| In the late 1700s, a Hungarian ballerina married a French clown and together they began an Italian circus. All performers who joined Circo Zoppé were required to teach their art to the Zoppé children. So, through the generations, Zoppés learned to ride and tumble, balance and fly.
It is said that Alberto Zoppé rode a horse before he was born, as his pregnant mother, an equestrienne ballerina, circled the ring on horseback. At 7, Alberto was a clown beside his father, and at 16, director of the family circus, able to double somersault from one galloping horse to another.
In perhaps the strangest trade in circus history, John Ringling North wooed the equestrian to America. Unwilling to leave his family circus without a star attraction, Alberto came in 1948, but only after it was agreed that Mary, the Ringling elephant, would sail to Italy to take his place in the ring. And so, with his dark-haired sister Ruggera, and tiny 38'-inch cousin, Cucciolo, Alberto performed in the center ring of the Greatest Show on Earth and in Cecil B. DeMille's epic film of the same name.
In love with America, he stayed to make it his home. During a performance, an audience volunteer joined him in the ring. Sandra Taylor, singer and daughter of vaudevillians, became an equestrienne and Alberto's new wife. Their children, Carla, Giovanni and Tosca, grew up in the circus.
Tosca was 2 when she made her debut. Like all the Zoppé women before her in an unbroken line back to 1842, she is an equestrienne ballerina. Her husband, Jay, new to the circus, now shares her world of family ties and timeless traditions in a community that is constantly changing, yet ever the same.
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