The Cirque du Soleil show Volta is now under the big top near AT&T Park, with a show that includes BMX bikes for the first time, a story about indivuality, and an acrobat who developed his love of the circus here in San Francisco. Bradley Henderson is one of the ‘Shape Divers’ who leaps and vaults through hoops, and although he’s been with the show since it began in the Spring of 2017, has now come back to his hometown.
You can find out more about the show, which runs into February, then moves to San Jose at the Cirque du Soleil website.
Bradley Henderson says he got his start early. “I was doing circus at a young age. My parents enrolled me in the Circus Center here in San Francisco on Frederick Street. It was like an after-school program every other day of the week for a couple hours. I fell in love with the Chinese acrobatics. At 18, I moved to Montreal and went to Circus College at the National Circus School. I worked with several circus companies, like the Seven Fingers, and then finally, Cirque du Soleil had auditions, and I auditioned, and this is my first Cirque du Soleil show.” It launched in the Spring of 2017, with BMX bikes involved in the action for the first time. “We’ve got a lot of extreme sports involved in this show, and overall it’s a very energetic type show.” But as the through line, there’s a story of becoming who you’re meant to be. “There’s a main character named Waz, and he starts out as one of the gray characters, people that are always on their phones, set in their ways.” He’s different, though, with a head of blue hair that looks like feathers. “All the characters, the free spirited characters are trying to help him just be happy with who he is. And that little bit of blue-feathered hair, he ends up embracing his individuality.”
