THE BALLOON MAN

Big Apple Circus’s ‘Dream Big’ focuses on the imagination

from: The Washington Post
By Jane Horwitz,
September 26
Big Apple has launched “Dream Big” at Dulles Town Center, where its run continues through Oct. 10. Then the company will head to its fall-winter venue at Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park.
The large, painted set piece at the back of the ring has a picture-book look that’s totally kid-friendly. Performers enter and exit through it, and above, there’s a giant, red-lipped mouth that provides a hideout for the band, led by music director Rob Slowik.
Amiable ringmistress Jenna Robinson, sporting a turret of flaming hair and rhinestone glasses, is a welcoming rather than an imposing presence.
Big Apple’s tent seats 1,723, and it advertises that no one is more than 50 feet from the ring. It does feel like an intimate space. At the 4:30 performance on Sunday, kids as young as 2 and 3 seemed transfixed by the acrobats, jugglers, trapeze artists and animals, and amused, if not convulsed with laughter, at the clowning.read more at:http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/big-apple-circuss-dream-big-focuses-on-the-imagination/2011/09/26/gIQAVVF7zK_story.html