The Ordinary Acrobat by Duncan Wall

The Ordinary Acrobat by Duncan Wall

A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Year

When Duncan Wall visited his first nouveau cirque as a college student in Paris, everything about it-the monochromatic costumes, the acrobats singing Simon and Garfunkel, the juggler reciting Proust-hooked him. Soon he was attending circuses two or three nights a week, and soon after that, he entered the intensively competitive training program at France's cole Nationale des Arts du Cirque. The Ordinary Acrobat is a magical, funny, sometimes scary story of what happens when one average American joins a host of gifted-and flexible-international students in a rigorous regimen of tumbling, trapeze, juggling, and clowning. Brimming with surprises, outsized personalities, and plenty of charm, this personal history of how the circus evolved into the thrilling experience it is today delivers all the excitement and pleasure of the circus ring itself.

Duncan Wall studied as a Fulbright scholar at France's ecole Nationale des Arts du Cirque de Rosny-sous-Bois. He is on the board of directors for the American Youth Circus Organization and was the founder and co-artistic director of the Candidatos, an acclaimed clown-theater company recognized by The New York Times for its contribution to the flowering of contemporary clowning. He lives in Montreal, where he teaches circus history and criticism at the ecole Nationale de Cirque, Canada's national circus school.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780307472267
ISBN 10	0307472264
Title	The Ordinary Acrobat
Author	Duncan Wall
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Random House USA Inc
Year published	2013-11-05
Number of pages	336
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.