San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Circus star gives back to hometown
S.F. gym is where it all began for Cirque du Soleil acrobat
Bradley Henderson lithely climbs up the pole and turns his body upside down before stopping it on a dime. There is a striking ease to the way he contorts himself with masterful precision on this Monday afternoon.
It’s standard fare for the seasoned circus performer who is starring in Cirque du Soleil’s “Volta,” which opens at San Francisco’s AT&T Park on Nov. 15. But today his casually awe-inspiring physicality is on display for the young students of Circus Center in San Francisco.
The day is a homecoming for Henderson, who flew into the city the night before, not only because he grew up on Nob Hill but also because this gymnasium, a playground of sorts and nonprofit class space for budding circus performers and enthusiasts, launched his career.
“Every time I come back home, I try to make it through to this gym because this is where it all started,” Henderson says, sitting atop the second-story bleachers overlooking the space. The place hasn’t changed much, but it always looks smaller each time he returns, though that might be a reflection of the places Henderson has been since leaving.
Long before joining this internationally touring
show under Cirque du Soleil’s Big Top — the company’s trademark massive blueand-yellow circus tent — Henderson trained here throughout his childhood until he was 18, when he went to study at the Quebec Circus Arts School.
“I was doing gymnastics when I was 8 years old,” Henderson, 34, says. “It was kind of competitive, and I didn’t really love it. And then my mom found Mr. Lu Yi. He (taught at) this old church on Potrero Hill.”
The Circus Center, known then as the San Francisco School for Circus Arts, soon moved to its current location, and Henderson, along with his brother and sister (both of whom also have performed in Cirque du Soleil’s “Luzia”), followed Lu, whom Henderson still refers to with reverence.
“He’s this circus legend, and he taught me pretty much everything growing up, all of my fundamentals,” Henderson says of Lu, who now serves as artistic director emeritus at the center. “I did Chinese hoop diving, Chinese pole climbing, teeterboard, pretty much a lot of things you see in this gym.”
Henderson uses those same skills now in “Volta” as one of the show’s shape divers. The show boasts a spectacular range of acts rooted in the spirit of street sports, from double Dutch rope skipping and BMX to Henderson and his team’s hoop diving acrobatics.
“Our act in particular, we’re almost trying to bring it back to street performing, where we rile up the crowd,” he says. “We stack these hoops on top of each other, and we do crazy tumbling tricks to get through the hoops without knocking them over.”
It’s an electrifying role, Henderson says, engaging the crowd to become invested and performing during a turning point in the show — a tale of selfacceptance — where the cast’s gray feathers are shed for their true colors.
Performing on these high-caliber stages (Henderson sat down during a