Circus flies high!
Ringling Bros.'s latest adds wonder to a cell-phone world
Daniel Raffo tames a tiger during a performance with the circus.(Emmanuel Dunand / Getty Images)
November 11. 2010
Ursula Watson / The Detroit News
Ursula Watson / The Detroit News
Nowadays adults and children alike tend to keep themselves entertained with the newest tricked-out cell phones and bloody videogames, making the idea of live entertainment a distant thought at best.But can your gadgets make your parents levitate or a four-ton elephant disappear?
The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus plans to provide just such excitement and more now through Sunday at The Palace of Auburn Hills.In "Zing Zang Zoom," Ringling Bros.'s new show, magical Zingmaster Alex Ramon and his assistant Levitytia battle Mr. Gravity and his crew, called the Heavies, who are on a mission to keep folks down.But Mr. Gravity will have a hard time executing his blues-ridden plan as "Zoom" will have 27 acts — many of which will keep audiences looking up — from human cannonballs cutting through the air at 65 miles per hour to the breathtakingly dangerous fire swing that sends acrobats crisscrossing two-stories above ground.There is even dancing in this show. Dance captain Fabiana Santos, who admits she was surprised that a dance routine was woven into a circus show, heads the troupe of 14 dancers who shake it up to the contemporary sounds of hip-hop."I don't know — it is kind of weird," she says. "Dance and the circus? But this show is about innovation; they always come with something new."And no circus is a circus without its biggest stars: an assortment of exotic animals, such as Bengal tigers, Arabian and Friesian horses and a herd of Asian elephants.With all this hoopla, one has to wonder if a circus really can compete in a world filled with almost endless ways to grab people's attention?"Zing Zang Zoom" boss clown Dustin Portillo is pretty confident in the show's ability to keep audiences enthralled.
The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus plans to provide just such excitement and more now through Sunday at The Palace of Auburn Hills.In "Zing Zang Zoom," Ringling Bros.'s new show, magical Zingmaster Alex Ramon and his assistant Levitytia battle Mr. Gravity and his crew, called the Heavies, who are on a mission to keep folks down.But Mr. Gravity will have a hard time executing his blues-ridden plan as "Zoom" will have 27 acts — many of which will keep audiences looking up — from human cannonballs cutting through the air at 65 miles per hour to the breathtakingly dangerous fire swing that sends acrobats crisscrossing two-stories above ground.There is even dancing in this show. Dance captain Fabiana Santos, who admits she was surprised that a dance routine was woven into a circus show, heads the troupe of 14 dancers who shake it up to the contemporary sounds of hip-hop."I don't know — it is kind of weird," she says. "Dance and the circus? But this show is about innovation; they always come with something new."And no circus is a circus without its biggest stars: an assortment of exotic animals, such as Bengal tigers, Arabian and Friesian horses and a herd of Asian elephants.With all this hoopla, one has to wonder if a circus really can compete in a world filled with almost endless ways to grab people's attention?"Zing Zang Zoom" boss clown Dustin Portillo is pretty confident in the show's ability to keep audiences enthralled.
The circus isn't some stagnant relic, he says. "It is just as colorful, vibrant as any show in Vegas or on Broadway," and he says it changes in the same way technology changes. "Unlike an iPad or a Kindle, which are just one dimensional, the circus is a break from the monotony of TV and cell phones."Los Angeles media psychiatristCarole Lieberman says the circus is perhaps even more relevant today than in the past.She says the circus represents our humanity, along with its fantasy and its flaws. And there's something very real about it, unlike so much of our modern world.
"It's a piece of Americana, and it satisfies our nostalgic yearnings for warmer and fuzzier family times," Lieberman says. "As long as each generation communicates its love of circuses by continuing to take the next generations to see it, we will perpetuateits relevance."uwatson@detnews.comFrom The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20101111/ENT05/11110329/Circus-flies-high#ixzz14zRbtJm6
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