the US. Next Saturday, the Big Apple Circus, which he founded with Christensen, pitches its tent in Boston for a five-week run at its new location, the Bayside Expo Center. Acrobatics, animal acts, trapeze stunts, clowns, and general high-wire derring-do are the foundations of any circus. But it’s intimacy that separates the one-ring Big Apple from the competition. With one ring, "the audience sits completely around it," Binder points out. "No one is more than 65 feet away from the ring. The audience sees each other, and the artists see everyone, and everyone’s connected. There’s in intimacy a theatricality. And you just cannot achieve that in a huge arena." His commitment to this intimacy and to finding premier acts from around the world makes the Big Apple Circus more like a traveling theater troupe than a three-ring roadside show — a traveling theater troupe with members from all over the globe. This season’s show, Carnevale!, reflects the multicultural energy of the group, dipping into traditions from Rio de Janeiro, Venice, New Orleans, Cuba, Germany, and the Caribbean. "We chose the theme," Binder explains, "because it’s a celebration that takes place around the world. Each one is totally unique, but all of them have this celebratory quality. It’s a very rich subject to build a circus around — it gives us wonderful choices." And the internationalism of the theme "is a match for who we are." Along with director Raffaele De Ritis, composer Michael Valenti, costume designer Mirena Rada, and set designer Dan Kuchar, Carnevale! includes the circus’s signature performer, Barry "Grandma" Lubin; Los Aregos, a Cuban acrobatic trio; Andrey Markov’s dog and juggling act; and the high-wire Carillo trio from Colombia and Latvia. Belarussian hula-hoopist Alesya Goulevich makes like a human slinky, and the members of Russia’s Aniskin Troupe fly from the trapeze and trampoline. Katja Schumann, Binder’s wife, returns with her Arabian horses; their teenage son, Max, is part of the show as well. Boston is the fifth stop on the 11-month, 10-city tour, and according to Binder, we see the circus at a primo time in its run. "Boston gets a well-developed show, a seasoned show. We’re a breath of fresh air after a winter of cabin fever. We’re a harbinger of spring in Boston." The Big Apple Circus presents Carnevale! April 3 through May 9 at the Bayside Expo Center, 200 Mount Vernon Street at Columbia Point. Tickets are $13 to $52; call (617) 931-2787 or visit www.bigapplecircus.org
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