circusamok
Circus Amok is a one-of-a-kind, gender-bending, free associating, schtick driven, star-studded circus. Directed by the unstoppable "bearded lady" Jennifer Miller, this troupe of jugglers, stilt walkers, divas, and acrobats balances danger with laughter, politics with punchlines. They are fearless, funny, funky and fundamentally subversive.
The troupe is accompanied by the blasting, percussive sounds of the 6 piece Circus Amok band, under the baton of Jenny Romaine. Playing a variety of international musical styles from klezmer to funk to folk.
The group has been together since 1989 bringing its funny, queer, caustic and sexy, political one-ring spectacles to diverse neighborhoods from East New York to the East Village as well as campus communities. The company is comprised of seven ring-performers, a 7 member live band, 3-roustabouts, and a trucker/technician extraordinaire. The performers in the ring are trained in traditional circus skills - tight rope walking, juggling, acrobatics, stilt walking, clowning - as well as experimental dance, theater, and gender-bending performance art and improvisational techniques. Over the years the traditional circus techniques have been combined with dance, lifesize puppetry, music old and new, and dramatic monologues creating new meanings for circus while continuing to entertain the crowds of all ages throughout city streets, gardens, parks, playgrounds, and campus outdoor spring festivals.
Circus Amok performances prove that diverse audiences can join us in envisioning a more empowered life of community interaction while enjoying a queer celebratory spectacle. But most of all, Circus Amok brings a seventeen-act-in-59-minutes joyful extravaganza of acrobatic artistry, satiric skill, and good old-fashioned circus fun to all.
" Circus Amok is thriving in its eighth year of reinventing the circus form, borrowing drag fabulousness from Charles Ludlam's Theater of the Ridiculous, large scale transformation using whole-body masks from Bread and Puppet Theater, and the outdoor bally and verbal rhythm and repertoire from the sideshow, as well as movement vocabulary from post-modern dance. The troupe balances danger with laughter, slipping its critique between the pies in the face and the surreal, scary, and sometimes gender-bent characters of the .
" Unlock your daughters. also your sons. Grab your cats and dogs and families and friends. Run for your lives. It's Circus Amok !
" They are fearless, funny, funky and fundamentally subversive. .
" Circus Amok is a double scoop of politics and play .
