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French acrobat act confounds Kimmel security

Kimmel Center security moved in Saturday night to remove a strangely clothed man wielding an empty wine bottle in the center's lobby.

Kimmel Center security moved in Saturday night to remove a strangely clothed man wielding an empty wine bottle in the center's lobby.

Until officers realized he was acting.

He was, in fact, Gilles Rhode, one of the founders of La Compagnie Transe Express (see video at www.philly.com/troupe), the troupe that pivoted, gyrated, and struck bells and drums high over the intersection of Broad and Spruce Streets as part of the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts. The Kimmel had hired the French act as the grand finale at Saturday's street festival.

Rhode was not physically restrained, PIFA director J. Edward Cambron said, but "the guard was trying to physically contain the situation. . . . The guard was beginning to physically move up to him and deal with him."

A crowd, perhaps in the tens of thousands, amassed near the intersection for what was supposed to be a 7:30 p.m. performance. When the start was delayed, Cambron started to walk around to try to determine why. What he found in the lobby was Rhode with the Kimmel guard "in the process of containing him, not realizing he was one of the performers."

Part of La Compagnie Transe Express' shtick is to move through the crowd before a performance, leading the audience to the staging area. The 45-minute delay to Saturday's show - which at one point had viewers chanting, "Start the show! Start the show!" - was due not to Rhode's detention, which Cambron said had lasted just a short time, but to the thick crowds thwarting the performers, Cambron said.

They weren't the only ones thwarted. Philadelphia Orchestra listeners arriving for the 8 p.m. Stravinsky concert pushed their way to Broad Street from the east-west streets only to find Broad impassable.

So many listeners were delayed that the audience was larger after intermission than before, one attendee said.

The clash of events created "total gridlock and a really unsafe situation," orchestra patron Elaine Wilner said. "There were little old ladies being pushed and shoved around by people of all ages. There was no walkway cleared. There was just an erratic line of people trying to move south as many just stopped to take their place to see the acrobats. It took me 15 minutes to get from in front of the Academy to across Spruce Street."

The Kimmel had not known what to expect in terms of crowd size when it planned the event, Cambron said, but "it got to the point where it felt like the parade the Phillies had on Broad Street."

Cambron said the guards had not been informed that Rhode, dressed for the part, would be in the Kimmel lobby. "The guard was doing exactly what he was supposed to be doing."

It probably didn't help that Rhode could not communicate with the guard; the Frenchman speaks little English.

"It lasted only a moment," said Cambron. "I think I said, 'Stop! Stop! He's an actor in the show.' "