And it has produced an uncommon camaraderie among the many solid, a product of the interdependence that circus requires. (You may’t actually fly by the air except you belief the folks on the bottom to catch you.) “In circus, we’re a bit lawless,” Carroll mentioned. “However we’re additionally actually collaborative.”
There’s pleasure in seeing a performer arc out over the viewers and a heart-in-your-throat stress when an aerialist dangles by only a hand or a foot. “We now have that new language, beside the appearing and the dancing, so as to add a layer of hazard, emotion, depth,” mentioned Alexandra Gaelle Royer, an aerialist and a member of the ensemble.
Gaelle Royer and her colleagues have taught the Broadway actors methods. (Because the ring grasp, Paul Alexander Nolan cracks whips; Isabelle McCalla, because the circus’s star, swings from a trapeze.) And so they have realized a number of issues, too, corresponding to learn how to sing and dance for Broadway. “There’s a stage of humility and style within the firm as a result of everyone’s a little bit bit out of their lane,” Stone mentioned. “After which sooner or later, each single individual is true of their lane and in a position to simply nail what they do greatest.”
In the case of the circus acts, that greatest contains juggling, silks, aerial hoops, a large Cyr wheel, tight wire, knife throwing, a unicycle and lots of acrobatic turns. Some routines are trustworthy to the circus of the Nineteen Thirties, however dream sequences and abstractions just like the dying of the horse push towards the current. Even at a rehearsal — with an understudy within the lead, the solid of their road garments, among the rigging lacking and harsh work lights shining — the methods might nonetheless exhilarate. And the creators hope that they will do extra: rework “Water for Elephants” into one thing past the paler issues, making it really feel actual.
“We really feel it on some base stage that these individuals are actually risking their lives for us,” Carroll mentioned of the performers. “That’s actually profound and exquisite.”