Cirque de la Symphonie Delights Audiences

The amazing aerialists, acrobats, contortionists, and jugglers from Cirque de la Symphonie are back in Rochester with a new program January 10 & 11 at Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre. Designed to bring the magic of cirque to the music hall, Cirque de la Symphonie is the only cirque company in the world that performs exclusively with symphony orchestras – more than 100 worldwide so far – and includes among its members world-record holders, gold-medal winners, and Olympians.

Sagiv Ben Binyamin is one of the newer members of the company. A master of trapeze, hand balancing, and acrobatics, he has stunt credits in movies such as Polar Express and productions such as Universal Studios’ Spiderman Rocks. “When you think about the circus, you think elephants, lions – that’s how I grew up,” he says. “Here, I found a different type of circus where people are stars and it is more creative.” Click here to read a longer interview with Binyamin.

Several of the company members come from circus families, and are second- or even third-generation circus performers. Vitalii Buza competed as an elite gymnast with the Russian national team and at age 16, joined the Moscow State Circus. He had a role in the Walt Disney movie Enchanted. The youngest company member, Nate Nordine has performed with Cirque du Monde and Jamie Lee Curtis’s “Dream Halloween.”

Acrobat and aerialist Christine Van Loo has performed at two Grammy Awards, the Miss Universe pageant, the American Music Awards, Paul McCartney’s European tour, and also choreographed the aerials for Britney Spears World Tour and the Stars on Ice U.S. tour. Aerial performer Aloysia Gavre is best known as a veteran of Cirque du Soleil’s Quidam and O.

And while you will see similarities to that other famous cirque troop, this time the performers will be sharing the stage with your Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, performing in front of and above the musicians while they play selections from works by Bernstein, Brahms, John Williams, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Smetana, and more.

Here is a video preview of Cirque de la Symphonie, recorded at the Sydney Opera House.

Cirque de la Symphonie at the Sydney Opera House from Dave Rosenberg on Vimeo.