SUPERGERL in life

At nine, friends called her stone Sonya - she loved to throw stones in the windows. "Uppsala-Circus" made a brave acrobat from a hooligan, which trains a huge shepherd and dreams of helping people

We help the UPSala-Circus help

“You have twenty minutes,”-Larisa Afanasyeva, the permanent director and art of the St. Petersburg “Uppsala-cycle”, does not want to let go of a rehearsal for a long time in an interview with a fifteen-year-old Sonya, the youngest participant in the play “Ping-Imponer Ball”, which was brought to Moscow for the Near-Condeemer Program of the Festival “Golden Mask”: through the Golden Mask: through the Golden Michael: through the Golden Mess. Spectators will appear for a couple of hours, artists need to have time to get comfortable on an unfamiliar site - in the lobby of the Jewish Museum. In particular, Sonya has to climb into their hands with tall artists and jump in somersault, juggle five goals from the floor and make a wheel without hands, which, in principle, seems impossible for the human body.

Sonya in the dressing room photo: Maria Plotnikova for TD

“Uppsala-Circus” calls itself the only circus for hooligans in the world-the phrase “difficult teenager” is not used here. Eighteen years ago, when the project appeared, the coaches searched for guys right on the street, in teenage party - and invited them to class. Now they have a more systematic approach: the circus works with correctional schools, boarding schools, crisis and family centers.

Guys from "UPSAL" in the classroom photo: Maria Plotnikova for TD

In addition to children and adolescents from social risk groups, children with special needs are engaged in UPSAL. The circus is accepted by children from seven to twelve years old (occasionally older), the training ends, as a rule, by eighteen years. The main disciplines are acrobatics, juggling, trapezoid, break-dance and diabolo. I ask Sonya what diabolo is. She explains: something like a big yo-yo.

Stone Sonya

Sonya grew up in the Kalininsky district of St. Petersburg, a twenty minute walk from the UPSala-Cirk tent. Her mother is a cook, her father works in advertising and, as the girl complains, is rarely at home. There is another seventeen -year -old brother who, according to Sonya, is constantly sitting on the computer. “I am a very loving girl,” Sonya admits with irony. - I really lack the attention of the family. True, now I spend so much time in the circus that my parents and I are at home equally rarely. ” Sonya does not talk about why parents are at home.

Sonya at rehearsals photo: Maria Plotnikova for TD

When she was nine, friends came up with a nickname for her stone Sonya. “I was a rather modest girl, but my boys from school did not. We walked along the streets, torn trees, sometimes threw stones into glass - so, purely on jokes. All ideas with stones were mine. ” Once the guys were nearly taken to the police. The girl was lucky: she spent only a couple of months in this company, and then something happened-and the Kamenny Sonya forever changed the priorities. “I walked with my mother in Nevsky-we had nothing to do, my father, as always, left-and we saw the poster of the play“ Uppsala-Circus ”, it was called“ City in a suitcase ”. It was next to our house, we decided to go, and then it was just a set to the group. I asked, I went to the first lesson-and somehow I spun. ”

Than the circus is better than the school

Elizabeth, a manager of a professional circus group, tells that none of the artists have such a great and different professional experience as Sonya. The girl quickly went through all the levels of training in the circus - now she is the smallest in the older group and performs in some performances with graduates. She drove sixteen cities of Russia with the play “Nephew”, and recently traveled with the circus to the capital of Scotland Edinburgh to the world's largest theater festival Fringe. The artist trains five times a week, and twice a month, on Saturdays, plays performances. This continues all year round. When asked about the rest, the girl answers that the circus is her rest: “There is my whole family. These people, I consider them so close that I can calmly call a family. I am very much resting from school here, it is terribly annoying me. ”

Speech "Uppsala-Zirka" Photo: Maria Plotnikova for TD Speech "Uppsala-Zirka" Photo: Maria Plotnikova for TD

Sonya has to endure the school of ninth grader, because the losers and truants in the UPSala-Circus are not allowed to perform performances, tour and training until they correct the grades. At school, the girl does not have enough an individual approach to the students to whom she was used to here: “Technies do not understand Russian, humanities - algebra, and all do not care, you should know this according to the program. And in the circus, if the teacher sees that you cannot sit on the twine, he understands this and does not dig. ” This is true: to everyone who wants to engage in the circus, teachers find specialization. You can’t smoke and jump - it means that you can juggle. Sonya is small, light and jumping: it is ideal for the voluntary, as it is called in the circus, things like balancing on an outstretched hand of a partner.

"Ophelia, move your ears!"

The girl believes that the circus has greatly changed her character. “As a child, I didn’t talk to anyone, I was very closed, I sat at home all the time, I played in the computer. And as I came to the circus, it became sociable, responsible-because here you have a responsibility to someone or something. For example, you play in the play, you have your own props, which you need to look at, care. If something happens to him, you have to repair or come up with something. ”

Sonya at rehearsals photo: Maria Plotnikova for TD

After only two years of classes in the circus, Sonya herself became a coach - for her dog. He and his brother persuaded her father to have a dog, and when the girl was eleven, he allowed the children to take the eastern European shepherd puppy. The dog was called Ophelia - Sonya assures that Shakespeare had nothing to do with it and that there was such an ancient Greek goddess. Brother, the dog was quickly tired of, cares for him mostly a sister. “The dog, one might say, is mine,” says the girl.

Speech "Uppsala-Zirka" Photo: Maria Plotnikova for TD

Now Ophelia is four years old, she is more and stronger than the hostess, but Sonya is the only member of the family whom the dog always obeys. The girl taught her not only to standard teams (“Sit!”, “Lie!”, “Voice!”), But also crawl, jump, give two paws at once and even move ears to order. “She taught her this six months. The shepherds should stand, but she does not stand. And when you show delicious, dogs raise your ears. I showed her a yummy and cleaned, showed and cleaned ... Now I say: “Move your ears!” “And she starts: Chick-chick.”

"Girls are not taken to firefighters"

Ophelia helped Sonya choose a future profession: she is going to get a secondary psychological education, and go to the institute to a dog handler. I ask: why are you going for psychology, you can immediately at the Kinological College? It turns out that there are no budget places, and at the end of training they do not give a state diploma. She is not very interested in teaching other people's animals: Sonya wants to work with service dogs who are looking for missing people. “Since childhood, I wanted to help people - but not money, because I am sure that in my life I will not have too much money. I wanted to be a fireman. When I found out that the girls were not taken to firefighters, I decided to go to the Ministry of Emergencies. And with the specialty “dog handologist” I have more chances to get there. ”

Sonya rehearses before the performance photo: Maria Plotnikova for TD

Sonya has the talent of a trainer and a great circus experience - but she will not speak in performances with animals. “It's just disgusting! I was in an ordinary circus two years ago and went out after five minutes of the beginning. I can’t watch how they mock animals. On the stage it looks more or less reasonable, but what happens to them behind the scenes is unbearable. ”

Superhero school

The UPSALA-CIRK is not an amateur, but one hundred percent a professional team: this is confirmed by the Golden Mask Award, won this season by the play “I-Basyo” in the traditionally strong nomination “Experiment”. Graduates have every chance to stay in the profession. Every year, the circus sends two or three most experienced pupils for a monthly internship in Paris, to the Academy of Circus Mastery of Fratellini-one of the most prestigious circus schools in the world. Sonya also visited there, but does not connect her future career with the circus: according to the girl, the circus will remain for her something like a hobby.

Sonya at rehearsals photo: Maria Plotnikova for TD

But this is not a problem: the real mission of the project is not in the training of circus artists. Any circus representation, no matter what style it belongs to is always a story about a superman, a superhero that can fly, evaporate things and tame predatory animals (although about the last Sonya: to torment animals is not a matter).

If you can give a damn about gravity and your own fear - that's all, you are a superman in life. Or superherl. And what do we usually feel when we are fourteen, fifteen, sixteen? Loneliness. Anxiety. Self -doubt. It’s great when a family or school helps to fight it, but we know how often it happens the other way around. It was then that the UPSala-Circus comes to the rescue. Let's support them, because even 100, 300, 500 rubles will help the circus continue to work to turn hooligans into supermen. Wouldn't you want to feel at fifteen that everything is on the shoulder?

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