THE CIRCUS CELEBRATING ITS PAST, LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus has long been touted as a three-ring show to be enjoyed by "children of all ages."

The 1993 edition, arriving next week at the Delta Center for a 10-performance run Sept. 29-Oct. 4, takes this motif one big step further: The show itself contains an unprecedented number of acts and routines by children of all ages.The theme this year is "bring your kids to see our kids" - and the show I saw (not once, but twice) one month ago at the Oakland, Calif., Coliseum has a cast in which school-age youngsters nearly outnumber the adults.

It also ranks as one of the best productions in recent years. It is fast, it clips right along and it contains some innovative and fascinating acts, not to mention the best clowns in the business.

There's another theme for 1993, too: "Celebrating 200 Years of Circus in America," a landmark encompassing not only the famed Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey entourage but dozens of smaller circuses across the country.

(Ringling wasn't the first; it just grew and grew into the biggest. The very first recorded circus in the United States was when a Scot named John Bill Ricketts presented a display of horses, ropewalkers, clowns and acrobats in a single ring in Philadelphia on April 3, 1793. Two hundred years later, to commemorate the auspicious event, the U.S. Postal Service issued a block of four stamps in a ceremony that featured RB/B&B's famous king-size elephant King Tusk giving his unique stamp (stomp?) of approval by canceling a jumbo-size replica of the stamps.)

Ringling is also marking the banner year with a number of events, not the least of which is the biggest ticket giveaway in history. Every child born in the United States during 1993 can receive his or her first ticket to the RB/B&B circus free of charge (see box inside for details).

The famous Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey "Clown College" is making its own kind of history - moving its campus from Florida to the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wis., hometown of the five Ringling brothers and the original site of their circus' winter quarters.

During the circus' weeklong stay in Oakland last month, photographers from Life magazine came to shoot a giant centerspread - a cinerama-proportioned shot of the arena floor containing virtually every performer and animal in the 1993 production. A huge, almost mural-size, spliced-together photograph on the wall of the Oakland Coliseum's press room was pasted over with cutouts of various performers - a sort of roadmap to help the photographers with the logistics of arranging the once-in-a-lifetime photo shoot.