On Sunday morning at the University of California, Davis Mondavi Center, Kevin O’Connor, Slater Penney, Christine Germain and Emily Leap led two free workshops on rope climbing, juggling, building human pyramids and using the trapeze. Each 90-minute workshop accommodated 60 very lucky participants ranging from age 4 to adult. More than 300 people could not be accommodated. Kevin O’Connor, an MFA choreography candidate and graduate of the National Circus School of Montreal, was the event’s organizer. O’Connor invited three other trained professionals to lead the four simultaneous workshops sponsored by the new UC Davis Institute for Exploration in Theatre, Dance and Performance. The morn

Did you ever want to be in the circus, swinging around on ropes and juggling? The UC Davis Mondavi Center is hosting three free workshops Feb. 5 where families are invited to learn some basic circus skills. “They’ll learn to climb a rope, hang from a rope and do aerial work,” said 32-year-old master’s student Kevin O’Connor, who is one of two artists who will teach the workshops. “There will be juggling, too.” O’Connor is using the workshop as a way to explore how the Mondavi Center can be used to bring people in for creative energy that can then be returned to the outside community, a part of his master’s coursework. Other skills taught in the workshop will include making human pyramid

The Cirque Shanghai’s Bai Xi put on a breathtaking show Thursday and Friday night at Thunder Valley Casino Resort, playing to a standing room-only crowd both nights. Bai Xi translates to “100 amazing acts.” However, I only counted 16, but they were 16 amazing displays of physical strength and grace. The show was full of spectacular colors, talented young men, women and a number of young girls. It was a magical night with some mind-boggling performances and a variety of visually stunning costumes. As the show opened, the performers started in the back of Pano Hall dressed in spectacularly colorful costumes. Working their way through the audience with a winking parade-style dragon and wavi

What can you say about Cirque du Soleil that hasn’t already been said? It’s magical, beautiful, wonderful, exciting, breathtaking and heartbreaking. But none of that really gets to the heart of the experience. You start to think to yourself, “Hey, that girl twirling in that hoop suspended 50 feet in the air up there? That doesn’t look so hard. Couple more visits to the gym, I could totally do that.” But you couldn’t. The artistry and the precision that make them look so effortless are the same things that make these feats such that we mere mortals can only gape in awe. Jump ropes? Don’t kids do that in gym class? What’s so impressive about jumping rope? How about 20 acrobats jumping rop

Ringmaster Johnathan Lee Iverson urged a rowdy crowd both young and old to step right up on Thursday night for the first of three performances of Barnum’s FUNundrum! at Arco Arena. The audience sat mesmerized and wide-eyed by the sensory overload displayed from the arena floor to its ceiling. Eyes moved high and low and left to right to capture and process the fast-moving march of hard-bodied acrobats, choreographed dance routines, colors, lights and animals. To start off the night, clowns rallied the 10,000 or more spectators with a street-style drum corps that incorporated the crowd’s claps with a syncopated sequence of beats on trash cans and lids. Their rhythm, and the crowd’s, moved

When the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus train rolled into Sacramento this week, it was packed with performers who will fly high on the trapeze, swing by their hair or ride motorcycles in a sphere. But there were also those the the public will never see, and one of them is Chef Michael Vaughn, who has Sacramento roots. Vaughn’s office is a kitchen on the train’s Pie Car – its kitchen – and in a space not much bigger than a truck bed, he and his staff feed hundreds of circus employees and performers. “There are 350-400 people that we are responsible for feeding,” Vaughn said. “We don’t necessarily cook for that many people every day, but we often do.” Vaughn said the 59-car tra

Audiences will be puzzled and amazed by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s presentation of “Barnum’s FUNundrum!” coming to Arco Arena Sept. 9-12. The event celebrates the 200th anniversary of the birth of legendary showman P.T. Barnum. The 130 performers hail from 15 different countries. Acts include body benders, a two-level trapeze arrangement, stilt walkers, high-wire motorcycle balancing, trampoline acrobats and, of course, plenty of clowns. A menagerie of exotic animals, including 100,000 pounds’ worth of elephants, will be incorporated into the various acts performed throughout the show. Ticket holders are allowed access to to an “Animal Open House” 90 minutes before show time,