When Wall visited his first nouveau cirque as a college student in Paris, everything about it was captivating. So great was his enthusiasm that a year later he applied on a whim to the training program at the École Nationale des Arts du Cirque-- and was, to his surprise, accepted. Follow the collision of one American novice and a host of gifted international students in a rigorous regimen of tumbling, trapeze, juggling, and clowning. Along the way, Wall introduces us to the ambition, beauty, and thrills of the circus's long history. Describes the author's novice plunge into the abstract and intensely competitive world of the contemporary circus while tracing the history of circus performance and the current Cirque du Soleil-fueled renewal of circus popularity.