Orchestral acrobatics at the Mann

The marriage of balletic acrobats and symphonic music seems so natural. So why is it only now happening on a regular basis? This week, the Russian National Orchestra visits the Mann Center for three concerts, one of which comes with some semblance of a circus - probably a first in these parts.

"I wish we could say that we're geniuses," says Bill Allen, producer of Thursday's appearance by Cirque de la Symphonie. He spent several years backing into the idea of bringing acrobats, jugglers, and trapeze artists into concert halls - and now has a calendar of 60 engagements a season. Besides the Mann Center appearance, Cirque de la Symphonie also plays Aug. 5-6 with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, plus a return engagement Aug. 23 with the Ocean City Pops.

Don't look for a three-ring circus with horses and dancing bears. Sharing the stage with expensive antique instruments, played by people who maybe aren't comfortable with things flying over their heads, Cirque uses its artists almost like concerto soloists - usually one or two at a time in a circumscribed stage area. Given that many of these performers have spent their lives working with canned music, they're anything but blasé about working with a large contingent of live musicians.

"When you're onstage and have two or three thousand people looking at you with a full orchestra playing live and the music blowing through your body . . . you're performing 50 percent more than you think you are," says 31-year-old Cirque president and aerialist Alexander Streltsov. "This is the top experience that you can have."

To which Allen adds, with well-rehearsed mock sympathy, "I feel kind of bad for the people who pay full price for their seats, because they only use the edge of it."

In light of the mid-performance aerial accidents that made Broadway's Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark notorious, audiences may have a kind of anxiety that Cirque doesn't encourage - especially since many concert halls aren't equipped to make people fly.

That's why Cirque brings its own equipment; it requires only a four-hour load-in time. "Anything that gets complex has more chance to go south," says Streltsov. "I'm not 100 percent familiar with the details of [Spider-Man], but it's my understanding that the problems weren't the performer's fault but with equipment failure."

"We don't use motors and machines to pull our artists up in the air," says Allen. "It looks more aesthetically pleasing when you're manually pulling somebody, especially when you're working with symphonic music. When you see Alexander onstage, he looks like he's floating through the air."

"Motors jerk and have one speed. You're relying on power and once in a while, the power goes off," says Streltsov. He insists on being hoisted by human beings.

"And we don't leave it to strangers to pull our people up in the air," adds Allen.

The godfather of Cirque de la Symphonie is the late conductor Erich Kunzel, who saw Streltsov perform in the mid-1990s and booked him as a soloist with the Cincinnati Pops. The concert was televised, prompting a series of reengagements that developed into what is now Cirque de la Symphonie, which wasn't incorporated as such until 2005.

The company's website contains 11 videos showing its range of offerings; programming flexibility has played a role in its success. While the pops world is full of packages that go from city to city ready-made, a Cirque de la Symphonie appearance can be assembled with a la carte elements from its pool of 30 or so Atlanta-based artists, so much that Allen has found himself on the phone with major conductors such as Marin Alsop to discuss the possibilities.

With the Russian National Orchestra, the Mann Center program naturally has a Russian streak, with a program featuring Shostakovich, Khachaturian, and Tchaikovsky. The Cirque performers have a similar streak, starting with Streltsov, who has been performing since age 12. Others have resumes that include Montreal's École National de Cirque and State College of Circus and Theater Arts, as well as performing experience with Cirque de Soleil and the Big Apple Circus.

They may never play some of the great concert halls of the world. For some time, Allen has had his eye on Carnegie Hall, for one, but is still determining how to make it work in a way that won't make Cirque de la Symphonie seem like second best in a city where Cirque de Soleil is often in residence.

Meanwhile, he's begun booking engagements into 2013 - and can't help being a bit starstruck by the circles he's moving in. "I'm waiting for the bubble to burst," he says. "But it's not bursting."

Cirque de la Symphonie: