Oh, to be in the Circus!
An evening spent at Madame Zingara’s Theatre of Dreams is an enchanted encounter, where fairies hand out heart shaped cookies, cowboys and princesses serve food dripping in chocolate, and beautiful women swing effortlessly from the chandeliers. It is an intoxicating experience played out in a giant, tented palace of mirrors and lights. But does the magic continue through the looking glass? Is circus life just as enchanting on the other side of the tent?
I arrived at Victoria – the gracious old spiegeltent that Madame Zingara calls home – and was shown to the theatre’s “back stage” area, a collection of trailers and communal tables. After the evening spell of the theatre, I was quite disappointed to discover a rather normal scene on the other side. The fairy had lost her wings and was sitting around cracking jokes with the dethroned princess, while people milled about, eating dinner and waiting for the pre-show meeting to start. When it did, it involved such mundane issues as bar schedules and parking spots.
It was all rather a comedown after the magical world I had experienced on my first tip to Madame Zingara’s. And then I looked a little closer. Minus the face paint and the costumes these were ordinary people, but they were certainly anything from mundane. Where else would the staff meeting include snippets of Russian, Ukranian and Mongolian? Where else would “work” involve canoodling your sweetheart on a revolving stage decked out in Louis XIV finery before whipping her around on a pair of roller skates? And where else would your colleagues boast such impressive party tricks as being able to juggle chainsaws?
A psychic popped by to check out her new competition and remarked breathlessly: “Oh, I love this place, there’s just such amazing energy here.” And there is, even before the lights come up. Perhaps this is one of the aspects that attracts people to join the circus.
For some circus performers, a life in the circus is something they are born into, like Russian roller-skater Kristine Prokopyuk who grew up in a circus family and naturally gravitated to a career under the big top. For Mongolian contortionists Tom, Jerry and Ziggy, a genetic predisposition for hyper flexibility meant that – in a country that is well known for producing many of the world’s best contortionists – their future careers were already chosen for them at a very young age.
For others, circus life is a natural progression from one aspect of their talent to another. Hula Hoop extraordinaire Polina Volchek was a professional gymnast for ten years in her native Russia, acquiring such distinguished accolades as being named a Triple Crown Champion of Russia. However, once she had reached the pinnacle of her gymnastics career, she was eager for a new challenge and naturally gravitated to the performing arts.
Ukranian gymnasts Oleg Shevchenko and Alex Mishchenko also moved from a career in sports gymnastics to performing their hand to hand and aerobatic act on cruise liners and in circuses.
Others are inextricably drawn to the energy of circus life and it becomes a passion that is impossible to ignore, as our own home grown acrobat and trapeze performer Christine du Plooy can attest to. “I was always one of those weird kids that did head stands while watching TV. They had a flying trapeze at Zip Zap (circus school), and for my birthday that’s what I wanted to do,” she explains. An entire day of trapeze swinging later and nine-year-old Christine was hooked, and soon joined the school officially as one of their students. This later translated into a career in circus arts. “It is all I ever wanted to do,” she explains.
Since then Christine has travelled the world performing her aerial act, but is now thrilled to be back in South Africa performing at Madame Zingara’s, which has given many South African performers an unprecedented opportunity to perform in their own country again. Travelling, however, comes with the territory and one has to ask whether the circus life is sometimes a lonely one.
Twins Tom and Jerry have the support of each other, their performance partner Ziggy and a cousin who translates for them, and so the girls just giggle and shake their heads when I ask if they’re lonely. Kristine’s husband Ivan is her performance partner and after ten years of travelling together they no longer feel the pangs for home so badly. They do, however, miss their ten-year-old son in Russia, but he will soon be joining them to make their own little circus family complete. Many of the international performers – like Alex and Oleg – work short term contracts, which gives them an opportunity to go home in between. And for the rest of the time, their fellow performers fill the void. “For 24 hours a day, we live together, we work together, we eat together, we play together. It’s like a big family – albeit a very distorted one,” Christine laughs.
For many of the performers, this is definitely one of the best parts of circus life. “The other staff and performers are really nice and we talk and have fun together,” explain Tom and Jerry. For Polina, it is the thrill of the stage that keeps her coming back for more: “It is always a magical experience – the people are different, they love coming to the show and you get a different energy every night.” For Christine, it is a combination of many things that keeps the circus magic alive for her. “I like the whole process of building up an act, deciding on your costume, designing your hair and makeup. It all forms part of the final package that you put on stage. And after your first performance, there is so much adrenaline that you don’t want to sleep for three days because you’re so excited!” she enthuses. It is this, for her, which makes all the sweat, the tears, the injuries and sore muscles worth it.
Depending on the type of act they perform and also how well they look after themselves, it is not unheard of for circus performers to continue performing well into middle age. Tom and Jerry’s teacher is now 50 years old and still doing contortion. However, the girls have other dreams for their lives. Tom dreams of one day being a designer, while Jerry craves a career in tourism.
Polina will continue to perform until she feels she has reached her full potential: “I would still like to keep going. I might be close to the top, but I am sure that I haven’t reached it yet. I still have new ideas of what I can do on stage.” And once she has exhausted her circus career, she may choose to follow another childhood dream: “When I was a little girl, the teacher asked everyone what they wanted to be and I stood up and said, ‘I want to be a cowboy!’ So maybe one day, that’s what I’ll do!”
For Kristine, a circus life is all she knows and while she and Ivan still have energy and passion, they see no reason to swap the big top for an office block. Christine feels exactly the same way. The circus has been a lifelong passion and one she hopes to one day pass on to her children. And her advice to anyone who is thinking about a career in circus arts? “Go for it! Go crazy, do what you must do. Have fun, fall, hurt yourself, learn!”
As the light fades and the performers disappear into their dressing rooms to paint on their makeup and spread their glittery wings, the pre-show excitement and magic begins to flutter again, and as I leave, a small part of me desperately wants to stay and join in the fun; to cast normality to the wind and to run away and join the circus!
Madame Zingara’s Theatre of Dreams will be at Melrose Arch in Johannesburg until April 2011 before moving on to Durban. Tickets are available from the Madame Zingara Box Office on +27 021 001 3366. Visit http://www.madamezingara.com/ for more information.
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Story by Nicky Furniss
