BRATTLEBORO — Circus Smirkus' 2010 Big Top Tour will make a stop in Brattleboro on July 14 and 15. Show times for Wilderness Wonders: Outdoor Adventures Under the Big Top are 2 and 7 p.m.
Circus Smirkus, based in Greensboro, is Vermont's award-winning international youth circus, with a 23-year tradition of bringing joy and magic to towns all over the Northeast. The traveling youth circus will perform 69 shows this summer, from the mountains of Vermont to the shores of Maine.
Thirty stars, ages 11 to 18, including Emma Bradford of Guilford, bring youthful exuberance and polished skills from all parts of the country and the world. This year's troupe hails from California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Washington, with international troupers from Mongolia and the United Kingdom.
The show is full of exuberant talent and dazzling spectacle, with aerials, acrobatics, high wire, juggling, trapeze, clowning, live music and an array of brilliant costumes. This year's tour continues the tradition of theme-based shows with a fun-filled celebration of the great outdoors in Wilderness Wonders. Grab your backpack, set your compass and join the intrepid Smirkus Scouts in celebrating the Great Outdoors, circus-style! Hike the wilderness alongside Trailblazing Tumblers, soar with Alpine Aerialists, and trek among the trees with Juggling Lumberjacks.
Circus Smirkus is the only American youth circus to travel “under canvas;” that is, the only American youth circus to put on a full-season tour under its own big top, an 80-foot, 750-seat, one-ring, European-style tent. Troy Wunderle of Saxtons River works as the Smirkus artistic director.