Circus Spectacular brings world-class entertainment

BRATTLEBORO- The New England Center for Circus Arts is bringing in world-class entertainment for their annual Circus Spectacular fundraising event, happening on Saturday, March 2, at 7:30 pm, and Sunday, March 3, at 1 pm, at the Latchis Theate\re, 50 Main Street.
To do something different for this ninth year of the event, the lineup is intentionally honoring the historical traditions of circus as well as the breadth of what modern circus art is bringing to entertainment. From Charlie Chaplin to spoken word aerials, from vaudeville exuberance to storytelling through high-flying aerials, this is a family-friendly show that spans the ages of circus.
For the first time ever, the show will include an animal act, a dog and her human, presented by award-winning clown Diane Wasnak. Her resume includes featured clown for Cirque du Soleil’s Mystere, acrobatics and mayhem for the Pickle Family Circus, and various TV appearances, film stunts, and international tours.
The 2019 celebrity host ringmaster is Michael Trautman.  Variously identified as a visual comic, performance artist, new vaudevillian, mime, physical comedian, storyteller, magician, and fool, he claims only to be a clown, and not a very traditional clown at that. Trautman was the star clown in the national tour of OOPS! The Big Apple Circus Stage Show and his resume includes Broadway, TV, and his own solo touring shows. Trautman will add wit and wackiness to the Circus Spectacular as the connective entertainment between the acts.
From Canada, joining the lineup is LEGacy Circus, a contemporary circus arts duo featuring artists Erin Ball and Vanessa Furlong.  Ball, a professional acrobat and aerialist, is a double below-knee amputee who uses various leg attachments on floor and in air.  Furlong is a professional acrobat and aerialist who experiments in these fields using stilts. Together they will present a duo trapeze act that challenges the perceptions of disability.
Other performers include:
Jan Damm, most recently the lead act with the Big Apple Circus, will perform a high energy vaudeville style diabolo act;
 Eric Allen has gone from acrobatics with Circus Smirkus to clowning with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey to tight wire with the famous Wallendas on the Big Apple Circus. He has performed many variations of circus on stages, in arenas and under tents;
Susan Murphy is one of the original devisers of low-to-the-floor dance trapeze, an art form that began with Terry Sendgraff in Berkeley, CA in 1978. She holds a master’s degree in modern dance and is a Certified Movement Analyst from the Laban Institute for Movement. Performance highlights include Lincoln Center and the Skirball Center of the Performing Arts;
Lindsey Culbert-Olds started at Circus Smirkus with her aerial straps and now returns between a contract with Cirque du Soleil and an upcoming tour with Switzerland’s Circus Monti;
NECCA founders Elsie Smith and Serenity Smith Forchion will present their unique, award-winning duo trapeze act, built in a barn in Brattleboro after years of touring other acts with Cirque du Soleil, Ringling Bros. and the Pickle Family Circus;
  Returning is audience favorite, Montreal-based mime Mario Diamond, who will in turn bring Charlie Chaplin to life as he is one of the only performers in the world authorized by the Chaplin family to perform as him.
The Circus Spectacular raises funds to support NECCA’s transformative outreach programming and scholarships. Circus education offers aspiration, expression, empowerment, innovation, strength, grace, a place of belonging, and joy. People can’t fly, but at NECCA they do.
Tickets are $15 to $50. For more information or to purchase tickets call (802) 254-9780 or visit www.necenterforcircusarts.org.