Chapter 31: Brighton
"Can't we be a bunch of lunatics too?"
Circus Gehlhaar arrived at the site of the Brighton Circus Festival two weeks before start. Given that they would be performing in a different tent with sometimes new and different equipment than they were used to, they needed the time to adjust.
The festival itself would last for two weeks. There were five full circuses including Circus Gehlhaar. These five would share the main performance tent. Dotted around the main tent were several other smaller tents where smaller acts would perform throughout the day. There was finally a decent sized tent, which served only as a practice space.
With so many performers all congregated in one space, it was important to insure that to groups made it to their assigned practice times, had space to warm up and change, and had access to any other facilities they would need. To this end, several facilitators were assigned to the various groups in order to provide a liaison between the performers and the festival organizers.
Terry Hamilton was assigned to Circus Gehlhaar, the Moscow State Circus, and a smaller acrobatic troupe from China. He had been a Brighton festival liaison for 3 seasons and though he only spoke English, he always managed to handle the language barrier with aplomb. Wolfgang liked Terry immediately. He had met with Terry early in order to avoid any incidents involving Kurt's appearance; Terry had looked at Wolfgang's photos and shrugged.
"Do you think you're the only circus with a mutant performer?" He said in his usual cheery Manchester accent, "I wouldn't worry about it mate."
Terry met with his all of his performers on the afternoon they arrived. They assembled in the stands while Terry stood in the middle of the ring, explaining how things would work in what was to be their home for the next month. The first two weeks would be dedicated to rehearsal, making sure all the equipment was working, and making adjustments to the new performance space. He passed out schedules that showed how all the performers would share the same rehearsal spaces. Once the preparations were over and the festival began there was a second schedule outlining both performances and rehearsals. It was going to be a busy month.
The circus festival was a major part of the opening weeks of the internationally famous Brighton Festival that ran all summer. Because of the number of performers involved, there was no way they could house them all near the tents as was they did when they traveled singly. Instead each performing group was given an onsite trailer to keep costumes and supplies as well as provide performers with a place to rest between shows and rehearsals. Large circuses like Circus Gehlhaar actually had two, one for storage and a second provided a few places to sit with a make up bench along one wall. Following Margali's lead Wolfgang covered the boring walls with colorful tapestries and old Circus Gehlhaar posters. Then, in secret he pulled out his paints and retouched them to give Kurt five fingered hands so not to give James away.
The living quarters for the performers were a five to ten minute walk to the festival grounds. This was further away than most of them were used to, but it didn't take long to adjust. The organizers provided a shuttle bus for the performers, but most preferred to walk.
Even though they were living in their own trailers, it was very different from life on the road with Circus Gehlhaar. The festival crew treated the performers very well so there was an element of luxury they weren't accustomed to. Unless Circus Gehlhaar was stopped at a site with a campground, the bathroom facilities were primitive to say the least. Though no one complained about it, they all admitted that the building that housed both shower stalls and toilets with real plumbing was one of the best things about Brighton.
"I'm taking two showers a day the entire time we're here." Brin announced, almost breathless with excitement. She had had the most difficulty of any of them adjusting to the lack of proper bathing facilities. According to James, Brin practically lived for a long soak in the oversized tub they had had in their apartment.
All the performers and crew of the circuses were given hooded sweatshirt jackets with that year's festival logo on the back. Each one was personalized with the name of their circus on the front and their name of the name of their act embroidered underneath. The days were warm, things quickly cooled off once the sun set, sometimes dropping 5 to 10 degrees Celsius. The jackets were perfect for wearing while walking around the complex in the evenings. During the training weeks, it wasn't uncommon to look out on the grounds and see everyone walking around identically dressed. The "circus uniform" became a joke among performers along with the exchange of increasingly imaginative "salutes" when they passed each other.
One of the best parts was living near the ocean. Kurt, whose appearance necessitated that he spend the ferry ride indoors, spent the entire trip lying in a fetal position in his bunk, too seasick to bother with anything but moaning initially wanted nothing to do with anything involving the ocean. Once he was on land again his opinion changed radically.. The cries of the seagulls were musical and in the morning they raised such a cacophony that it sounded a room full of people laughing. The air smelled different and throughout the day a cool breeze blew in off the water. He had spent his childhood traveling along the mild shores of the Mediterranean, but the wild shores of the Atlantic reminded him of his favorite novels by Hemingway and Melville. He spent nearly all his evenings outside, watching for the twinkling lights of the boats far out at sea.
Life in Brighton quickly developed into a routine. Though at first the circuses stuck to their specific rehearsal times, as the days went by they had a tendency to stick around or show up early to watch everyone else. Wolfgang was fascinated to see that for the most part performers from outside of Circus Gehlhaar reacted to Kurt the same way that those inside did. It was as though the other acrobats watched him, acknowledged what he was, and saw only the skills and talent that made him one of them.
On the second day, while the members of Lycka pa Himmelen were cooling down after their rehearsal, they watched members of the Moscow State Circus setting up their equipment. They pulled out two large triangular structures that supported swinging platforms out and bolted them to the floor. The platforms were hardly a foot or two off the ground. Curious, Kurt and the Olsson's sat down to watch.
It was like a trapeze act only upside down. The porters stood on the platforms and used their momentum to swing them in great arcs (sometimes even swinging in a full arc over the top). The flyers would occasionally hop up onto the platform, turn away from their porter and at the apex of the swing, leap off. That was where things really got wild. The momentum of the swing projected the acrobats easily fifteen or twenty feet in the air.
Instead of nets, they landed against large sheets of fabric held at an angle that allowed them to slide to the bottom where they returned to the swings for another turn. Their takeoff flung them up into a graceful arc and they had so much air time that the number of tricks they could do seemed limitless. As long as they finished up with their back to the net and their feet toward the floor, they could do it.
"I know what this is." Sven said, after they had watched for a few minutes, "These are Russian Swings." He turned to Kurt and grinned. "Another Russian invention. It's totally lethal. It's usually a daredevil type act. I've never seen it done with two swings."
Kurt nodded his head without taking his eyes off the show. Both Sven and Nils had been raised by another branch of the Olsson family that mainly performed in Russia. It was there they had first seen the Russian bars performed, so it figured that they were familiar with other equally outrageous Russian circus acts. They watched the acrobats flinging themselves into the fabric nets for a several minutes with something between jealousy and awe.
"That looks like so much fun." Lars said. Kurt agreed.
After a half an hour most of the Olssons grew bored and left. Only Sven, Nils, Kurt, and Lars stayed behind to watch which was lucky since, shortly after the Moscow State Circus took a break to spin the platforms to face each other. When they resumed their practice, they began jumping from one platform to the other. The Circus Gehlhaar members watched open mouthed at what was one of the most amazing displays of agility and timing they had ever seen. Christian, having finished his rehearsal in one of the smaller tents came in with his bike hooked by the seat over one shoulder.
"Dude, that is just sick!" he shouted after watching it for a few minutes.
"We have got to put that act in our circus." Kurt said.
Lars nodded vigorously. "Or even if we don't perform with it, we should get some of those swings anyway." He said.
Sven laughed, shaking his head. "Those guys are a bunch of lunatics." He said.
"Can't we be a bunch of lunatics too?" Kurt asked.
"We do the bars," Lars said, "That's pretty insane."
"That's true," Nils admitted.
"And it would to being the bomb, bro." Kurt said. Christian cuffed him playfully on the side of the head.
A few minutes later several members of the Moscow State Circus wandered over to them, their practice ended for the day. They introduced themselves as Alexi, Oleg, Danya, and Fyodor. Like the Olsson's they were all brothers in the same family who had been doing aerial acts in Russia for generations. They spoke only a small amount of English and no German so Sven and Nils had to translate.
"You're Kurt Wagner. We heard about you." Alexi told Kurt through Sven.
"All lies." Said Kurt.
Alexi laughed. "No, I mean Nightcrawler. We've heard of Nightcrawler in Russia."
As Kurt waited for the translation he realized that this was one of the few times where he didn't have at least one language in common. It made him realize how tough things must be for James and Brin.
When Sven was done, Kurt was surprised. Even though he was technically the lead performer in Les Chansons, he never thought of himself that way. He was part of the circus, not a separate entity. Lars, Petra, and Gretchen had lead parts as well; he wasn't the only one. He asked if they had heard of Circus Gehlhaar as well.
"No, we just heard about Nightcrawler from some friends who were in Germany last summer." Said Oleg.
The whole thing made Kurt a little uncomfortable. Why were people in Russia talking about him and not the circus as a whole? "How does that work?" He asked, pointing to the pair of swings, eager to change the subject. The Russians were even more eager to explain their contraption and it's workings.
Fyodor and Danya were porters, they were built like Sven and Nils, solid and muscular. Oleg and Alexi were the same age as Kurt and Lars were and like their Circus Gehlhaar counterparts were a lot leaner and wiry. After their few attempts at explanation were lost in translation, Alexi threw up his hands in frustration.
"Come. We will show." Fyodor said in English as he beckoned the group over to one of the swings. He pushed the swing far forward and jumped on the back of the platform, pumping to increase its momentum and height. Oleg spoke in Russian to Sven for a few minutes while Fyodor pumped the swing until he could arc it over the top.
"Oleg says there is always at least one porter, sometimes as many as three to control the swing; one on the swing and two on the ground to hold it in place. The porters need to be pretty strong and heavy to offset the weight of the flyer. Then the flyer gets on, turns around, and when the swing reaches the apex, jumps off. You can do anything as long as you have time to land in the net on your back with your feet pointing down." Sven explained, putting into words what they had been watching earlier. As if in response, Alexi jumped onto the swing, which Fyodor had allowed to come back to a more reasonable height and speed. He and Fyodor faced each other for a moment while they got their timing in sync. Then Alexi turned around, coiled up, and as the swing completed its upward arc, sprang off into a graceful forward salto. Then he spun in the air to land on his back with his feet down exactly as Sven had described. Kurt and Lars both clapped as Alexi hopped off the fabric net and returned to them smiling.
"See. Easy. You want try?" Alexi gestured at the swing.
Kurt and Lars had a brief, but intense game of rock, paper, scissors to determine who would go first. Sven could tell there was no point in stopping them.
"Just don't get hurt." He said.
Kurt was the winner so he stood at the spot where Alexi pointed and watched the swing moving back and forth within its frame. It was a lot of moving parts in a small amount of space. He wondered if he was going to be able keep his tail from getting squashed between the swing and the frame. Alexi whispered into Sven's ear.
"Go when it's all the way back, Kurt." Sven instructed. Holding his tail in his hand, Kurt took a deep breath and hopped on just as the swing began its forward arc.
"Good." Fyodor said. "Now, go round." He was still pumping the swing with his body. It was a lot to think about on a platform that was constantly moving. Kurt had good balance and spatial awareness, but this was insane. He switched his grip and turned around. Things made a lot more sense when he was facing the net. Now it was like being on a trapeze. He spent a moment concentrating on the timing. The next time the swing came to its apex he let go and was launched into the air. It was a lot like the Russian bars only he had a huge target to land on. He did a double salto and then imitated Alexi so that he landed in the net and slid down feet first with a huge grin on his face.
"You have got to try that." He told Lars.
They spent the next half hour trying different things. Sven took a turn as a porter while Danya showed Nils how to stop the swing and let go the moment an acrobat landed on it. They turned the swings so Oleg could demonstrate jumping from one to the other with Sven and Nils catching him. None of them wanted to stop when the next group came in to claim their practice time.
After that the two groups started up a creative collaboration. Despite their origins, none of the performers in the Russian swings act had tried the bars and so they traded skills on both pieces of equipment. Soon this spread beyond just Circus Gehlhaar and Moscow State to the other acts. They had come to perform, but it became much more as ideas from all over the globe were traded and shared. Kurt had traveled with and performed with the circus all his life and he couldn't believe the breadth and variety of circus arts on a global scale. There were acrobats from China, contortionists from Mongolia, as well as performers from as far away as Australia. It was like he had opened his eyes for the first time.
Away from the crowds and lights the performers had a chance to truly immerse themselves in their art while learning the arts of others. It was supposed to be a rehearsal period, but instead Brighton had become a melting pot of circus culture.
