The New American Circus

In a plodding academic study, Albrecht, who teaches English at Middlesex County College in New Jersey, tells the story of four modern circuses that evolved after the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus abandoned the big top in 1956. They are the Pickle Family Circus in San Francisco, the Big Apple Circus in New York City, Cirque du Soleil in Montreal and Circus Flora in St. Louis. Each offers one-ring productions in the European style, and each operates from a different home base. Albrecht maintains that, combining elements of the counterculture of the 1960s like street performances with those of legitimate theater and dance, these four represent a new brand of circus. Describing their histories, he summarizes the trials brought by economic crises, battles with animal-rights activists and the founding of circus schools, no longer a rarity in the U.S. While Albrecht distinguishes the ``alternative circus'' from its ancestors, the presence of trapeze artists, jugglers and clowns suggests that it's the same old material wrapped in new diction. Photos. (Nov.)