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| Duo Acero - The Great Moscow Circus Extreme. |
An Edgley-Weber presentation. Gungahlin ACT from 1st
to 17th November, 2024
Performance on 2nd November reviewed by BILL
STEPHENS.
For many years The Great Moscow Circus in Australia had come
to represent the best of the great Russian circus tradition by exhibiting each
visit a selection of the very best circus acts sourced from around the Soviet
Union.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 all that changed
so the Edgley family purchased the ownership of the name, The Great Moscow
Circus for Australia and New Zealand, and broadened the selection of acts under
the banner to feature the best circus acts from around the world.
The Great Moscow Circus trademarks are currently owned by the Weber and Edgley families, and while neither family has any association or affiliation with the Government of Russian, they’ve joined forces under the banner of The Great Moscow Circus to present what they consider are the very best examples of circus arts from around the world.
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| The Great Moscow Circus Extreme |
Currently ensconced in Gungahlin until 17th November, in a spectacular $10,000,000 collection of state-of-the- art tents, trucks, cars, food stalls and assorted circus paraphernalia, the 2024 edition, entitled of The Great Moscow Circus Extreme comprises artist from Armenia, Ukraine, Brazil, Columbia, Greece, New Zealand and Australia, all of whom feature in a grand parade which commences the performance.
Unusually there’s a singer, Elly Rowbotham, and a team of
six dancers who provide additional glamour by prefacing many of the acts with
short mood-setting dance routines.
Among the more traditional circus acts the Weber family are well represented by Tiana and Tahlia Weber who demonstrated their impressive skills on the silks and trapeze respectively, while 10 year old Cruz Weber bravely joined the Globe Riders for a heart-stopping whiz around the Globe of Death for the finale.
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| Hewin Lyezkosky Boliver - The Giant Wheel |
Similarly heart-stopping was Hewin Lyezkosky Boliver whose dare-devil antics on the Giant Wheel at the beginning of the program were greeted with audible gasps from the audience, while Brazilian Giselle Souza captivated with her command of the high wire by jumping over flames and riding a unicycle while precariously balancing on a single wire.
Among the more unusual acts was one called BMX & Scooter. Nathan Freeman, Samual
Grace, Kody Law and Rhys Rogers quickly established themselves as audience
favourites by performing seemingly impossible feats on scooters and BMX bikes
which surely would have won them gold medals at the Paris Olympics had they
been competing.
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| BMX & Scooter - Great Moscow Circus Extreme |
Equally fascinating were the Ukrainian Flyers, Andrei Dudkin, Danil Kravchenko and Gosha Mykhailenko who made imaginative use of a trampoline to allow them to captivate the audience by running up walls and jumping through windows for their fast-moving act.
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| The Ukranian Flyers - Great Moscow Circus Extreme |
But perhaps the most mesmerising act of all was an arresting
performance by Duo Acero, Colombian Edison Acero and Brazilian Giselle Souza,
who fresh from their performances on “America’s Got Talent” demonstrated extraordinary
strength and artistry with their graceful and sensuous manoeuvres on the Chinese
pole.
Many of these acts required equipment which needed to be set up by a busy team.
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| Gagik Avetisyan - Great Moscow Circus Extreme |
A single clown, Armenian Charlie Chaplin look-alike, Cagik
Avetisyan, had the task of keeping the audience distracted while these set-ups
took place. Most of Cagik’s routines involved audience participation and
depended on the chosen person’s response to mimed instructions for their amusement.
Even though the
set-ups were efficient, there were quite a few of them, and as the evening wore
on, Cagik’s routines rather out wore their welcome leading to the realisation
that, despite the excellence of the individual acts, and the attempts at
innovation, this traditional presentation for the 2024 edition of The Great Moscow Circus felt dated
and rarely achieved the bravura, pizzaz and excitement of previous editions.
Gungahlin ACT 1st - 17th November 2024 - Goulburn NSW 21-24 November 2024
Mawson ACT - 3rd -19th Jan. 2025 - Queanbeyan NSW - 24th Jan - 2nd Feb 2025
Images: Chowie Photography.
