SANATOGA PA – The set-up work began, as it does every day, early.
Lewis And Clark Circus ponies were set out to pasture Wednesday morning on the grassy knoll above Sunnybrook's parking lot.
The Lewis And Clark Circus unpacked its trunks, trailers, and troupes Wednesday (June 10, 2009) morning at first light on the parking lot outside Sunnybrook Ballroom, 50 Sunnybrook Rd., to begin a two-day run of four 90-minute performances. The last show ends tonight (Thursday, June 11, 2009), and tickets are still available at the door … or, in this case, tent flap.
Erecting the Big Top Tent takes a lot of manpower.
It’s fun to watch performers at work, with all the glitz and glamour a live circus brings. Visiting the ballroom’s grounds, however, as the South Carolina-based company’s crews established camp, demonstrated just how much preparation precedes each event. Animals must be cared for, booths opened, food cooked, tents raised, and fences secured. Even with the precision borne of daily repetition, it obviously takes a lot of time and skill to put a show on the road.
While a worker adjusted fencing, left, a young juggler practiced.
It takes practice, too, for that’s the stuff of perfect performance. Lewis And Clark bills itself as a one-ring “quality, family-oriented European-style circus” whose talents include “thrilling trapeze artists, clowns, and jugglers.” Some of them were outside their mobile homes as the sun rose Wednesday, polishing their routines.
All those animals, and all those mouths to be fed.
The circus also offers a petting zoo, camel and pony rides, and a midway.
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