 Globe construction of the past closely resembles that of today and here are some shots of the Torres family on Ringling/blue taken earlier this year in Washington and Baltimore (one of the brothers is missing in this group photo). At the end of the act when they style and take their bows, sister Carmen takes off her helmet and waves her long hair to the delight of the women and the amazement of the men in the audience.  |
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
From Richard Flint #2
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3 comments:
They are good people, heckuvan act.
They had two accidents at a performance we saw in Bridgeport, CT a few years back. The first one was with 3 maybe four riders and some mechanical problem caused them to fall in a heap at the bottom. They came out, regrouped, went back in and did fine, but then when they had 7 in the globe the same thing happened. They all came out, 1 0r 2 limping, the band playing all the while and the ringmaster announced they were all ok. Big round of applause. a terrible thing to see happen, it reminds the public that there is real danger involved. The only physical evidence of the crash was an oil/gas spill on the arena floor.
More recently they told us they were, then at least, working on 8 in the globe.
Paul Gutheil
Simply adding more and more people inside the globe doesn't make it a better act. One of the best I've ever seen "only" had 5 riders:
http://youtu.be/TM_jORDiEz8
http://youtu.be/MapS0BqEuYo
http://youtu.be/XpdXSf7HcEM
and yes, thier globe does split:
http://youtu.be/9zJzNW7yxDo
Cramming more riders in there means there is less space to do anything interesting other than just going around and around and around...
I agree but it seems to be what the audience desires; even the YouTube links you kindly provided had the oohs and ahs from the audience often coming with the appearance of another cyclist and not with the tricks.
The Torres family has done the same or similar tricks in previous years on Ringling but since this act has become one the audience expects to see, their desire seems to be for more bikes.
What I especially like seeing the the YouTube links was a more transparent cage. The Chinese act also uses a larger globe which aids the tricks but also makes them easier to comprehend since the circles are not so tight and the riders are spaced more apart. The Torres globe is just under 5 meters, if I recall correctly.
Dick Flint
Baltimore
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