Back in their heyday, every circus would travel with a full band that would supply the soundtrack for the various clowns, acrobats, aerialists and other acts offering thrills and amazement under the big top.
In today's cost-conscious entertainment world, though, tight budgets mean many of those musicians have been replaced at performances by prerecorded tracks — a practice that, while often necessary, makes a circus seem just a little bit smaller.
To reclaim some of that magic, Cirque de la Symphonie has gone the other direction by teaming up with orchestras across North America, and the result is a unique blend of classical music and Big Top showmanship that has earned acclaim from critics and audiences alike.
Bill Allen, Cirque de la Symphonie's executive director and producer, first formulated the idea when visiting Russia in the early 1990s, where he became "mesmerized" with the circus world's performers and culture.
"One day, an acrobat came into the warm-up area of the Bolshoi Circus and set down a boombox. I thought, 'Oh boy, some kind of Russian rap music,'" Allen said in an interview from his Georgia office. "She turned it on and Tchaikovsky came out! That's the kind of music the circus was meant to go with."
After the fall of the Soviet Union, circus performers sought new opportunities in the United States, and Allen acted as a talent representative for those he had met there, as well as like-minded Americans and others. A series of ad hoc performances with symphonies was booked, including a 1998 Valentine's Day event featuring aerialists that was recorded and shown on PBS.
In 2005, Allen teamed up with Russian aerial superstar Alexander Streltsov — a veteran of the Bolshoi Ballet and Broadway — to incorporate Cirque de la Symphonie. Since then, he said, the troupe has been "overwhelmed" with demand; in the 2010-11 season, 60 different orchestras shared the stage with its jugglers, aerialists, contortionists and more.
"I always thought that this art form should be taken a little more seriously based on all of the things they do," Allen said. "A lot of the artists are national champion or Olympian athletes who convert their skills to something in the entertainment world. They're so respected if they win a gold medal in the Olympics, but it seems like they aren't taken quite as seriously if they go into the entertainment business."
Cirque de la Symphonie will team up Saturday with the Binghamton Philharmonic — under the baton of conductor José-Luis Novo — at Binghamton University's Anderson Center. The musical selections will include Dmitri Shostakovich, Gerónimo Giménez, Ruperto Chap, Johann Strauss II and, of course, Pyotr Tchaikovsky.
"From the audience's perspective, it's like a 'one-plus-one-equals-three' experience. The sum is greater than the parts," Allen said. "We don't try to be a distraction to the orchestra. We're there to be a visual complement to the whole concert, and if we do our jobs correctly, it's a balanced program. I never have more than two artists onstage at a time — it's not one of these things when you have clowns dancing all over the stage and confetti flying and lasers going off. We don't do any of that. It's very elegant."
One of the performers at Saturday's concert will be Irina Burdetsky, who specializes in dazzling hula-hoop tricks. She grew up as part of the third generation of a Russian circus family.
"It was very special. I didn't know any other life other than that, so that was natural for me. We traveled all the time, I changed schools all the time, but that's good because you learn to adapt to new environments, and obviously it gave me the basis for my future," Burdetsky said last week.
"My father was my coach, and I started performing really young. I learned the discipline that makes you grow. I was a little adult when I was 8 — very responsible, very disciplined. I didn't have a standard childhood like most kids have, with play-dates and stuff. It was more practice and homework, so it was more work than fun — but it was good."
She emigrated in America at age 16 to pursue both performing and educational opportunities, earning a doctorate in physical therapy. Today, she balances both careers.
"I love both of those worlds, but being a performer is more dear to me than anything else," she said. "Once you're born a performer, you always will be one."
Also part of Saturday's Binghamton Philharmonic concert will be aerialists Alexander Fedortchev and Shana Lord; juggler Vova Tsarkov, known for utilizing the spinning cube and frame; and contortionist/dancer Byamba Jigdengombo.
"Every performer you will see in Binghamton, that's years and years of hard work just to come out and do those routines," Burdetsky said. "It might appear that it's easy, but it's not, and that's the trick of it."
Both Allen and Burdetsky are amazed at the wide spectrum of people who attend Cirque de la Symphonie performances and walk away dazzled.
"This is for every audience, from the young to the old — it's something everybody will enjoy. You get two different experiences in one. It's not like you're just going to see a circus or just going to see a symphony. You see it on one stage, and we're the only ones out there who are doing it like that," Burdetsky said.
"We hear from audience members that it's the best show they've ever enjoyed, because of that unique combination of two different art forms brought together. ... I haven't met one single person who wasn't blown away by what they saw."
Judging from early signs, Burdetsky's 3-year-old daughter could continue her family's circus tradition for a fourth generation.
"Oh my gosh, I sure hope so!" she said with a laugh. "She's definitely doing those splits at home already, and she has hula-hoops of her own that she twirls. She seems very natural at it. She'll do whatever she likes, obviously, but I'm going to emphasize education as much as I'll emphasize cirque to her."
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