As a child growing up in Drexel Hill, Jonathan Buese wasn’t thinking about being one of the most impressive circus performers on tour with Cirque du Soleil. Yet, there he will be from May 30 to June 2 at the Liacouras Center at Temple University as part of “Cortéo,” Cirque du Soleil’s latest touring show. Check http://www.
cirquedusoleil.com/corteo for tickets “We moved when I was 6,” said Buese. “I actually haven’t been back since, so I’m very excited.
I’ve been with Cirque since 2010. This is my fourth show with the company. I’ve been lucky to have dipped my toes into a lot of waters.
” Buese and his family eventually moved to Florida, where he blossomed into one of the top gymnasts in the nation. While at the University of Iowa he competed in the NCAA championships and caught the eye of a few scouts. “I got kind of lucky and was the right size and weight and the right availability and things worked out,” Buese said.
“It was kind of crazy how quickly it all came together. I was kind of scared, because the act that I had to go do first was like a flying act. We had gymnastics bars, but then there was a big swinging trapeze under that and we were 30-35 feet in the air.
I was having nightmares before I even started.” Buese is a little closer to the ground now. He performs the “Tournik” act, which marries horizontal bar techniques with circus arts.
It’s often said that the complexity of this act defies gravity. The original act takes the tr.
