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So you think YOU work with a bunch of clowns?
Big Apple Circus co-founders Paul Binder and Michael Christensen on life under the Big Top and beyond
by Lisa Podoloff Boles
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 Paul Binder and Michael Christensen began their business partnership juggling their way through the streets of Europe back in the '70s. Eventually, their act moved from the street corners into the ring of the Nouveau Cirque de Paris, where the dream of bringing the theatrical excellence and artistic intimacy of the European circus home to an American audience was born.
That dream became a reality in 1977 when Binder and Christensen founded the not-for-profit Big Apple Circus. For those who have grown up thinking of the circus as a three-ring mega-spectacle in a big city arena, the Big Apple Circus can be quite a shock. Its one-ring show tours for 38 weeks a year, bringing its big top to cities and towns across the country, then winding up at New York's Lincoln Center for an extended stay. Each year's show is an entirely new experience, showcasing original music, costumes and choreography, all tied together by a single, unifying theme.
Binder and Christensen met while both were performing with the San Francisco Mime Troupe, a group known for using street theatre as a catalyst for political and social change. But while they ultimately left the Mime Troupe, their commitment to activism has continued, culminating in the development of a number of unique community outreach programs including Circus Arts in Education, which teaches circus arts to inner-city kids in East Harlem, New York, and the Big Apple Clown Care Unit™, which brings specially trained clown "doctors" to entertain acutely and chronically ill children in the pediatric units of some of the nation's leading hospitals.
Binder and Christensen have just opened the Big Apple Circus' 1999–2000 season with their new show: "Bello & Friends." And, if that wasn't enough, they're also currently putting the finishing touches on the Big Apple Circus' latest venture, Oops! The Big Apple Circus Stage Show, which will bring a unique mix of circus artistry and Broadway-style theatre to stages throughout the country.
And you thought your life was a three-ring circus.
Next page | Living by their wits and a rubber chicken
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Meet Paul Binder and Michael Christensen, founders of the Big Apple Circus, in this video clip!
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Paul Binder & Michael Christensen
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