Acrobats take flight in new AC Tropicana show

John Curran

Tuesday, July 16, 2002 | 9:48 a.m.

ATLANTIC CITY -- After showcasing such ghoulish topics as torture methods, Titanic artifacts and backyard bone discoveries, one might say Tropicana Casino and Resort had nowhere to go but up.

So it did, enlisting a high-flying group of acrobats for a summer-long engagement that gives new meaning to the phrase "high-rollers."

The group, which is called Antigravity, is turning heads with a 12-minute routine of twists, swoops, trapeze swings and bungee jumps performed just over the heads of gamblers.

The acrobats perform five times a day, turning the Tropicana's five-story atrium into a makeshift theater, replete with thumping dance music, strobe lights and performers swinging from ropes suspended from the 44-foot ceilings.

"We're always looking for new ideas," said William Gaydos, vice president of entertainment, who saw Antigravity's performance in the Olympic Winter Games' closing ceremony. "I thought their performances would be perfect for the five-story atrium."

The group is made up of a rotating cast of performers, including a former Radio City Music Hall dancer, several former Olympic gymnasts and twin brothers who have dance backgrounds.

"Our phones in New York City have been ringing ever since we performed at the Olympics," said Christopher Harrison, founder and artistic director. "If we could perform at nightclubs, in front of a bunch of screaming drunk people, I knew we could do a casino."

Indeed, the act is getting a warm -- if somewhat nervous -- reception.

During one recent performance, most of the gamblers at a bank of Worlds of Cash slot machines beneath the performers sat mesmerized as the acrobats flew above them.

Others just kept on dropping quarters into the machines.

Marie Smith, 61, of Philadelphia hardly looked up from her stool.

"They were somewhat of a distraction, just a bit," she said. "They didn't affect my game, though. The music just made it hard for me to concentrate. Some of their routines got me nervous."

Mary Guiliana, 63, of Farmingdale, N.Y., hit a $1,200 jackpot, just as Antigravity's performance had started. She came back the next day, hoping to duplicate her good fortune, sitting at the same slot machine.

"I get a little nervous watching them, but I want to be up there with them," she said.

In recent years, Tropicana has earned a reputation for putting on unusual exhibits.

In 1999, it played host to a collection of artifacts pulled from the ocean-floor resting place of the Titanic.

Last year, the casino staged a "Torture on Display" exhibit, which featured examples of the devices used through the centuries to coerce or punish people.

Earlier this, as part of "Prehistoric Worlds, Backyard Discoveries" exhibit, the casino erected a 40-foot replica of a Tyrannosaurus Rex atop a group of slot machines.