(Photo: Coutesy of The Waterfront Museum)

The new Fairway isn’t the only crowd-pleaser in Red Hook. For the past decade’s worth of summers, the slow-to-gentrify Brooklyn waterfront neighborhood has been home to CircuSundays, a variety show held aboard a 1914 barge docked off Conover Street. Artistic director, co-producer, and ringmistress Karen Gersch chose to mark the tenth anniversary by showcasing child performers who hope to land a spot in the bigger big tops. Opening June 4, this year’s shows—a new one every weekend through June 25—highlight a sister trapeze act, a 17-year-old who can balance a vessel on a string, and another 17-year-old, an acrobat, who says he has his eye on Cirque du Soleil. The more perilous acrobatics are performed by grown-up expats from Russia and other countries where gymnastics are revered. The interactive world-music component of the circus always draws smiles, says Gersch, and this year she expects that the drum-dance troupe from the Ivory Coast, which invites energetic audience members onstage, will be a particular family favorite. Thankfully, the gangplank is stroller-friendly.

Details: 6/4, 6/11, 6/18, 6/25 at 1 and 4 p.m.; Waterfront Museum and Showboat Barge, at the foot of Conover St., Red Hook, Brooklyn (877-238-5596 or waterfrontmuseum.org); $15 grown-ups ($12 in advance), $8 kids 11 and younger ($6 in advance).

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• Articles by Susan Avery
• Table of Contents: Jun 5, 2006 issue of New York | Subscribe!