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Gamma Phi Circus

Circus Acts

Gamma Phi Circus typically selects a variety of acts from the following list every year for the home show performances. Many of these acts can be seen in both the road shows and exhibitions. These acts represent decades of practice and perfection of technique and are among the best performed the world.

  • Acro Sport

    Acro Sport is a form of group tumbling, balancing and pyramid building. Like most acts in Gamma Phi Circus, Acro sport develops teamwork and trust in between everyone involved in the act. It has been one of the oldest acts in our circus. Pictures of Acro sport, or forms of it exist dating back to 1926.

  • Adagio

    A type of dance in which the partners perform steps requiring synchronicity and great skill in lifting, balancing, and turning. While Adagio can take many forms, Gamma Phi Circus typically displays it as a two-four partner act with lifts and tosses set to music.

  • Aerial Hoop

    Just as the name implies, a metallic hoop is suspended in mid-air, providing a showcase of grace and poise for our Gamma Phi Circus artist.

  • Bike

    An act that utilizes stacking pyramids and acrobatic feats on a moving bicycle.

  • Cloud Swing

    “A single web suspended by both ends to make a swing,” essentially describes this act. This act demands all the precision of movement of a Spanish web, but is set in motion much like a swinging trapeze. The web material provides for a series of twists and wraps allowing an artist more flexibility in routines.

  • Clowns

    An act that really needs no description, the art of clowning has been a part of the circus for centuries. These figures amuse and cajole, existing only as extenuations and exaggerations of human characteristics.

  • Diabolo

    A juggling routine based on the principles of a gyroscope.

  • Fire Eaters

    An act as mysterious as it is dangerous, fire eating is performed with the utmost in care. Please do not attempt this act on your own! Our Gamma Phi Circus performers spend many hours perfecting this art form.

  • Flying Trapeze

    One of the signature acts of the circus, the flying trapeze is the one act most people associate with a circus, and YES, it is performed over a net. The art of flying from the trapeze to the waiting hands of the catcher and returning to the trapeze bar has a rich history in the Bloomington-Normal area, however, it has become a recent addition to the Gamma Phi Circus.

  • Globes

    Balance and agility are the essential components of keeping a globe from rolling out from under the feet or our performers. Those skills don’t stop at just standing on globes, Gamma Phi Circus performers walk up ramps, juggle and stack pyramids all the while balancing atop a rolling globe.

  • Gymwheel or German Wheel

    Gymwheel is not only a circus act, but a sport also known as wheel gymnastics. Gamma Phi Circus has become known the world over for the dedication of our gymwheelers to the art form and sport. Our artists roll, revolve and spiral, into, out of and on the apparatus known as the Gymwheel. It is a discipline which demands high strength, flexibility and determination.

  • Hair Hang

    Exactly as the name intends, our performers actually hang by their hair, braided and tied in a special knot. This is a traditional circus act and has been a part of the show for many years.

  • Hand Balancing

    Hand Balancing is an exhibition of strength and grace where two to four individuals perform a choreographed display of partner balancing.

  • High Cradle

    High cradle, or cradle to cradle, as it is sometimes referred to, is an act of strength, fearlessness and grit. Performers use the power generated by their own limbs to hurl partners in passes 25 feet over a net. Cradle to cradle developed as a precursor to the traditional fly-and-return acts of the flying trapeze.

  • Juggling

    Juggling is the not-so-simple act of keeping more than two objects in the air simultaneously. A quick hand and loads of patience are just two of many requirements to mastering juggling. Our performers can and have juggled everything from scarves to knives, to flaming torches.

  • Low Casting Trapeze

    A mini-version of the trapeze, this act typically is an act performed by duos.

  • Mini-Teeterboard

    A mini-version of Teeterboard with performers using a seesaw device to catapult in the air and execute flips, twists and aerial tricks.

  • Perch Pole

    The precarious art of the perch pole puts one performer perilously at the top of a perch balanced on the shoulders of a partner.

  • Russian Bar

    A Russian bar act consists of 2 porters and at least one flyer and one Russian bar. The porters rest the ends of the bar on their shoulders while the flyer stands atop the bar. By utilizing the flexibility of the bar, the balance and teamwork of the porter and skill of the flyer, performers can reach dizzying heights in a trick and return to balance on the bar.

  • Russian Swing

    The Russian swing is a pendulum device that hurls performers high into the air. Inertia is the key to the swings power. One performer, known as the booster, pushes the swing, while the other performers leap to the arms of the catchers.

  • Silks

    Silks is an act in which one or more artists perform aerial acrobatics while hanging from a special fabric. Performers use that fabric to wrap, suspend, fall, swing, and spiral their bodies into and out of various positions. Aerial silks may be used to fly through the air, striking poses and figures while flying.

  • Skating

    Skating combines the love for roller skates or blades with centrifugal force and partners to make a unique and fun circus act.

  • Spanish Web

    The Spanish Web is the aerial ballet of the circus. Performers dance up and down the rope-like apparatus using a variety of maneuvers and loops. The Spanish Webs require a high degree of strength, choreography and artistry.

  • Stilts

  • Teeter Board

    Teeterboard is where the see-saws of your youth are transformed into a dangerous circus act. This is always a crowd favorite. Our performers are catapulted into the air usually to the shoulders of partners. Our performers have stacked 3, 4 and even 5 people high!

  • Trapeze

    Another signature act of the circus, a solo artist on the trapeze has always captivated audiences. Our performers employ grace and expert timing in the swinging trapeze.

  • Tight-wire

    The fine art of funambulism is brought to life in the Gamma Phi Circus. Our wire walkers leap, juggle, and stack partners and pyramids all the while balancing on a wire 5/8 of an inch thick.

  • Trampoline

    A classic tool for training aerial awareness is also a circus act. Our performers have put a twist into the presentation by adding cradle catchers or a glass wall to the trampolines.

  • Triple-Trapeze

    Three trapezes linked as one provides the backdrop for this act of choreographed artist, timing and teamwork.

  • Tumbling

    Gamma Phi Circus never ceases to capitalize on the strong roots the program has in gymnastics. Tumbling has always been a part of the circus and our performers demonstrate their gymnast skills as they flip-flop, twist and tumble to the crowd’s delight.

  • Unicycles

    Our performers keep rolling along on a wheel and a prayer.

  • Vaulting

    An exciting act involving a mini-trampoline and lots of derring-do. Performers vault onto a mat and over each other and occasionally some volunteer audience members.