UniverSoul Circus ready for celebrating with Chicago audiences again at Washington Park

Ringmaster Cheyenne-Rose Dailey loves performing in UniverSoul Circus for the many opportunities the show presents to interact with audiences; and she loves performing in Chicago for its enthusiastic crowds, she said.

Audience members called to participate “never shy away from it,” Dailey said. 

“You may have people in other states who are like, ‘No, I don’t want to do it,’ or, ‘No, I’m so scared.’”

Not so in Chicago. “Chicago is always so willing,” she said.

The Atlanta-based circus is returning on Sept. 9 to Washington Park, where the troupe has erected its one-ring big tent every year from 1996 through 2019.

The troupe had to cancel the Chicago shows the past few years. Three years and one pandemic later, Dailey is raring for the city’s energy again. 

Known for its interactive performances, UniverSoul Circus performers usually have to scout the audience for members willing to participate in song, dance or other routines. In Chicago, audiences ask them, Dailey said.

“Before we can even come into the audience, they come up to us and they’re like, ‘when you guys are looking for somebody, I’m in Section C, Row B,’” she said. 

Some audience members join in without even asking. Dailey remembers that happened one of her first years performing in Chicago with the circus.

The Trinidad and Tobago native was performing with the Caribbean dance act, a segment meant to give a “taste of our carnival culture as we have in the Caribbean,” Dailey said. As they moved up through the aisles, a teenager in the audience spontaneously joined them.

“I’ll never forget it,” said the six-year circus veteran.

For the show’s Chicago engagement, the ringmaster says audiences should be ready for a whole new vibe from the production.

“After being on a break for so long because of the pandemic, we decided that when we came back we’re going to have a fresh, new show,” she said.

For the Caribbean dance act, she promised more fire and a “queen of limbo” who will balance a fire element “on her forehead as she bends under the limbo bar.” 

On opposite ends of the dance spectrum, she said to expect new routines from both the aerial ballerina act and Detroit modern dancers, Fresh the Clowns.

“They have all of the current Tik Tok trends and Tik Tok songs and hip-hop music,” Dailey said of the Detroit act. 

Nearly 80 performers are featured in the two-hour show, said Ben Johnson, director of operations for the circus. 

“Most of our [acts are people-based],” Johnson said, but there’s also a “mixed animal” act with camels, zebras and a pony, and the horse act where riders perform stunts while riding.

Every year, the troupe decides on a theme, and coming out of the pandemic, the group wanted to defy any thinking that life was too difficult for people to achieve their goals, Dailey said. 

“We wanted people to see that that’s not true. Once you continue to have that faith and you continue to push yourself and push others like you can achieve everything,” Dailey said.

Logic-defying acts are usually part of the circus, and this year the troupe will lay extra emphasis on those performances. 

Johnson said to watch for Brazilian aerialist Webert Cavalcante. Among the troupe he’s known as “spiderman,” according to Dailey. In his act, Cavalcante climbs to the top of the tent and walks across the roof, upside-down and with no apparent safety net, “nothing, just him and God,” Dailey said.

Johnson hopes their performances will inspire audiences.

“It’s about the performers having this perseverance and just going after their goals and their dreams,” Johnson said.

Michael Loria is a staff reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times via Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster the paper’s coverage of communities on the South and West sides.