Drop. Catch. Drop. Catch. Drop. Oops. Sorry.
Drop. Catch.
Drop catch throw catch drop.
Drop. Drop??
Kevin! Are you paying attention?
Drop. Catch. Sing a little song. Should we be done for the day?

We practiced for three years. We practiced standing up for ourselves, how to crouch low, ready for action, how to prance and roar and be transformed. We practiced until we made each other laugh — until the lines of smiles stayed on our faces.

It’s a funny thing to want to join the circus. And a funnier thing to build a temple to it. 

This is the final graduation show of the Circadium School of Contemporary Circus, which closes its doors after nine years. Fourteen students take the stage together for the last time, asking what the body can teach us when the world is falling apart, what physical practice can teach us about how we survive it, and what happens when we laugh anyway.

Through aerials, Cyr wheel, partner acrobatics, physical theater, and personal memories, the show travels the emotional terrain of endings — of death, of decay, of breakdown and overwhelm and plummeting back to earth.

We practiced taking up space. We practiced making ourselves smaller. We practiced making tragedy from a paper airplane, and connection over a cup of coffee. We practiced for a world we wanted to live in, and for the world we knew we’d have to fight.

What happens when you practice something long enough that it becomes part of you? And what happens when that part of you is gone?

This is the last time we’ll do this together.

PRICING

$25 GA Standard
$15 PWYC, Industry, Students, & 25-and-Under
$2 FringeACCESS

VENUE

FringeArts
140 N Columbus Blvd
Philadelphia PA 19106

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Ben Grinberg

(he/they) is a Philadelphia-based performing artist, director, educator, and festival producer. His performance work lies at the intersection of contemporary circus and ensemble dance theater, centers the awkward, the authentic, and the vulnerable, and mines the complexities that arise when people strive together. He invests in non-hierarchical structures and champions artistic and administrative experimentation. Collaboration, ensemble, exchange, and cycles of action, reaction, and response are primary. He is a the Producing Director of Almanac Projects (formerly Almanac Dance Circus Theatre), an award-winning and internationally touring physical performance ensemble, and from 2017-2021 was a founding core faculty member and head of Performance and Artistic Craft at Circadium, the nation’s first certificate granting program in contemporary circus performance, where he developed and curated the Test Flights series. He co-founded and led Cannonball Festival, a hub for new performance in Philadelphia, and is on faculty at the Pig Iron / Rowan University MFA program in devised performance. Current and recent circus directing/creation credits include Full Out Formula’s I Think It Could Work, Fix Me in collaboration with Egyptian choreographer Hazem Header, Almanac’s I Hear You and I’d Like to Respond, $7 Girl, xoxo moongirl, and Helpful Hints for Strength and Health for Busy People, a collaboration with Rhonda Moore. Ben received the 2025 Outstanding Achievement in Creative Producing Award from APAP and the Creative Independent Producers Alliance, a 2024 Festival Academy graduate, and was a 2024 and 2022 invited choreographer at the Breaking Walls Festival in Cairo, Egypt, a 2022 Subcircle resident artist, and a 2021 APLI fellow. Productions he’s created, directed, and or performed in have won best weekly circus awards at Fringes around the world, Fringie and Flamboyance awards. He won a 2020 Rocky Award, a 2017 Suraya Award, and a 2019 Barrymore Award for Outstanding Movement/Choreography. Grinberg’s work has been presented by Calder Gardens, Queer Zagreb, Jacob’s Pillow, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Morris Museum Presents, Touchstone Theatre, FringeArts, New York Live Arts, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Co, the Mexico City International Festival of Contemporary Dance, Assembly Festival, Circus Now, and more.

ABOUT CIRCADIUM

Circadium was the first licensed & accredited higher education institution for circus in the United States.  The mission of the school was to provide students with professional training in contemporary circus, and to prepare them for work in circus and related performing arts fields.  Operating in a renovated church facility in West Mt. Airy, Circadium opened its doors in 2017.  In 2026 the program is closing its doors, graduating its final cohort of students on May 28.  

Support

Special thanks to Laura Graham.