Both a great American adventure and a rare entry into asheltered world, Under the Big Top describes one man''s pursuit of every child''s fantasy: running away to join the circus. Bruce Feiler''s unforgettable year as a clown will forever change your view of one of the world''s oldest art forms and remind you of how dreams can go horribly wrong -- and then miraculously come true.

In commemoration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Henri J. M. Nouwen’s death comes this never-before published story of his surprising and inspiring relationship with a trapeze troupe, The Flying Rodleighs.

During the last five years of his life, spiritual leader and teacher Henri Nouwen became close to a travelling circus trapeze troupe, The Flying Rodleighs. Like Nouwen’s own life, a trapeze act is full of artistry, exhilarating successes, crushing failures and continual forgiveness. Nouwen wrote about his experience in a genre new to him: creative non-fiction. In All of Life in Nine Minutes, his colleague and friend Carolyn Whitney-Brown presents his trapeze writings woven into a dramatic narrative that imagines Henri’s life flashing before him during his first heart attack. 

Readers will meet Nouwen as a spiritual risk taker who was transformed by diversity as he learned to see the world through many perspectives, including his participation in the Civil Rights movement, his life in community with people with intellectual disabilities, his personal growth through friendships during the 1990s AIDS pandemic, and other unexpected encounters. 

What will we do with our lives, and with whom will we do it? Through this story of flying and catching, Nouwen invites us all to let go and fly – and not be afraid to fall.

From the author of SOPHIE''S WORLD, ''A masterful mixture of fantasy and reality...a simply wonderful read'' SHE.Panina Manina, a trapeze artist, falls and breaks her neck. As the ringmaster bends over her, he notices an amulet of amber around her neck, the same trinket he had given his own lost child, who was swept away in a torrent some sixteen years earlier.This tale is narrated by Petter, a precocious child and fantasist, and perhaps Jostein Gaarder''s most intriguing character since Sophie. As an adult, Petter makes his living selling stories and ideas to professionals suffering from writer''s block. But as Petter sits spinning his tales, he finds himself in a trap of his own making.

A daughter''s astonishing journey of loss, self-discovery, and eating fire - through life with the last traveling American sideshow and an adventurous, spirited mother.Tessa Fontaine''s memoir, The Electric Woman, follows the author on a life-affirming odyssey. For three years, Fontaine lived in a constant state of emergency as her mother battled stroke after stroke. But hospitals, wheelchairs, and loss of language couldn''t hold back such a woman; she and her husband would see Italy together, come what may.Thus Fontaine became free to follow her own piper, a literal giant inviting her to "come play" in the World of Wonders, America''s last traveling sideshow. Transformed into an escape artist, a snake charmer, and a high-voltage Electra, Fontaine witnessed the marvels of carnival life: intense camaraderie and heartbreak, the guilty thrill of hard-earned cash exchanged for a peek into the impossible, and, most marvelous of all, the stories carnival folks tell about themselves. Through these, Fontaine trained her body to ignore fear and learned how to keep her heart open in the face of loss.A story for anyone who has ever imagined running away with the circus, wanted to be someone else, or wanted a loved one to live forever, The Electric Woman is ultimately about death-defying acts of all kinds, especially that ever constant: good old-fashioned unconditional love.

Female solo aerialists of the 1920s and early 1930s were internationally popular performers in the largest live performance mass entertainment of the period in the UK and USA. Yet these aerialists and this period in circus history have been largely forgotten despite the iconic image of ‘the’ female aerialist still flaring in the popular imagination.

Kate Holmes uses insights gained as a practitioner to reconstruct in detail the British and American performances and public personae of key stars such as Lillian Leitzel, Luisita Leers, and the Flying Codonas, revealing what is performed and implicit in today’s practice. Using a wealth of original sources, this book considers the forgotten stars whose legacy of the cultural image of the female aerialist echoes. Locating performers within wider cultural histories of sport, glamour, and gender, this book asks important questions about their stardom, including: Why were female aerialists so alluring when their muscularity challenged conservative ideals of femininity and how did they participate in change? What was it about their movements and the spaces they performed in that activated such strong audience responses?

This book is vital reading for students and practitioners of aerial performance, circus, gender, popular performance, and performance studies.

Both a great American adventure and a rare entry into asheltered world, Under the Big Top describes one man''s pursuit of every child''s fantasy: running away to join the circus. Bruce Feiler''s unforgettable year as a clown will forever change your view of one of the world''s oldest art forms and remind you of how dreams can go horribly wrong -- and then miraculously come true.

In commemoration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Henri J. M. Nouwen’s death comes this never-before published story of his surprising and inspiring relationship with a trapeze troupe, The Flying Rodleighs.

During the last five years of his life, spiritual leader and teacher Henri Nouwen became close to a travelling circus trapeze troupe, The Flying Rodleighs. Like Nouwen’s own life, a trapeze act is full of artistry, exhilarating successes, crushing failures and continual forgiveness. Nouwen wrote about his experience in a genre new to him: creative non-fiction. In All of Life in Nine Minutes, his colleague and friend Carolyn Whitney-Brown presents his trapeze writings woven into a dramatic narrative that imagines Henri’s life flashing before him during his first heart attack. 

Readers will meet Nouwen as a spiritual risk taker who was transformed by diversity as he learned to see the world through many perspectives, including his participation in the Civil Rights movement, his life in community with people with intellectual disabilities, his personal growth through friendships during the 1990s AIDS pandemic, and other unexpected encounters. 

What will we do with our lives, and with whom will we do it? Through this story of flying and catching, Nouwen invites us all to let go and fly – and not be afraid to fall.

From the author of SOPHIE''S WORLD, ''A masterful mixture of fantasy and reality...a simply wonderful read'' SHE.Panina Manina, a trapeze artist, falls and breaks her neck. As the ringmaster bends over her, he notices an amulet of amber around her neck, the same trinket he had given his own lost child, who was swept away in a torrent some sixteen years earlier.This tale is narrated by Petter, a precocious child and fantasist, and perhaps Jostein Gaarder''s most intriguing character since Sophie. As an adult, Petter makes his living selling stories and ideas to professionals suffering from writer''s block. But as Petter sits spinning his tales, he finds himself in a trap of his own making.

A daughter''s astonishing journey of loss, self-discovery, and eating fire - through life with the last traveling American sideshow and an adventurous, spirited mother.Tessa Fontaine''s memoir, The Electric Woman, follows the author on a life-affirming odyssey. For three years, Fontaine lived in a constant state of emergency as her mother battled stroke after stroke. But hospitals, wheelchairs, and loss of language couldn''t hold back such a woman; she and her husband would see Italy together, come what may.Thus Fontaine became free to follow her own piper, a literal giant inviting her to "come play" in the World of Wonders, America''s last traveling sideshow. Transformed into an escape artist, a snake charmer, and a high-voltage Electra, Fontaine witnessed the marvels of carnival life: intense camaraderie and heartbreak, the guilty thrill of hard-earned cash exchanged for a peek into the impossible, and, most marvelous of all, the stories carnival folks tell about themselves. Through these, Fontaine trained her body to ignore fear and learned how to keep her heart open in the face of loss.A story for anyone who has ever imagined running away with the circus, wanted to be someone else, or wanted a loved one to live forever, The Electric Woman is ultimately about death-defying acts of all kinds, especially that ever constant: good old-fashioned unconditional love.

Female solo aerialists of the 1920s and early 1930s were internationally popular performers in the largest live performance mass entertainment of the period in the UK and USA. Yet these aerialists and this period in circus history have been largely forgotten despite the iconic image of ‘the’ female aerialist still flaring in the popular imagination.

Kate Holmes uses insights gained as a practitioner to reconstruct in detail the British and American performances and public personae of key stars such as Lillian Leitzel, Luisita Leers, and the Flying Codonas, revealing what is performed and implicit in today’s practice. Using a wealth of original sources, this book considers the forgotten stars whose legacy of the cultural image of the female aerialist echoes. Locating performers within wider cultural histories of sport, glamour, and gender, this book asks important questions about their stardom, including: Why were female aerialists so alluring when their muscularity challenged conservative ideals of femininity and how did they participate in change? What was it about their movements and the spaces they performed in that activated such strong audience responses?

This book is vital reading for students and practitioners of aerial performance, circus, gender, popular performance, and performance studies.