From September, 28 through October, 2 II World Festival of Circus Art will take place on Poklonnaya Gora. The Festival is dedicated to 60 th anniversary of the Victory in World War II.
The founders and the organizers of the Festival are the Ministry Of Culture and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation, Federal Agency For Culture and Cinematography of the Russian Federation and The Russian State Circus Company.
The Festival will take place on Poklonnaya Gora. During four festival days four performances will be given, all including unique Russian and foreign circus shows. Artists from 12 different countries will share the circus ring.
Within the Festival a competition will be held. Among the jury board are such well-known circus artists and directors, as Mstislav Zapashny, Istvan Kristof, Ewa Zalewska, Egidio Palmiri and many others. Artists to become the winners of the competition will become the laureates of the Festival and will be rewarded with honourable prizes.
Circus tent specially sewed for II World Festival Of Circus Art will be installed on Poklonnaya Gora on September 23-24. The circus tent seats more than 2.000 people. The tent is prominent for many reasons. The circus ring is 46 meters in diameter, whereas usual circus ring is only 13 meters in diameter. Tent is made of a white thick fabric ('Ferrari'), which is a thick synthetic fabric made in France. 'Ferrari' is good enough both for extra high and for very low temperatures (to -300 centigrade). Big top is universal, too: it is not elliptic but in the form of a wide flattened cone.
Tent's height comes to 22 meters. 'Working' height (on which circus artists will actually work) comes to 18 meters.
By September, 28 everything territory around Poklonnaya Gora will be ready to host circus lovers. The Grand Opening will begin with a street show.
Apart from the Festival's general programme, the area in front of the circus tent will become a real street holiday open for everybody. Parents may not worry about the kids, as children competition 'Kids Are Drawing Circus' will be held. A carnival of circus artists and everybody who will appear in costumes. At the very same time outdoor shows will please the audience with numerous performances: amateur circus artists, children dance group 'Buratino', stilt walkers under the guidance of Vadim Rzaev, champions, while clowns are entertaining the audience. A special show will be performed by risky motorcyclers team 'The Diorios'. For those who are fond of breath-taking and dangerous tricks, will admire Swedish rope-walker Laslo Simet. The evening sky will light up with the 'Map' laser show that will introduce the wide range of countrie taking part in the Festival. And the last surprise for the Opening evening is the 'Fire Theatre' after the Festival, at around 10 p.m.
The Festival will finish on October, 2 with a Gala-concert which will gather the winning tricks and shows of the Festival.
Costumes created for II World Festival of Circus Art are remarkable not only for their original design (that's in circus nature) but also for their elegance and charm. According to Vlad Ruchinsky, costume designer of the Festival, he has designed no less than 20 kinds of outfits, both for circus artists and for Masters of Ceremony. "All these dresses are equally dear to me", Ruchinsky said, though he admits that his favourites are toilets created for MC', as "they are 'visiting cards' of the Festival": Albina Zotova and Alexander Frish will appear in birds images. "Not in the sense that they will have wings or beaks", designer specifies. "That's the motif".
Costumes for circus performers are usually made of knitted and velours fabrics with bright metallic sputtering on them. Any fabric that looks nice from a distance is good for circus.
Now everybody who have Internet access can take part in the II World Festival of Circus Art. Internet gives the opportunity to gather a huge audience that doesn't go in comparison even with TV broadcast. Web-project «Kultu.Ru!» organizes live broadcast of all four festival days and the final Gala-concert. Along with impressive jury that consists of circus producers, theatre agents and directors of the leading world circus companies, 'Internet-participants' of the Festival will be able to evaluate tricks and performers, as there will be an Internet-voting procedure on the official web site of the event: www.festival.circus.ru .
RUSSIAN PARTICIPANTS OF THE II WORLD FESTIVAL OF CIRCUS ART
1. Yuri Merdenov is the 'classic' of Russian circus. He was one of those who were standing at the cradles of trick riding; thereby he laid the traditions of this circus genre.
His ethnically bright show contains a great number of the hardest tricks, original choreography was highly appreciated by the audience all over the world. Merdenov was especially popular in Japan, where the tour did not stop during a few years in a row. Thanks to the II World Festival of Circus Art, much more Merdenov's admirers will be given the opportunity to see the trick riding show 'Kuban Cossacks'.
2. Mstislav Zapashny Jr., i.q. other representatives of the legendary Zapashny dynasty , grew up in the circus and knew about this art not by hearsay. However, his show 'Triumph of the XXI Century: Tigers on Reflecting Spheres' made even ill-wishers realize that Mstislav is not only a son of a talented father, but a new circus star. Nonetheless, Mstislav Zapashny Sr. is the director of the show: according to his words, he saw the image of graceful tigers on sparkling reflecting spheres in his dream. In this show tigers balance on moving spheres, jump over them, and uninsured go up to the big top. Only Zapashny trained tigers to make a stand on forepaws, and this trick has not been repeated yet.
3. Ilona and Ruslan Sadoev conquered the whole world with their show that combines elegance, artistry and baffling complexity. Though some people think that juggling on a horse can hardly surprise anybody, these artists perform in such a way that a viewer stays intrigued during the whole show. In 1997, the Sadoev siblings won the 'Golden Troika' Prize on the I All-Russian Festival of Circus Art in Yaroslavl.
4. The performers of Vilen Golovko can do everything, beginning with circus art and finishing with youth shows: Vilen Golovko directed the spectacular 'Streamy Wall' for MTV Awards Ceremony. On the Festival Golovko's artists will demonstrate circus classic. " 'The Sweeps' in circus are as good as 'Swan Lake' in ballet", he says. 'Golden Clown' award in Monte-Carlo is another proof of that statement. The zest of the show is the new cast, consisting of two rising stars of Russian circus, Natalya Motalygina and Natalya Gerasimenko. This cast has not performed on any other festival yet.
5. Gennady Pekulin shows 'Equilibrium on a Monocycle with a Pole'. On the Festival, he will execute so-called 'balance on the forehead', or, better to say, he will do numerous tricks balancing on a monocycle, as well as surmounting different obstacles. The complexity is in standing position of the performer, not mentioning that trick's altitude comes to 2.5 meters. Pekulin is holding on his head a pole, for its turn, there are multiple objects on this pole. Pekulin is the winner of the 2nd Prize on the International Festival of Circus Art in Italy.
6. Anatoly Kurov is not a World Artistic Gymnastics Champion yet, like 'Samurai's Confession' last athlete, Alexander Safoshkin. Nonetheless, he is already a reiterated winner of Russian and European Championships. The producer of this show, Vladilen Levshin, guessed right with a new performer: many spectators come to the circus only to see Kurov. It is no wonder: the artist is performing the most complex elements right above a real samurai knife; Kurov finishes the show with a masterly jump on the circus ring.
7. Irina Naumenko is frequently called a 'caoutchouc woman' for her show 'Solo-Equilibrium with caoutchouc': she can fit into a box 50 cm by 50 cm. This young artist headily went on from 'juniors' to 'professionals' by winning the 'Golden Clown' on VII International Circus Festival in Netherlands, as well as the special Prize established by the Prince of Monaco on the International Festival of Circus Art in Monte-Carlo. According to the viewers, Irina is distinguished by her exceptional artistry and combination of a few circus genres – plastic arts, equilibrium and caoutchouc. This show is known for its up-tempo, which is not common for equilibrium.
8. Kristina Kokorina is a 'circus kid', that is why she has been performing on the ring since she was 10. Even at that time, she took the 1st prize on the International 'Young Circus Stars' Festival in Verona. Today she is famous for being a talented juggler and the winner of the national 'Cirk' award. In her 'Dance-Juggler' show, she uses quite a few tricks that are not even in the programs of male jugglers. In 2005, together with aerial gymnast Kristina Bautina, she won the 'Princess of the Russian Circus' title.
9. Natalya Yakubova's trained monkeys have taken the 'Golden Troika' prize on the II All-Russian Festival of Circus Art in Saratov. Yakubova's 'troupe' consists of 10 monkeys, each of them has its own personality. Oscar is the old stager of the monkey staff, he is 10 years old. During last 25 years Natalya is a monkey trainer. Circus workers know that monkey training sometimes is harder that elephant or tiger training. That's why monkey trainers retire after 20 years seniority, i.q. predator trainers.
10. Aerial gymnast Kristina Bautina will perform the show 'Flower on Asphalt'. She won the title of the 'Princess of the Russian Circus' performing the same trick. even though Kristina is new to circus (her 'length of service' numbers only three years), she has already gained popularity and viewers' love for her trapeze tricks. Bautina performs involving strength exercises easily and beautifully, she is also brave enough to perform complex breaks from the trapeze without any insurance. "I'm fully confident in my skills, so nothing bad is going to happen with me", Kristina says.
11. For a long time Veniamin Igumnov (as well as many other 'circus kids') has been accused of consuming his parents' popularity, when bringing nothing to the circus art. That's why Veniamin decided to disregard the popular view. According to him, he picked up parrots training among other pets just because nobody in our country made a show with parrots participation before him. During last 4 years Igumnov's parrots strike both the experts and the audiences. In this show parrots are lying on their backs, which is out of their nature: birds lie on their backs only when they are about to die; whereas in the show, after resting for a little bit, parrots 'come back to life' again and continue the performance.
12. In other words, pair Corde De Pareille is an acrobatic duet on a drooped rope. Such kind of tricks are not new in circus, there are quite a few of them in the modern circus art. The great service of Olga and Yan Poldi (the producers of the show) is in the originality of the composition, trick combinations and plastic 'drawing'. Aerial gymnasts Vitaly and Oksana Bobrov not only perform the most difficult elements, but 'frame' them with original conversions, putting the whole composition into the musical rhythm.
13. Diana Vedyashkina took the Special Prize of The Zapashny Foundation for her dog show. She was the first to perform with dachshunds (those dogs are much harder to train than poodles); so far nobody else in the world is training dachshunds. Four doggies dutifully and synchronously march after their mistress, tumble about and jump over the bars.
14. Acrobatic show under the guidance of Vladimir Kovaliov has been created in 2005and is a dynamic oriental 'sketch' on Persian dance motives. Formally being a reestablished version of Oleg Kabanov's show, the new version is much more complex than its circus predecessor, and more outstanding as a whole. According to Vladimir Kovaliov, the zest of the show is in the very end: fall from a height of 9 metres two acrobats perform asynchronous somersault on bended knee, and fall from a height of 13 metres – a long jump somersault.
15. One won't have the tongue to call the show of Viacheslav Chernievsky, People's Artist of the Russian Federation, a 'fun', even though the name of the show is 'Russian Fun'. Tricks performed on the circus ring can't leave anyone unfazed. Almost every trick is a risk for the performer's life. The highlight of the program is the performance of Alexander Gorbatov. He is the only athlete in the world who does backward triple somersault on a vertical pole 11 metres long. Even the slightest mistake may become fatal. On the International Festival in Monte-Carlo usage of any insurance is prohibited, and even in this conditions Alexander has been a success. No wonder that Chernievsky's acrobats took the 'Golden Clown' in Monaco.
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