The Belarusian Circus offers true miracles: a parrot on a scooter, a bear on a skateboard and ferrets with saxophones

Clowns invited to academy

The Belarusian Circus offers true miracles: a parrot on a scooter, a bear on a skateboard and ferrets with saxophones. Its new programme will continue for four months.


Bright, colourful and cheerful performance draws visitors to the circus

Generally speaking, clowns are the key characters of the present show. They take part in virtually all performances and even the animals try on their masks. An Indian elephant shaves a whiskery performer: this is a truly amazing and funny show. Its author, Honoured Artiste of Hungary, Antal Donert, has been working with animals for forty-five years and has toured almost the entire world. He’s now come to Minsk.

The Clown Academy unites many representatives of circus dynasties. Among them are the Artemievs who are variety entertainers. The artistes will surprise Belarusian audiences with tame parrots and dogs. However, their act with a diabolo is really original; it boasts a Washington patent for uniqueness and originality of tricks. The Averyushkin family is another attraction of the Belarusian Circus. They have ten performances overall but have brought only four of them to Minsk, including one with ferrets. They all perfectly match the programme’s brief — being funny, joyful and with much clowning around. The Zementov family are well known among circus fans. Their most famous show features giant bicycles; it boasts numerous Grand Prix awards and an audience choice award won at Rome’s Festival of Circus Art. The acrobats don’t just pedal the huge bicycle which covers almost a quarter of the circus ring but also perform amazing tricks with it.

Among the other acts are Natalia Rukol and her partner Yuri Volkov, who have recently returned from Riga where they received the major prize for their Coat for Two acrobatic show at the International Golden Karl Circus Festival. Clown BO is also worthy of special attention. It’s no surprise to hear that Russian artist, Boris Oskotsky, boasts numerous awards. In his long life, the clown has invented many shows and most of them are based on illusions. Boris will thrill the Belarusian audiences with his wonderful tricks.

The present programme has no special theme unlike recent shows at the Belarusian Circus. This time, an Honoured Figure of the Arts in Russia, Valery Arkhipov, has been invited to be artistically director of the show; he’s prepared a true variety show with elements of clownery. Aerial gymnast, Olga Moreva, who has performed for Du Soleil in the past, is probably the single exception. There are not many Belarusian artistes participating in the programme; almost all of them are now touring foreign states. In the autumn, they’ll gather in Minsk to prepare a new national programme — to be premiered on New Year’s Eve. In summer, the Ukrainian troupe will come to the Belarusian Circus: these have been invited to perform and offered help as many have lost their homes in their native country.

By Olga Korneeva
Заметили ошибку? Пожалуйста, выделите её и нажмите Ctrl+Enter