FAQ’s

Choosing Acts

How do I choose acts for my event?

We can help you choose! We have four main categories of acts. These categories are: wandering ground & hang-about aerial, and feature ground & feature aerial.

See Definitions in FAQ to clarify these types of acts.

Tell us what you have in mind for your overall event and we can brainstorm with you the best solution. We’ve completed hundreds events over the past nearly 20 years, and will come to the table with lots of ideas and options.

Because every event is different, we love working with our clients to come up with something that fits their dreams perfectly.

Can I hire a mix of ground and aerial acts?

Yes! More often than not, our clients request a mix of acts. During the brainstorm session we’ll talk about this.

Do you ever do anything outside of the standard cirque-style entertainment? 

YES! We have been gold statues, celebrity impersonators, cigarette girls, cheerleaders, flash mob dancers, Vegas girls, go-go dancers, and more. We’ve hung from the sides of tall buildings in harnesses, danced on stages with DJs, dangled from 100 foot artistic statues, appeared at galas, sporting events, grand openings, private weddings, you name it. We love a good artistic challenge and can fulfill anything you might dream up. 

I’m offering a unique event and want you to design something spectacular for the entire evening. Can you brainstorm with me?

Please! We have filled evenings with very specific themed acts throughout the run of the event.

Here’s an example: A few years ago, we provided a large group of dancers to portray the 12 days of Christmas — think: “10 lords a leaping,” “9 ladies dancing,” and “8 maids milking” (cow costume included!). Our group passed out party favors and specialty cocktails as well.

Definitions

What are wandering ground and hang-about aerial acts?

Wandering ground acts and hang-about aerial acts entertain your guests casually while allowing other conversation, dancing, or activities to continue. We become part of the environment of your event, adding to the ambience.

Ideas for when: We like to implement our wandering ground or hang-about aerial acts for cocktail hours, transitions in how a space is utilized, silent auctions, and others.

Ideas for where: We’ve utilized this type of entertainment for entry ways, lobbies, outdoor open spaces, dance floors not yet active, conferences, and others.

Ideas for what: On the ground we can do just about anything you can imagine. Think, traditional circus, dance, themed characters. In the air, we usually choose an apparatus like silks, trapeze or lyra and provide rotating aerialists that do slow moving poses to fill the space and create intrigue.

What are feature ground and feature aerial acts?

A featured act, whether for ground or for aerial, are exciting, choreographed acts that draw the complete focus or your audience. These range from 3-5 minutes each.

Ideas for when: These often happen to kick-off a transition, like from cocktail hour to a meal, or just before a speech. The acts can be scattered throughout the evening (e.g. every half hour, or every hour) or they can be consecutive.

Ideas for where: We’ve utilized this type of entertainment for entry ways, lobbies, outdoor open spaces, dance floors not yet active, conferences, and others.

Ideas for what: On the ground, our options are virtually unlimited. This can include acrobatics, contortion, dance, hooping, et cetera. A feature aerial act is performed on trapeze, lyra, silks, or invented apparatus.

Rigging + Event Spaces

My event is outside in an open area. Do you have a way of rigging outside? 

We have a rentable portable rig that can be set up anywhere. Please review our Rigging page which describes this footprint.

 

Can you visit the venue site and give me feedback on rigging options?

We can do complimentary local site visits of anything within 30 miles of Portland. If your venue is further away, we charge a small fee to cover our time and fuel for the visit. 

 

Can you install all the rigging for your aerial performance?

Most of the time we can install our own rigging for the performance. Every once in a while the ceiling or access proves to be outside of our skill set and we can provide an additional rigger to handle these needs. E.g., sometimes we have to use a climber to use a rope access technique if we can’t access the points via lift or ladder safely.

 

Can you do aerial in the event space we have reserved?

We certainly hope so! Let us know what you have planned and we can figure out if we’ve rigged there in the past. If not, photos help us get started and sometimes we will need to do a site visit to make the determination.

 

What if the venue has high ceilings, but nothing to attach to?

We have a rentable portable rig that can be set up anywhere. Please review our rigging page to learn more about this rig. Our rig has 3 heights: 14’, 16’ and 18.5’ and the footprint gets respectively smaller as the rig height gets shorter.

 

I don’t have a venue yet, can you recommend spaces in the area that can accommodate an aerial performance?

Yes! We have performed in many spaces in Portland over the years and would love to discuss your needs and point you in the right direction. If your event is not local, let us know where it is and we will see if we might have ideas or connections to help. 

Event Management

Do you ever do anything outside of the standard cirque-style entertainment? 

YES! We have been gold statues, celebrity impersonators, cigarette girls, cheerleaders, flash mob dancers, Vegas girls, go-go dancers, and more. We’ve hung from the sides of tall buildings in harnesses, danced on stages with DJs, dangled from 100 foot artistic statues, appeared at galas, sporting events, grand openings, private weddings, you name it. We love a good artistic challenge and can fulfill anything you might dream up. 

What information will you need from me to get started? 

We will need the following:

  1. Event Date

  2. Event Space specifications and layout (optional, but preferred)

  3. Overall event information

  4. Be prepared to answer questions like, what is the event for? What is the theme? Colors? The more you can tell us, the more we can tailor and make suggestions.

Keep in mind that we will need a scissor lift or some sort of access to the rigging area if we do aerial. We will need to be professionally lit. If we are doing any aerial acts we will need our music played over a professional level sound system. 

 

Will you have a manager on site during our event to organize performers and manage the performance schedule?

We always have a point of contact on site for all events to track schedule, performances, manage rigging, and work as a liaison with the client. For complex events with multiple appearances we prefer to provide a non-performing manager.