For Chicagoans, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus became personal with its debut at the Rosemont Horizon Tuesday night.
A group of young acrobats may have been called the Chicago Kidz, but everyone at the Horizon knew their real identities: The Jesse White Tumblers. About 10 members of the famed group have signed on for 2-year hitches with the “Greatest Show on Earth.”
The Kidz, wearing the Ringling Bros. logo, were saved until almost the very end of the more than two-hour show. They performed their trademark acrobatic floor routine. Some of the tumblers earlier in the evening took part in a colorful, elaborately-beaded jump-rope display, flipping through swinging ropes and jumping with partners sitting on their shoulders.
Of course, the audience saved their loudest cheers for the Kidz.
It was appropriate that the circus chose to have the Chicago tumblers as part of the show.
The 200th edition of Ringling Bros. is dedicated to the children of the world.
More than 45 kids from around the globe, many of them acrobats, have been included in this show to “celebrate the child in all of us,” said engaging ringmaster Eric Michael Gillett.
Twelve-year-old Youlia of Siberia was a delight while using her handler as human parallel bars, fairly dancing through the air while doing high spins and flips.
The Taiyuan Acrobatic Troupe from the People’s Republic of China were also fan favorites as they performed various maneuvers through hoops, and the Ashton Family featured a brother and sister who were spun around at a back-breaking pace while balancing on their father’s feet.
Oh, the adults weren’t all that bad, either.
Italy’s David Larible, the “King of Clowns,” probably got the second-loudest round of applause, behind the Chicago Kidz. He took several audience members to the center ring, and during a sketch involving six people ringing bells to create beautiful music, got one stone-faced woman to not only smile, but kick up her heels, as one shoe flew from her foot into the next ring.
The clowns were entertaining as always; the Espanas kept everyone’s eyes upwards while performing a balacing act on an ever-moving, nearly 100-foot “wheel of death.”
Vivien Larible, David’s sister, was captivating on a trapeze that swung around the center ring.
Buffalos, chimpanzees, horses and elephants were crowd-pleasers, and animal trainer Mark Oliver Gebel continues to live up to the reputation of his father, Gunther Gebel-Williams.
But the circus, and the evening, belonged to the children: The ones performing in the three rings, the ones in the audience, and especially the Chicago Kidz, who should now be considered the World-Class Kidz.
———-
Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus is appearing through Nov. 14 at the Rosemont Horizon, and Nov. 16-28 at the Chicago Stadium.
