The “Greatest Show on Earth” is back, touring 50 American cities under its flagship brand of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

The new show resuscitates a circus many thought was gone for good. After a five-year hiatus, a touring Ringling production opened in September and will stop Nov. 3-5 at Allstate Arena in Rosemont. Suburban La Grange native Sammie Pearsall is part of the aerial acts, performing on dance trapeze, aerial straps, silks and harness.

“My family was really big into sports and entertainment,” Pearsall said. “It was a very natural part of my upbringing to see live performances. Once I realized there were people making a living at it, it changed my whole world.”

Pearsall started gymnastics at age 3, training at the now-closed Illinois Gymnastics Institute in Westmont until age 18, when she graduated from Lyons Township High School. She competed in collegiate gymnastics at Iowa State University.

“The day after I finished my very last competition at Iowa State, I googled how to get into the circus,” she said.

At the time, Ringling wasn’t an option. The 152-year-old circus had closed in 2017, hampered by legal battles over animal acts and an antiquated model relying on the railroad to move from city to city. The new show uses neither.

“Change is the only constant,” said Kenneth Feld in an interview. Feld is the CEO of Feld Entertainment, which owns and operates “The Greatest Show on Earth.” (Feld’s father, Irvin, acquired the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus from the Ringling family in 1967.) In addition to the circus, Feld Entertainment also operates Disney on Ice, Monster Jam and other brands.

“When we closed, we knew we were coming back,” Feld said. “There was never a doubt about that.” They’d hoped to reopen several years ago, on the 150th anniversary of P.T. Barnum’s Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan and Hippodrome, which became the Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth, purchased in 1907 by five brothers named Ringling who had a circus of their own. The COVID-19 pandemic delayed those plans.

“Ringling has always changed,” said Feld. “When Ringling started, it was all things to all people, but one of the big attractions was Thomas Edison’s light bulb. They were innovative; you can’t have a business that’s 150-some years old without evolving.”

Rumors circulated about whether a new Ringling show would look too close to other American circus arts shows such as Cirque du Soleil. Feld denies this comparison.

“We are a show for families,” he said, “and we are on a scale much larger than any show that exists in the world.”

The new “Greatest Show on Earth” includes 75 circus artists, including Pearsall.

“It’s such an iconic show,” said Pearsall, who auditioned via video while working on another circus in Dubai. “To be able to perform with them seems unreal to me.”

Another cast member, Jan Damm, specializes in rola bola (a balance board placed on top of a tube). He was a theater kid who started juggling at 10 years old. Like Pearsall, Damm doesn’t come from a circus family but his parents — a Unitarian minister and a pediatrician — were supportive of having an entertainer in the family.

“When I was 11, my mother started booking me for events doing magic and juggling,” the Maine native said. “I’ve essentially been on stage ever since.”

Damm has been part of shows big and small and is drawn to projects that keep the circus alive in the United States. He performed with Big Apple Circus during their comeback year. And despite balancing raising two children, joining with Ringling was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up.

“I have a deep investment in supporting circus culture in America,” he said. “Ringling is, in my mind, an indispensable part of that.”

Like Feld, Damm said continual evolution is central to circus culture. In the new show, the three rings pioneered by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey in the 1870s are gone; in lieu of elephants and equestrians, Damm performs with a robot dog. There are cycling, acrobatic, teeter board and aerial tricks.

“We can’t recreate that exact show that you saw as a kid,” Damm said. “The best we can aim for is to create that feeling again in audiences young and old — that feeling of wonder and nostalgia, and something new and unexpected wrapped into one moment. That’s what circus is to me.”

Damm is a familiar name in Chicago circus circles. He lived here for about five years, starting his family with his wife, Ariele Ebacher, a fellow circus performer specializing in tightwire. Damm and Ebacher trained and performed with Aloft Circus Arts and were part of the first Midnight Circus troupe to that toured to the Montreal Circus Festival.

“We really love Chicago,” he said. “We found it a great place to train, to create new acts, work with local companies and to fly around the company to work as well.”

The couple relocated while expecting their second child to be closer to family. They now live in Brattleboro, Vermont.

“We get to see each other in person about twice a month, and I send (the kids) videos and photos from the show,” said Damm. “They’re so excited about the scale of the show and that their dad’s involved. We’re cobbling it together one piece at a time, which is what circus artists are used to doing.”

For Pearsall, whose professional career before Ringling had been overseas, performing in front of a hometown crowd is “huge.”

“It feels unreal,” she said. “This is the stage that I saw when I was growing up and I imagined myself on. Now, to be able to perform on that stage — it means the world to me.”

“The Greatest Show on Earth” runs Nov. 3-5 at Allstate Arena, 6920 Mannheim Road, Rosemont; tickets $18-$128 at ringling.com.

Lauren Warnecke is a freelance writer.