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The ordinary acrobat : a journey into the wondrous world of the circus, past and present / Duncan Wall.

by Wall, Duncan.

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Alfred A. Knopf, c2013.

Acrobats -- Biography.

Circus performers -- Biography

Circus -- History.

9780307271723 (hc.)

0307271722 (hc.)

322 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 25 cm.

Includes index.

Circophiles -- State of the art -- Ring -- Art school -- Crossroads -- An American juggler in Paris -- Juggling clubs -- King of the Juggle -- Father of the circus -- Tradition -- Physical theater -- What grace, what hardiness -- Catch -- Opera for the eye -- Clown equals funny -- A regal past -- The inner clown -- Circus City -- Popular art -- Cirque de Demain.

"The extraordinary story of a young man's plunge into the unique and wonderful world of the circus--taking readers deep into circus history and its renaissance as a contemporary art form, and behind the (tented) walls of France's most prestigious circus school. When Duncan Wall visited his first nouveau cirque as a college student in Paris, everything about it--the monochromatic costumes, the acrobat singing Simon and Garfunkel, the juggler reciting Proust--was captivating. So great was his enthusiasm that a year later he applied on a whim to the training program at the École Nationale des Arts du Cirque--and was, to his surprise, accepted. Sometimes scary and often funny, The Ordinary Acrobat follows the (occasionally literal) collision of one American novice and a host of gifted international students in a rigorous regimen of tumbling, trapeze, juggling, and clowning. Along the way, Wall introduces readers to all the ambition, beauty, and thrills of the circus's long history: from hardscrabble beginnings to Gilded Age treasures, and from twentieth-century artistic and economic struggles to its brilliant reemergence in the form of contemporary circus (most prominently through Cirque du Soleil). Readers meet figures past--the father of the circus, Philip Astley; the larger-than-life P. T. Barnum--and present, as Wall seeks lessons from innovative masters including juggler Jérôme Thomas and clown André Riot-Sarcey. As Wall learns, not everyone is destined to run away with the circus--but the institution fascinates just the same"--Provided by publisher.

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