PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Cirque du Soleil’s “Corteo” is coming to Philadelphia for the first time, but it will be a return home for one performer.
Aerialist Jonathan Buese was born in Drexel Hill, where he started doing gymnastics as a kid.
“My dad used to work at Temple,” Buese said, “and that's actually the arena where we're going to be playing, which is pretty neat.”
Buese and his family later moved to Florida, and he went on to compete at the NCAA gymnastics championships for the University of Iowa.
Cirque du Soleil, a Canadian entertainment company, recruited him during a competition. He joined their Las Vegas show and then a tour in Europe.
“I never traveled so much before I started touring,” he said. “I still hadn't really left the U.S. besides going to Canada … and so just jumping around in all these different cities and countries in Europe was amazing … and I've been touring ever since.”
Cirque du Soleil has a variety of shows, both tours and residencies, that feature dazzling acrobatics and fantastical stories. Beuse joined the “Corteo” tour in 2022.
“Corteo means kind of a procession,” he explained. “The show is about the clown’s dream of his funeral. So it’s the funeral procession that he's dreaming of.”
Buese performs in “Tournik,” an adaptation of a Russian act that involves swinging on and between bars.
“It's a big kind of choreographed number of different swinging and a lot of traffic,” he said. “So the timing has to be really precise, but it's a beautiful piece. A lot of big acrobatics in it.”
Buese says “Corteo” is great for the whole family and features a live band.
The show will be at Temple University’s Liacouras Center from May 30 to June 2. Tickets are available on Cirque du Soleil’s website.