Once or twice Mr. Rigot hesitated, unsure of which foot went where. Mr. Rigot inched forward. Every now and then he swayed uncertainly. When he reached the other side, he grinned in sheer relief. The secret of some performers is to make the difficult seem easy.
Ballet dancers do that.
But there's another way an artist can perform, and that was Mr. Rigot's way. He had the wit and shrewdness to scare the wits out of his public, who were deliciously chilled to see him courting danger so recklessly. I saw it for myself. For the Charleston audience, the trapeze performance, combining acrobatics, modern dance, acting and musicians appearing anywhere on the high wires, was quite different from a regular circus, but they were not disappointed. Instead, the show is a meditation on the book, though it's about as lively a meditation as is possible to imagine.