An aerialist who sports a bicycle helmet and a parka and a girl who can escape a straitjacket in 90 seconds or less join a fire eater and other performers for the circus coming to Grand Valley State University.

The performance will feature five-time national trampoline champion Christianne Sainz, who graduated GVSU in 2006 with a major in theatre.

Stand Up 8, a modern circus performance group that boasts “upbeat variety” and “death-defying stunts,” will take the stage at 7 p.m. on March 24 in the Fieldhouse Arena. The event, sponsored by the School of Communications, the Office of Student Life, Spotlight Productions and the 50th Anniversary Celebration Committee, has free admission. The show will run 90 minutes plus intermission.

The show draws its members from festival and street performance, German variety, gymnastics, equestrian and Cirque du Soleil.

“We’re a modern circus because we don’t have animals and because it’s about the personalities of the performers as well as the troops they do,” said artistic director Allison Williams.

During a section of the show, performers who started as elite athletes – a trampoline artist, a ballet dancer, and a professional cheerleader – will tell how they became circus performers.

But the circus is not all talk. The performers will also perform acrobatics on a 22-foot trampoline wall and twist in aerial fabrics hanging from the ceiling.

Whereas in a traditional circus, performers focused on their specialized skill sets, Williams said the versatility of the performers in Stand Up 8 also makes the troupe a modern circus.

“In our show, most of the performers are in most of the acts,” she said. “People are featured in their solo acts. But, most of the people eat fire. Most of the people do some tumbling throughout the show.”

Bob Stoll, director of Student Life and Event Services, went to a Stand Up 8 performance last summer in Paw Paw, Mich,, and he said he remembers everyone from kids to grandparents enjoying the show. The energy of the performance left an impression in his memory.

“Everything from the dazzling of the aerial acrobatics … to the trampolines will be a big hit,” Stoll said. “All the kinds of things that come into that kind of a performance should be pretty cool.”

He added the fact that one of the performers is an alumna of GVSU is a bonus, and the 50th Anniversary Committee has planned many events this year to bring alumni home to campus.

Stand Up 8 began when its creators appeared on Canadian reality show “Dragon’s Den” in October of 2006. The team won $250,000 to develop the circus, and production began in 2009.

The money provided the troupe with start-up funding to purchase the necessary equipment, such as the trampolines. Now, however, the circus has been able to turn a profit, the troupe has gigs booked in performing arts centers for the 2011-2012 season.

Stand Up 8 has great goals in mind for its future.

“We want to be Apple to Cirque du Soleil’s Windows,” Williams said.

Students can catch previews of Stand Up 8 around campus on Wednesday during teaser performances or at standup8show.com.

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