New York City Circus Festival at Bryant Park

As part of our ongoing partnership with Bryant Park, Experienced Visuals was invited to document the New York City Circus Festival, part of the Picnic Performances series. Bryant Park Picnic Performances is a free outdoor festival that welcomes all New Yorkers to experience a wide variety of the city’s vibrant arts and culture, in partnership with top cultural institutions.

The park’s first ever circus festival was “a love letter to New York’s groundbreaking circus artists,” including soaring aerial performances, acrobatics, clowning, a giant Rolly apparatus, and more.

Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, a non-profit creating innovative circus shows, free youth programs, artist grants and more, juggled chaos into perfect rhythm with lasso, juggling, and aerialist performances.

ABCirque, NYC’s premier circus, production, and events company, soared overhead with aerialist and acrobatic displays.

Hybrid Movement Company, self-described as “a conversation in movement between artists from many backgrounds (contemporary ballet, Contemporary Circus, martial arts, b-boying, visual arts, music and animation),” bent bodies into impossible shapes.

Dzul Dance, who employs dance, aerial arts, contortion and acrobatics as a means to communicate indigenous, pre-Hispanic, Mexican and Latin culture, fused acrobatics with dance.

Minty Fresh Circus, an all-Black circus troupe celebrating the healing power of Black music and movement, rolled out surprises in every direction.

Altogether, the lawn became a front-row seat to imagination at full for smiling faces, from front to back. We were thrilled to document the gravity-defying talent and innovative, unique arts in motion.