The world of the circus, Tad Emptage said, is a small world after all.
“There are fewer full-time professional circus performers than there are neurosurgeons,” said Emptage. “It’s a very small industry.”
At 7:30 p.m. tonight in the Amphitheater, the Acrobats of Cirque-Tacular will execute aerial and ground acrobatic performances in their first trip back to Chautauqua since 2021.
Cirque-Tacular has performed in over 70 countries and was honored with the 2017 Family Entertainment Parents’ choice award. Critics have noted their performers as “mesmerizing,” “incredible” and “truly impressive.”
The shows are built off the skill and abilities of the 20 full-time artists/creators. They also have a call list of over 300 performers for international shows. Out of the 20 regular performers, seven will be performing tonight.
The show will be hosted by one of just a few female ringmistresses in the United States, according to Emptage.
Emptage teased a new skill to be performed tonight and noted the performance will include everything from the oldest circus skill to the debut of this new act. It will be performed by a special guest, who has worked with the company only once before.
“He is premiering a feature act that has never been performed anywhere,” Emptage said. “All the Chautauqua attendees will see a skill never performed before on the Chautauqua stage.”
Cirque-Tacular was founded by Emptage, though he didn’t set out to be a circus mastermind. He began in musical theater, where he would work for 15 years.
“I was on tour for a couple years, and we had a couple of circus performers and Olympic athletes in our cast,” said Emptage. “They had to train a lot to do all the tricks in the show, so our hangout time was their training time.”
Emptage would learn tricks while spending time with other performers. After two years, he said he had learned enough tricks to essentially be a “bona fide” circus performer himself. Emptage realized he was drawn to the circus more than singing.
He began to look for venues in New York with high ceilings for his work. The location he found was a decommissioned church. After establishing a location to perform, their acrobatic circus began that week.
They quickly began to take off, as circuses hadn’t been a part of traditional New York City entertainment in, Emptage noted, at least a generation.
“We suddenly became the talk of the town,” Emptage said. “People wanted circus performers, but they didn’t know where to get them because there were only about a dozen of us in the city.”
It would spread like wildfire, with circuses becoming popularized in modern culture.
“Britney Spears’ Circus album came out, and suddenly, everybody wanted circus,” Emptage said. “Pink started doing acrobatics at her shows. It took off.”
He emphasized the physicality of acrobatics and what some attendees should note before the performance.
“It is taking what is possible as a human being to an extreme, to the edges of human capability for delight and entertainment,” Emptage said.
Ahead of their performance, he looks forward to the group returning to Chautauqua Institution.
“I have always appreciated the Chautauqua mission,” Emptage said. “To allow new things, to have deep conversations and have this deep understanding and be willing to participate in an exchange. That’s what every performance is. An exchange.”
