Catching Up

It has been a month since I've posted on this blog. It isn't dead, just on haitus. I've been busy for the month of November with NaNoWriMo, a novel-writing process that takes you from your first word to a 50,000 novel in one month. It is the reason this particular blog exists, as I started it last year as I was working on Without A Net. This novel is still in process and I'll be getting back to work on it shortly.

I have received word that the theme for 2008's Circus Flora is Sherwood Forest and the Robin Hood tale. As fun as the Marrakesh show was, it didn't feature my favorite performer quite the way I would have liked, so I'm going to hope that the Sherwood Forest theme uses Nino to better advantage.

Also, the second Zoppe Family Newsletter is up and ready for reading at www.zoppe.net. They have added quite a few videos to youtube lately; a simple search should bring them up. One that I really appreciated seeing was someone's amateur filming of a massive storm that came through and tried to take down their show near Chicago this summer. It is pretty scary film but shows just how resilient the troupe is, and how quickly they could put things to right. Since I am using a storm as a major plot point in Without a Net, it is great to see how the real thing is handled.

Klown and I did not get to go to Colorado together and I had to go alone. The illness of a close family member made it impossible for us to make the trip as planned. This messed up a lot of things for us, and I did not get to see the Ringling "no ring" show. Klown did, and said it really wasn't that great, but he did get to spend several days hanging around with the Ringling clowns at their clown alley. A friend of Klown's, Larry, has been trying to get back on with Ringling and lucked into a contract to join the show in Michigan and then at winter quarters, where they will begin rehearsing for shows that will begin in January. I got to meet Larry, he stayed over at our house right around the time I got back from Colorado, and I'm glad he's getting another chance with Ringling. Of course, it made Klown long for wanting to go with the show as well. This is a yearly thing for Klown, every time Ringling is in town, and I just sit back and let him have at the fantasy, at least for the few days that the circus is in town.

That's all the updates I have at the moment; I hope to get back to regular posting in this blog within the next few weeks.

Big Bertha

Klown and I are taking a week-long trip to Colorado. We'd be taking an extra day or two, except we have to get back in town in time to see Ringling's tour of St. Louis. This year, we get the Blue Show, which is the experiment in "no ring." Two years ago when this show debuted there was a lot of discussion in the circus community about whether or not this was a good idea.

I have not seen it so I don't know. I'm sure I'll be sharing my comments here!

When I first started researching circus, one of the books I read was Water for Elephants. I highly recommend this book as a pretty accurate description of circus in the 1920's. The love story is sort of unnecessary, and a lot of the parts wrap up nice and neatly at the end when they really shouldn't have. But overall, the vision of circus portrayed is darned close to what it was like to travel on the big trains of the old days. In that book, they referred to Ringling as the "Big Bertha." I've seen that description made in other places, as well.

It shows just how big Ringling was in those early days. It is still big, much bigger than most other traveling shows. It is truly the only one of its kind any more. It must perform in huge arenas and has a support staff behind the scenes that can number in the hundreds. The only thing that might come close to it in size of support staff might be Cirque du Soleil, but the Cirque show can't compare in size of performance and performers. There really is nothing to compare to Big Bertha.

And in those old days, Big Bertha was something aspire to. Performers that ended up on Ringling gained a measure of unearned respect that couldn't be matched. Even today, to get on with Ringling is a great way to add to your resume.

I enjoy the Ringling shows. It's another side of circus.

The Christianis

The Klown just spent four days clowning with Circus Maximus in Jackson, Mississippi. Several members of the Christiani family were performing, and he spent each evening with them. I would have loved to have been a fly on his clown hat for all of that!

The Christiani family has been performing for at least 8 generations. I first heard of them when I read Mud Show by Fred Prowledge; in that work of non-fiction one branch of Christianis was travelling with Hoxie Brothers Circus in the early 70's. Some of the children from that story grew up and have recently performed with Zoppe.

Klown got a lot of circus lore from sitting around and listening. That would have been the fun part for me. The Christianis are also apparently in a book that is a mix of truth and bull, that I want to read. I may have to wait until after November, however, as I need to concentrate on this year's National Novel Writing Month. Even though I haven't yet finished last year's novel, I still like the process of writing that Nano offers, and will attempt another romance novel, tentatively titled A Cabin in the Woods.

Lost Interview

For two years now I've been attempting to get interviews with staff of a certain circus. Every time I talk to someone with their organization, I'm told "I'll pass on your request" but then never hear anything back. And when I do actually get ahold of a real person, they are extremely aloof, almost to the point of refusing to even look at me.

It's very weird.

All I wanted was an interview with some key players as research for my book. And of course I explained this to them when introducing myself, assuring them that I was NOT writing some horror circus story, nasty expose, or other negative piece. I go even further to assure them that I'm not a PETA freak and have no desire to see their circus put in a bad light.

But it doesn't seem to matter, I still get the evil eye and lack of response. It's a shame, as I would really like to have their experiences as part of the background of my novel.

Looks like I might get a writing day!

I might just get to get in some good writing time Sunday. I am going to have brunch with some good friends, hubby is working most of the day, after brunch I'm dropping Stinky off at Ampguard for the afternoon...this means a pretty quiet house all afternoon. The girls are pretty self-sufficient, and the little one will nap most of the afternoon. I'm already making plans for a crockpot dinner so I don't have to cook a big meal either.

The only "down" side to all this is that it's going to be 92 degrees, and my car has no a/c. I keep hoping for fall, but it's not here yet. They are promising a cool-down in the next few days. In the meantime, the more time I can spend in my air conditioned house, the better!

Another Busy November!!

NaNoWriMo is quickly approaching. As of this writing we have 28 days left until the start of this event. I do still look forward to it even though this will be my fifth year and you'd think I'd be getting bored with it. But it is never boring to write!

I have not finished the novel from last year, and it is still a year or more from being complete. I could continue that work in November (and probably will), but I am going to start a new project for Nano this year, as well. I'm going to go back to regular romance writing, as it is an easier thing to accomplish under the Nano guidelines. This year's novel is titled tentatively "A Cabin In the Woods." I'm sure this will change, but for now, it works. I hope to have it fully edited by March, 2008, and available for sale on Lulu.

So what happens with this blog? Well, this blog stays active and is going to continue to be used to update on the progress of Without A Net, as well as giving you circus news when I have it. How often it gets updated will depend on how often I have news to share. The book is a slow process as I find more details that need to be added, and am always open to new research, as well. Someday, somehow, it will get done. I'm aiming for sometime in 2008, but that may be ridiculously optimistic.

But since this blog is remaining open for Without A Net, I needed to start a new writing blog to handle Nano stuff. If you're counting, I'm now up to five blogs. Yes, I said five. One is about to be let go as I let the domain expire (I am not posting in it anyway), and one is little-used (it's simply a link blog for me to keep interesting tech links in). So I guess I will have four blogs, with three of them being used for regular posts.

The new blog can be found here. You might want to go ahead and bookmark it, although I'll be putting a link to it in the sidebar to your right.

More Circus

I promise to get back to writing about writing...really!!

This was a week of circus for us. Tuesday we headed out to a far suburb to see Culpepper-Merriweather Circus perform. CM is the same circus Klown toured with three years ago. They are a typical traveling mudshow, complete with plenty of questionably maintained vehicles, tents, and performers. Like most mudshows these days, CM is showing its wear a bit around the edges. Finances are tight for these types of traveling troupes, and without the corporate and non-profit assistance that larger circuses like Flora and Big Apple receive, they are making do with what they have.

That doesn't mean the show was bad. It was actually quite good, and I was pretty impressed. The entire performance revolved around two circus families doing multiple acts, which is certainly not uncommon in this day and age. I did take pictures, but then ran out of batteries half-way through the first act, so my pictures are VERY limited. But I'll share what I have.

The show opened with a cat act. I'm not a huge fan of cat acts, but they are beautiful creatures to watch. The smallness of the tent meant that we were sitting about 20 feet away from them, which is about as close as I've ever been to a big cat. The tigers were Casey McCoy's. One cat was giving him a hard time, but they all went through their paces eventually.

Chico the clown interspersed his comedy in between acts, mostly while they were setting up the ring for the next act. I met him before the show, he seems like a nice guy, but he didn't wow the audience much. He was on the midway before the show hawking his "It's The Strangest Thing You've Ever Seen." I didn't go in, but Klown took Tater into the little tent to see the Strangest Thing. She came out with a totally disgusted look on her face. Klown said it was like the Fiji mermaid. I have never seen an actual midway, but I imagine they were a lot of fun and weirdness in their day. The CM midway had a slide-bounce, pony rides, the Strangest Thing, and a ball bounce.

The second act of the show was Simone on the single trap. She is a beautiful girl and also played the role of ringmistress the second half of the show. Her father was her prop man. Simone and her family were also the unicycle act later in the show, and her sister April performed a pretty incredible rola bola act. Their baby sister Pauline performed an act with trained birds, an act Simone used to do.

After the trap, there was a Hula act. The performer was so tiny she was smaller than my teenage daughter. She had a lot of energy and could really work the hoops. Turns out she was part of the other performing family with CM, the Perez Family. She appeared later during the high wire routine, and at the end in the Russian Swing act.

Probably my favorite act was the Russian Swing. This is always done with such high energy and leaves you feeling quite "up" by the time you leave the show.

CM was moving down the road about 9 miles for the next night's performance, so they were going to make their jump that night. I watched the "little things" going on in the background as the work crew was breaking things down, even while the performance was still going on. After intermission, the entrance gates were taken down, and during the high wire act the large "no smoking" banners were removed from the sidewall. As soon as the show was over and people were walking out, the ring curb was removed, and the sidewall was dropped starting at the far end of the tent. By the time the audience had cleared the tent, there was crew folding up the seats onto the seat wagons and a small bobcat was going around lifting stakes that had been used to hold rigging. The rigging had already been removed. Klown was hanging around talking to his friends as I watched them put away the schwag and close up the concession trailer. It all went pretty quickly after that, Tater and I walked to the van and watched as the side-poles came down, then the quarter poles, and finally the two center poles. The whole thing took maybe twenty minutes. It was just about full dark by then, I don't know how they were doing it with no light.

I have gotten to see a tent go up, and that takes quite a bit longer than going down!

As promised, here are a few pictures:

This is "The Frog," the little vehicle that usually goes ahead of the circus by a day.


The ticket end of the trailer that also housed the concession stand.


The concession side of the trailer. It was run by two guys who doled out an awful lot of diet coke and cotton candy, as far as I could tell!


Tater standing at the entrance to the little tent housing "The Strange Thing."


The only bit of performance I managed to get before the camera batteries conked out.


Being a geek, I noticed this almost right away. This was in the concession trailer, on a little window between the concession part and the ticket part. This high-end wireless router was probably providing wireless access to the performers and workers on the circus. I also wondered if it was providing voice over broadband, but I didn't see any evidence of that. I also did not see the satellite dish that was probably providing the originating signal for the wireless router.

More from Zoppe Family Circus

Sorry, had to change the layout of the blog a bit as it was cutting off my pictures. Hope it didn't RSS you to death as I was working on it.

I have a couple more pictures to share. After the show I did manage to catch the sound girl, and she is very open to doing an interview. Zoppe has one more show scheduled, then I believe they are done for the year. I will try to hook up with her after that. She is very young, and joined the circus kind of accidentally. She handles the sound (all of the music is recorded) and lights, as well as wearing a costume and performing in small roles during the show. She was in the ring during the juggling portion of the show, and was also in front of the circus tent, under the marquis, dancing with Giovanni and trying to keep the waiting audience entertained. She was about "thisbig" and cute as she could be. I hope to learn a lot from her, as she knows (or knew) nothing about circus before going with Zoppe.

I also spent some time talking to Giovanni and Jay afterwards, told them how wonderful we thought the show was. Jay asked me how my book and research was coming along. I say what I walways say, "it's coming along." I wish it were going faster. We took a few pictures, as well, including this one of Jay, Tosca, and Nino in the curtain of the back door.

And this one of the three of them. Jay was already out of costume but hid behind Tosca and Nino so it wouldn't show. I looked at his costume, it was wool, and I can't blame him for getting out of it quick! That, and they had to set up for the next show, and that costume looked brand new. Tosca's costume was quite beautiful, as well.

A Day at the Fair

Yesterday, Klown and I went to the St. Louis County Fair and Air Show. We didn't go for the fair, or the air show. We went to see the Zoppe Family Circus.

I have never seen their show, only bits and pieces of it in other shows, so it was great to see it whole. The show was supposed to be 45 minutes but we got 65 or more minutes of Zoppe, which was great. It was a small show, just a handful of performers, but all very talented and many doing multiple things. Before the show, Giovanni (Nino) Zoppe, several musicians, and two jugglers (Rich and Jacob) entertained the waiting crowd. There was a lot of interaction with the potential audience, getting everyone excited about the show.





I spent a few minutes talking with Rich, an older man juggling with devil sticks, as he manned the booth full of items for sale (t-shirts, Nino dolls, Nino coloring book, Sawdust, Life in the Ring DVDS, and a few odds and ends). I told him about my book project, and he suggested I talk to Zoppe's sound girl, Di, as she was brand new to circus.

The show opened with Mama and Papa, Sandra and Alberto Zoppe. Alberto is in his mid-80's and becoming frail, but he stood tall and proud in his dress suit with ruffles at the neck. Sandra is still beautiful, dressed in black velvet with plenty of rhinestones. She was a force to be reckoned with standing next to Alberto. After announcing the start of the show, they exited the tent, and the performers entered, juggling and dancing, and Nino carting in a huge trunk full of props. One by one, the performs finished their opening routines and left the tent, leaving Nino alone. He did his usual "lost my hat" gag using a little boy who was sitting in front of us. The kid was 8 or 9 and played along beautifully. His mom was taking pictures for all she was worth!

There was a German dog act with samoyeds, poodles, and one very fat little chihuahua. Tosca Zoppe, Nino's sister, performed with a tiny little horse who did small jumps and stood atop a drum in the center of the ring. Jugglers comprised of Jacob and one of the stage-hands/tent men that I recognized from Flora, along with Di, the new sound girl. Jacob was the main attraction, and was juggling what looked like spokes from a brass headboard, along with the requisite clubs and balls, up to five each.

Tosca returned to the ring to perform on her beautiful blond horse. I had seen her perform previously this year with Flora, in an act that looked stilted and uncomfortable. I knew she was better than what I saw at Flora, and I was not wrong. Atop her huge Principessa, she did several acrobatic acts with very steady feet.

Nino joined her then, with a second horse, and they performed acrobatics together atop them. Again, I had seen the more stilted and uncomfortable act at Flora, and this was so much better than what I'd seen there. I'm still trying to figure out what the difference was, why they had seemed so nervous at Flora but not on their own show. I think it may have possibly been the placement of the rigging at Flora. Much of the rigging was quite low, only 20 feet or so, and there was no way to do that act with the rigging hanging so low over their heads. With Tosca atop Nino's shoulders, and Nino atop the backs of the draft horses, they were more than 20 feet up. Tosca was completely relaxed on her brother's shoulders, and both of them looked completely comfortable.



In amongst all of the acts was Nino and his clown schtick. He appeared in the ring, in the stands, and behind the performers. On skit involved him in the stands near us, arguing with the Ringmaster about who was the boss.



It was a third of the way into the show before I realized that the Ringmaster, dressed as an old-fashioned whiteface Pagliacci clown, was Jay, Tosca Zoppe's extremely hard-working husband. Check some of my older blog entries to see what I had to say about him before. At one rehearsal for Flora, I asked him if there was anything he couldn't do. "No," he said confidently. I had no idea he ever put on makeup or performed, so that was kind of cool to see.



The final act of the show was Nino on the big swing. I've seen this act before, but it is still amazing to watch. He is so strong, and when you see him work you just don't realize it. At one point he is hanging from the giant swing by one hand as if it is no big thing. I am always amazed. He brought the crowd to cheers several times. Klown commented that Nino really knows how to bring his emotion to the audience. He gets everyone involved, and gets the emotion he wants from the crowd, whether it is a chorus of boos for the performer who snubs him, or a rousing chant of "do it" when he defies the Ringmaster to get to the big swing.





When the show is over, and Nino brings out the big trunk so all the props can be put away, there is a distinct sigh of sadness that settles over the audience. It is over. And it was a wonderful ride.

One whole month?

Wow, I haven't posted in more than a month. Yikes. I post on my other blog, and have been doing some writing, too, but wow, totally ignored this one, I guess!!

I am at last finally getting some time to write. Not every day, but at least a couple times a week. It is hard to write so slowly, I have to spend a lot of time remembering where I was in the story, but I'm getting things rolled up and finally moving on with the elements of the story that are missing. I still have things to get in the story in earlier segments, but they'll get there. I know I'll feel better once I get the story completely written, even if some of the more minor elements are not in place.

I have another chance to be inspired; Zoppe Family Circus is going to be performing at a fair over Labor Day Weekend so I should get to finally see that show. Also, right after Labor Day, Culpepper-Merriweather, the show my husband toured with three years ago, is going to be close enough for us to go see a show. I think he's hoping it will be a train-wreck, but I'm going for the research. Either way, that's two circus fixes in a week! Whoo!

My slip is showing

My lack of confidence sometimes rears it's ugly head and gives me great misgivings about my work. This time it was an off-the-cuff remark someone made on the NaNoWriters email group. We had been discussing Water for Elephants and someone said that it was an interesting story but that the writing was "average." All I know is that as I read, I was hooked...I almost couldn't put the book down until I finished it. If that was "average" writing, then I'm in trouble.

So I worry about my little novel. Is my writing also going to be considered "average?" Gads. I am not average. At least, I don't want to be!! I want my story to grab my reader and pull them in and get them to not want to put the book down. I had thought up until now that my first 50 pages or so are "done" as far as I'm concerned. But now I'm not so sure. There's not much action in those first pages. At least no much action that can get people excited.

Hmmm.

If I could just finish the story, they I could go back and fix/hack/change. I keep getting distracted!!

Zoppe Family Circus

I got the most recent announcement from the Zoppe Family Circus website, and it turns out they will be performing at the St. Louis County Fair and Air Show over Labor Day Weekend. I have never seen the Zoppe's alone, always mixed in with other circuses (like Flora) so it will be neat to see it as it is meant to be...

Zoppe prides themselves on being "circus the way it was meant to be," small, intimate, entertaining, and memorable.

Not to mention the fact that I'll get to see Nino again this year. What a treat!

Scenes that Don't Want to Be Written

I've been working on and off for months on one little scene in my book, where the FMC and MMC go out on a date. Simple, right? Not so much, no.

I think last night I finally had a breakthrough. I had put the dinner date in the wrong place. I moved it, and a few other things, to a week later in the timeline, which seems to have helped some. I do need to make a few more adjustments, as well. I've got a bad case of "cart before the horse" on some major parts of the novel.

It feels good to be sitting down and writing every day again. I really need to do that. When I let it sit, and come back to it, I have to remember where I was and what I was trying to accomplish, and that can be such a time-eater. So seeing it every day there isn't such a lapse, and perhaps I can get more of this story banged out in the next few weeks or months.

I'm also debating on participating in NaNo this year. I like to do it, it keeps me focused and after four years, it is a bit of a habit. But I don't know if I want to give up working on Without A Net for an entire month while I work on another project. We'll have to see.

Time flies...

...when you're unnecessarily busy.

I've decided to give up a major part of my contract work so that I can have more time to devote to writing. I have not touched my novel in at least three weeks, and at this point the darned thing is NEVER going to get written if I don't get moving on it.

I will miss the money from the contract work, but I should have plenty more hours each week to devote to writing. Now I just have to stick with my plans and actually GET the writing done. Today I have a nice 3 or 4 hour time to spend writing away from home. I'm taking advantage of it, believe me. My poor neglected novel.

Nano Countdown

A few people on my NanoWriter's group have started talking about NANO 2007. Up until it was mentioned, I'd been taking a very apathetic view of participation this year. I'm still eyeballs-deep in trying to get the story I started for NANO 2006 finished, and there is still much work to be done. This book will likely not be done for at least another year, if not longer than that.

So should I participate in Nano this year? I don't see how I can't; it is a process that works well for me and I do have a story or two bobbing around in my head that would lend themselves easily to a Nano project. It is an easy way to push out another romance novel, and get it published on Lulu for my loyal fans, who number all of...uh...five. But still, I do know that if the stories in my head don't get written down, they drive me insane with all their bumping around up there. I have so many ideas, so many characters demanding to be introduced to the world.

So, I'll probably participate this year, then set it aside and get back to Without A Net and get it completed. It would be really great if I had Without A Net done by this fall, but I think there are still too many missing pieces. This story needs to be accurate, above all things, and this alone will take time. I'm still struggling with making my story believable and likable, as well as being realistic. It will be no Water for Elephants, but it still needs to be good. This will be the first book I'll have attempted to sell to a mainstream publisher; no simple romance will do.

The Storm Scene

So, I decided to jump back into working on my novel by skipping ahead to the rather sketchy storm scene I'd written at about page 109. The storm and ensuing cleanup is a "turning point" for my FMC, and is the main crisis in the story line. It is after this that the FMC and MMC come together, and it is when the FMC realizes she is never going to leave circus, that she is thoroughly hooked.

The scene centers around a horrendous thunderstorm and tornado that strike the circus as it is setting up for several weeks of shows. There is the death of a main character (not a human character) and the temporary loss of at least one act due to injury. During this scene, which plays out over several hours, the FMC has her mettle completely tested, and comes out bruised and scarred, but knowing her true self and her true place.

I had sketched out the scene with some detail, but not the hours leading up to it, and this is the part I have been working on the last few days. After not having written on the story for quite some weeks, I'm feeling a bit "behind" and "lost" in trying to catch up to where I was. I do tend to write in "scenes," putting them where they belong and then filling in the connecting threads after the scenes are done. This works well for me but does sometimes require a bit of a heavier hand in editing to make sure I've not lost my flow somehow.

I think once the storm scene is settled, I can write more threads. I did talk the other day to Jeremiah, a model for one of my book's characters. He is doing well, it seems but is the same polite young man I made friends with in Baraboo, Wisconsin. He kept calling me "ma'am." Makes me feel old! It reminded me that I needed to develop that character more; there is much the FMC can do with this young man.

I have also realized that I am going to have three men vying for the FMC's attention. Originally I was only going to have one, but the characters tend to develop themselves and I have at least two other men who will be potential beau's for my FMC. I still know who I want her to end up with, but the ride getting there should be plenty fun.

Less Circus, More Writing

Okay, I know my blog has been pretty heavy circus and very light on writing. Now that Flora is leaving town, I promise to spend more time blogging about (and actually doing) writing than talking about circus. Sometimes my passion for it all starts overrunning my mouth. LOL

I do have much to write about now that I've spent the time with Flora. More of my characters will become three-dimensional. Many of them are still rather flat. I really do need to get back to business here and see if I can at least get this story completely written this year, and spend next year with serious editing.

Not to mention that I will definitely be participating in Nano in November this year, with a completely different story. I will likely stick to romance for that one, I can write those in my sleep.

Some Flora pictures

Anthony and Willy Pages. Hard to believe but Anthony is Willy's son. They look like brothers.


Tater with Tino and Olinka Wallenda. When Tater was less than two months old, Olinka saw me with her, and kissed her little fuzzy head. That's better than being blessed by the Pope, in a circus family. Tino and Nino are half-brothers.


Me with Nino, after he'd signed this year's dolly. He is extremely gracious and I am glad to have gotten a chance to spend time with him.

More Circus Flora

As promised, I have more Circus Flora comments. I wish I'd gotten to these earlier this week, but between travel on Monday and Tuesday to Arizona for the final round of interviews for the potential new job, then coming back to my regular stuff plus everything I missed, I didn't have time to catch up. I'd originally intended to take care of the blogs while I was in Arizona, but my internet connection was almost non-existent while I was there, so nothing got done in the little bit of spare time I had.

After the performance last week, while I was talking with Giovanni Zoppe, I said I was going to try to get out to another performance before it closed. He said, "good, hopefully it will be better next time." I told him I thought the show had been wonderful. He made a very disgusted look and waved his hand as if to say "the whole thing was awful."

I can sort of see his point. Having had a week to "think on it," there were definite flaws in the show. My first disappointment was how little Nino got to interact with the audience. Most of his roles were completely ancillary, he was there in appearance only but had no role in what was going on. The few times he was actually there and could have done something, he was given literally only a few seconds to do it. What could have been a rather promising trampoline act lasted about 20 seconds. He performed with his sister Tosca in a bareback presentation, but that was limited, as well. And in fact that did not appear where it was slated for in the first act, but in the second. I found that odd, and the shortened nature of it was strange. Both Nino and Tosca are well-trained bareback performers (it is what Nino first learned as a child and his father is probably the best bareback rider in the world).

There were some amazing acts, no doubt about that. Andrew Adams and Erika Gilfether, who performed an amazing aerial ballet on straps and crimson silk, took my breath away. I have never seen a circus act so deeply moving. The St. Louis Arches, long-time Flora performers, were top-notch this year, relying less and less on the "cute kid factor" and instead relying on their impressive acrobatic skills. Sacha Nevidonski's combined equestrian and aerial act was breathtaking. And the Flying Pages never disappoint; Willy Pages' 8 year old daughter was in this year's act, and she shows great promise. And there's nothing bad to say about the Flying Wallendas, either. The new elephant, Dondi (trainer Phil Schacht), performed quite well in the tiny ring. Joshua Schacht, son of Phil, leapt around on top of Dondi as if she were a platform stage; his steadiness was a wonder to behold. So there was plenty of good.

But there was plenty of lame, too. Pino was billed as a "physical comedienne," but I didn't see much comedic in her performance. Hard to believe she was with Pickle Family Circus for 10 years, and Cirque's "Mystere." Her act lasted maybe four minutes, and consisted of her bending over so her dog could hop on her back and she could walk with the dog perched on her shoulders while she fed it treats. I was not impressed, and if there was "physical comedy" in that act, I sure didn't see it. My husband's tried-and-true clown stage show has more physical comedy in the first minute than I saw in the entirety of Pino's presentation. And as far as Katja Schumann, if you've seen her act once, you've seen it enough. Her liberty horse act (horses without harness or bridle led by voice command only) are pretty, but lethargic, as if swimming rather than running. I've never been impressed with liberty acts. And if I add in how I feel about Nino's "under-use" in this show, well, then this show was half good and half lame.

But it's still Flora, and I still enjoyed it. I am going to try to squeeze in one more attendance tomorrow; the last show is at 5:00. Have to see if hubby is interested in going after my gig in the early afternoon.

Intimate and astonishing.

"Intimate and astonishing. The way a circus should be."

These are the first words on the cover of the program for Circus Flora Marrakesh.

And I would have to agree. This is my sixth Circus Flora; of the six, this one by far outshines the others I have seen. The music was lush, the costuming absolutely stunning. The story line was easy to follow, unlike some of the other Circus Flora plotlines from the past. Tucked in between the opening scene and the conclusatory Flying Pages, were some of the most incredible acts I've ever seen. While much of Circus Flora is the same from year to year (the Flying Wallendas, the Flying Pages, the St. Louis Arches, Cossack Riders, and Katya's Liberty Horse Act), these acts morph from year to year, and in one case, reached new heights in maturity and depth of performance.

There were two performers new to this year's show. One was Alesya Goulevich, who did amazing things with hula hoops, and Andrew Adams and Erika Gilfether who did an aerial act that will be burned into my mind for many years to come. Using rich music and simple costumes, these two shared space on a pair of woven cotton straps, in a dance that outshone anything I could have seen at the ballet. The audience was enthralled and enamored, and many of us had to resist the urge to present these two with a standing ovation at the conclusion of their act. They were simply spectacular.

A third new performing duo, "Pino and Bonzer," pretty much bored me and it's good they came in a lull between the aerial act and the Flying Wallendas. This rather short woman was, I think, supposed to be a clown, although she didn't act or dress the part, and she had one shaggy dog whose only three tricks included stealing Pino's hat, closing the lid to Pino's accordian case, and jumping on Pino's back and riding around the ring with her. I'm not a fan of dog acts to begin with, but when they are this lame they shouldn't be in the ring.

I was disappointed in Nino's much smaller role this year. He appeared in the ring approximately 15 minutes before the show started and provided his usual schtick involving audience members and the loss of his hat. He also performed a bareback act with his sister Tosca in the second half, and had a very short trampoline act in the first half. In general, however, he was hardly in the ring, and when he was, he was almost completely ancillary to the story and the circus acts. It made me sad; he has always been a huge part of what made Flora so much fun for me. Every time he entered the ring, the children screamed "Nino!" over and over again, showing how much he is loved in this community. I hope they will rethink his role next year and give him a bigger part of the meat of the show.

One act that truly deserves mention is the St. Louis Arches. This troupe of children have been training for literally years in acrobatics, and each year they get better and better. This year's group, about 16 strong, did the usual tricks, but with much more maturity and confidence than ever before. There were few bobbles of landings and joint tosses, and plenty of activity without the "aw" factor I'd seen so many years before by them adding the tiniest tumbler to their routine (even though he is not much of a tumbler). So their act was really good.

Sasha and the Cossack riders did not appear in that usual form this year. This year it was simply Sasha, with his horse Mammut. Their performance was breathtaking, as I knew it would be. I'd seen them rehearsing a couple of weeks ago when I was hanging out on the grounds. Mammut is wild and free, and Sasha created an act that combined an aerialist act with two long white scarves strung from the top of the tent, with the speed and wildness of Mammut.

Afterwards, we waited until the tent had mostly cleared before we left, catching up with many of the performers outside. The first was one of the Arches, who I complimented personally on his performance. These kids are used to seeing me at their home base in the City Museum, so I am semi-familiar with them. Second were Anthony and Willie Pages, spectacular in turquoise costumes. I teased Willie about his hair; during rehearsals he didn't want me to take his picture because his hair "was a mess." I couldn't tell the difference. He looked good either way. This year along with his wife, son Anthony and daughter Mercedes (who is about 8 years old) their act was better than ever. Then we talked to Tino and Olinka Wallenda, then Jessica Henthoff, and waited in line to see Nino (Giovanni Zoppe).

I know I sound like I'm gushing or someone paid me to say this. But truly, this was the best performance I've seen to date. I truly enjoyed it, and knowing what I know about the behind-the-scenes work of Circus, I now have a greater respect and understanding of the process that is circus. I will have more to say over the ensuing days, and of course I'll have pictures, too!