The acrobats are lining up at Camden Yards. The elephants will gather at 1st Mariner Arena. Clowns can be found at the Baltimore Museum of Art.
Baltimore will become one big circus this winter and spring, with an unprecedented number of events celebrating life in, around and under The Big Top. The list includes a circus-themed exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Art, a "perverse" circus show at Theatre Project, and touring productions from both the Cirque du Soleil and Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey organizations.
In an age of smart phones, Hollywood special effects and sophisticated video games, it may seem puzzling that some of the biggest shows coming to Baltimore in 2009 would have their origins in the circus, a form of live entertainment that has been around for centuries. But, according to circus historians and others, those throwback qualities may be exactly what will make the shows appealing to 21st-century audiences that have overdosed on retouched computer images and "reality TV" that isn't.
"The circus is appealing because it responds to something that is deeply rooted in our psyches - the need to see the extraordinary," said Dominique Jando, a former clown with Paris' legendary Cirque Medrano and former associate artistic director of the Big Apple Circus in New York. "Not in the way of tricks, like in the movies, but in front of our very eyes, by real people. That's why it has survived for so long. It fills our need to see and celebrate feats of human achievement. People have a need to see that, a very deep need. It's part of who we are."
Going to the circus is the opposite of staring at a computer screen, said Melinda Hartline, a spokeswoman for Ringling Bros.
"There's no rewind to what people see when they come to one of our performances," Hartline said. "It's not digital. It's not a video game. It's happening now. If a trapeze artist misses the bar on the triple somersault and falls into the net, he climbs back up and attempts the triple somersault again. It's live."
For many families, "it's a rite of passage" said Homeland resident Richard Flint, former president of the Circus Historical Society and instructor for a course about the circus with the Johns Hopkins University's Odyssey program. "It's a tradition to take your kids to the circus."
