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.
Currently ensconced in Gungahlin until 17 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 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.
Similarly heart-stopping was Hewin Lyezkosky Bolivar 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.
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.
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. 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 achieving the bravura, pizzazz and excitement of previous editions.
The Great Moscow Circus Extreme
Corner Flemington Road and Ernest Cavanagh Street, Gungahlin (ACT)
Performance: Saturday 2 November 2024
Season continues to 17 November 2024
Bookings: www.greatmoscowcircus.com.au
Following the Gungahlin season, The Great Moscow Circus Extreme will be presented in Goulburn (21 – 24 November), Mawson (3 – 19 January) and Queanbeyan (24 January – 2 February). For more information, visit: www.greatmoscowcircus.com.au for details.
Images: Hewin Lyezkosky Boliver (Giant Wheel) | Edison Acero and Giselle Souza (Duo Acero) | Nathan Freeman, Samual Grace, Kody Law and Rhys Rogers (BMX and Scooter) | Cagik Avetisyan (Clown) – all photos by Chowie Photography
Review: Bill Stephens OAM