Trapeze artists to fly high in Bolshoi circus appearance

Features

Published: 21 Jul. 2005, 21:59

Trapeze artists to fly high in Bolshoi circus appearance

A venerable Russian circus troupe featuring traditional acrobatics, comedy and animal stunts is coming to Seoul. The Bolshoi Circus, founded in 1919, features dancing bears, dogs and cats on skates pulling a stroller and an acting lion, as well as clowns and acrobatics, including trapeze, tightrope walking and horseback riding stunts.
Among the highlights of the show at Jangchung Stadium are trapeze acrobatics led by team leader Alexander Selifanov featuring double somersaults, the triple salto (jump), and salto mortale, or deadly jump, which is a complete spin and somersault in the air without support. The Selifanov Troupe won the Joseph Bouglione Prize at the 25th Monte Carlo International Circus Festival.
The horseback riding stunts created by Ali-bek Kantemirov use Korean horses trained by Mr. Kantemirov. The Kantemirov family introduced horseback riding stunts in Russia and has trained horses for more than 100 years.
The company consists of different teams that have won prominent circus competitions, including the Monte Carlo International Circus Festival, the Circus Festival in Moscow and the International Circus Festival in Verona,
The circus company has 8,000 staff members and performers and 6,600 animals appearing in 830 programs. It has been traveling around Korea since June, and is finally appearing in Seoul. This is its second visit to Korea since last year, when it attracted 130,000 spectators. After the show in Seoul, the circus will move to Yeosu and Busan.

By Limb Jae-un

Performances will run from tomorrow to July 31. Showtimes are 4 and 7 p.m. on weekends and at 5 p.m. next Thursday and Friday. Jangchung Stadium can be reached from exit No. 6 of Dongguk University station on line No. 3. Ticket prices range from 33,000 won ($32) to 55,000 won. For ticket information, call 1544-1555.