An aerial performance by Eye of Newt
Photo: David Seigle
The high-flying antics of aerialists can provide lively, captivating entertainment. These troupes can set up performances in a variety of venues, and will work with you to create original routines to fit your needs.
Airealistic specializes in site-specific aerial creations, making it possible for the troupe to perform in nontraditional settings. For an opening party for Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo in August, performers descended 60 feet from the air to hang ornaments on the center of a radiating spoke structure designed to look like the sun. Prices start at $7,000.
Boutique production company Way 2 Much Entertainment complements aerial acts with ground entertainment, including magic, juggling, fire manipulation, and stiltwalking. For venues without preexisting rigging points, the company can erect freestanding aerial rigs, as it did for a 2007 Game Show Network-sponsored summer party at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where aerialists performed a trapeze act on a rig the company set up over the hotel’s pool. The starting fee for a single-aerialist act is $1,000.
Operating under the artistic direction of Eric Newton, a former Cirque du Soleil and Cirque Eloize performer, Eye of Newt Circus incorporates its members’ aerial, acrobatic, dancing, singing, and stunt-work experience into its acts. At an October performance for Southern California Edison’s Festa Venezia, the troupe re-created Maxfield Parrish’s “Lantern Bearers” painting using performers in the air, on a rolling globe, and dancing and flipping on the ground. Aerial work for corporate events ranges from $1,000 to $3,000 depending on the number of performers. The troupe may offer discounts to nonprofits.
