{"id":121802,"date":"2014-02-04T22:58:41","date_gmt":"2014-02-05T05:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/backstage-at-the-circus\/"},"modified":"2014-02-04T22:58:41","modified_gmt":"2014-02-05T05:58:41","slug":"backstage-at-the-circus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/backstage-at-the-circus\/","title":{"rendered":"Backstage at the circus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"An
An Asian elephant with The Jordan World Circus checks out the Montezuma County Fairgrounds on Monday.<\/span>Tobie Baker\/Cortez Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Jordan World Circus always packs the Montezuma County Fairgrounds when the traveling circus stops in town.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe circus has been coming here for years,\u201d said Montezuma County Fairground manager Tanner Young. \u201cThey do a great job.\u201d<\/p>\n

In previous years, an estimated 700 people attend each of two performances in Cortez, Young said. He and his crew worked over the weekend in preparation for 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. shows Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came in and rolled the ground to get it ready,\u201d Young said Monday morning, standing atop a packed-dirt surface. \u201cToday, we\u2019re running the lifts to help them set up for their high-wire acts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s amazing is they take all day to set up, but then they\u2019ll have it all tore down in about an hour-and-a-half,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Taking a moment from a frenzied state of setting up the arena, circus manager Dieter Galambos said the crew arrived in Cortez last night after performing shows in Vernal, Utah, over the weekend. They started unloading gear at 7:30 a.m. Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe three ring mats go out first,\u201d Galambos said.<\/p>\n

As ponies, a zebra and a camel were brought into the arena, Young and his crew helped circus performers establish a secure connection for one of the acrobat acts.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow tall is the ceiling?\u201d a performer asked.<\/p>\n

Galambos immediately rummaged through a grey box to search for a laser measuring tape.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re checking to see if our human cannon is going to fit in here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As a three-man crew worked to stretch three center ring tarps taut, three elephants fed on bales of hay. Soon after, several cages of tigers were wheeled inside the arena.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haul meat in freezers with us to feed the tigers,\u201d Galampos said.<\/p>\n

One crew member said the best part of working with the circus is the travel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe go everywhere,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As he worked to set up lighting, the crewman said the worst part of the circus was training new crew members how to properly set up for the show.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can\u2019t count to seven?\u201d he yelled across the arena. \u201cC\u2019mon, man.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the last performance Monday, the circus will break down, pack up and head to the next town. Next stop, Farmington for two days of shows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘They’ll have it all tore down in about an hour-and-a-half’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":121803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6371],"tags":[13,624,60,2346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-121802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mt-news","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-lifestyle-and-leisure","tag-montezuma-county","tag-people-profiles"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121802"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=121802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}