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A Journey into the Wondrous World of the Circus, Past and Present
Knopf
March 2013
On Sale: February 26, 2013
336 pages
ISBN: 0307271722
EAN: 9780307271723
Kindle: B00957T5A0
Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction
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. Soon
he was waiting outside stage doors, eagerly chatting with
the stars, and attending circuses two or three nights a
week. 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. Brimming with surprises, outsized personalities, and plenty
of charm, The Ordinary Acrobat delivers all the excitement
and pleasure of the circus ring itself.
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