What if I told you there was a town where so much carnival-like energy is being directed towards discovering the next and the new that you can almost feel it on the streets? What if this city’s latest startup is not a unique bottle for delivering water or a weather phone app that picks out your shoes, but a new venture that uses a real live human circus and debuts on Friday night?
You’d be excited, right?
Well, that place is Grand Rapids and it is exactly what this city will witness when the stage lights go up at The Pyramid Scheme for the debut of the Bangarang Circus Arts troupe.
This latest venture spearheaded by Rachel Finan, a founding member of wildly popular West Michigan entertainment startup
Super Happy Funtime Burlesque, promises a collective of athletically trained performers offering something not just new for the entertainment venues of our region, but something our many corporate events agents, party planners, and even wedding planners have been craving. Plus, more options to book local talent!
“We have spent the last few years as individuals and as group members performing solo or with one another [at venues] from street fairs to art events, but Bangarang Circus Arts is about building up a community within the collective of artists we represent,” says Finan. “And while Grand Rapids already has a few other entertainment troupes devoted to the circus arts, ours is unique in that we focus on collaborative act building rehearsals where performers skilled in vertical pole, acrobatics, comic juggling, trick hooping, and of course, aerial performance can interact and grow their acts together.”
Friday’s one-hour debut and streamlined performance is a chance for all of us to see up close in an intimate venue just how talented and extremely versatile this group of performers truly is.
Finan is even quick to point out that while The Pyramid Scheme is a rather smallish venue compared to, say, a theatre or giant exhibitor hall, watching the talent navigate poetically in such a space also opens up the mind of the audience member who might be looking to book members of the circus, but who is short on space.
Among the stand-out performances of the night will be the comic juggler, a heart-raising, breath-taking pole performance, and also a chance to see the one and only “Mountain” Marco as he supports six women at the same time in a fan-like feat of peacock beauty and strength.
Proceeds from Friday’s performance, in the grand tradition of any startup, will go on to support the circus.
Admission: $10 in advance / $12 day of show