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Big top on Fan Pier
The Big Apple Circus is back in town
BY IRIS FANGER

Paul Binder, co-founder and producer of the Big Apple Circus, didn’t run away to join the circus until he had graduated from Dartmouth College and finished an MBA at Columbia University. Some six years out of college, he was " looking for adventure, " as he tells it, and he heaved himself off the yuppie ladder climb to audition for the San Francisco Mime Troupe. There he acquired a marketable skill — juggling — and formed an act with Michael Christensen, an actor he had met in California.

" We took the act to the streets and then to Europe, " he recalls. " We were early street performers before it became faddish. " Discovered first by the Casino de Paris and then by a scout for Annie Fratellini’s Nouveau Cirque de Paris, the pair spent two years on the road in France with her cirque intime before Binder had a double revelation. He wanted to return home — and he wanted to start his own circus.

Fast-forward 25 years to the silver anniversary tour of the Big Apple Circus, which sets up its blue-and-yellow big top on Fan Pier this Saturday for a six-week run. Fueled by an annual budget of $20-$22 million, the caravan of 150 performers, crew members, and musicians plus animals, equipment, and tents will travel 11 months this year to 10 cities in 35 trucks (five of them sleeper wagons for the crew) and 40 live-in trailers, one of them housing the Binder family. Binder goes on the road with his wife, Katja Schumann, the Danish-born trainer of magnificent Arabian horses; daughter Katherine Schumann Binder, who at almost 18 is an aerialist and acrobat with the troupe, and 15-year-old son Maxie, who works the dog and horse acts. (Binder’s son by a first marriage is a VP of business affairs at Warner, " taking a different route into entertainment, " as Binder explains it.)

With Christensen at his side, Binder called on his math skills and his belief in circus as a theatrical form to start the Big Apple on the proverbial shoestring. " I had enough understanding that I didn’t believe it could exist and survive at this juncture as a 20th-century thing; it’s a 19th-century business that needed to be a non-profit organization. The concept fit into my social philosophy, to serve the community. We’ve started a $5 million fund for the community projects. " While in Boston, the Big Apple Circus, which is sponsored by Fidelity Investments in association with the Children’s Museum, will send out its Circus Clown Care Unit for two weeks of full-time work at Boston Children’s Hospital. The Big Apple also raises money to support " Circus of the Senses, " performances for children who are vision- or hearing-impaired, and it donates 50,000 tickets each year to children who could not otherwise afford the price of admission.

The 2003 production, Dreams of a City, with a commissioned score by Michael Valenti and Scott Sena, costumes by Mirena Rada, and scenery by Dan Kuchar, has been directed by Michel Barette and choreographed by Lisa LeAnn Dalton. The idea of setting the show at the turn of the century is familiar to the Big Apple staff. What’s different is the New York setting. " We’ve done several shows in this era, " Binder points out, " because the period from 1860 to 1920 was the circus Belle Époque as a hugely successful entertainment. We began exploring the theme; then came September 11, so we said we’d put it into New York City with its massive population of newcomers from around the world. " The theme fits well on the troupe, whose line-up mirrors the mix of immigrants who came to Ellis Island, albeit with some specific skills: flying-trapeze artists from Russia, an acrobat from China, a juggler from Switzerland, a clown from France, not to mention the home-grown talents.

And the other new-style outfit on the circuit, Cirque du Soleil? Binder recalls helping it get started. " They came to us to study our tenting situation, our traveling situation, how to do all that stuff. They made different economic choices than we did, looking to make it into — and they did — a successful, commercial business. I have praise for Cirque du Soleil, but it doesn’t have the same æsthetic as ours. Ours is much more human-focused, meaning it has a theatrical intimacy. It’s not about spectacle; it’s about the contact with the audience. "

The Big Apple Circus performs on Fan Pier (Old Northern Avenue) April 5 through May 11; for performance times, call (800) 922-3772. Tickets are $13 to $51; call Ticketmaster at (617) 931-2787 or visit the Children’s Museum. The Big Apple box office opens this Saturday, April 5.

Issue Date: April 3 - 10, 2030

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