| Yesterday the 4th International Youth Festival of Circus Arts ended in Moscow With the epithet “international”, the festival organizers greatly exaggerated. Of the 26 groups, only acrobats and break dancers from Budapest, a gymnast from London and a tightrope walker from Germany with the Slavic surname Zhuravel were truly “foreign”. Also among the international competitors were three Ukrainian groups, two Belarusian girls with dogs, and the completely gutta-percha-haired Berkan Bolitov from the Kazakh State Circus, who was able to squeeze his sixty-meter-tall into a 70 by 70 glass cube. The rest were all “ours” - representatives of competing circus denominations: Nikulin Circus, Russian State Circus and Circus on Vernadsky Avenue, as well as artists from city circus studios in Russia. So no matter how much the organizers wanted to bring Monte Carlo chic, much of their idea remained from the Soviet competition “Hello, we are looking for talent.” Even the corps de ballet at the opening performed some long-forgotten manipulations with flags. But the saddest thing is that the very style of a good half of the performances smacked of well-preserved Soviet circus products. Without having a program in front of your eyes, it was almost impossible to recognize circus foreigners with a different acting nature, technique and direction among the artists flying, tumbling and sending smiles in all directions of the arena. Only the Ukrainians were slightly different with their deliberate wildness, which became fashionable after the victory of singer Ruslana at Eurovision. Their independent unbridledness, by the way, was awarded the main award. Ukrainian acrobats clad in leather on balloons and playing cool bikers in the arena received the highest award - the Golden Elephant.
According to the rules of the festival, each prize - gold, silver and bronze elephants - has three laureates. The international jury, headed by Maxim Nikulin, acted exemplary when distributing awards. In the absence of new forms and any bright direction, the first nominations went to those artists in whose work there was an attempt to present an effective performance. Even if just a little. At least the image and costumes are like those of the Bagdasarov trainers, who depicted passionate lovers in a cage with tigers. Even the most banal ones, like those of another gold laureate - Moscow roller acrobats, who appeared in the arena in the form of dashing street boys.
Artists with subtle performances without traditional circus bravado, with gracefully choreographed and brilliantly performed numbers, but ineffective numbers from the point of view of presentation to the public, are all second best. “Silver elephants” - from the gymnasts on the frame of the Artemyevs, who danced a passionate and risky paso doble in the air, and from the wonderful Ekaterina Demina, who transformed the old “rubber” number “snake woman” into “Aphrodite girl” swaying in the sea foam.
In general, everything in the circus is a little different from other festivals. Here the performances take place, as in a creative university, in two rounds, the programs are edited taking into account a variety of genres, and the jury members are introduced to the public and artists not before the start of the competition, but after the intermission, right before the predators come out. But still. With all the circus daring, the goal must be definite. The International Youth Festival obviously has no clarity. It takes place for the fourth time and always the same way: in the arena, on the one hand, there are powerful professionals, on the other - visiting foreigners, on the third - children's amateur groups that are losing to everyone in advance. The festival, striving to support circus art in all its manifestations and in all Russian regions, also has artistic efforts, trying to reveal the circus of tomorrow.
In the distribution of rewards, this uncertainty of tasks had an immediate effect. It was an obvious stretch to award the third prize to young cycling figure skaters from Lugansk, who showed a very student-like and very traditional performance, and to Evkhimenko’s little girls with the simplest dog training. The same as the second prize for the tightrope walker from Germany. But even with such a disorganized attempt to search for circus pearls, one was found. The youngest, funniest little clowns Anna Matveeva and Daria Subbotina from Izhevsk received a special jury prize for good reason. In their touching and hilarious somersaults on the arena there was both truth in character and clear direction. It’s just a pity that the name of the director of this wonderful scene of little girlfriends quarreling and then reconciling remains unknown. Maya is ALONE |
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