Want to Run Away With the Circus? PBS Will Show You How

(Nov. 3) -- From escaping troubled pasts to fulfilling childhood dreams, there are many reasons people run away with the circus. Capturing every moment of it on film, however, may be a new one.

When Maro Chermayeff and Jeff Dupre, creators and producers of the new PBS series "Circus," set off to spend 11 months with the Big Apple Circus during the 2008-2009 season, they intended to give viewers an experience unlike anything they would find under the tent.

The New York-based Big Apple Circus is a one-ring show where no seat is farther than 50 feet away from the performers. With "Circus," that level of intimacy is greatly enhanced through high-tech cameras that give viewers an experience not even the front row can offer.

That means witnessing every incredible maneuver of high-flying trapeze artists through helmet cams and catching 300 frames per second with the high-speed Phantom camera as a gymnast is launched into the air by a 13-foot-long, 6-inch-wide flexible beam, called the Russian barre.

"It really puts you right smack in the middle of the action," Dupre said.

"Our goal as filmmakers is to create a hyper-reality, so it's not the show you would see if you bought a ticket -- it was moving you into the circus of their own mind, so that our show would go beyond getting a ticket," Chermayeff told AOL News.

"When you watch the show, you're moving and seeing the trapeze act as you've never seen it before, and can't possibly see if you just buy a ticket and crane your head to look up. What is it like to be them, what is it like to be high in the ring, what is it like from their perspective surrounded by 2,000 fans -- what is it like? How glamorous is the circus in their own minds?" she said.

From successes and missteps in rehearsals to showtime in the ring, "Circus" offers a stunning look at the precision of live performance and the extraordinary feats the artists are able to achieve.

"Everything is real -- this is not 'Avatar' on the planet of Pandora," Chermayeff said. "This is a real person who strived their whole life to do something that's risking their lives every night, and it's amazing when it's only 50 feet in front of you. It's a very visceral experience."

But the series takes the viewer outside the tent as well, where life itself is still every bit a circus.

"One of the more remarkable things when you're in this world is the contrast between the life in the backlots living in trailers and the show they create twice a day," Dupre said. "They sacrificed quite a bit in order to have the opportunity to thrill audiences with their performance, and I get the feeling that they wouldn't trade it for anything."

The filmmakers captured a wealth of human drama in this world, ranging from the rigors of a rookie season and relationships among circus folk to raising a family and treating cancer.

Take Jake and Marty LaSalle, for example: Two brothers who have spent 13 years as a juggling duo are forced to start coping with differing views of their future plans.

Or the two young behind-the-scenes workers who face challenges in their marriage after one makes a bomb threat on the show.

Longtime Big Apple Circus clown Barry Lubin, who performs as "Grandma," discovers he has thyroid cancer and must take time off for treatment.

And then there's Glen Heroy, known as a "First of May" because he's entering his first season with the Big Apple Circus. Viewers get to watch the former Macy's Santa Claus through his triumphs and failures in the ring. The show captures his journey in great detail, down to his small window of opportunity to finish his laundry between acts in the live show. He does, however, have enough time to stop and discuss it with the cameras.

These and many other stories suggest that circus members were quite comfortable with the omnipresent cameras, speaking candidly and sharing personal moments of their lives.

"It always takes time to build the trust, but once you have it, they get used to us. Eventually, they didn't notice us -- we were part of the scenery," Dupre said. "We were there from the beginning to the end. I think that really helped enable us to capture their lives honestly and truthfully."

Ringmaster Kevin Venardos, now in his second season with the show, is shown auditioning for the role in "Circus."

"I could feel the cameras were there, but they weren't staging something, they were there to capture what was there on its own, which is one of the cool things about the series," he said. "You find out things that are sometimes remarkable, and all the things that go on in life. It's not always pretty. But you get a picture of the person, who they are."

Big Apple Circus artistic director Guillaume Dufresnoy, who's been a part of the show for 23 years, was a bit surprised at how open people were with the camera.

"This is quite a challenge to have a video crew for one year that is always present or always not far and whose objective is to document who we are and how we live. This is a community -- not only a workplace, this where we're living," he said.

There were a few times when the camera wanted more access than Dufresnoy felt appropriate: "For example, I unfortunately had to terminate someone, and they wanted to have a camera in the room for that meeting. I said, 'No way.' I would never do that to anybody."

Overall, he was pleased with how the show was captured and was proud to be a part of it.

"What I think is really clear in the documentary is that it's all about people. Our show is all about human beings really doing what you're seeing them do right now. It really shows to what extent we are really just a group of people working hard."

Tonight's PBS premiere coincides with the start of the Big Apple Circus' 33rd season, which opened at New York City's Lincoln Center late last month.

Titled "Dance On!" it's an entirely new show with a few returning acts, including clowns Lubin and Mark Gindick, Russian aerialist Regina Dobrovitskaya and Andrey Mantchev, a Bulgarian acrobatic gymnast.

Like the acts captured in "Circus," "Dance On!" offers a host of new talented performers gathered from around the globe. Though incredibly skilled, the criteria in hiring them goes beyond virtuosity.

"We are really looking for human qualities that allow them to perform their fantastic tricks and to make contact, to feel warm, inviting, even sometimes feel vulnerable to the audience," Dufresnoy explained.

Acts are discovered at circus festivals around the world, including one of the largest in Monte Carlo, where Dupre and Chermayeff filmed Dufresnoy and Big Apple Circus founder Paul Binder as they discovered the Chinese lasso artists featured in "Dance On!"

Dufresnoy also receives many submissions through e-mail and standard mail.

"We're one of the top five circuses people in the world want to work for," he said. "So we get submissions from people around the world constantly."

Among this season's acts are the X Bud Roses Troupe performing Mongolian contortion. The group of young women bend their legs backward until they dangle over their heads – all while balancing atop each other in a remarkable human pyramid.

China's Wuqiao Acrobatic Troupe jump and flip around the ring while effortlessly riding a monowheel, which is essentially a unicycle without a seat.

Girma Tshehai of Ethiopia offers an innovative combination of gymnastics with juggling, and the athletic Kenyan Boys seemingly defy gravity as they race up and down a towering pole during their routine.

Though these new acts can't be seen in "Circus," the documentary offers a greater appreciation of how these performers -- and any performers -- work to achieve simply for our entertainment.

"The circus is an institution that has a collective fantasy for everybody, but they really never had a chance to know what it's like to be there. I feel like that's part of what our show offers you," Chermayeff said. "Go to a place you've never gone before, in a way you've never gone before, and really have an experience. I hope that's how viewers who invest in the series will come away feeling."

"Circus" is a six-hour series airing weekly through Nov. 17. "Dance On!" runs in New York City through Jan. 9.