Two circus performers from Russia told Afisha Daily what it's like to perform acrobatic stunts at a height of 25 meters without insurance.
Elena Baranenko: “No matter what happens, I have to do at least 50 squats a day”
I serve in the Bolshoi Moscow state circus for many years. My parents were circus artists. Since childhood, I took part in numbers, studied animal training, juggling, and when I became a little older, my parents sent me to a choreographic school. Therefore, I can do something in many genres. About seven years ago, we were fooling around with a friend, an aerial gymnast, in the arena during a rehearsal, and she asked me to do some elements, I began to get a lot of things right off the bat, then we tried to do a couple of movements together and found out that I have a tendency to this genre. Since then, we began to train together and have been performing under the dome for six years now.
I remember the day of my first entry into the arena with an air number very well. An hour before going out, I accidentally shaved off my eyebrows and felt terrible. I was very worried that day, I could not find a place for myself in the dressing room. I thought that I need to cut them before the performance. Without approaching the mirror, she ran the machine over her eyebrows, and forgot to put on the nozzle. And then she went to the mirror and saw all the splendor. This incident relaxed me. I drew two lines for myself in the place where my eyebrows used to grow, and went to perform.
We work without insurance. Sometimes during a performance, fear takes such that horror! I'm trying to get over him. I am reassured by the thought that it is more difficult for Olympic athletes than for us: they have wild pressure and responsibility many times more. When you're on top of the tightrope, you're having fun. But sometimes it is very scary.
I have a lot of superstitions about arena performances. Maybe it's because my mother died in the arena. She and her dad also worked in the genre of aerial gymnastics. Once, during a performance, both broke down, dad survived, and mom died. She was then 33 years old, I was 9. After the death of my mother, my father at first strictly forbade me to perform in the circus, for some time I obeyed. But you can’t come to the circus, fall in love and leave. Once you have been imbued with this life once, you will no longer be able to quit like this, on someone's orders.
I always check all the equipment, the suspension before a performance, I love safety. But you can't escape fate. After all, risk and death are also part of life, especially if we are talking about aerial gymnastics. When I perform with horses, before leaving, I always stroke the horse on the nose: it seems to me that it calms down. If something doesn’t work out for me several times, I do a pirouette, a sort of little ritual for good luck. Before numbers in the air, I always read "Our Father" and kiss my cross. When I arrive at new circus, before the performance I send an air kiss towards the arena. I also kiss the clubs I juggle with: I am grateful to my props and partner and try to create a positive atmosphere around. By the way, I have one more fad: no matter what happens, I have to do at least 50 squats a day.
It is important for me to be in good sportswear not because it's a fashion statement, but because my life depends on it. In addition, I need to look beautiful, I'm an artist. I am fond of healthy eating. In the evening I brew ginger for myself, I drink it in the morning. Be sure to fill the chia seeds with kefir in the evening and put them in the refrigerator, in the morning I add flower pollen, pumpkin seeds, fruits. I also grind flax seeds for myself and drink spirulina. In the morning I still often use avocado oil, almond and walnut oil and eat a piece of bread with butter: It is good for skin. I have low blood pressure, so I always drink coffee beans in the morning. I also recently read that tomatoes and cucumbers are not digested by the stomach, so now I try to avoid them. We have a very tasty dining room in the circus. I try to eat simple food, but high quality. For lunch I take soup, liver cutlets, carrot salad. By the end of the day I get very tired, so I go to the supermarket, buy washed grass, sprinkle olive oil there and eat with pleasure. I can afford wine in good company or even cognac in winter. However, I am a big opponent of smoking. I buy food at the weekend markets because everything is tasty and fresh there. I always take a hematogen with me to training, because at the right time it gives strength. As a snack, I can use an apple, coffee with bitter or milk chocolate. To be honest, I have a sweet tooth. If I see a brownie on my way home, I'll come home, I'll think about it, then I'll come back for it, buy it and eat it, and then I'll squat, try to get rid of those calories. I used to have anemia, so I often eat beef and lamb, besides, I really like them in taste, unlike other types of meat.
For the first time I entered the arena at the age of 14: I performed with a number where I juggled on a horse. Now, in addition to numbers in the air, I perform juggling with maces and trained parrots (these are my favorite birds). My dad and brother also work in the circus.
“Askold Zapashny comes up to me every day and says: “Stop eating”
Elena Petrikova
I went to the arena at the age of 5 in a reprise with clowns. And I started working in the genre of aerial gymnastics at the age of 14, although officially this can only be done from 18. But I did it painfully well, and therefore Mstislav Zapashny made sure that I was allowed to perform earlier than expected. I performed with a number on a rope (cord de parel) at a height of 15 meters - the first and only one at this age with absolutely no insurance.
I don’t know why I chose this genre: I’m very afraid of heights, I get sick on carousels, I can’t even look down from the balcony of the fifteenth floor. Initially, my dad and I did a couple in an acrobatic act, performed different racks. And one day we came to Vladivostok for a rally of amateur circuses - and I saw the performance of one girl who worked in the chord de parel genre, and she delighted me. I got my dad, he immediately went to the port, got me a rope from some ship. The girl at that performance performed her number so naturally that I thought it would not be difficult for me either. And so I grabbed the rope with my hands and feet and froze - I couldn’t pull myself up even once, let alone fly on it. I was so disappointed: I thought I would climb up and fly right away. As a result, I spent a year and a half and finally prepared an eight-minute number in the air.
At that time I was still in school. At 5 in the morning I came to a rehearsal at the circus, worked out another number with horses, then went to school, coming from it, rehearsed joint numbers with my dad, then again numbers with horses, then I always attended a ballet master class, because Mstislav Zapashny followed so that all the artists attend choreography classes, then there was a break and already at two o'clock in the morning by the light of a light bulb, when everyone went home, my dad and I were rehearsing my solo with rope. When I first time at 14 New Year's concert acted in the form of a seagull with this very number in the air, my wings were wrapped around a rope, I frantically tried to pull them out and not get out of the image, and when I was backstage, my knees simply bent from an overabundance of emotions and I fell. Dad even has a video cassette, which shows how I work out the number in the arena, and after the performance I go backstage and fall.
As a child, I worked in all equestrian genres, even climbed under the belly of horses when I was little. Circus kids are always learning different genres. I remember when I was 7 years old, I was preparing an acrobatic number, where I had to run up and jump into the hands of the guys standing in front of me. I ran, jumped unsuccessfully, missed and drove my face across the carpet to the end of the arena (four meters). It was painful, disgusting, embarrassing, and I disliked acrobatics after that.
The specificity of aerial gymnastics is that it is very dangerous. We work without insurance, which means that if your hand opens and you drop a person, then that's it. Need to have very Strong arms and feel like a partner. I'm used to working with a partner, we've been performing together for about seven years and we feel each other thoroughly. Recently, we took another gymnast into the room - and it is still very difficult to get used to it.
Sometimes, when you go on stage, it's very scary. I had a number in which it was necessary to make a sharp break. When it was too scary, I worked out the whole number, but I didn’t perform this particular element, instead I just did different movements waiting for the music to pass. It happened to me, but only a few times. I perform at a height of 25 meters without insurance. It is impossible to get used to this fear, it just appears from time to time out of nowhere and also suddenly disappears. We recently had the premiere of the number, when we performed for the first time as a threesome, and not just two, and I was so scared from the feeling that I was not one hundred percent in control of the situation that my fingers were shaking. There was an internal panic, hysteria. I'm standing in the arena, my hands are shaking, I'm ashamed, and I don't know how to stop it. I think there is higher intelligence, sometimes when I tune in, I turn to him. Before the number, I close my eyes for two seconds and withdraw into myself. Maybe I'm a cynic, but when there are jugglers backstage before the performance, who will toss three maces, and pray and cross themselves, it looks comical.
My parents are also circus performers, so they do not panic during my performance. After the show, my mother can come up to me, scold me that somewhere I didn’t have such an expression on my face, I didn’t reach the sock. Dad stands on the winch (the machine that lifts us up) and monitors safety. We are okay with many things that an uncirculated person would take negatively. For example, as a child, I moved from city to city every month, changed schools due to the fact that my parents were constantly touring. You moved, entered new school, a month later he collected his belongings, moved to new town- and all over again. Now I also tour and often live in different cities. How old I am, I won't say. By circus standards, I am already a pensioner - we have 15 years of service. I am not married, I have no children. But I don’t need it now, I don’t feel like an adult woman who already needs all this, I’m still 17 years old in my soul.
I go to the fitness center three times a week. I can’t say that I am a fan of simulators, I can’t stand them, I walk through strength. At the arena every day we warm up and rehearse for 5 hours. During this time, I manage to rehearse the numbers with horses, then with dogs and my number in the air. Then until the evening I work as an assistant artistic director at the Great Moscow State Circus.
I love to eat, it's a tragedy for me. Especially now, with age. I get frustrated when I can't afford pasta and pizza. I try to eat vegetables, fish, chicken, of course, without bread and sweets, otherwise I immediately start to get better. Now I weigh 56 kilograms - and I am the second in the ranking of the fattest girls in our team. Everyone in the circus tells me that I'm very fat. Askold Zapashny comes up to me every day and says: "Stop eating." It really would not hurt me to lose two or three kilograms, but I can’t. It seems to me that I can only lose weight if I sit on the water, but I can’t do that, I need strength for training. In the morning, I always eat a piece of bread with butter to keep my skin moisturized. True, in the evening I can sometimes eat a slice of pizza or sushi. The body is accustomed to physical activity I don't lose weight from it.
I often dream of performances. More precisely, my music is already starting to play in the arena, and I am still sitting in the dressing room in everyday clothes. In fact, it is very scary, I wake up in a cold sweat after this. As far as I know, this dream haunts many circus performers.
I have many friends who are not from the circus. I'm friends with rockers, bikers, photographers, writers. After performing in the circus, at 11 pm I can go to the club to relieve stress or just go home to sleep. We often gather in my friend's cottage by the fireplace and arrange viewings of Tarkovsky, Fellini, then discuss what we have seen.
When I'm at the height under the dome, I don't think about anything. I listen to music, keep the image, there are no thoughts at all, everything turns off for me, and I work. It's scarier in rehearsals than in performances, because in rehearsals you look down and you see that you are very high, and when you are in the arena, you are blinded bright light and you can't see what's below.
Last year, my partner and I became bronze medalists in Monte Carlo. Like in the movie world main award- get an Oscar, so we get the Clown, we got it. Without insurance, I held my partner with one hand by the leg, and she hung head down at a height of 28 meters. Once we almost broke, the partner held me by the waist, and everything worked out. Our salaries are decent, but not huge. We are definitely not working for money.
The artist is very sensitive to praise. For me, applause is drugs. If you think about it, it's stupid. But if I get a storm of applause, then I come to indescribable delight I want to be torn to pieces with happiness. It is important to be able to adjust to the mood of the audience, to understand who to play for. Even when you are at a height of 26 meters, you need to continue to play the role, to smile. It is a mistake to think that when you are there, the viewer does not see you. Everything is visible: an unpainted nail, a torn off glitter, an arrow on tights, fear on the face.
Not so long ago, I graduated from the directing department of GITIS with honors and recently received another specialty - an organization management manager. I understand that I will not fly under the dome forever. Even when I cannot be a circus performer, I will remain in it in a different role. I dream of becoming a circus director someday, so now I am getting the maximum knowledge.
When we were in Monaco last year, we had to compete in a sawdust arena, which tends to lose shape. I performed on a horse, at some point she threw me off, and I fell right at the feet of Prince Albert and Princess Stephanie. I had two stakes on both sides, I managed to group up and get strictly between them, otherwise I would have crashed, otherwise I just broke my finger. But then she quickly got up and once again worked out the failed trick. But Jean-Paul Belmondo clapped for me! Another time, during a performance, an assistant accidentally tore my shoulder. Usually my dad lifts me into the air on a rope, and on that day another person replaced him. I was in the air, he controlled the situation from below, and when I went on a trick, he thought that I was somehow flying low, and decided to lift me higher, and at that moment my ligaments were torn shoulder joint from such a steep rise. It was just the finale of the number, I didn’t show it and went backstage with the most calm look. After this incident, I could not work for six months. Unfortunately, in our profession you are not always dependent on yourself. There are always assistants who can have an attack of idiocy, and you cannot control this and you can’t do anything with this person - and why, if you are already a cripple. Torn shoulders, hands, ligaments are typical for our genre.
The most important rule is that you must give the viewer a holiday at any cost. If he wanted to look at the suffering, he would not pay money for a ticket to the circus, but go to another place. But he wanted a holiday, he is waiting for a miracle, so no matter what you tear yourself, no matter what you break during a performance, in no case should you show it. After you went backstage, for God's sake, cry, curse the world, run to the doctor, do whatever you want, that's your business. The viewer is not interested.
The Dance.Firmika.ru portal contains information on where you can sign up for dance classes on canvases in Moscow: addresses and phone numbers dance schools and dance studios, prices for the most popular directions, student reviews. For greater convenience in using the portal and searching for a dance school, we suggest using a convenient filter by districts and metro stations. Visual tables will help you compare the cost of classes and training in different dance studios cities, choosing the best option for the price.
Completely unique dance direction is a dance on aerial canvases or aerial gymnastics, harmoniously combining choreography, sports and acrobatic elements. Today this direction is developing very quickly, becoming more and more popular every day. Canvas dance includes exercises that are performed on apparatus or equipment suspended from the ceiling, for example, gymnastics on a rope, ring and canvases.
Teaching aerial gymnastics or dancing on aerial canvases in Moscow
Finding dance lessons on canvases in Moscow with the help of our portal becomes very easy! The tables contain information about dance schools, where full-fledged classes are presented. Visual prices will allow you to compare the cost of training in different institutions and compare the price of full-fledged subscriptions. Using the filter, you can choose with aerial gymnastics classes in the most convenient area or near a suitable metro station.
Aerial gymnastics on canvases - features of the direction
In some ways, the principle of dance is very similar to pole dancing. It contains both rotations and static poses. The only difference is that even the spinning pylon is fixed, while the canvases are spinning and swinging. The elements of aerial gymnastics look very unusual and beautiful, and the dance itself acquires a special sensuality and tenderness, behind which good physical preparation is hidden.
The advantages of doing aerial gymnastics include the absence of such a number of bruises, which is typical for the pole. Unusual exercises give extraordinary lightness to the whole body, giving elegance and grace to movements. Pole dancing lessons can be held both individually and in pairs - it all depends on the school schedule and agreement with the teacher. Today, dance or circus studios offer full-fledged training with a qualified teacher. Aerial gymnastics for children is also suitable, such lessons can be started as early as 4 years old. To make the classes comfortable, it is better to prefer a closed, tight-fitting suit.
Acting skills, plasticity and good physical preparation are the main components, without which it is difficult to imagine dancing on canvases. The dance includes a set of static elements, complemented by elements of acrobatics and smooth transitions performed at a height of 4-5 meters with the help of dense woven ribbons. It is difficult to describe the feeling of a dancer who moves to the music on the canvases - you need to try it yourself!
Choosing to learn aerial gymnastics on canvases, students not only master dizzying tricks and create a perfect figure. They develop their own flexibility and plasticity, sense of rhythm and musicality, gracefulness of movements.
Experience the throes of creativity while working on a program celebratory event? Stuck in the search for that very pearl that can raise the level, increase the level of holding and the status of the celebration, draw attention to any event or opening? Is your main task aimed at ensuring that guests remember the grand scale of the event for a long time? Then the show of gymnasts will become an indispensable find for the scenario of the holiday.
There are many styles and trends rhythmic gymnastics. The entertainment industry has been significantly replenished with unique teams of circus and aerial gymnasts involved in performances at corporate parties, banquets, weddings and anniversaries. Numbers with ribbons, balls and hoops are complemented by acrobatic lifts and choreographic elements. From this variety, it is easy to choose a spectacle that meets the aesthetic requirements and format of your event.
What should be considered when inviting gymnasts to a holiday?
Gymnastic numbers performed by professionals will not leave indifferent both a solid and respectable contingent and a mischievous children's audience. However, when ordering such a performance for your celebration, you should take into account a number of necessary factors:It is necessary to inform the team in advance where the performance will take place and what conditions for work are there. Because, for example, trapeze artists need a room with high ceilings and the ability to secure their equipment.
Each band or performer has equipment and attributes for a performance, you don't have to worry about it.
The repertoire and the number of speakers are selected in accordance with the size of the stage space and the format of the event.
the site has collected on its page the most professional and sought-after gymnasts with a wide variety of programs designed for a chamber and large-scale audience!
IN modern society almost all genres of aerial gymnastics are becoming very popular. If quite recently only professionals, circus artists could master this art, today it is available to everyone. And he doesn't play here. big role age, physical fitness. It is enough to have the desire and desire to learn. Most graceful genre, which is preferred rather big number women are classes on aerial canvases. You can learn to soar gracefully in the air and at the same time perform complex gymnastic elements in dance studios.
What are air canvases?
Aerial canvases are a sports equipment that is used in aerial gymnastics. They are a very dense material up to 9 m long, depending on the height of the room. Aerial canvases have a special system of fastening to the ceiling, which allows them to perform quite complex gymnastic and acrobatic elements. Cloths are made of stretching and non-stretching material. The first type is mainly used by professionals in their field. The second is more suitable for beginners in this genre. When choosing canvases, it is necessary to take into account some features, namely, they should not only be pleasant to the body, but also not slip too much, allowing you to make an element in static quality, and not burn the body at the time of performing such elements as breaks, sliding, flips.
Aerial canvases have a special system of fastening to the ceiling, which allows them to perform quite complex gymnastic and acrobatic elements.
Initial training
Air gymnastics it takes a lot of work and effort. If, nevertheless, there is a desire to master aerial canvases, then it is recommended to first choose a specialized studio, a school where teachers are either circus artists in this genre, or professionals in their field. Any coach must find an approach to his ward, depending on his characteristics.
The second thing you need to pay attention to when choosing a school is the premises. It must have high ceilings of at least 3 m in height. Only with such dimensions it is possible to carry out training and perform gymnastic elements without fear. Equipment also plays in the choice not last role. In addition to the fact that the bindings must be hardy, the room must contain mats, which are a kind of insurance during training. Mirrors are needed to hone your skills.
The first lesson is based on familiarization with safety precautions when working with aerial canvases. Further, depending on the level physical training women, the instructor determines the degree of load and tactics of the training.
Conducting classes
Each lesson on aerial canvases begins with a warm-up, warming up the muscles and hands. Only after that they proceed to instruct the most simple elements. When the first stage is mastered, work begins on your own body. What does it mean? First, a student with a coach performs various kinds of stretching. Secondly, strength exercises so that the body can withstand the loads at altitude. When a beginner becomes an amateur, the instructor begins to hone the mastery of his elements.
Personal experience
In time, such a training can take from 1.5 to 2 hours. Most often, classes are either individual or group (4-8 people each). In the second case, the pair works on the same suspension in turn.
Why do we need aerial work?
The most important thing is that aerial gymnastics is grace, grace, art, sophistication, lightness, flexibility. The above is just a minimum of what gives every woman such classes. Thanks to work on air canvases, a person is constantly working on his muscles. By stretching the muscles and back, flexibility and grace are acquired.
In addition, classes on air canvases involve absolutely all muscles. No sport can boast of such a feature. Thanks to these trainings, the body becomes more elastic, posture is developed, the muscles of the arms, legs, buttocks, and back are strengthened. It's also a great way to reset excess weight. Such a statement is connected with the fact that such training requires a large number of energy, diet and hard work.
Having mastered the art on aerial canvases, you can please loved ones with your talent on demonstration performances or family corporate events. Many girls attend such classes for performances in nightclubs, which in Lately enjoys no less popularity than dancing.
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Aerial gymnastics, one of the types of circus gymnastics, is designed to demonstrate the skills of artists working on special equipment and devices. Many elements of gymnastics have been known since antiquity in various countries East, the main basis modern technology aerial gymnasts was formed and consolidated by circus performers in the early twentieth century.
The arsenal of aerial gymnastics includes work with trapeziums, rings, canvases and other structures suspended at a certain height. Structures can be both static and moving.
Tricks in aerial gymnastics are performed either solo by one artist, or by a group of artists on various devices suspended above the circus arena. It is worth mentioning the main instruments of aerial gymnasts - bamboo, frame, trapezoid, rings, loops, etc.
The genre of aerial gymnastics also includes numbers with stunt flights of artists from trapeze to trapeze or from trapeze to the hands of a catcher. Aerial flights among aerialists are considered a difficult and risky part of aerial gymnastics, accessible only to true masters of their craft.
Voltigeurs must be able to evenly distribute muscular energy, have an ideal eye, finely feel the metro-rhythm, have professional courage, courage and impeccable plastique.
The genre of aerial gymnastics is based on the demonstration of outstanding body control skills, significantly exceeding the capabilities of an ordinary person.
The work of aerialists is akin to the work of stuntmen, because aerialists risk not only their health, but also their lives, showing the most daring tricks. Without risky tricks, the limit of human capabilities, the strength of the spirit and the plasticity of the body cannot be shown.
IN circus show the genre of aerial gymnastics is recognized as the most intense and spectacular. Spectators tickle their nerves and see everything with their own eyes here and now. Often high-class aerialists work without insurance, they are supported only by the disturbing roll of the snare drum in the orchestra. Fragile girls often show not only beauty and plasticity, but also perform complex power elements in the air that require significant muscular effort.
Spectacular performances of aerial gymnasts are preceded by a titanic work with material that the layman does not see and about which the audience only very vaguely guess. The daily training of gymnasts is associated with trauma, bruises and calluses, and only fanatics remain in the world of aerial gymnastics. The hardships of everyday work, training, classes, tailoring of costumes, the creation of special props for the air and the rental of the venue, the artists decide at their own expense, which is very difficult to do in times of economic crises. Nevertheless, obstacles do not stop true artists, and the best gymnasts break through to their fans in any way, presenting a class of work, despite hundreds of large and thousands of small, everyday, everyday problems and inconveniences.
Today, the possibilities of aerial gymnastics are that rare trump card that organizers of entertainment and entertainment events can use and use. Amateur dance at the pole and singing karaoke in last years surprise no one. A serious guest of a hotel, restaurant, exhibition will remember only the brightest performances of artists, everything else, "budget art" will only make a sophisticated audience, seriously versed in art, sports and show business, laugh.
