TROY, N.Y. — The circus is back in Prospect Park.
For the fifth year, and the third with a big top tent, The Contemporary Circus and Immersive Arts Center (CCIAC) is hosting a week of circus events with multiple performing groups. “Troy is really an outside influencer on the arts and cultural front,” said Corey Aldrich, executive director of ACE! Upstate Alliance for the Creative Economy and this year’s director of operations for the circus. “I think we want to continue to celebrate that.
..It truly does take a village.
” Though the performances started over the weekend with the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, the CCIAC is hosting three more performances on Thursday, Friday and Saturday from Montreal-based Cirque Kickasse, Good Karma Studio and Westchester Circus Arts respectively. The performances will range from trampoline stunts to silks. They are also hosting a youth camp throughout the week and the final performance on Saturday will be a free family day that will give guests a chance to try their hand at tightwire walking, spinning plates and more.
When people hear “circus,” they think of animals, said Troy Mayor Carmella Mantello at the press conference, but these performances show the limits and talents of human ability. Behind her and the other speakers, a performer dangled from a rope 10 feet in the air. “This is a contemporary circus; it’s all about people, much like Troy,” she said, saying she’s never given a press conference like it before.
“The beauty of this is it’s a family-oriented atmosphere.” It’s also about including all walks of life in Troy, she said, and the circus epitomizes that. This circus will bring hundreds of people to experience just that.
President of the Friends of Prospect Park and Rensselaer County Legislature Minority Leader Peter Grimm said the idea came from founder and circus performer Aaron Marquise, who Grimm came to know while walking their dogs at similar times. It was an organic forging of ideas. “As simple as it was five years ago without a tent, it was still one of the most charming things that ever happened here at Prospect Park,” Grimm said Friday.
“Families came, they sat on the lawn, the kids ran around. They were thrilled, they were amazed and they were entertained.” They have grown since with an official board and sponsorships, and it’s not just entertainment, Grimm said, but a beacon of cultural education.
As President of the Friends of Prospect Park, he said it gives them great joy to see an event like the circus happening right where the original bandstand of the park stood. Barbara Nelson, co-chair of the CCIAC Board of Directors, said it has grown from a performance on a platform to a major event and economic driver. It takes everyone to pull it off from their volunteers to their performers to Warren Fane who stores the tent throughout the year.
Their sponsors and helpers are willing to give because they know how important it is to spread fun and delight in the world, Nelson said, and she hopes people come out and join in. “There (are) so much intense things going on in the world and it’s just a joy to be delighted and to laugh and to wonder at the ability of the human body,” she said. “Every year we get a little bit more done up here and make it a little easier to pull it off, so all we need is people.
Please come on out.”.
