Circus acrobatic act. What is a circus - history, description, types and interesting facts

When preparing a holiday program, pay attention to the possibility of inserting circus acts into it. They ideally diversify the concert program for any event and any audience. Their variety is great and finding a room that your guests will definitely like is now easy.

Unfortunately, many people in our country do not know that circus performers can be invited to a corporate party, a family holiday, the opening of an exhibition, a wedding, in general, to any event where at least some kind of entertainment program is expected. But in vain! Imagine how the guests' interest increases when, between a couple of songs or dance numbers, a magician or tightrope walker suddenly performs. Firstly, this is a real surprise for those present, and secondly, such numbers are beautiful, unusual, and original. They make the festive atmosphere a little more magical, mysterious, and therefore more memorable for every guest.

Which ones can you order for a corporate or family holiday? There are many of them:

1. Acrobats. Acrobatic performances, accompanied by beautiful music, performed by one or more artists, are always a breathtaking spectacle. At the same time, they do not require a lot of space, and they bring all the necessary equipment with them.
2. Aerialists. The amazingly beautiful stunts performed in the air will not leave any spectator indifferent. But not every room can accommodate such a number.
3. , this is something that will cause real delight in kids. They can play the role of a host, a DJ, or simply, like in a circus, fill the pauses between other acts. By the way, these artists are also in demand at many adult events, because all generations love jokes.
4. . They are also welcome at children's and adult parties. They look at the tricks with bated breath, with delight and surprise. Their performances will diversify almost any holiday program, and the involvement of the audience in many tricks will increase the degree of their delight.
5. . This is the perfect way to make a children's party truly unforgettable. No child will refuse to meet a dog that can count, a rabbit that beats a drum, or pigeons that fly to the trainer’s call. Nowadays, a wide variety of animals are ordered for holidays, including exotic ones, so the choice depends only on the preferences of the audience and the size of the budget of the event organizers.

But where can you order for your celebration? The easiest way to do this is through the company organizing your holiday. Just express your wish to see in the program not only singers, musicians and dancers, but also circus acts, and they will not only be added to the script, but also those that will most fully meet the needs of your audience - children of some, adults of others - will be selected.

Since we all come from childhood and therefore love the circus at any age, you should not deny yourself the joy of seeing circus show at your own celebration. No less interesting to submit circus act as a surprise for the birthday boy, hero of the day, newlyweds.

For each of us in childhood, going to the circus was long-awaited and desired. How many positive emotions and pleasant memories remained with us after the end of the circus performance. Not only children, but also adults watch with great pleasure how a circus performer works.

So why not have a circus performance right at your event? Do you doubt that this is possible? Anything is possible with us. Contact us, and any circus artist will become a participant in your event. You will be entertained by acrobats, clowns, magicians, jugglers, gymnasts, trainers. A holiday with the participation of circus performers is always unforgettable and fun.

Circus show options

Animal trainers are always in great demand at various events. For a corporate party, it is better to invite trainers of large animals, such as tigers or bears. It is quite dangerous, and therefore very exciting and attractive. But remember that such a performance will require a fairly large area. For a children's party, dog or cat trainers are suitable. It will be very cute and fun. These animals are easy to train and show their dexterity and intelligence.

You can order them for any occasion, because they can amuse both adults and children. You can create a joyful atmosphere at your event, have a fun and exciting time. Children's clowns, as a rule, find an approach to any child, thus the child feels the most important at the holiday, which means he is happy and satisfied.

You can invite aerialists to your wedding or anniversary. It's very romantic and exciting. Aerialists will create a whole show for you, and you will be fascinated by watching the movements of the performers in the air.

Magic show in Moscow

A circus artist such as a magician will add fabulousness and enchantment to your event. This show will definitely be remembered and discussed. Unexpected tricks and illusions, incredible sleight of hand - you will get all this if you order a show program with the participation of a magician from us.

Dexterous jugglers will show you wonderful performances, and you will enthusiastically watch the movements of their hands. Want to try it yourself? The jugglers will give you several lessons in skill and compete with everyone in their skills.

Circus performers can offer you such an unusual act as. This spectacle has become increasingly popular lately. Fire attracts and fascinates, and in combination with the plastic movements of the artists, you become a witness to a stunning spectacle.

Are we interested in you? Then the circus is coming to you! Meet and enjoy!

You can do any circus act. There is nothing inaccessible to you! Remember, for example, such an amazing number - balancers on perches. One performer holds a perche, a huge aluminum barbell, on his forehead. His partner climbs the barbell to the very top and does gymnastic exercises there, and at this time the “bottom”, holding the barbell on his forehead, bends, sits down, lies down, turns and straightens again.

What kind of relationship and interdependence of partners should there be in such a number! After all, you won’t actually climb onto your partner’s head! You stand on the floor in front of him, but stand as if you were on top of the perch and as if your partner was holding this perch on his forehead. The slightest inaccuracy, loss of balance, and your partner will not be able to hold the punch! Work!

Can you show me trained horses? Certainly! And you don't need to get on all fours to do this - let your horses run on two legs, as if they knew how to do it!

Everyone’s task: come up with several circus acts at home, practice them and show them to us.

Circus show

Work on individual circus acts can culminate in a mass exercise - a circus performance, with an orchestra on imaginary instruments, with first-class attractions and, of course, with an audience - what is a circus performance without applause? We also definitely need uniform specialists to prepare the arena for each performance.

The performance begins. The orchestra is thundering. The Ringmaster announces the numbers:

Brothers Kurochkin! Icarian Games!

Sisters of Zanzibar! Top class riding! Equestrian ballet revue!

Trained dogs!

Sawing through a box with a living artist Emma Vavilonskaya!..

Acrobats on a trampoline!.. A juggler on a motorcycle!.. Acrobats with a flip board!.. An eccentric on a wire!.. Aerialists!.. Balancers on balls!.. Flying on an arrow!.. An equilibrist on reels!.. A group of Himalayans bears!.. Original genre!..

Power acrobats!.. Musical eccentrics!.. Roller skaters!.. Aerialists!.. Jumpers!.. Football monkeys!.. There are sea lions and bathers in the pool!..

Unscrewed head

In the play-fairy tale “An Ordinary Miracle” by Evgeniy Schwartz, a cheerful and kind wizard performs miracles in a surprisingly simple way: “Walking, you know, through the forest, I see: a young bear, still a teenager. Head with a forehead, smart eyes. We talked, word for word, I liked him I picked a nut branch and made a magic wand out of it - one, two, three...” And what did he do? Just a little - turned a bear into a man!

Let's perform ordinary miracles! Well, let's say, play a trick on a friend: while he is sleeping, unscrew his head and hide it in the room. Let him look when he wakes up!

Two students go out onto the playground. One lies down on the bench and falls asleep. Another begins to “unscrew” his head.

Twist it carefully, otherwise he will wake up. What, is it difficult to give in, is the thread rusty? Watch whether his breathing is calm, whether his eyelids are trembling.

Finally the head is unscrewed, and the student carries the imaginary head to the corner of the room and hides it. Then he wakes up his friend: “Get up, it’s time to go to class!”

What happens when you wake up? Do you see anything? Nothing! True, your head woke up with you, but it lies in such darkness that it can’t see anything. Feel your shoulders, neck with your hands... but not your head! Of course, these are your friend's jokes. He's always joking... But he ran away. You'll have to blindly search for the head throughout the room. Search!

The friend silently sneaks into the corner, takes the head and slips it to the owner.

Is she or isn't she? Check, maybe it’s someone else’s? Feel your imaginary head. Do you recognize your nose, your hair? It's okay, screw it in place!

When practicing exercises on miracles with students, you need to strive to find the logic and sequence of miraculous actions in them.

Every child knows what a circus is - it's laughter, fun, clowns, smart animals, magicians and clever acrobats. But rarely can any adult explain what the features of circus as an art form are. After all, we most often imagine it as a fascinating spectacle, a show. But in fact, circus performers spend their entire lives mastering not only skill, but also art - the ability to convey emotion and evoke aesthetic feelings in the audience.

The emergence of the circus

The name “circus” comes from the Roman oval grounds, where various folk festivals, competitions, and shows were held. In those days, the Romans loved to watch people compete in strength, dexterity, and various skills. This is how a special type of spectacle appeared, which today is called a circus. But it only became the way we know and love it in the 18th century. In Paris, a special round building was built to display the art of horse riding and acrobatic sketches. Later, the Italians picked up this idea and added numbers with animals and mimes to the performance program. What a circus is, people in Russia learned at the end of the 18th century. In 1764, an English rider visited Moscow on tour, and this show marked the beginning of the opening of several stationary circuses. By the mid-19th century, such sites were built in many Russian cities. Gradually, the scope of the show expanded, traditional programs were formed and circus professions emerged. The modern circus is a complex synthesis of the entertainment industry, art, management and technology.

Circus as an art form

Researchers see the origins of the circus in ancient competitions of strength and dexterity. It was formed as a way to demonstrate special skills that often had no practical application. Experts who characterize circus as an art primarily pay attention to the lack of any effectiveness in the actions of the artists. They do not compete to win prizes, but rather allow one to see a person’s capabilities and experience aesthetic pleasure. The main expressive means of circus art is a trick, it is designed to evoke emotions in the audience: laughter, surprise, fear, delight. All this makes the circus similar to other types of performing arts: theater, cinema. In the arena, a person shows nature’s ability to metamorphose, only the object of these transformations is not stone, clay or paint, but the person himself. He creates eccentricities according to the laws, demonstrating the highest The main principles of circus art are: reprise, trick, act, super task, eccentricity.

Circus structure

Special art requires a special space. The circus is not just a round building, but a complex structure with numerous possibilities. The circus arena is the heart of the site. Traditionally, it is round in shape, about 13 meters in diameter. The spectators' seats rise up from the stage like an amphitheater. In modern, stationary circuses there are often several arenas for different types of performances: horseback, illusion, light, ice, water. But the arena is only the visible part of the circus. Behind the scenes there are many office spaces: dressing rooms, rehearsal rooms, areas for keeping animals, costume rooms. Technical services also play a large role in the design of the theater: lighting, equipment mounting, scenery, curtain - all this serves to ensure that the viewer sees an unusual and complex performance.

Circus professions

When we hear the question “what is a circus,” we remember people of different professions. Each of them requires special skills and abilities from the artist and is a special art, with its own laws, secrets and traditions. The classical circus program includes performances by various artists; they can be classified according to the main means of expression and materials. So, there are people who work with animals - these are trainers, with the human body - jugglers, tightrope walkers, gymnasts, tightrope walkers. There are also special professions that are at the intersection of skill and technology - these are illusionists. The highest level in the circus professional hierarchy is occupied by clowns, who combine acting, pantomime, and buffoonery. But circus performers cannot work without theater servants, who take upon themselves the provision of various services and assistants.

Jugglers

As is already clear from the name of the profession, jugglers first appeared in France. This word literally means "amusement". Initially, people of this profession sang songs and danced in market squares and fairs. But juggling as an activity dates back to Ancient Egypt. Clever manipulations with many objects fascinated the audience, causing surprise and admiration. Today, a rare circus performance is complete without these artists; their performances have become an essential element of circus art. In their performances, jugglers surprise the audience by throwing many different objects into the air, and also use balancing act, comic and acrobatic elements to complicate the trick. Juggling can be paired or solo; performers not only throw and catch objects, they can simultaneously rotate them, alternate them rhythmically, throwing them to a partner. The rhythm of juggling forces the audience to keep an eye on the flying objects, and the artist’s dexterity evokes feelings of delight in them.

Equilibrists

Another artist without whom it is impossible to imagine a circus performance is the tightrope walker. This genre of circus art is based on a person’s ability to maintain balance on unstable surfaces. Traditionally, tightrope walkers performed various movements on ropes, balls, and cylinders. Often the artist combines the ability to maintain balance with acrobatic, comic actions, as well as juggling. Even in ancient China, performances of tightrope walkers were very popular. In many cultures of the world, folk entertainments were often accompanied by performances by tightrope walkers. There are such variants of this genre as performances on a ball, on a wire, on reels, on ladders, on a trapeze (stein trap), on unicycles.

Illusionists

Magicians or illusionists are representatives of a profession that has glorified circus art. The basis of the genre was sleight of hand. Artists who knew how to perform magical manipulations with various objects, such as cards, were mandatory participants in medieval fairs. Modern illusionists, in addition to the ability to make amazing movements with their hands, use various technical tricks to mislead the audience. Among the magicians there are real world celebrities, whose names are passed down from generation to generation. Such illusionists include Harry Houdini, Alessandro Cagliostro, the Keogh family, Uri Geller,

Clownery

Ask any child what a circus is, and you will get the answer: clowns. The masters working in this role have become a real symbol of the circus; without them, performances are impossible. The beginning of the profession was laid in the institute of buffoonery, because jesters were at the court of all royalty. Their task was not only to entertain, but also to ridicule vices, while the jester, the clown, could tell the truth to anyone. The art of a clown is often built not on humor, but on irony, buffoonery and grotesquery. The exaggerated manner of playing goes back to the traditions of farcical performances at fairs. The clown should not only make people laugh, but also mock, but at the same time his performance should not be cruel or offensive. Often clowns perform in pairs, where the roles are clearly distributed. In the Italian theater, these roles were assigned to Pierrot and Harlequin, in the Russian tradition they are the Red (cunning and rogue) and White (an important, prim gentleman) clowns. Conflicts constantly occur between them, which are funny scenes that fill the pauses in the performance. In the circus world, clowns are considered to be the artistic elite. They often include elements of juggling, acrobatics, training, and pantomime in their performances. Among them there are real, greatest actors. The most famous clowns are M. N. Rumyantsev (Pencil), V. Polunin, Yu. Nikulin and M. Shuidin, who worked in pairs, L. Engibarov, O. Popov. Any circus show can be saved by a clown who appears in the arena whenever there is a pause in the program.

Spectators imagine the circus arena as a place of entertainment, where gymnasts, clowns and trainers, replacing each other, give a bright show. However, for workers in this field, creating beautiful numbers is a deadly job, which often leads to tragedies. Gazeta.Ru has compiled a list of 10 cases when the circus was no laughing matter.

Many people have loved going to the circus since childhood: to admire the performances of trained animals, laugh at the antics of mischievous clowns, or hold their breath while watching complex acrobatic acts. But behind the superbly performed numbers there are not only years of work and rehearsals, but also real human tragedies, the cause of which is someone’s mistake, an absurd accident or animal instincts.

Death under the hooves

On August 30, 2015, circus rider Anastasia Maksimova and her group took part in a performance at the sports complex in the village of Abrau-Dyurso near Novorossiysk.

While performing an acrobatic stunt, the 24-year-old girl fell out of the saddle, catching her foot in the stirrup, after which the horse dragged her several times across the arena. Then the horse jumped onto the podium.

They were able to stop the frightened animal only after a couple of minutes, but during this time Maksimova received several severe blows to her hooves and to the head. She died from her injuries in the ambulance.

During the investigation, it turned out that Maksimova was far from a beginner in equestrian sports: she had been doing it for six years and had numerous awards for horse riding. At the 2012 World Championships in this discipline, she received a silver medal. Some experts then put forward a version that the cause of the incident was a violation of safety regulations during horse riding: the girl’s second leg, contrary to all the rules, was rigidly secured in a tarpaulin loop. This was probably done to make it easier to perform the trick. But it is precisely because of the fixation of the leg that the athlete cannot jump off the horse in time.

Last straw"

In the spring of 2013, the “Drop” act was held at the circus on Vernadsky Avenue. According to the scenario, a group of acrobats had to jump from 30 meters (which corresponds to the eighth floor of the building) straight into the arena upside down. In flight, they managed to perform complex acrobatic figures. The act was performed by a group of athletes from Kenya. According to the author's idea, the first to land was 23-year-old Caro-Christopher Kazungu.

Everything went well, the audience, including numerous relatives of the acrobat, who specially came from Africa, were delighted. But the falling Kenyan was not stopped by the safety net or cable as they should have been, and he collapsed into the arena. The acrobat was urgently taken to the nearest First City Hospital, doctors diagnosed him with a concussion, a comminuted fracture of the first spine and a number of other injuries. Kazungu miraculously survived.

The State Labor Inspectorate found out that, firstly, the victim was not a professional acrobat, but in his homeland, together with a group of colleagues, he was engaged in dancing. Secondly, he jumped without a safety rope.

In the circus itself, the incident is not associated with the gymnast’s low qualifications: supposedly no one performed the “Drop” better than Kazungu. Allegedly, everything was in order with the net before the Kenyan’s performance, and the point of the act, according to the head of the aerial acrobats’ act at the circus on Vernadsky Avenue, Vladimir Doveyko, was precisely to jump without insurance. As a result, the official cause of the emergency was recognized as a defective net, and the circus management paid for the artist’s subsequent treatment.

Falling on ice

The performance of Yulia and Alexander Volkov, who performed in the circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard in Moscow, ended in an accident. In 2009, they rehearsed the number “Aerialists on Canvases”; it lasts 5.5 minutes and is performed without harness. Yulia was sitting in the splits, her legs were secured with rings of fabric, her hands were holding onto the fabric, and belts were attached to her waist, which Alexander was holding on to. But at some point, the artist’s leg slipped out of the ring, and the acrobats fell onto artificial ice (the circus also held an ice show at that time): Alexander from six meters, Yulia from eight. The couple survived, but received numerous injuries. After a long rehabilitation, the artists returned to the arena.

"Flight" is over

Also in 2009, a gymnast from the Moscow Starfish Circus crashed in Khabarovsk. The 26-year-old acrobat was rehearsing the “Flight” routine.

For some reason, his colleagues did not have time to catch the gymnast flying under the dome and he, working without a safety harness, fell onto the net.

He fell so badly that he suffered a dislocation of a cervical vertebra and damage to the spinal cord - but remained alive.

Tiger-tiger, burning fear

In 2006, during a performance at the circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard, trainer Artur Bagdasarov wanted to push one of the tigers towards the rest of the animals with a stick, but approached him too quickly. As a result, when the man raised his hand, the tiger raised its paw at him, and then crushed Arthur under itself and squeezed his head with its teeth. They tried to drive away the predator with whips, but he only responded to several pistol shots into the air. Doctors put about a hundred stitches on the trainer’s head alone. The tiger, by the way, who even refused to eat for a while due to stress, was not punished: they decided that Bagdasarov himself had violated safety regulations.

Lions on the hunt

Trainer Alexander Shatirov was attacked by two lions during a performance in the Ufa circus in 2005. One of the animals tore the man’s leg, the second threw him into the arena. The assistants tried to drive away the predators with cold water from a fire hose, but they were not able to do this right away.

It is noteworthy that Shatirov, on principle, did not give his pets special sedatives, although this practice is often used in many circuses: he believed that this had a bad effect on the abilities of lions.

I came, I saw, I bit

On March 8, 2004, in the Moscow circus on Vernadsky Avenue, the tiger Caesar, whom everyone considered harmless (by predatory standards, of course), suddenly attacked the pregnant trainer Svetlana Sobenko. The woman was taken to intensive care with serious wounds and fractures, there was even a threat of miscarriage, but the child, fortunately, was born healthy.

Dodon attacks

In December 2003, a bear named Dodon attacked three people. The tragedy occurred in “Durov’s Corner”, in the room where the animals are kept, when assistant trainer Umar Zakirov was going to feed the pet. Somehow Dodon got out of the cage, bit Zakirov to death, and then attacked two trainers - Timur Shchedov and Vladimir Soshin, who tried to stop the bear and save their colleague. Zakirov died on the spot, Shchedov was seriously wounded, Soshin received a wound to his right hand.

Trampled by elephants

One of the most tragic incidents occurred on February 22, 2001, in the same “Durov’s Corner”. Trainer Alexander Terekhov rehearsed with two elephants - Dasha and Masha. When he tried to put a harness on Dasha, for which, apparently, he got up to some kind of attack. It is still unknown whether he fell off it himself, losing his balance, or whether the elephant accidentally threw him off with her trunk, but in addition, Dasha stepped on Terekhov several times. The ambulance was unable to save the artist.

"The Old Lady on the Lampshade"

Tragedies also occurred during Soviet times. A terrible incident was the death of the clown Irina Asmus, known for her role as Toffee in the television program “ABVGDeyka”. Asmus was born in April 1941, she miraculously survived the siege of Leningrad. For some time after graduating from school, she was an acrobat, but after an injury she moved to the V.F. Komissarzhevskaya Theater, where she played Cinderella, Juliet and other roles. Then Irina Asmus returned to the circus, but as a clown: she performed in solo numbers under the stage name Iriska.

The tragedy that ended Iriska’s life occurred in 1986 in the circus of Belarusian Gomel. 44-year-old Asmus had a spectacular “Old Lady on a Lampshade” trick: she rotated around her axis right under the dome.

But when the clown spun upside down, putting her leg through the loop and unfastening the safety net so that the rope would not interfere with her movements, she fell off. The body fell like a stone from a 12-meter height. The artist died from numerous fractures and internal hemorrhage. Later it turned out that the spinning machine had broken down: after the death of the circus performer, this type of mechanism was prohibited.