Tired of juggling all of life’s pressures and responsibilities? No need to run away and join the circus when you can visit the Big Apple Circus right in your own back yard. The Big Apple Circus New Yorks’s home team circus has always provided New Yorkers and tourists with a unique entertainment experience. With the Big Top tent that balloons over Lincoln Center each fall, signaling that the Big Apple is in town. The Big Apple Circus offers a one-ring circus where spectators and families alike are never more than 50 feet away from the action. For a large hectic and bustling city like New York , the Big Apple Circus is surprisingly intimate, leaving the viewer with the feeling that a circus has suddenly showed up in his or her own living room.
It all began in Kent, England, in 1974, when Big Apple Circus co-founders Paul Binder and Michael Christensen became juggling partners and took to the street corners of Europe.By the time they had decided to return home in 1976, they had already gained some celebrity in Europe.The idea of starting a circus school to train future “first” generation circus performers was the innovation of Russian born Gregory Fedin and his then wife Nina Grasavina. The school started working out of a loft in lower Manhattan.
The couple collaborated with the Paul and Michael to develop the Big Apple Circus using the European style “one ring” traveling circus tradition. In 1977, they debuted the Big Apple Circus.
The Big Apple Circus is located at Lincoln Center/Damrosch Park, 62nd street between Columbus & Amsterdam Avenues,New York, NY 10023 from Oct 22 – Jan 18, 2010.
