THE BALLOON MAN

Not your grandpa's circus
Street performance art comes to Musikfest via Zany Umbrella Circus

Zany Umbrella Circus, featuring Ben Sota and Erin Carey, performs 2-10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday on Main Street as part of Musikfest. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO / August 4, 2011)
By Tim Higgins, Special to The Morning Call
August 4, 2011
The circus is in Ben Sota's blood.

Even when he was a younger man studying architecture at the University of Pittsburgh, Sota could be found juggling in his spare time, a trick he learned at age 11 by tossing tennis balls. Now 30 , he has just earned a different degree, this time a MFA in physical theater from the Accademia Dell' Arte school in Tuscany, Italy.

"When I was 12 years old, my grandfather taught me how to walk on homemade stilts and juggle," says Sota fondly. His grandfather, he explains, taught himself these tricks to amuse friends and family during the hard times of the Depression. "If he could use the circus to get him through a rough time," Sota often tells his audience today, "we can, too."
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