- [Narrator] Production of Applause on Ideastream Public Media is made possible by the John P. Murphy Foundation, the Kulas Foundation, and by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

(upbeat music) - [Kabir] Coming up, whether in the air or on the ground, the Crooked River Circus knows how to put on a show.

Go behind the scenes of the group's next big production, plus meet a Boston Heights photographer making sure older adults get their fair share of the spotlight, and hear why a jazz legend lends his name to a student ensemble from Oberlin.

Welcome back to Applause.

I'm Ideastream Public Media's Kabir Bhatia.

Just outside downtown Cleveland, a local gym offers its high ceilings and padded floors to these performance artists honing their craft.

Learning from instructors and each other, members of the Crooked River Circus ready for their first major show in three years, an immersive theatrical experience for the holiday season.

- First off, I like to describe Crooked River Circus as meaning that none of us took a direct path here, we took a very crooked path to get to the circus.

So there is the Crooked River as well as, of course, Cleveland's Crooked River.

- [Kabir] That long winding path was formed more than a decade ago.

It began here on Broadway Avenue at Sokol Greater Cleveland.

- We've been working in this space for about 12 years.

Started with aerial silk classes that we were holding twice a week, and we were both students here for a while and then became instructors.

- [Kabir] It was their own curiosity that led co-founders Vanessa Lang and Jam Bouvier to give Ariel Arts a try.

Little did either know at the time they'd stumbled upon their passion.

- I started when I was 39 years old.

I'm now 50, and I never would've started, but I had a friend who was a few years older than me who did it, and I thought, "Well, I'll try it (laughs)."

And I tried it and I was terrible at it.

It was really hard, but really, really, really fun.

And for a long time, it was something that I allowed myself to pursue, even though I was not at all naturally good at it.

- I came from a gymnastics background growing up, and then, I went away to college, and then in my '20s, I really didn't find a physical activity that I really enjoyed doing.

And then I saw a performance, it was called Cleveland Circus, and I was like, "Well, that's what I wanna do."

- [Kabir] The circus encompasses a wide variety of human-centered tricks performed on equipment like the trapeze, lira, or aerial hoop, aerial rope and aerial silks.

- Aerial silks is pretty simple, it's just two strings of fabric, and we basically use those fabrics to manipulate, climb up, do positions, strap ourselves in it in various ways to secure ourselves, harness ourselves, and make beautiful poses in the air.

We're able to drop out of those poses as long as we're tied in appropriately and go from there.

- [Kabir] To compliment the range of performing that goes on in the air, acrobatics draw attention back to the ground.

In partner acrobatics, the only equipment needed is other people.

- So you can combine acro into a couple different categories.

So there's like L basing, which is where like the base is laying on the ground, and you're flowing through some sort of like movement in patterns.

There's a lot of inversions, but also just like counterbalances and strength holding poses.

- [Kabir] Focusing on collaboration as a group rather than individual performances, the circus wanted to step out by blending their usual human tricks with theatrical elements to create a full scale production.

Their first foray resulted in 2019's The Seance, an immersive theatrical circus show that combined a narrative and live music with aerial and ground acrobatics.

- And Gem has the theater background too, which I don't have.

And so when we started doing performances, she brought this amazing theatrical aspect to everything that I was like, "Oh, we don't just have to go up there and look pretty, we can be angry on the Philips, or we can be funny, or we can tell a story."

Gem would says people in the theater world think it's a crazy world.

(both laughing) So our process, cause our process is based on the people we have and what they can do.

- And what they love to do and what their fantasies are (laughs).

- Right, you've got a cool idea.

How can we fit it into the show rather than us coming up with, "This is what the show is, we need to cast people that can do these things."

- Three years after The Seance, the circus will be hitting the stage again with its second full lunch show, How The Circus Stole Christmas.

- We are so blessed to have an amazing composer making music for us, and I really appreciate having original music as part of the show.

We are blessed to work with a professional circus, Rigor.

We also have an amazing arielist who's a costume designer, (laughs) and she's helping to put together the costumes for us.

We are just so blessed with so many people of such high level of talent and drive and I'm just excited.

I think circus is very different from dance, is very different from theater in that a circus artist might spend years trying to master a trick that might last for a half a second.

And so you put together a show in a much different way.

The rehearsal is different.

The the creation is different.

We're featuring the circus skills, and then we're building a fun interactive show around that.

(soft music) - [Kabir] For its members, the Crooked River Circus provides much more than a space to perform.

It's about building trust, building relationships, and building a sense of community.

- I'm a big gifter in many ways, that's my favorite thing to do.

So the gift of performance is really like freeing and amazing for me to do.

So being able to go up there, kind of put together a piece and show it to tell my best friends and say like, "This is what I do."

And like, I'm really glad it brings you that joy as well to see us do it, see me do it.

- I personally definitely enjoyed performing the most, but I love it all.

They're all my best friends.

There's a lot of trust and communication that gets built through acro so you become friends and you get close to everyone really quickly.

I consider them my family, yeah.

- But we wanted people to see it as an acceptable thing because we enjoy teaching it to people, and we love when people say that, "Oh, I saw you guys perform and I wanted to take a class."

- [Woman] Absolutely.

(upbeat music) - I think we put on a great show.

We have a lot of really incredibly talented performers.

We all do this for love, you know, because we literally love doing what we do.

We do this for fun, this is our hobby, this is our advocation.

We've created a really wonderful group of people who are supportive of each and every performance and of everybody's performance.

And that's just a lovely thing to be a part of, and I think it's also a lovely thing to witness.

- [Kabir] How the Circus Stole Christmas is on stage a Cleveland Public Theater in the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood from December 1st through the 10th.

Photographer Barbara Pennington felt like no one paid attention to people aged 60 and on, but she's paying attention.

Her first book, "Extraordinary Women from an Ordinary Place," showcases portraits and a short biography of 52 women Pennington formally worked with, met at the Peninsula Art Academy, or knew through mutual friends.

She's now onto her next book "With Men, Not So Ordinary."

She says this idea started 20 years ago.

- I liked that one with the eggs.

- I worked as a director of patient and volunteer services at Euclid Hospital, and at that time I had 240 volunteers.

Most of them were female, and most of them were women in their 70s, and even a few in their 80s.

Many of them were retired professionals, and many of them were women that went door to door in the 50s to collect money to build that hospital.

I thought someday I wanna write a story or do a book or something about women of age because women of age are oftentimes overlooked.

My own mother, when she turned 80 said, "I am insignificant."

And I said, "Mum, what do you mean?"

She said, "Because when you get to be my age, nobody looks at you anymore."

And that statement stuck with me.

And now that I am her age, 81, it's so true, and I find that in restaurants, if two old ladies go into a restaurant, they seat you like near the kitchen or something.

(soft music) So it asked them to bring a prop that was something significant of their hobby, their lifestyle, their profession.

When she was in high school, they said, "You're not college material."

She's a PhD, she traveled all over the world, and taught it at Case, she flew airplanes.

Another very interesting woman, Tina, graphic artist who was an alcoholic all her life and is now sober.

Wanda Hansler, 94 years old, she's still teaching watercolor classes.

When I finished with the extraordinary women, publisher said, "(indistinct), who do you want on the cover?"

I thought, "Oh my God, I can't.

How can I possibly?"

And I would page through, I look through each page of the the photos, and my dining room table was laid out with every woman's picture of their story.

And I would walk along and look at each one and I think maybe her, well, maybe her, "Oh, I can't do that."

One day I was wandering around Peninsula and wandered into the Peninsula Art Academy.

At the desk I looked at this woman, this elegant woman, and when she was sitting like a profile, she had this gray bun pulled tight back, and just this beautiful face.

And all those memories of that idea about doing a book about women came back to me.

I left there and I couldn't get her outta my head, and so the following week I went back again and I mentioned this book to her, this idea that I wanted to do and to photograph her.

And she, "Oh my dear."

And she just kind of waved me off in her sweet, gentle way, but I don't give up.

And so I went back again, and I approached her again.

And I said, "Edna, I'm serious, get your calendar out.

I went to photograph you."

And she did.

And that's how it started.

- Perfect, good, good.

- When I retired from Euclid Hospital, those wonderful volunteers collected money, and they knew that I always had an interest in photography, and bought me a Nikon film camera.

And I had absolutely no idea what to do with it, and I bought a digital camera.

And then in 2004, I joined the Cleveland Photographic Society, and that was a big life changer for me.

- We watch our students grow and our members grow, so when someone like Barb gets to the point where she's actually successfully publishing books, we really take pride in that too, because it's one of our own, and we know we've all had a little hand in that.

- And so I started taking classes there.

I started a mentoring program there to be supportive to help new members as I needed help when I was starting out.

Now that I've completed the one about women.

I decided that I was going to do another one 'cause I was into this now and I really enjoyed it and portraits and people are what I'm most happy doing.

And that's where I decided I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing photography.

I've tried everything else.

I've done Mac, I've done all of it.

And now I wanna focus on doing these books with portraits of different people and different subjects.

- Which one do you like the best?

- I like that one better?

- Yep, that's it.

- Perfect.

- You're in the book.

- Barb and I used to work together many years ago at the Beachwood Marriott.

Barb was a salesman, and I was the banquet manager, and Barb and I became friends.

And then she heard about me, and so she contacted me a few months ago and said, "Would you like to be in the book?"

I said, "Sure, why not?"

I was very honored, like, "Wow!

Somebody's writings about me after all these years."

(soft music) - [Kabir] Did you know there are secret tunnels beneath Cleveland Soldiers and Sailors Monument?

On the next Applause, take a rare tour of this underground labyrinth and learn about the law surrounding it.

Plus a designer instills her African American heritage into her woodworking.

And northeast Ohio blues musician, Christine Jackson, shows off her beloved CBG, the Cigar Box Guitar.

All that and more on the next episode of Applause.

♪ Now, my first lover didn't have much to say ♪ ♪ My first love didn't even have a name ♪ - The Fame and Fashion of Hollywood recently paid a visit to the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio in Lancaster.

Let's step inside this wardrobe belonging to one of the most prominent movie studios in Tinseltown, Paramount Pictures.

(upbeat music) - This collection is something I've never put together before.

There's 75 costumes in this piece, and it is basically a showcase for costumes that were purchased and used on camera and costumes that were created in a workroom.

And a lot of times, museums, they don't exhibit costumes that are purchased, but I think they're just as important as to the designer's sense of style and what they wanted to choose to represent the actor or represent the character in the film or television show, because we do have television pieces here.

This gallery has all of our black motifs.

So when you first step in here, we have Joan Collins from "Dynasty."

This was one of the festival costumes that she wore as Queen Elizabeth.

It is a bit taller than Joan Collins, but you still get the drama.

What I love about this is all of these pearls are hand sewn on.

This is not fabric that was already made, all hand sewn.

Costumes are the closest thing the movie-going public is going to come to their favorite star for one thing.

It's also Americana, it's ephemera.

I mean, the motion picture industry really is a great American art.

And the costumes are part of that art, and the costumes are tangible.

Standing next to them, the public really just has this great connection.

Costumes draw people in.

I cannot explain it 100%, but that's why at the Paramount Collection, we're very proud of keeping everything very pristine in the archive, and we have a very good reputation with museums all over the world.

This gallery is where we have our solids.

This dress was designed by Naeem Khan, and was worn by Beyonce in the film "Dream Girls."

The costume designer for "Dream Girls" was Sharon Davis.

And Sharon did a remarkable job on the costumes, but this dress was worn in the very final scenes of the film.

This exhibit took me approximately a year and a half to really assemble because I added, I subtracted, I added again, I subtracted more, and I was heavily influenced by the Bill Cunningham coffee table book, which documents from the 1960s through the 2000s.

And Bill Cunningham, if you're not familiar with him, rode his bicycle around either New York or Paris taking candid photographs.

And in doing so, of people just in their wardrobe.

I'm looking, going page by page going, "Wow, there's an exhibit here."

And I think given all of the items that I have in the collection, and what's available with feature production from our open stock, it's like I think I could put something together that it would make sense.

This coat is one of my favorite pieces in the collection.

This was designed by Edith Head for Joanne Woodward in the film, "A New Kind of Love."

This is a fox fur trim and a (indistinct) wool.

Now, it also has an attached hood, which is very large, and that was because it had to accommodate Joanne Woodward's tall (indistinct) font hairdo in the film, which actually she's in disguise.

I have 18 Edith Head-related pieces in this particular exhibition.

The woman who had the longest career of any woman in Hollywood nominated 35 times for the Oscar and she won eight of those.

The reason they're here is to sort of bridge the gap from the past to the present.

And you can see the influence in some of Edith's pieces with some of these newer designs.

So here we are in the black and white room.

And of course, the centerpiece of this gallery is the Alexander McQueen piece that was worn by Kristin Wiig in the film "Zoolander 2."

It's so bold and so memorable and so many different patterns all put together.

There is actually wire in all of these, so you could tweak them and adjust them to whatever shape you wanted them to be.

This gallery features a lot of whites and slightly off white pieces.

The centerpiece is one of my favorite costumes, it was designed by Jeffrey Curlin for the film "Mission Impossible Fallout," and it was worn by Vanessa Kirby who plays the White Widow.

This is so evocative and so reminiscent of the 1930s, even though the film is a contemporary film.

But you look at the bias cutdown, and then the pearl-encrusted robe, which, you know, looking at it from behind, it just sparkles, it's terrific.

And that is very reminiscent of designs that were done in the 1920s.

(upbeat music) During the studio system, which old Hollywood was all part of the studio system, every studio had a costume wardrobe department with a team of tailors, drapers, seamstresses, beaters, shoemakers.

In some cases like Paramount, there was a jeweler on staff.

So the workroom were always contained within the studio on the lot.

After 1967 to 1970, that started to disintegrate.

What changed was the way films were being directed, produced, reality started to set in.

You really didn't need costume designers, you needed a men's costumer and a woman's costumer.

And maybe, yeah, in some cases a costume designer was brought on to oversee that or come up with the overall look.

And also, you have the emergence of designer names.

So starting in the 70s, you have the emergence of Ralph Lauren.

Then in the 80s, you have Giorgio Armani, Norma Kamali.

You start having names that are recognizable names.

And it's so sad in a way because some of the costume designers were diminished, because it became more about the fashion designer's name than the costume designer.

But that has changed now, I think that has really changed.

There are some very recognizable names now as costume designers such as Ruth Carter and Colleen Atwood, Michael Kaplan, these are are big names.

So you know, you get excited about the costume designer more so than the fashion designer, it's kind of gone back.

But yeah, those are Louis Vuittons and then that's Gucci.

- See the red.

- Yeah, but see, it's always to see that the curved heel on that, which is really unique.

(indistinct) - It's the first time I've ever mounted anything like this, my previous exhibits, which have been here at the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio have centered around either Edith Head or concepts.

This is a lot of unique pieces.

Do you wanna make sure this is straight?

If you look over here to get this smooth?

Does that look good?

Yeah, that's flat.

- All right, good.

I love working here, it's a very contained gallery, it's not enormous, and you have to be creative.

It's how you place things and and show them off.

Welcome to the lower level of the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio.

And down here, we have a very small but important exhibit of elements from the film, "Rocketman."

Now "Rocketman," the costume designer was Julian Day, and of course, if you don't know, it's about Elton John.

So we'll start with this pair of ankle boots.

And these were worn by Taorn who played Elton John.

Now, there is a whole story, and a whole thought process behind these boots.

He wore these boots during the number "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," which of course, is about the "Wizard of Oz."

So his blue suit represented Dorothy, his silver shirt represented the tin man.

He was wearing a faux fur coat, which represented the lion, and he was wearing a straw fedora, which represented the scarecrow.

These shoes are Swarovski crystals, all of them.

And these are beautiful, of course, they represent the ruby red slippers.

I want people to take away from this, a appreciation for the work and the thought that goes into costuming a film, not just the work from the workroom, but even on the pieces that are purchased, the thought that goes into purchasing that piece, and how that expresses the character and defines the character that they are being worn by.

Whether it's a big party scene, and it's a party dress, or whether it's a blouse.

And I think people will get that going through here and seeing the wide variety of pieces we have in the exhibit.

(upbeat music) - Saxophone colossus Sonny Rollins is one of the most important jazz musicians of the 20th century.

In 2017, Rollins threw his support behind a student ensemble, bearing his name at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

Jazz studies director, Bobby Ferrazza, explains.

- James McBride, we're proud to have him as an alum.

He was very instrumental in pointing out Oberlin to Sonny.

First through a friend, and then through some direct conversations.

And then we started to discuss how we might work together over the course of quite a few months actually.

So it was quite a long process.

One of the things that Sonny, I think, was taken with in terms of Oberlin, was the fact that Will Marion Cook was an African American that studied here in the 1870s on violin, but he became a composer as well and was one of Duke Ellington's mentors.

And Sonny was aware of him and that he studied here.

So Oberlin's got a long legacy that I think a lot of folks are aware of.

- [Kabir] Here's the Oberlin Sonny Rollins Jazz Ensemble performing Bobby Ferrazza's composition, "Hero."

(jazz music) To see and hear more music from the Oberlin Sonny Rollins Jazz Ensemble, visit Applause Performances on the PBS app.

(jazz music) Thanks for joining us, I'm Ideastream Public Media's Kabir Bhatia inviting you to tune in next time for another round of applause.

(jazz music) - [Narrator] Production of Applause on Ideastream Public Media is made possible by the John P. Murphy Foundation, the coolest foundation, and by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.