Circus news
from Denmark 2003
26
December 2003
As
usual some circus performers have been engaged for an autumn show from 20 September to 4
December 2004
at the variety theatre Rode Kro (The Red Inn Theatre) in Copenhagen.
The owner of the theatre Charley Kaye and his
wife Belita are former comical casceadeurs. For
their 2004 performance they have engaged Stefan
Kubik, Martina, Lynn Carol and Freddy Anthony. The comical entertainer Freddy Anthony
as well as the handstand acrobat Martina did perform at Rode Kro theatre some years ago.
In 2003 both of them toured with Circus Dannebrog. The juggler Lynn Carol (daughter or the
clown Toto Chabri) performed in the Copenhagen
Circus
Building
in 1984, in Circus Arena in 1986 and 1987 and with Circus Benneweis in 1998 and during the
first weeks of the 2001 season. Stefan Kubik toured with his Moiseeva-troup with Circus
Dannebrog in 2002. In addition to the acrobats a number of popular actors will be on the
stage. Rode Kro Theatre is amongst the smallest theatres in Denmark:
only 166 seats. But at least for their autumn show they use to have a full house every
night.
21
December 2003
The
talented elephant German trainer Sonny Frankello
have with his 4 African elephants been reengaged to tour with Danish Circus Arena in 2004. From 15 to 22
January 2004
Sonny, his wife Lilian Kröplin and their elephants will perform at the Circus Festival in
Monaco.
Sonny is treating his bulls very well. Sonny and Lilian have made a videocassette showing
how the animals are treated when they are on tour. The video is called ”Vier Rüssel
und zwei Beine” (Four trunks and two legs). If you want to buy a copy you can write
to Frankello at this address: Am Doftplatz 22, D-19372 Elefantendorf Platschow, Germany.
– Also the Danish clown Bonbon has been
reengaged to perform at Circus Arena in 2004.
18
December 2003
Levade
Noble Horse Gala
is the name of a horseshow to be presented in Copenhagen
from 6th to 22nd
February 2004
by Swedish circus producer Robert Bronett. Most likely the show will be presented in the
same tent as is used by Swedish Circus Scott during then summer season. Among the
performers will be Miguel Barrionuevo from Spain
with 20 of his finest Andalusier and Lusitanos horses and 10 of his best riders. Together
with 8 flamenco dancers and 6 flamenco musicians they will ride the Spanish
School.
Showteam Kaiser will present tornerspiel and
French Gabi Dew will ride the courier on
extra large horses. Gabi Dew toured with Circus Scott in Sweden
in season 2000, 2001 and 2002. In total more than 40 horses will take part in the show.
Gabi
Dew (photo taken in Circus Scott on 12. november 2002)
8
December 2003
Economical problems for Swedish Circus Scott.
Season 2003 was very bad for Swedish Circus Scott. As for the last couple of years their
season started rather late: on 1 August. The beginning of the season was fairy good but
after the assassination of the Swedish Secretary of State Anna Lindh in September which
shocked everyone in Sweden
attendance fell dramatically. On at good season Circus Scott will have between 200,000 and
250,000 visitors. This year just a little more than 100,000 people saw the performance.
This together with increased cost for transportation, increased rent of circus lots and
increased marketing costs hurt the economy. The owners of Circus Scott the brothers Henry and Robert Bronett have sent out a press
release saying they are aiming for a reconstruction of Bröderna Bronett Event AB (Bronett
Bross Event plc) in order to avoid a bankruptcy. And Henry is pretty sure that Circus
Scott will continue. Circus Scott is the eldest of the Swedish Circuses. It was
established in 1937 by Henry and Robert Bronett’s grandfather Bruno Bronett and his 3
brothers Herman, Carl (called Calle) and Natini (called Tini). The 4 brothers had for
several years performed with their well-known clown act 4 Bronetts. Later Bruno
Bronett’s widow Käte took over circus Scott and after Käte her son Francois became
circus owner. When Francois passed away in 1994 his sons Henry (born 1961) and Robert
(born 1964) took over Circus Scott. Apart from Circus Scott the brothers produces the
all-female circus festival Prinsessan and for Italian television Circo
Massimo.
This
photo of the acrobat troupe Color of Brazil
was taken in Circus Scott on 3 November this year. As can be seen most of the seats were
empty.
3
December 2003
Elephants and sealions in circuses. As in many
other countries discussions regarding use of animals in circuses is pending in Denmark.
Big cat acts has been forbidden since 1962. An advisory committee to the ministry of
Justice proposed earlier this year to stop granting permissions for showing elephant and
sealion acts in Danish circuses. On 3
December 2003
the Association of Danish circus owners represented by Benny Berdino and his tour manager
Klaus Jochumsen (Circus Arena), Haddy Enoch (Circus Dannebrog) and Martin Arli (Circus
Arli) had a meeting with the Danish minister of Justice Mrs. Lene Espersen. The purpose
was to discuss the use of elephants and sealions in the Danish circuses. The circus owners
want to keep these animals in their performances. The circus owners handed over to Mrs.
Espersen the result of a questionnaire answered by more than 30,000 circusgoers who all
wanted still to have the possibility to see elephants and sealions in circuses. And it
looks as the meeting had a nice outcome: After the meeting Mrs. Espersen said that very
strong arguments was needed before she would issue a prohibition against elephants and
sealions in circuses. So at least for the time being it looks as we still can meet
elephants and sealions in circuses in Denmark.
Elephants,
sealions and horses. Part of a poster from 1951 painted by Oscar Knudsen. From Anders
Enevig’s book: Cirkusposters, published in 2001
2
December 2003
The
Copenhagen
Circus lot ”Ballahoj”.
At the Copenhagen
city council’s meeting in June 2003 it was decided during the autumn 2003 to renovate
and drain the circus lot at Bellahoj used for many years by Danish circuses during their
visit to Copenhagen.
The cost of renovation was estimated to 3,500,000 DKK (470,000 Euro or 560,000 USD).
However the renovation has been postponed and is now scheduled to take place in the summer
2004.
28
November 2003
Dangerous to be a magician? According to some
Swedish newspapers Swedish World Class Magician Joe
Labero had a serious accident during his performance earlier this month in the
Copenhagen Circus Building where his show ”Expect the unexpected” can be seen
until 20 December. The accident happened on 13 November while Joe Labero was laying
chained on the ”table of death” from which he has 45 seconds to escape before a
heavy steel plate with sharp iron spikes fall down piercing the table. Something went
wrong and Joe was according to the newspapers badly hurt by a spike. He was bleeding and
one could see part of his skull. However he went through with the performance but had
after the performance to hurry to a nearby hospital together with his wife Louise. He had
got a concussion of the brain and a bad wound was sewn with 6 stings. Strangely enough the
accident was not mentioned in any of the Danish newspapers. Maybe a press agent made the
story somewhat more dramatic than it really was. Together with my son and webmaster I saw
the show on 14 November (the day after the accident) and Joe Labero did certainly not look
like a person who have had a severe accident the previous night. A Swedish paper has also
told that Joe Labero should be negotiating with Siegfried in order to replace Roy Horn in
Siegfried & Roy. Roy
was badly hurt by one of his white tigers on 3
October 2003.
However Roy’s
recovery is said to be underway and he continuos to get better. And anyhow it does not
seem likely that Siegfried will team up with Joe Labero. But of cause Joe would as almost
all magicians love to be part of a show in Las
Vegas.
21 November
2003
Chat Noir
Variety 2003. Lasse
Norager the male partner in the Danish /Finnish clown duo Bonbon and Tiina is this winter co-director of a
variety theatre show at the well-known Chat Noir-variety theatre in Oslo,
Norway.
Opening night was on 13 November and the show will run until 20 December. Apart from
Bonbon and Tiina with their comedy badminton act one can meet Xelo with diabolo, the trampoline acrobats Trampo Brothers, Norwegian magician Roy Bjerke, Alexander
Tchainykov with rock ring juggling, the Norwegian comedians Ylvis Brothers and Malambo with gaucho dancing. The show has been
very well received by the Norwegian newspapers.
19
November 2003
A
while ago I wrote that the Danish pick-pocket artist Kenny Quinn (Kim Thygesen) who this summer
travelled with Finnish Circus Finlandia and for the time being can been seen at Star-Club
in Kassel was inspired by Charly Borra. Kenny Quinn has corrected me. The late Danish
pickpocket artist Gentleman Jack (Tommy
Iversen) trained him. Gentleman Jack was also known under the names Tommy Atkins and Jack
Atkins. His wife Majlis (also called May) often assisted him. Gentleman Jack died in 1984.
Kenny Quinn had his circus debut with Danish Circus Arena in 1985. At that time Kenny was
only 19 years old and performed alone. Today he is performing together with his partner
and wife Joan and their act is at true showstopper! Kenny and Joan have engagements at
variety theatres mainly in Germany
for the next year or so.
Kenny Quinn and Joan with a ”client” in the
Austrian Circus Elfi Althoff-Jacobi 2002 (photo by courtesy of Kenny Quinn)
Kenny Quinn at Variety Star-Club in Kassel i 2002 (photo by courtesy of Kenny Quinn)
18
November 2003
The
Danish magician Kim Kenneth who spent this
summer with Austrian Circus Elfi Althoff-Jacobi will from 21 November to 12 December
perform at German Circus Fliegenpilz at Brussels
Belgium.
Danish comical cascadeur Freddi Steckel can
with his act Steckel’s and his partner Zora Nikodemova been seen at Gala Tours in France.
17
November 2003
Producer
Benny Schumann tells that The International Clown Festival 2004 at Bakken north
of Copenhagen
will be held from 5 August to 15
August 2004.
The names of the performing clowns are not yet disclosed.
Benny
Schumann as King of Rock. From the Clown Festival 2003
16
November 2003
Janos Paul Dubsky – Dubsky’s football dogs. The Danish artist Janos Dubsky has just
established a website at the address http://www.sitecenter.dk/junior-dubsky. Janos and his wife Florentina
(often called Ana) perform with their soccer-playing boxes-dogs Dubsky’s football
dogs. From 12
December 2003
the act can be seen at The Moscow Circus in Hong
Kong
produced by Australian agent Michael Edgley. More details can be found at www.edgley.com.au. Janos and his dogs will travel by a cargo flight
leaving Brussels
on 6 December. ”The dogs are used to travel,” Janos says. ”I will sit with
the pilots but several times during the flight I will feed the dogs and make sure that
they are all right.” Janos, Ana and the dogs were also in China
December 2002 to February 2003 when the performances were cancelled due to the risk of
SARS. Janos took over the act with football-playing dogs from his sister and brother in
love in 2000. Until then he performed as a white-faced clown together with his parents
Josef Dubsky and Josétte Rivel in the clown trio Dubsky-Rivel family.
Dubsky’s
football-dogs (Photo: Lise Kokholm)
10
November 2003
Film about Agnete Louise Enoch. The author,
circusfan and filmmaker Jorgen Lorenzen want to produce a film about Agnete Louise Enoch.
Agnete is the oldest daughter of Solvej and Haddy Enoch who owns the Danish Circus
Dannebrog. Agnete Enoch has spent her entire life in circus. Earlier she performed as
handstand acrobat and with a bike act and she is trained as a multiartist. Now she is
ringmistress and press agent in Circus Dannebrog. Jorgen is asking several funds etc for
economical support to the project. A couple of years ago Jorgen produced a film about
circus clowns.
Left:
Jorgen Lorenzen (photo Lise Kokholm). Right: Agnete Louise Enoch (photo by
courtesy of Circus Dannebrog)
4
November 2003
Swedish
world class magician Joe Labero in the Copenhagen
Circus
Building.
Opening
night for Joe Labero's new show Expect the unexpected was on 1 November. Most of the
newspapers were favourable in their review of the show. In the newspaper Politiken the
reviewer Monna Dithmer called Joe Labero a superprof showmand who without problems could
hold the attention of the 1,200 people in the audience. In another paper Jyllands Posten
reviewer Frede Rasmussen called the show a roaring succes and an international magical
show. More sceptical was Birgitte Grue in the newspaper BT giving the performance 3 out of
6 possible stars. She called Joe Labero a Swedish version of Siegfried & Roy and was
missing a more intimate form of magic. The producer of the show has until now sold
approximately 25,000 out of the approximately 50,000 tickets offered for sale. The show
can be seen in the Copenhagen
Circus
Building
until 20. December. You can find further information under What’s on.
3
November 2003
New act in Swedish Circus Scott. There has been a
change in the program in Circus Scott which end their 2003 season in Malmö on 9
November 2003.
(Malmö is 20 minutes by train from Copenhagen).
The acrobat troupe Zebra has left Scott due
to an engagement in Germany.
They have been replaced by a ”living statue act” called Golden Pyramids.
Left: Golden Pyramids have replaced Zebras. Right: Segura – one of the top acts in
this years performance in Circus Scott.
31
October 2003
Star
for a Night
is the name of a popular talent competition in the Danish TV. Among the competitors
tonight was the drummer Marc Thierry from the
Danish dog and pony show Circus Krone. Marc is the youngest son of circus owner Irene Thierry. But competition was hard and
although Marc did a good presentation he didn’t win. Tomorrow 1 November Marc can
celebrate his 30 years birthday.
30
October 2003
If
you are visiting Copenhagen
next week you can see a nice circus performance if you cross the bridge to Malmö Sweden.
The large Swedish Circus Scott end their 2003
season in Malmö from 5 to 9 November. Ringmaster is circus owner Henry Bronett. Marcus
Jaichner conducts circus Scott’s large orchestra. The performers are the clowns
André Brogger and Karin Alder, the juggler Francois Borie, Seguras with an acrobatic act,
the Zebra troupe of acrobats, Sergej Akimov in an arial act, Color of Brazil with judo
like acrobatics, Jimmy Johansson with 6 Irish Tinker Horses and the 7 perch acrobats from
the Kahilafov-troupe. Phone number to ticket office + 46 732 10 48 28.
26
October 2003
This
autumn some Danish artists have given talks on their life and adventures at the
Circusmuseum at Hvidovre, Copenhagen.
On 26 October you could meet the bike acrobat, magician and ventriloquist ”Sir” Benny Fjeldsoe. Benny was born in
1946. From 1965 to 1974 he was a member of the bike acrobat troupe Trio Findal the two
other members being his uncle Svend and Svend’s wife Hanne. In 1965 Trio Findal
worked in Yugoslavia.
In 1976 the toured with Fossett's Circus in Ireland.
After that tour they stayed in Dublin
in 2½ year performing at the Olympia Theatre. After Ireland
the travelled with Circus Windship in the southern part of England.
1968 brought Trio Findal to the Far
East:
Formosa
(Taiwan)
where Chiang Kai-shek saw their performance at his 81st year birthday. Next stop was Japan
where they toured for 2 or 3 months with a show with the singer Trini Lopez as the main
attraction. Thailand
and Singapore
followed Japan.
Back again in Europe
they spent 3 years in Yugoslavia
– on and off. 1971 brought Trio Final back to Denmark.
In 1974 they was engaged at the new Swedish Circus Benzo. However they left after 3 weeks
due to missing salary payments and Circus Benzo did not survive its first season.
Trio Findal – Hanne, Svend and Bent
Benny
had for a while considered starting at his own. Thus he left Trio Findal where
Svend’s and Hanne’s son Ronald replaced him and started as magician under the
name Sir Benny (Sir Benny and his rabbits). He started in Yugoslavia
and came then to Astoria
in Milan.
The manager at Astoria
suggested Benny to bring a partner into the act. And thus Benny’s first wife Susanne
joined the act. They worked at Olympia
in Paris
(together with Julio Iglesias), at the Casino in Nairobi
in Kenya,
in Greece
and at the Sheraton hotels in the Middle
East.
1981 was spent in Nice where Benny and Susanne performed at the Casino. 1982 Sir Benny
performed at the Monte Carlo Casino.
I
1983 brought Benny back to Denmark
where he for the next 10 years performed at many revue theatres. In 1984 he divorced
Susanne and was married to an actress Lone Lau.
Since
1987 Benny Fjeldsoe and Lone Lau has spent each winter at Club La Santa Sport at Lanzarote
(Canary
Islands)
presenting a weekly show. But Benny mainly works as artist agent although you still can
meet him as an entertainer, magician and ventriloquist. ”It has been a good and
exciting life”, Benny tells. ”I would change nothing if I got the chance to live
my life once more.”
Benny Fjeldsoe anno 2003
The act in which Sir Benny uses persons from the audience
as ventriloquist’s dummies is always great fun
26 October 2003
During
the Danish school childrens autumn holiday from 13 to 18 October several Danish shopping
malls presented circus performances as free attraction. In the Rosengaard Shopping Mall in
Odense
you could meet Circus Kenny which is owned by
Haddy Enoch who also owns Circus Dannebrog. The photographer Lise Kokholm visited the show
and took these pictures of Dubsky’s
soccer-playing dogs
and Hans and Vicky Pedersen and one of their 4
sealions.
24
October 2003
From
27 October to 5 November the small Danish Circus
Baldoni will visit 8 villages on the Faeroe
Islands.
Local sport clubs sponsors the tour. The performers is circus owner René Marvin (magician
and ventriloquist), the female clown Karla and some of the acrobats from Latvia
who toured with Circus Baldoni during their summer season in Denmark
this year.
19
October 2003
Diana
Benneweis (owner
of Danish Circus Benneweis) was member of the jury at this year's circus festival from 2
to 11
October 2003
in Böblingen in Germany.
Among the performers were Ingo Stiebner and his sealions and the teeterboard troupe
Catana. Booth Ingo and the Catenas toured Denmark
with Circus Arena this summer.
17
October 2003
Yong juggler to Circus Benneweis. According to
several Norwegian newspapers the top act at this years performance at the Norwegian Circus
Merano was the young juggler Alan Sulc from the
Czech
Republic.
In 2004 the Danish circus audience can meet Alan Sulc at Circus Benneweis. In November
2002 Alan won a gold medal at European Youth Circus Festival in Wiesbaden
in Germany.
One of the jury members was Nelly Jane Benneweis (former ringmistress in Circus Benneweis
and now their press agent) who probably has suggested to circus owner Diana Benneweis to
engage Alan for the coming season.
Alan Sulc (photo: Thorbjorn K. Flo)
16
October 2003
Star
for a Night
is the name of a very popular talent competition in the Danish TV. When the Danish dog and
pony show Circus Krone visited Frederikshavn in
Jutland
on 13th October their drummer Marc
Thierry was told that he should participate in the Star for a Night-competition on 31
October. Marc is the youngest son of circus owner Irene
Thierry. Many thousand more or less talented youngsters want to participate in the
talent competition but only the most talented get the chance. And more news from Circus
Krone: on 8
October 2003
I told that Circus Krone would visit Dublin
in Ireland
from 22 October to 5 November. Irene Thierry further tells that they will bring their own
tent, costumes and other equipment and a staff of 11 people including artist. 24
performances will be given in Dublin.
It is Circus Krones first visit to Ireland.
14
October 2003
On
10
October 2003
I mentioned that German Circus Berolina planed
to visit Kolding
in the Southern part of Jutland
from 15 to 19 October. But the visit was cancelled. Apparently circus owners Katharina and Bernhard had not foreseen the
problems in bringing their many animals to Denmark:
big cat acts are not aloud in Denmark
and permission is required to present acts with elephants. And camels and lamas have to be
tested for foot- and mouth disease to cross the Danish border. Due to this the
Spindler’s cancelled their visit but hope next year to be able to visit Denmark
and have the necessary permissions etc ready. It is not the first time a foreign circus
has cancelled a visit to Denmark.
And apart from some new wave shows most foreign circuses visits to Denmark
has been a disaster from a financial point of view.
10
October 2003
School
children in Denmark
have autumn holiday from 13 to 18 October. Due to this several Danish shopping malls
presents free circus performances. In the Rosengaard Shopping Mall in Odense
you can meet Circus Kenny which is owned by
Haddy Enoch who also owns Circus Dannebrog. Agnete
Louise Enoch is ringmistress and presents Hans
and Vicky Pedersen with their 4 sealions, the Russian clowns Irina & Jury Kosincev and the foot juggler Miss Franza. Both the sealions and the clowns
toured with Circus Dannebrog during the summer season this year. At the West Zealand
Shopping Mall in Slagelse you can meet Circus
Mascot with artists and dogs. In the Elsinore City centre you can meet Benny Schumann’s mini circus with the clown
and multi-artist Benny Schumann, the ponies Shadow and Benny’s groom Brian
”Briano” Behrendt. Circus Krone presents
a family performance lasting for 45 minutes at the Soeding Shopping Mall in Esbjerg.
Also some other circuses and artist are active during the autumn holiday week.
Left: Marianne Deleuran with Circus
Mascot’s poodles (photo: Ole Simonsen)
Right:
Benny Schumann with his plate-spinning act (photo by courtesy of Benny Schumann)
10
October 2003
A
German circus in Kolding.
Surprisingly the German Circus Berolina has
announced that they are going to visit Kolding
in the Southern part of Jutland
when they have ended their stay in Flensburg
just south of the German/Danish border on 12 October. The will perform in Kolding
from 15 to 18 October. Wild animal acts are forbidden in Denmark.
Thus they will have to leave their elephant-riding tiger and their two bears south of the
border. And the can only bring their 7 elephants to Denmark
if they have got the necessary permission from the Ministry of Justice. However they have
plenty of other animals: 24 camels, a lot of lamas and 18 horses. Despite using a large
3-ring tent Berolina is not one of the leading German circuses and their performance is
somewhat weaker than the performances presented by the leading circuses in Germany
and Denmark.
In fact it’s only a big family circus with lots of animals and only few artistic.
Owners are Katharina
& Bernhard Spindler.
10
October 2003
The
Danish pickpocket artist Kenny Quinn and his
partner Joan will work at German variety theatres after they on 2 November end their tour
with Finnish Circus Finlandia. Until Christmas the couple
perform at Krystallpalast Varieté in Leipzig
and after New Year at Varieté Star-Club in Fulda.
8
October 2003
The
small Circus Krone from Jutland
(no connection with the large German circus of the same name) will visit Dublin
in Ireland
from 22 October to 5 November.
7
October 2003
EU-report
on the situation of the circus in the EU Member states.
The European Parliaments Directorate-General for Research has released a working paper
called ”The situation of the circus in the EU Member States”. You can download
the report at http://www.efecot.net/pdfs/CircusEDUC111.pdf.
You can get the report in English, French or German.
The
183-page report contains a comparative Summary, a description of the situation of circuses
in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands,
Austria, Portugal, Finland, Sweden and United Kingdom. Furthermore some European Union
Initiatives are mentioned.
6
October 2003
Today
the European Circus Associations (ECA) organised a meeting in the Brussels Parliament
where directors / proprietors of leading circuses in Europe looked for solutions
concerning the animal activist action that will forbid (wild) animals in circuses.
Representatives from the Danish Circuses Arena and Dannebrog took part at that meeting.
3
October 2003
Almost
everyone knows that Santa Claus is living on Greenland.
And right now Santa has a great chance to get entertained: The largest circus in the
Nordic Countries, Danish Circus Arena is
visiting Greenland
with a number of indoor performances. Circus Arenas press agent Christian Warrer has sent me the photos shown
beyond.
The clowns Martino & Co (Martin and Bettina Arli)
The BMX-artist Stephan Curaudeau. In front of the curtain
circus owner Benny Berdino.
Left: Miss Bernadette in Silk. Right: Martin Arli (all
photos by courtesy of Christian Warrer)
1
October 2003
All
Danish circuses closed their summer season in September and is now back at the winter
quarters. Several of the circuses present indoor performances during the winter season.
Circus Arena is for the time being touring on Greenland.
One of the Danish circuses has got a new winter quarter: Circus Baldoni has rented premises at a manor in
the southern part of Zealand.
”We have very nice facilities in a beautiful countryside” circus owner René Marvin tells. He tells furthermore that
Circus Baldoni during this year’s summer season travelled 3,500 kilometres and
visited 147 cities and gave 156 performances.
Circus
Baldoni‘s new winter quarter (Photo by courtesy of René Marvin)
25
September 2003
Anders
Enevig dean
of Danish circus historian published his first book in 1963. Thus he can this year
celebrate his 40 years anniversary as an author. The anniversary and the publishing of
Anders Enevig's newest book Goglere, hypnotisorer
og savoyarder (Fair performers, Hypnotist and Savoyards) was celebrated at a reception
on 25 September in the Circus Museum at Hvidovre, Copenhagen. Jens Frobenius of the Circus
Museum
paid tribute to Anders Enevig for his outstanding works.
At the left: Anders Enevig and Jens Frobenius. To the
right: Enevig with some of his books
24
September 2003
Circus
Arena on Greenland.
It is almost a tradition for the largest Danish circus Circus Arena to visit Greenland
when the tented season in the southern part of Denmark
is over. This year Circus Arena will visit the cities Ilulissat, Aasiaat, Sisimiut,
Maniitsoq, Nuuk and Sonderstrom from 29 September to 5 October. All performances are given
in sports centres. The performers are French BMX freestyle biker Stephan Curaudeau, the juggler Carl Ramwell and the clown Bonbon. All three of them toured with Arena during
the summer season. Engaged just for the Greenland
tour is Miss Bernadette (arial ballet) and the
clowns Martino & Co. (Martin, Bettina and
Alexander Arli). Alexander Arli performs with
ladder balancing. Futhermore there is an antipodes act (foot juggling) and a hula-hoop
act. The singing circus owner Benny Berdino
presents the performance.
22
September 2003
One more elephant for Circus Dannebrog. Bernhard Casselly (Bernhard Kasselowsky) who for
the last 3 seasons has presented his elephant Rambo in Circus Dannebrog consider elephant
as gregarious animals. A while ago he bought another elephant to give Rambo a pal. For a
while this elephant has travelled with Dannebrog without performing for the audience. But
shortly before the close of Circus Dannebrog's stand in Copenhagen
the new elephant joined Rambo at the performance. Circus Dannebrog has during the season
had to make another change in the program: German handstand acrobat Martina is pregnant. For this reason a hula-hoop
acrobat replaces her.
Bernhard Casselly standing to the right of his elephant
elephant Rambo. (Photo by courtesy of Circus Dannebrog)
19
September 2003
The 28th September will be celebrated as the Copenhagen Fortifications Day. The
Circus
Museum
at Hvidovre, Copenhagen
is situated in a former fortification and military camp and participates in the
celebration of the Fortifications Day by presenting several short magic shows with Paul
Arland at 11.30, 12.30, 13,30, 14.30 and 15.30. Paul Arland is the Danish magicians’
grand old man. The chairman of the Barly Association Jens Frobenius will arranged guided
tours at the museum at 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15.
Jens
Frobenius at the Circus
Museum
17
September 2003
Several
magical show can be seen in Denmark
in the coming months. On 19 October Henrik
Christensen will present a show called It’s
magic 2003 – Vegas have to wait in Odense.
Star Magic (the young and talented magicians Anders Hansen and Jan Hellesoe) will on 16
and 17 October present a show called STAR MAGIC - SHOWTIME!
at Sonderborg in the southern part of Jutland.
Magician Joachim Solberg and actor and comedian
Peter Larsen are presenting a show called Larsen & Solberg – fighting against the law
of gravity. The show will tour in a number of cities from 10 October to 19 November.
And Swedish world class magician Joe Labero can
bee seen in the Copenhagen
Circus
Building
in November and December at the show Expect the
unexpected.
11
September 2003
A
book about Circus Arena. Leif
Damsgaard is working on a book about Circus Arena. Circus owner Benny Berdino plans to
have the book published in connection with Circus Arenas 50 years anniversary in 2005.
Circus Arena had its final stand in season 2003 on 11
September. The photo shows the tear down of Arena’s new tent (Photo taken 31 August)
9
September 2003
First
price to Duo Aerius.
On 6 September Danish arial cradle artist Maja and Esben Aerius from Duo Aerius won the first price at the Dresdner
Variete- und Zirkus Festival in Germany.
Their winning act was their act with Maja as a floppy doll. For the time being Duo Aerius
can bee seen at the Et Cetera Variety Theatre in Kiel,
Germany.
The duo has engagements at German variety theatres until May 2004.
Duo
Aerius at the start of their floppy doll act
7
September 2003
Season
closing for Circus Benneweis.
Last year Circus Benneweis closed their season with 18 performances in Copenhagen.
The number of visitors was somewhat disappointing (Copenhagen
is not a good circus city). Thus circus owner Diana Benneweis had this year shortened the
season by one week and only 12 performances was given in Copenhagen.
Final stand was on 7 September with two almost full houses. After the last performance
Diana thanked the artist, the orchestra and the other staff members. "May the sun
shine on your way. And may Good bless you,” she said.
Main attraction for the 2003 Benneweis performance was the brilliant Italian
clown Fumagalli. On the photo you can see Fumagalli and Nelly Jane Benneweis (former
ringmistress with Benneweis and now their press agent) together with Fumagalli waiving
good-bye.
5
September 2003
Denmark
is
a kingdom in northern part Europe,
the southernmost of the Scandinavian countries. The tented circus season in Denmark,
Norway
and Sweden
runs from March to September. It is too cold to continue performances in tents in October
and November. (Well - Swedish Circus Scott does
not have its closing day until mid November - but it is pretty expensive to heat their
tent!). Among the Danish circuses Circus Arli
had its final stand for this season on 1 September. This year they visited 98 cities. Circus Benneweis will close its season on 7
September and Circus Arena on 11 September. Circus Charlie will tour until 14 September. Circus Krone will end
their
summer season on 19 September. Circus Dannebrog
will have their final stand on 27 September. Circus
Baldoni will close their season on 28 September. Circus Mascots final 2002 stand is on 30
September.
Circus
Arena
will visit Greenland
late September/early October and furthermore present a winter circus in February 2003 in
some sports centres etc. Also Circus Krone and Circus Mascot is active during the winter season
with performance in shopping malls etc. And René
Marvin from Circus Baldoni in touring with indoor performances during the winter
season. Also the Arli family is active during
the winter season.
7 September is last chance to meet the clown
Fumagalli at Circus Benneweis. And 11 September is last time this year to meet the clown
Bonbon (here standing together with Roy Himsel, CEO of the Swedish Circus Academy) at Circus Arena
3
September 2003
From
Bergen
(Norway)
to Oslo
(Norway).
The Danish/Finnish clown duo Bonbon & Tiina
has for the last two years for six weeks in November and December been with the Bergen
Variety Theatre in Norway.
Bonbon & Tiina may be best known for their famous Badminton Comedy Act. The
Badminton-Act is an outstanding number and for the time being probably the only
Badminton-Act in the circusworld. However this year there will be no variety theatre in Bergen.
The producers have moved the entire performance to the Norwegian capital Oslo
(a much larger town than Bergen).
And Bonbon and Tiina has been hired for the Oslo
performance.
1
September 2003
Swedish
circus-friends visited Copenhagen.
15 Swedish circusfans was Copenhagen
in the weekend 30 to 31 August. The Swedes saw the Copenhagen
Circus
Building
(not used by circuses any longer) with the Cafe Wallmans which are decorated with posters
and photos from the many circuses and artist who have performed at the Circus
Building.
30 August in the afternoon the Swedes saw the performance at Circus Benneweis and in the
evening the performance at Circus Dannebrog. Seven of the circus friends visited the Circus
Museum
at Hvidovre, Copenhagen,
31 in the morning and had a guided tour by Jens Frobenius of the museum assisted by Nelly
Jane Benneweis. In the afternoon some Swedes visited Circus Arena and others Circus Arli.
Nelly
Jane surrounded by Swedish circus friends. From left: Lennart Holmgren), Ingo Renz,
Jan-Erik Larsson, Roy Himsel, John-Erik Wallbom, Nelly Jane, Björn Seger og Johan
Vinberg.
29
August 2003
Circuses in Copenhagen.
Friday
29th August did Circus Benneweis as well as Circus Dannebrog have their opening
night in Copenhagen.
Among the visitors at Circus Benneweis was the Danish Minister for Ecclesiastical Affairs
Mrs. Tove Fergo who was in close contact with the Italian star clown Fumagalli during his marvellous act ”Little
bee give me honey”
Left: Fumagalli
and Tove Fergo. Right: Fumagalli and his brother and partner Darix
22
August 2003
Circus without elephants and sealions? As in many
other countries discussions regarding use of animals in circuses is pending in
Denmark.
Big cat acts has been forbidden since 1962. An advisory committee to the ministry of
Justice has now proposed not any longer to permit elephant and sealion acts in Danish
circuses. However a decision is not yet taken. Hopefully it will still be possible to
present good elephant and sealion acts in Denmark.
19
August 2003
New
artist in Tivoli.
The
performers at the Open Air Stage in Copenhagen’s
famous Tivoli
Gardens
change several times during the season. From 19 August and until close of season 21
September you can see The Simets on high wire
and Jidinis & Magic Co. with an
illusionist/magic show. The actress and singer Susanne Breuning is presenting the
performance. Tivoli’s
Big Band (a full size big band) accompanies the performance.
Laszlo
Simet
Jidinis
& Magic Co.,
Susanne
Breuning and Tivolis Big Band
18
August 2003
Dresden
in Germany
and not Brazil.
On 28
May 2003
I could tell that Maja and Esben Aerius from the Danish arial cradle Duo Aerius has been pre-selected for the Act
Competition Show at the Brazilian Circus Festival which was to be held from August 26
until August
31, 2003
in Belo
Horizonte,
Minas Gerais, Brazil.
The two talented Danes were looking forward to the trip to South
America.
Unfortunately the festival has been postponed a couple of weeks. And since Duo Aerius from
13 September has an engagement at the Et Cetera variety theatre in Kiel
in Germany
they have had to cancel their trip to Brazil.
In stead they will participate at a Variety and Circus Festival in Dresden,
Germany,
from 5 to 7 September.
Duo
Aerius
13
August 2003
From
5th to 13th August the European Juggler Convention has been held in
Svendborg at Isle of Funen. The city of Svendborg
is this year celebrating its 750-year anniversary. The photographer Lise Kokholm has visited the congress ant have
send me some pictures from the event.
The photo
to the right shows the English clown Dez. The photo to the left shows a young juggler.
Two of the Nordic jugglers performing at the Nordic Show.
10
August 2003
At
the gala performance 10 August in connection with the 8th International Clown Festival at
Bakken north of Copenhagen you could meet several outstanding clowns and other artists:
English Arthur Vercoe Pedlar, Les Frères Taquin from Belgium with their
Mechanic Man, the new-wave clowns Kotini Jr. and
Ludmila , the female clown Marta Carbayo
from Spain, the Italian mime artist Paolo Nomi
and producer Benny Schumann and his daughter Patricia. Danish The Flying Super Nuts presented a comical
acrobatic act and young Swedish 4 Dolls from
Ludvika Young Stars a act with tubes. At the end of the festival the World Artist and
Clown Award was given to Kotini Jr. and the
Golden Nose to Fumagali and his brother Darix (Gianni and Darius Huesca). Due to an
engagement in Danish Circus Benneweis Fugamali and Darix was not able to be present in
person. On their behalf Nelly Jane Benneweis received the award.
From the Galla performance: to the left Marta Carbayo, to
the right on of Les Frères Taquins as the mechanic man,.
Left:
Pierrot of Bakken with the Golden Nose Awards together with Nelly Jane and Benny Schumann.
Right: Nelly Jane, Benny Schumann and Kotini
with his award (a painting by Austrian artist Adi
Holzer).
7
August 2003
Today
was opening day for the International Clown
Festival at Bakken north of Copenhagen.
Performing at the festival are the classical English clown Arthur Vercoe Pedlar, the modern clowns Les Frères Taquin from Belgium,
the new-wave clowns Kotini Jr. and Ludmila and
the Danish clowns Patricia and Benny Schumann.
Benny Schumann is also producer of the festival. Furthermore a new Danish comical acrobat
act The Flying Super Nuts was introduced. A
nice act inspired of the famous Swedish acrobats Veteranerna who was an international top
act 30 years ago. Benny Schumann has in his earlier days at a plate-spinning juggler
performed together with Veteranerna in Florida.
Benny has shown the super nuts Lars, Asger and Michael a film with Veteranerne to give
them inspiration for their new act.
Arthur
Vercoe Pedler / Patricia and Benny Schumann
and their pony
Two
of the flying super nuts
Grand
finale
6
august 2003
A sealion was born at Circus Dannebrog. When Circus Dannebrog 27 July visited Ulfborg in Jutland
Hans and Vicky Pedersen’s female sealion
gave birth to a sealion baby. Sealion babies are very seldom born in a touring circus.
Vicky and Hans Pedersen and their sealions (Photo by
courtesy of Circus Dannebrog)
2
August 2003
The
comical casceadeurs Steckel’s –
Freddi Steckel and his partner – was the
last act hired for this year’s performance in the Swedish Circus Maximum. But when you read Swedish
newspapers and listen to the reaction from the audience Steckel's ought to have been the
very first act hired by circus owner Bengt Källquist for this year performance. When I
recently saw Circus Maximum’s excellent performance Steckel’s was sure
showstoppers. Freddi's partner for the remaining part of the season with Circus Maximum is
Czech born Zora Nikodemova.
Freddi Steckel og Zora
2
august 2003
Birthdays.
The
youngest circus artist in Denmark
Andreas Deleuran can celebrate his 6 years
birthday on 3
August 2003.
He is the youngest son of circus owners Marianne and Jess Deleuran from Circus Mascot and he starts this year's
Mascot-performance with a nice little song. Furthermore he perform as a ”strong
man”, cf. photo. Also on 3 August the singing circus owner Benny Berdino of Circus Arena can celebrate his 57 years
birthday. Apart from presenting this year’s Arena performance Benny is probably
preparing Arenas 2004-program. It will be Arena’s season number 50 on the Danish
roads.
Andreas
Deleuran
1.
August 2003
Circus
Flik-Flak. The
youth circus Flik-Flak from Odense
is one of the best in the country. Since 28
July 215
children have prepared for this years gala performance to take place in the week-end 2
to 3
August. The photo beyond if from an earlier performance at Circus Flik-Flak.
Circus Flik-Flak (photo by courtesy of Tommy Hardam)
31 July 2003
The International Clown Festival at Bakken. At the
gala performance on 10 August you can apart from the clowns performing at the Open Air
Stage (I mentioned the names of those clowns on 22 July) meet Paolo Nani from Italy
and Marta Carbayo from Spain.
Furthermore you can meet the 4 Swedish girls from Ludvika
Young Stars performing with tubes. This act was very popular at the recent
performances by Benny Schumann and Ludvika Young Stars at Aalborg,
Aarhus
and Roskilde.
2
of the girls Ludvika Young Stars with the tube act
24
July 2003
Success
for Benny Schumann and Ludvika Young Stars Circus.
More than 10,000 people saw one of the 3 outdoor performances given from 22 to 24 July in Aalborg,
Aarhus
and Roskilde
by Benny Schumann and his guest artist from Swedish Ludvika Young Stars Minicircus. And
none in the audience was disappointed: Benny himself is well known and popular among
children all over Denmark
and the young Swedish artist were very talented. The bike act Cycling Triss is surely a world class act. 4 Goldies presented nice acrobatics on a table
(the same table as their trainer Barbro Nordström
used in her time as an artist). An act with 4 young girls performing with tubes was a new
and fascinating way of using such props. Benny Schumann hopes to bring back the Ludvika
Young Stars Circus in 2004 or 2005.
Benny
Schumann and his stars from Ludvika Young Stars Circus.
The tube act and The Cycling Triss
23
July 2003
Moira
Orfei’s Circus.
Normally this page will concentrate on news regarding Danish artist and Circuses in Denmark.
However Filippo Ferretti from Italy
has recently send me an interesting article on Italy’s
leading circus Moira Orfei. Click here if you
want to read the article.
22
July 2003
At
the Gala Performance at The International Clown
Festival at Bakken on 10 August Fumagalli and
his brother Darix will be awarded ”The Golden nose”. Producer Benny Schumann does not want to reveal the
name of the clown who will receive The World Artist and Clown Award. Due to an engagement
at Circus Benneweis Fugamalli and Darix can not be present at the gala performance which
takes place at 1
p.m.
since Circus Benneweis the same day has performances at 2
p.m.
and 5
p.m.
at Viborg in Jutland.
Thus Nelly Jane Benneweis will receive ”The Golden Nose” on behalf of the
Fumagalli and Darix. Amongst the performers at the clown festival which runs from 7 to 17
August with daily performances at 15:30
and 19:30
at Bakken’s Open Air Stage will be Kotini Jr.
and Ludmila. Kotini has for a couple of years been with Circus Roncalli in Germany, He
was together with Jigalov & Csaba awarded a Silver Clown at this year's Circus
Festival in Monte Carlo. Furthermore you can meet Les
Frères Taquin, Clown Arthur Vercoe Pedlar
and Allan Forte, a new Danish clown act called The
Flying Super Nuts and of cause Benny Schumann
and his daughter Patricia.
Benny
and Patricia Schumann at the International Clown Festival in 2002.
15
July 2003
Klaus
Lüthje of the German circus magazine Circus Zeitung is loud in his praise of Danish
Circus
Arena.
He is impressed both of their beautiful new 4 pole Scola Teloni tent and of Arena's
2003-performance. Then top act is according to Klaus Lüthje the elephant trainer Sonny
Frankello's
presentation of his elephants Timba, Mala, Kenia og Balumba. But he also has
favourable comments on the teeterboard troup Catana
making a 5 man high and The
flying Ciobanu
performing a perfect triple. Furthermore he is impressed by the fact than most
cities plaid by Circus Arena is one-day stands. Most
circuses in Germany
are playing several days in each town.
14
July 2003
New
artist in Tivoli.
The
performers at the Open Air Stage in Copenhagen’s
famous Tivoli
Gardens
will change several times during the season. From 14 July and until 17 August you can see
the two male German trapeze acrobats Duo Sorellas,
Jidinis & Magic Co. with an
illusionist/magic show and the famous gentleman juggler Kris Kremo. Guinness Book of World Records notes
Kris Kremo’s quadruple pirouette and catch of three cigar boxes. But his skill with
three balls and three hats are equally captivating. Kris Kremo debuted with his father
Bela Kremo (himself a well known juggler) in a double act in 1970. And Tivoli
has live music: Tivoli’s
Big Band (a full size big band) accompanies the performance, which last for aprox 30
minutes.
Duo
Sorellas, Jidinis & Magic Co. and Kris Kremo
12
July 2003
A
rather limited audience attended the Danish new wave circus performance Untamed
Circus Grandprix 2003 at
the opening night on 14 July. However the performance was very nice and of equal standard
as many of the new wave performances foreign new wave groups have presented in Copenhagen.
The performance was done by graduates from the Copenhagen Circus School AFUK assisted by
some former graduates who have had talent and luck to get success even outside of Denmark.
The two best acts was done by such performers: Duo
Pelmeni
(Josephine Wulff Randrup and Rasmus Madsen) in double trapeze and Duo
Aerius
(Maja and Esben Aerius) in arial cradle. Among the other performers were Mille
in rope, Casper
with his devilstick juggling, Rune
& Gry
at slack wire, Frida
in trapeze, Anders
in tissue and Rebecca
& Sofia
with acrobatic on a table.
Duo
Aerius in their new act
8
July 2003
The
Circus Hotel.
The circus- and acrobat atmosphere has inspired many painters. Remember some of the French
impressionist such as Georges Seurat, Edgar Degas and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. A couple
of Danish artists Helle Abilgaard and Viggo Salting have several times travelled with Circus Benneweis to get inspiration for their
paintings, sculptures etc. Some years ago the bought a tiny hotel at the Isle of Funen
(the island on which Hans Christian Andersen was born). Their hotel is now known as the
Circus Hotel due to the many paintings and decorations inspired by circuses and acrobats.
If you want further information on the hotel call the couple at + 45 65 34 10 49.
7
July 2003
A visit to
Circus Cirkaos.
On 23
June 2003
I mentioned the tiny Circus Cirkaos performing in a small tent at the beach resort
Sondervig in the western part of Jutland.
The Danish author and circus fan Jorgen Lorenzen
has visited the show in Sondervig. He calls it a nice and poetic performance certainly
worth the price of admission. Thus if you are spending part of this summer in the western
part of Jutland you ought to visit Circus Cirkaus and see their Musicomedy Show with no
spoken words. Apart from several animals there are two performers: Venzel Zalmov and Ilone
Björkman. The performance runs for 50 minutes. The tent is a two pole tent with a
diameter of 17 meter (57 feet).
7
July 2003
Danish
pick pock artist Kenny Quinn is this summer
touring with Circus Finlandia in Finland.
He is doing fairly well despite the fact that he hardly can speak Finnish. For the time
being Circus Finlandia is in the northern part of Finland
in the country of the midnight sun. In average 600-700 people watch the performances. In
the southern part of Finland
the audience use to be a couple of hundred
persons larger.
4
July 2003
From
12 to 15 July you can in the Copenhagen Theatre Kanonhallen see a performance done by
Danish new wave acrobats. The performance is called Untamed
Circus Grandprix. Among the performers are Danish arial cradle Duo Aerius (Esben and Maja Aerius) who will
perform with their new act. It is the same act they will perform with at Festival Mundial de Circo de Brasil in August and
after Brazil
at several variety theatres in Germany.
Duo Aerius has engagements at German variety theatres until late April 2004.
29 June 2003
When
Circus Arena on 24 June performed in
Mogeltonder in the southern part of Jutland
the income from the ticket box was donated to a foundation for children with cancer. Queen
Margrethe's youngest son prince Joakim, his wife princess Alexandra and the couple’s
oldest son prince Nikolai were among the audience. The royal visit did of cause create a
lot of public relation for circus owner Benny Berdino and his circus. The
charity-performance was recorded by Danish television and will be shown in television next
Christmas. On Circus
Arenas website you can find a slide show with pictures from the royal visit.
The day after Circus Benneweis had its first night (not season
opening which was in April) in Denmark’s second largest city Aarhus. Benneweis’ top star
for this year Italian clown Fumagalli invited a
popular Danish singer Richard Ragnvald into the
ring and had the singer to assist him with some gags.
25
June 2003
On
25 June Cafe Wallmans opened in the Copenhagen
Circus
Building.
Cafe
Wallmans is decorated with posters and photos from the many circuses and artist who have
performed at the Circus
Building.
Thus a visit to Cafe Wallmans is almost a must for every circus freak visiting Copenhagen.
The Copenhagen
Circus
Building
is situated in downtown Copenhagen
close to the Tivoli
Garden
and the Town
Hall Square.
Several of the posters and photos in Cafe Wallmans are provided by the Circus
Museum
at Hvidovre, Copenhagen
or are from the collection of the Swedish
Circus
Academy.
Tino Rivoro who for several years worked as
trapeze acrobat with Ringling has been in charge of the decoration.
From
Cafe Wallmans
23
June 2003
If
you this summer are visiting the western part of Jutland and pass the beach resort
Sondervig close to Ringkobing you will meet a tiny two pole tent called Cirkaos. Apart from some animals there are two
performers: the artists Venzel Zalmov and Ilone Björkman presenting what they call a
Musicomedy Show with no spoken words. They hope to attract the many tourists visiting
Sondervig, most of the tourist being Danes, German, Dutch, Swedes, Norwegians and English.
You can find further information on Cirkaos at www.cirkaos.dk
22
June 2003
In
1994 Marianne and Jess Deluran started their
dog and pony show Circus Mascot. Thus Circus
Mascot can this summer celebrate its 10 years anniversary. And the anniversary is
celebrated wit a very nice performance the best Circus Mascot has presented so far.
5-years old Andreas (Jess and Marianne’s youngest son) open the performance with a
nice little song. Then come Tatyana with
hula-hoop, the juggler Zdenek and Marianne with her poodles. Then Zdenek is back with plate juggling. Daniel
(Marianne and Jess’s oldest son being 13) presents a rola-bola act. After the
interval Tatyana tilbage this time under the name Prymarchenko
and with a nice act in tissue. Then Daniel is back on slack wire. Jess Deleuran present his ponies. Then we meet Miss Maria with a fine act in arial ring. Clowning
is done by Gulio.
Daniel Deleuran, Tatyana and Zdenek
21
June 2003
Duo
Pelmeni,
alias Danish trapeze artists Josephine Randrup and Rasmus Madsen have just returned after 1½ years
engagement in Stockholm where they have performed with their double trapeze act in the
ABBA-musical Chess at the Stockholm Circus Building while Tommy Körberg and Helen
Sjöholm was singing "You and I". About 450,000 people have seen the Stockholm
version of Chess.
Duo Pelmeni – Josephine Randrup and Rasmus
Madsen
20
June 2003
Comical
and new wave circus festival in Aarhus.
For
the fourth year in row there will be a comical and new wave circus festival in the second
largest city on Denmark Aarhus. It will take place from 23 to 29 June. Among the
performing artist will be the Spanish clown Martha
Carbayo, Go-So Sisters, the clown Tapé, the Gruve company from Norway, the jugglers Strington Bros., Ken & Saxi, Circus Chapoe (Tonny Trifolikom, Astrid
Søndergård and Frank Thierry) and the acrobat trio Coexistence with Zora. You can find the full
program at http://www.goglerskolen.dk/narren/index.htm
16
June 2003
Facelift
to website for the Circusmuseum at Hvidovre, Copenhagen.
Some
months ago the Circusmuseum at Hvidovre, Copenhagen
had its own website at www.circusmuseum.dk. Assisted by the photographer Lise
Kokholm and my webmaster Lars Simonsen the museum's website has now got a facelift
creating a much more interesting and informative website. The museum has the largest
circus collection in the northern part of Europe.
14
June 2003
The
Copenhagen
circus lot ”Bellahoj” will be renovated. At
the Copenhagen city council’s last meeting before the summer holiday it was decided
to renovate and drain the circus lot at Bellahoj used for many years by Danish circuses
during their visit to Copenhagen. The cost of renovation is estimated to 3,500,000 DKK
(470,000 Euro or 560,000 USD). The renovation will start when Circus Benneweis has closed their 2003 season at
Bellahoj on 7 September. First circus to use the renovated lot will be Circus Arena at their 2004 season opening in March
2004.
11
June 2003
As
always you can see some excellent artist at the Open Air Stage in Tivoli
in Copenhagen.
Until 13 July you can see French Duo Aragorn
(aerial cradle), Consuello Reyes
(Foot-Juggling) and the two Sharkov Brothers
(Partner Equilibristic). And Tivoli
has live music: Tivoli’s
Big Band accompanies the performance, which last for aprox 30 minutes.
Due
Aregorn, Consuello Reyes and Sharkov Brothers at the Open Air Stage in Tivoli
10
June 2003
Teatro
Glimt on tour. The
three young new wave artist from Teatro Glimt, Camila
Sarrazin, Lars Gregersen and Rasmus Skovmand will this summer perform many
places in Europe with their performance called ”The Dinner”. On 14 May they
performed at the National
Museum
in Copenhagen
in connection with the presentation of the European
Museum
of the year Award. Late May saw them in Sestri Levante in Italy. From 4 to 8 June they performed at a street theatre
festival at Pennabilli in Italy.
On 14 June you can find them at Castel San Pietro and on 15 June at the Festival Internazionale di Teatro ragazzi in Firenze.
19 and 23 June Teatro Glimt will be in San Giovanni di Marignano and 19 June in Varese,
Italy.
From 5 June to 1 July they are participating in an international street theatre festival
at Ljubljana
& Maribor
in Slovenia.
3 to 6 July will find them at the Busker Festival in Colmurano,
Italy.
12 and 13 July they are in Castiglioncello and 25 to 27 July in Certaldo. Both cities are in Italy.
9
June 2003
The
new tenant of the Copenhagen Circus Building
Swedish Wallmans Nöjen is just about to open an artist café in the Circus
Building
decorated with posters and photos from the many circuses and artist who have performed at
the Circus
Building.
Several of the posters and photos is provided by the Circus
Museum
at Hvidovre, Copenhagen,
or from the collection of the Swedish
Circus
Academy.
In charge of the decoration is Tino Rivero who
for several years worked as trapeze acrobat with Ringling.
6
June 2003
The
Danish New-wave circus school AFUK in Copenhagen
present a small summer festival on 20 and 21
June 2003
with new wave circus, performance, crossover etc. AFUK is also involved in a performance
called Untamed Circus Grandprix at the
Kanonhallen concert house in Copenhagen
from 12 to 15 July. Among the performers will be students from AFUK’s circus school
and artist and performers from the new wave group Nova
Exit.
Performers
at AFUK’s summer festival 2002
5
June 2003
The
Copenhagen
Circus Lot
”Bellahoj” to be renovated? The
Copenhagen Circus lot called Bellahoj used by Danish circuses for almost 100 years looks
rather shabby. The City of Copenhagen
owns the lot. Nowadays the lot is used by Circus
Arena 4 weeks in March/April and by Circus
Benneweis 3 weeks in August/September. The price paid by the circuses for using the
lot is approximately 3,000 DKK a day (400 Euro or 475 USD). The city councils committee on
construction and technology has considered whether the lot should be renovated or sold and
another lot found for circuses. On a meeting on 4 June the committee decided to recommend
to the city council that the lot should be renovated and drained. The city council is
expected to take decision on the matter on 11 or 12 June.
As
you can see the Copenhagen Circus Lot looks rather shabby. Photo taken 7 June 2003
The
Circus Lot
on 19
March 2003.
Circus Arena is setting up their new tent.
Circus
Benneweis at the Copenhagen
Circus Lot September 2001
1
June 2003
On
9 May I mentioned that the late Danish magician Spinoza's
collections of books on magic and illusionism and the Swedish artist Benny
Indrikson's collection of orig. signed photographs from Circus artists would be on
auction on 26
May 2003
at Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers of Fine Art in Copenhagen.
And the prices were much higher than expected: the collection of books was knocked down at
the price of 95,000 DKK (12,800 Euro or 15,100 USD) and the photos for 5.800 DKK (780 Euro
or 920 USD).
30
May 2003
Circus
Arena donates the income from a performance to children with cancer. In
co-operation with Leif Wivelsted (popular host in Danish radio programmes) and the
Association of Parents to Children with Cancer Circus Arena will on Monday 2 June in
Aarhus present a special performance with popular Danish singers as performers together
with the singing circus owner Benny Berdino, clowns etc. The entire income from the ticket
office will be used for at new convalescent home for cancer-sick children and their
families.
28
May 2003
Maja
and Esben Aerius from the Danish arial cradle Duo
Aerius has been pre-selected for the Act Competition Show at the Brazilian Circus
Festival which will be held from August 26 until August
31, 2003
in Belo
Horizonte,
Minas Gerais, Brazil.
The two young talented Danes have also been asked to offer three days workshop during the
event.
Duo
Arius (arkivfoto)
28
May 2003
At
Circus
Arenas website you can se a slide-show of the working crew building up Arenas
brand new tent.
27
May 2003
New
special exhibition at the Circusmuseum at Hvidovre, Copenhagen.
On 15 June the museum will open a new special exhibition where the magician Jorgen Samson
costumes and props will be on exhibition. Jorgen Samson who died last year 75 years or age
was internationally well known for his act during which hundreds of flowers popped up
– at the end of his act the entire stage was covered with flowers. You can find
further information on the museum at www.circusmuseum.dk.
The magician Jorgen Samson (photo from the collection of
the circusmuseum)
26 May 2003
As
usual some circus performers have been engaged for at autumn show from 29 September to 8
December 2003
at the variety theatre Rode Kro in Copenhagen.
The owner of the theatre Charley Kaye and his
wife are former comical casceadeurs. For their 2003 performance they have engaged comical
trampoline acrobat Max Welby who toured with
Circus Benneweis in 1991. Furthermore engaged is juggler Lynn Carol (daughter or the clown Toto Chabri),
who performed in the Copenhagen Circus Building in 1984, in Circus Arena in 1986 and 1987
and with Circus Benneweis in 1998 and during part of the 2000 season. Also engaged is Stefan Kubik who’s Moiseeva-troup toured with
Circus Dannebrog in 2002. In addition to the acrobats a number of popular actors will be
on the stage.
24 May 2003
Maria Jimenez Circus Princess of the year. At the
worlds only all-female circus festival Prinsessan (”The Princess”) in Stockholm
in Sweden
German Maria Juana Jimenez last evening won the title as The Circus Princess 2003. It was
the ninth year in row Swedish circus producers Bronett Bros. arranged the festival. In
2001 Marie Jimenez toured with Circus Arli in Denmark.
Maria Jiminez.
Photo by courtesy of Bronett Bros.
23
May 2003
Zora
with Circus Maximum.
For part of the season Freddi Steckel of Danish
comical casceadeur duo Steckel’s will have
another partner. Steckel’s replaced with short notice Old Regnas (Peter Freeman) who
due to health problems had to cancel his 2003-engagement with Swedish Circus Maximum. And
Freddi’s usual partner Line Vittrup is due to other appointment not able tour with
Maximum for the full season. The female acrobat Zora from the Danish New Wave Circus
School AFUK will for part of the season replace Line Vittrup.
22
May 2003
As
usual Swedish Circus Scott will start its
season fairly late: This year opening day will be 1 August in Gävle and closing day 9
November in Malmö (the Swedish neighbour city to Copenhagen).
The usual summer season for circuses from the Nordic countries is from late March to late
September.
21
May 2003
New winter quarter for Circus Baldoni.
”It’s a nice season,” René Marvin Moenster of Circus Baldoni wrote. At the
same time he told me that Circus Baldoni after season closening in September will use a
new winter quarter in a former manor at Tureby 35 miles south of Copenhagen.
19
May 2003
Benny Schumann and Ludvika Young Star Cirkus. In
July the Danish clown and multi-artist Benny Schumann will present a number of
performances in Aalborg,
Aarhus
and Roskilde
together with the leading Swedish youth circus Ludvika Young Star Circus. Roskilde
(20 miles west of Copenhagen)
will be visited on 24 July.
15
May 2003
Russian
clown Duo Zapashnaya who was engaged to
perform at this years International Clown Festival at Bakken north of Copenhagen from 7 to
17 August have cancelled their engagement. To replace them producer Benny Schumann has engaged Les Fréres Taquins who last time visited Denmark
in 2001 with their act The Mechanical Man. This year they will perform with a clown act
called Cinema. Other performers at the International Clown Festival are Kotini Jr. And Partner, Arthur Vercoe Pedlar, Allan Forte, Paolo Nani and Benny Schumann and his daughter Patricia.
11
May 2003
New
wave circus in Copenhagen
25 June to 15
July 2003.
As previous years Copenhagens International Theatre (KIT) will present some new wave
circus performances in Copenhagen.
First
show is ”Aurélias Oratorium”. With
her incredible energy, her joy in highly imaginative transformations and her irresistible
charm, Victoria Thierrée Chaplin mixed once again the most enchanting visions. The
impressive images for her dream-like landscape were composed together with her daughter Aurélia Thierrée. The performance tells the
story of Aurélia’s world, a world, where nothing is what it seems. Everything is
slightly out of place or upside down. The main characters are fantasy-like monsters,
curtains and wooden puppets. People cross this „monde à l’envers" like by
accident. Aurélia floats through time, lost and full of longing, but not innocent. Again
and again she meets a dancer, a lover who is not in love with her, but only with her
clothes. Aurélias Oratorium can be seen from 25 June to 29 June. The perfomance runs for
75 minutes without interval.
Next
performance is ”GOPF”
from Switzerland.
They move strangely and far from gracefully. The set is constantly reconstructed. Placed
at the very top, as God, sits a DJ. He scratches, composes and accompanies odd creatures
through a Kafkaesque world. This company has found new ground within the theatrical
circus. Combining dance, circus, architecture and live music, dancer Gregor Metzger,
artist Martin Zimmermann and DJ Dimitri de Perrot have created a jewel. They build the
performance on precision and focus, Bauhaus inspiration and sculptural awareness, as they
move about like bald buffoon-artists in architectonic space and profiles. GOOF can be seen
from 2 to 4 July. This performance runs for 60 minutes without interval.
The
third performance is the Australian company Acrobat.
Long hair and beards. Their looks contrast their amazing talents, and contrast all other
circus artists. Partial to leather, naked boobs and rock music Acrobat has become New
Circus' answer to ZZ-Top. Thus compiling their black sense of humour. The roots of this
Australian circus company are to be found in the performance community, where physical
theatre is the predominant philosophy, far from the fashion houses of Tokyo
and Paris.
When the arena is taken over by the six performers and their riveting guitarist, they
leave all good manners, cheery faces and courteous youngsters behind. As cool as Crocodile
Dundee, having a drink with a suicide candidate on top of a New
York
skyscraper, they perform their stunts in your face – so direct and to the point, well
timed and powerful that you'll laugh till you cry. Acrobat is as Australian as it gets.
Acrobat can be seen from 4 to 6 July. The performance last 60 minutes without any
interval.
The
artists from Acrobat (photo by courtesy of KIT)
The
last show is Collectif AOC from France. Matrix clones make STOMP. Raw, simple aesthetics
set the stage. The music is tensely animated, composed in and around the physical
structure of the stage. Almost weightless, the performers soar in the air. A realm devised
from one single captivating movement in body, sound and image gives Collectif AOC an
entirely new significance. Choreographer Fatou Traoré has developed a brand new and
inventive fusion of circus, dance and music in Collectif AOC's debut "La Syncope du
7". The 6 performers and dancers delve into gravity defying somersaults from the
scaffolding-set onto a predominant trampoline and magically they climb walls like human
spiders. Whilst the DJ grabs the entire performance by the jugular, using the set as a
drum-kit. Collectif AOC transforms the spectacular display of technique, found in
traditional circus entertainment, into sensually choreographed magic. Collectif AOC can be
seen from 10 to 14 July. The show runs for 75 minutes without any interval.
Collectiv
OAC (photo by courtesy of KIT)
9 May 2003
Collections of books on magic and illusionism and of
orig. signed photographs from Circus artists on auction. On 26 May Bruun Rasmussen
Auctioneers of Fine Art in Copenhagen
has a large collection of more than 300 books on magic and illusionism for sale. Among
others: Robert J. Albo: Classsic Magic Series. 8 vols. San Francisco 1973-86. 1st ed. All
in red cloth, housed in cloth box. Rare limited set (700-1000 copies), all signed by Albo.
+ Wiegleb: Die natürliche Magie. Vols. I-XIV (lacking vol. IV). In all 13 vols. Berlin
1782-1800. In all with 175 engraved plates. Cont. half calf. + [Anon.]: Die spielende
Magie. 2 vols. Berlin
1790. With 5 engraved plates. Cont. half calf. + Goodliffe (ed.): Abracadabra Magazine. 32
vols. 1946-61. + The Sphinx. 24 vols. 1911-50. + The Linking Ring. 16 vols. 1934-57.
Provenance: The Danish magician Spinoza (pseud.
for Johannes Ronde Christensen). Spinoza was during the 1960's and 1970's known as one of
the most professional illusionists of Europe
and performed in TV-shows and circus stages around. The same day a collection more than
250 orig. signed photographs from circus artists around the world. 1940-50's. Mounted in 3
albums. Most of the photographs are with greetings to The 3 Indriksons who travelled as acrobats all
over Europe
in the 1950's. Provenance: Benny Indrikson. Further details can of the two collections
offered for sale and the auctioneers can be found at http://www.bruun-rasmussen.dk/pls/brweb/brw_frames.top?id=1&page=brw_news.show?id=1363
7
May 2003
Harry
Belli.
On 23 April I mentioned the late animal trainer Harry
Belli and his performing horse and tiger. Dutch Isabella Braak has provided me with the photo
below of Harry Belli and his horse and tiger and the cover of a German Circus Belli
program. She has told me that Harry Belli is of the same family as the members of the
Danish Circus family Belli. Isabella Braak has nearly finished
the family tree of the Belli’s and Strassburger’s. There is also a family
connection with Rose Gasser Belli from Circus Liliput from Switzerland.
Isabella Braak has been receiveing in past years very much pictures, programs, posters and
information and she is busy making it into a book because she thinks it is a waist to put
it all on a shelf. Isabella Braak is very interested in stories
about Belli and Strassburger. She has have found out that many people have dear memories
of those circuses. Send me a mail if you have
informations for Ms. Braak.
6
May 2003
Danish
circus historian Jorgen Lorenzen has made an
excellent film on clowns. It is named between tears
and laughter - a film on the circus clown. The film runs for 20 minutes. Amongst the
clowns portrayed in the film is Dubsky-Rivel
family who retired after season 2000. The
film is for sale on videocassette. The price is DKK 150 + VAT. Send an email to Jorgen Lorenzen if you wish to
purchase the film.
2
May 2003
Juggling conventions in Denmark. This year the
Nordic Juggling Convention is being held in Odense
from 6 to 9
June 2003.
NJC has been organised 19 times and this is the second time in Odense.
Jugglers from all over the northern countries will be involved in work-shops, open stage,
public show, games, parade and eating great food for three and a half days. This
year’s convention is organised by Danish Youth Circus Association. European Juggling
Convention will be held in Svendborg from 5th -
13th August 2003. You can find further information on the two conventions at www.jbo-net.dk/njc2003 and www.ejc2003.dk
30
April 2003
Joe
Labero in the Copenhagen
Circus
Building.
From
1 November to 20 December the new tenant in the Copenhagen Circus Building Wallmans Nöjen
will present the magical show "Expect the Unexpected" with the Swedish magician
Joe Labero who for the time being probably in an international perspective is the most
well-known magician from the Nordic Countries. Joe Labero has toured in Australia,
New
Zealand,
United
Kingdom,
USA,
Dubai,
Monaco
and the Scandinavian countries.
Joe
Labero in front of the Copenhagen
Circus
Building
(photo: Wallmans Nöjen)
26
April 2003
Poul
Preben passed away. Danish
Magician Poul Preben Kjeldsen passed away on 22
April 2003,
93 years old. As magician he was known as ”The New Kjeldsen”.
25
April 2003
Golden
jubilee.
On 30
April 1953
Soren Arli has his debut as an artist at the
variety theatre Alhambra.
A couple of years later Soren together with his Lotte, née August (a half-sister to award
winning Danish movie director Bille August) created a comical juggling act called Lott and
Arli. Furthermore Soren performed as whiteface clown and Lotte did thought reading using
the artist name Madame Zarina. With acts like those Soren and Lotte toured with circuses
among those the Danish circuses Moreno
and Arena. As many artists Soren and Lotte Arli had a dream about establishing their own
circus. In 1971 their dream came through when they opened Circus Arli in a tiny 1-pool big
top they had made themselves. The staff consisted of Soren, Lotte and their son Martin
(born 1960). The first two seasons was spent in Jutland Mini Zoo in Haustrup. Since 1973
Soren Arli and his circus has toured Zealand
with a two pole tent with a seating capacity of 149 people.
Family
members do the acts: Martin and his wife Bettina, their son Alexander (born 1987) assisted
by a couple of foreign artist of good standard.
At the left :Soren and Lotte Arli 1986
Photo: Jorgen Lorenzen, at the Right : Soren Arli 2003
23.
april 2003
Harry
Belli.
On 10 2001 May I asked if anybody could help Dutch I.V.D. Braak with information on Harry Belli and his performing horse and tiger. On
19 May 2001 I could tell that Charly Ross,
retired world class klischnigger now living in Mexico, had provided me with the following
information: Harry Belli was one of 6 or 7 children all working in the circus of their
parents in Germany, Circus Belli. For some reason this circus stopped and Harry went into
engagements with his 7 lions. The act was wonderful as he had all big male lions (with
those big heads and all that hair) and Harry knew very well how to present the act. The
circus Strassburger from Holland
made a season in Germany
in 1956 and had Harry with his lions in the program, as well for the program in the
building in Scheveningen (Holland)
in the same year. After that, Mr. Belli worked with circus Strassburger in the Carré
building in Amsterdam
in the winter 56-57, was on the next season (Holland
1957). It must have been in 1958 and part of 1959 that he trained his TIGER ON THE HORSE,
because he worked with this act for the first time with Strassburger in Scheveningen,
summer 1959. He married Elly Strassburger in 1957. In 1961, '62 and '63 the circus
Strassburger did not go on tour, but in those years Harry Belli went on tour in Holland
as Circus Belli. The tiger on the horse-act was very spectacular, there where two little
dogs in it as well. Harry was with this act also in Argentina,
and when his circus stopped he went with this act to several other countries.
Harry Belli and his tiger
Bila on horse-bag
Recently
I received an email from Bill Weber, President of Language Services International, Inc.
Hawai, with interesting additional information on Harry Belli. Bill wrote: ”By pure
coincidence I found your request when I "surfed" the net for Harry Belli. When I
was a teenager, I was a daily guest at the Circus of Regina and Elly Strassburger in
Scheveningen, between 1953 and 1960, and had the great privilege to see Harry work, mainly
with his tigers and lions. However, he was equally gifted with elephants and especially
horses. As a dressage rider myself, we spent many hours together and Harry left me with
many invaluable insights into his "gentle" manner of dressage. I will never
forget when he was playfully preparing four young tigers and lions for a new act. After a
few months, he said he would like to see them work with the presence of somebody else and
asked me to accompany him. As I knew the act by heart, he asked me to work with the
animals in his presence. I went through the whole act when I heard somebody applaud from
the stands. I had not noticed that Harry had left me alone for the second part of the
act... Just thinking about it still send chills down my spine. What a mark of confidence
that was.
In
1960 I went to Geneva
to study there, and the last times I saw Harry and Elly (Strassburger) was when he toured
with Circus Knie in Switzerland
in the mid sixties. He presented his famous act of the tiger on horseback. The tiger's
name was Bila and the horse was a heavy but most gentle Percheron. The dog was Bila's
constant companion. She lived and slept in Bila's cage, even after she had several litters
of puppies. It took a lot of "tricking" Bila to let us approach the puppies as
she guarded them jealously. You will find some information about Elli on the net by
searching for "strassburger". There is a biography on his wife Elly, in Dutch.
Harry Belli died in Hilversum
in 1975 of a heart attack.
Harry Belli and Elly
Belli-Strassburger
Bill
Weber was never really working in the circus world but spent all his vacations with the
Dutch part of his family in The
Hague
from 1953 to 1960 and was a daily guest in the building of "Circus Strassburger"
in Scheveningen. He always kept in touch with the riding world though and still teaches
dressage in Hawaii.
Harry
Belli had no connection to the Danish Circus Belli although the founders of Danish Circus
Belli probably belonged to the same family. German Circus Belli visited Denmark
in 1888. In 1904 German Circus Belli Bros. visited Denmark.
They also used the name circus Frants Alouis. Belli Bros. might have visited Denmark
even before 1904. One of the brothers Giovanni Belli married Danish Meta Jensen in 1908
and Circus Belli Bros. stayed in Denmark. In
1919 the partnership amongst the Belli brothers was dissolved. Giovanni and his wife Meta
stayed in Denmark
and formed Circus Giovanni Belli. From 1924 the name was changed to Circus Belli. Giovanni
died in 1929 and Mete Belli became sole proprietor. She went into partnership with German
Willy Borchardt and from 1930 Circus Belli (sometimes using the name Belli-Borchardt) was
among the leading circuses in Denmark.
The partnership was dissolved in 1933 and Meta Belli became once again sole owner of
Circus Belli, since 1934 assisted by Fredy Wachman who was considered as Meta's
husband although they was never formally married. In the late 30's Circus Belli had grown
to be the largest Danish circus. In season 1939 the major attraction was American
cowboy-movie star Tom Mix. Meta
Belli died in 1953 and her circus was sold to investors without any connection to the
Belli family. Those investors sold Circus Belli to Eli Benneweis (owner of circus
Benneweis) in 1955. Circus Belli's last season was in 1957.
18
April 2003
Anders
Enevig 80 years.
On 22
April 2003
the Danish author and circus expert and folklorist Anders Enevig can celebrate his 80
years birthday. From 1945 to 1965 Anders Enevig worked as a police officer. While working
as a constable on the beat he became interested in the fortune and conditions of life of
scavengers, tramps and meths drinkers. In 1964 and 1965 he published two books on this
subject. Later on he felt interest in gypsies and other people travelling around. In 1965
he quit his job at the police to become assistant museum keeper at a museum in Odense.
From 1981 to 1983 he published in 3 volumes the book Cirkus i Danmark (”Circus in Denmark”)
with an impressively amount of informations on the Danish circus families such as
Schumann, Benneweis, Miehe, Belli etc. Anders Enevig’s latest book is a book from
2001 on Danish Circus Posters. The book has 161 pages with 40 beautiful full-page
reproductions in colour of circus posters by well-known Danish artist Oscar Knudsen and
Erik Stockmarr. The book includes a summary in English, German, French and Spanish and is
thus also of interest for non-Danes. It is published by Borgen publishers in Copenhagen.
ISBN 87-21-01555-4.
Anders
Enevig
15
April 2003
The
new tenant of the Copenhagen Circus Building
Swedish Wallmans Nöjen have now started the renovation of the building. First new thing
will be an artist café decorated with posters and photos from the many circuses and
artist who have performed at the Circus
Building.
Several of the posters and photos will be provided by the Circus
Museum
at Hvidovre, Copenhagen,
and from the collection of the Swedish
Circus
Academy.
In charge of the decoration is among others Tino Rivero who for several years worked as
trapeze acrobat with Ringling. The café should be ready for opening by the end of May
2003.
11
April 2003
As
previous years there will from 14 June to 10 August as free attraction be short circus
performances at the amusement park BonBon-land in Holme-Olstrup. Among the performers will
be the 3 Brazilian daredevils from the Diorios
troupe in their globe of death. Diorios toured with Danish Circus Arena in 2002. Daily
performances at 3:30
and 5
p.m.
Diorios,
photo taken in Circus Arena 2002
8
April 2003
Schumann-news.
The clown and multi-acrobat Benny Schumann has
updated his website www.schumann.dk.
Language: Danish, English, French and Spanish. From the site it is now possible to
download short video
clips from Benny’s films and shows.
Benny is the grandson of the late clown Charlie Rivel and son of Albert and Pauline
Schumann and cousin to Katja Binder Schumann of New York’s Big Apple Circus. - Benny
Schumann is producer of the annual International
Clown Festival at Bakken (amusement park north of Copenhagen).
Among the performers in the 2003-festival will be Kotini
Jr (silver clown winner from Monte Carlo), Russian Duo Zapashnaya music act (first time in Denmark), Arthur Vercoe Pedlar and Allan, comical bike act and The Flying Super Nuts, (first time ever – a
new Danish act) and Benny Schumann himself. The
International Clown festival takes place from 5 to 17 August.
Benny
Schumann with ponies and assistant animal trainer Briano
7
April 2003
The
Copenhagen
Tivoli.
As always Tivoli
will at their Open Air Stage present some first class acrobats as free attractions. From 12
April to 25 May you can see Laszlo Simet
(Giant Wheel) and Sharkov Brothers (Partner
Equilibristic). From 26 May to 3 July you can meet Duo
Aragorn (Aerial Voltige), Sharkov Brothers
(Partner Equilibristic) and Consuello Reyes
(Foot-Juggling). From 14 July to 17 August: Duo
Sorellas (Double Trapeze), Kris Kremo
(Gentleman Juggling) and Jidinis & Magic Co.
(Illusionist/Magic Show). And from 18 August to 21 September The Simets (High-Wire) and Jidinis & Magic Co. (Illusionist/Magic Show).
Several of the performers are old friends of Denmark.
Lazlo Simet/The Simets performed in Tivoli
in 1998, at Circus Benneweis in 1999 and in Tivoli
in 2001. Consuela Reyes toured with Circus Benneweis in 1983 and 2001, performed in Tivoli
in 1985 and 1995 and travelled with Circus Arena in 1987. World class juggler Kris Kremo
was in Tivoli
in 1992, 1993 and 1999 and toured with Circus Circus Benneweis in 2002. Jidinis performed
at Benneweis in 1998 and in Tivoli
in 2001.
Performance
at the Open Air Stage (photo from 2002)
3
April 2003
Circus
Charlie
has its opening day in Frederikshavn on 8 April. Among the performers are the clowns Red and Blue, Miss Magic, artist from Scandi Balti Circus School in Latvia
and the clown Charlie (alias circus owner Einar
Trie). Circus Krone (no, the not the large
German one but the Danish dog and pony show) presents a musical act called ”Los Cauchos” from Ukraine and a bike act
performed by Voronin Andrey. Misi is supt. Canvas and presents a dog act. Eva Varadi presents her antipode (foot juggling)
act. Circus owner Irene Thierry’s husband Jan Allan present liberty horses and
performs as the clown Alando. Circus Krone will
open the season on 10 April at Haarup (Krone’s winterquarter).
2
April 2003
Danish
comedy casceadeurs Steckel’s (Freddi
Steckel and Line Vittrup) is this year on tour with Swedish Circus Circus Maximum. They have replaced Peter Freeman
(Old Regnas) who due to illness could not as scheduled tour with Maximum in 2003. Last
year Steckel’s toured with Norwegian Circus Merano. Freddi Steckel’s brother Jacki Steckel is as in 2002 daily manager for
Swedish Circus Skratt. Swedish Bo Rönnberg,
who rents the circus, tent and all, from Benny Berdino of Danish
Circus Arena, owns circus Skratt.
Steckel’s
at Circus Maximum 31 March 2003 (Photo: Roger Malmer)
25
March 2003
Danish
dog and pony shows. Two
of the small Danish circuses have now released the name of the performers for their 2003
summer tour. Circus Arli who have their season
opening on 5 April in Floeng (Copenhagen
suburb) present the bike acrobats Saschas, the
acrobats Duo Lorenz and the comical acrobats Blues Brothers. Furthermore several member of the
Arli family can be seen: Alexander Arli (circusowner
Soren Arli’s grandson) will do juggling and Bettina
Arli (Soren Arli's daughter in love) present a dog act. Martino & Co. (Martin, Alexander and Bettina
Arli) does clowning. Furthermore Circus Arli will present a contortion act and ladder
balancing. Circus Mascot this year celebrating
their 10th season, presents Miss Tatyana
with a hula hoop-act, Prymachenko with an arial
act, the juggler Zdenek and Miss Maria in airring. Circus owner Jess Deleuran present ponies, his wife Marianne Deleuran poodles and their 13 years old
son Daniel a rola rola act and a juggling act
on a swing wire. Opening day is on 3 April in Roslev in the northern part of Jutland.
20
March 2003
Circus
Baldoni
will start the season by a visit to Isle of Bornholm from 12 to 21 April before the
official opening day on 25 April in Dragor (Copenhagen suburb close to the Copenhagen
Airport Kastrup). Circus owner René Marvin
(alias Mr. Baldoni) presents The
skipping Baltics,
Jane in an arial act, the clown Ploppi, Bro
Brothers in straps and as comical cascadeurs, The
Barbie Family, plate spinning jugglers, Tatjana
handstand acrobat, Katya in an arial act and
Rene Marvin himself as magician and ventriloquist.
Photo
from Baldoni’s 2002-performance. René Marvin is standing to the far left,
17
March 2003
For
a number of years I have every spring send a short review of the previous circus season in
Denmark
to some friends in the English-speaking part of the world. Click here to read The circus year in review 2002 - Denmark.
14
March 2003
Circus
Benneweis.
Circus owner Diana Benneweis calls her 2003
program for ”Startime 2003”. Main attraction is the Italian clown Fumagalli (awarded with a silver clown in Monte
Carlo 2001) performing together with his brother Darius. Fumagalli (Gianni Huesca) and
Darius Huesca are former teeterboard acrobats and toured Denmark with their teeterboard
act called The Darix Troupe in 1976 with Circus Benneweis and in 1986 with Circus Arena.
Other performers with Benneweis in 2003 are handstand acrobat Glen Nicolodi who I last time saw in 2001 with
German Circus Barum where he used a poodle as his partner. Ronald and Tyranna Spindler present camels and
African elephants. Danish born Steven Pedersen
present his sealions and his penguins. Ministrelli's
street theatre presents an act with dogs. Russian arial acrobats Duo Urunov performs in Asian Ring and ride high
school under the name Dzen. From
Italy
come the diablo jugglers Alessandro and Isabella
Troici with an act called Double faces. And
the 5 Russian acrobats from Novikovs perform in
a horizontal bar.
13
March 2003
The
tent crew from Circus Arena has put up
Arena’s brand new Italian-made big top with 4 king poles at the Copenhagen Circus lot
known as Bellahoj. The tent is a 41 x 49-meter
big top with slightly more than 1,700 chairs. Circus owner Benny Berdino claims that it is the largest circus
tent in Scandinavia.
Swedish Circus Scott uses at 4-pole tent with a diameter of 46 meter. It takes calculation
to figure out if such tent is larger or smaller than Arena’s tent. Circus Benneweis
use a tent with at diameter of 42 meter. Circus Dannebrog's tent is 32 meter in diameter.
Circus Baldoni's tent is 32 meter in diameter. So at least in Denmark Arenas tent is the
largest circus tent.
6 March 2002
Circus
Dannebrog has
published its 2003 programme. Opening day will be on 27 March at Vojens in the southern
part of Jutland.
Circus owner Haddy Enoch calls this year’s performance ”Around the world with Circus Dannebrog".
Mademoiselle Martina presents a handstand act.
The 9 artist from the Dascal troupe present a
skipping act. In 2002 this troupe toured with Circus Olympia in Sweden. The Enoch family presents their
excellent bike acrobat act called The Haddies
jr.jr. Isabella Enoch and Les Superfemmes
present Arial acrobatic in a rotating trapeze. Irinich
Doinitza performs with her poodles. Katja Enoch
(youngest daughter of Haddy Enoch) present liberty horses. Freddy Anthony presents his musical comedy act.
He toured in Denmark with Circus Schumann from
1978 to 1980. In 1993 and 1994 he performed at the Copenhagen amusement part Bakken and 2000 he toured
in Denmark with Circus Arli. Josephine Casselly presents elephants. Vicky and Hans Pedersen presents their 4 sealions
and 4 penguins. Bernhard Casselly Kaselowskis
present his camels. The Liubas Troupe are
acrobats (they toured with Swedish Circus Olympia in 2002 using the name the Moldavia
Troupe). Russian Irina and Jury Kosincev do
clowning. Ringmistress is as previous years
Haddy Enoch’s oldest daughter Agnete Louise
Enoch.
The Liubas troupe, photo taken in Circus Olympia 2002
28
February 2003
Danish circuses 2003. The first Danish circus to
open summer season 2003 will be Circus Arena
with opening day 22 March in Copenhagen.
The performing artist was mentioned at this page on 16
January 2003.
27 March is opening day for Circus Dannebrog at
Vojens in the southern part of Jutland.
The program will be announced on 20 March. 3 April is opening day for as well Circus Benneweis as tiny Circus Mascot, Benneweis in Hilleroed north of Copenhagen
and Mascot in Roslov in the Northern part of Jutland. Silver-clown winning clown Fumagalli will be
among the star at Benneweis’ performance. Circus
Arli will begin season 2003 at Floeng (close to Copenhagen)
early April 2003. Circus Charlie and Circus Krone will open their doors sometime in
April both of them in Jutland.
On 25 April Circus Baldoni has opening day at
Dragor (a Copenhagen
suburb). Most of the performers are from the Latvia
Circus
School
in Riga.
Fumagalli
will be amongst the performers at Circus Benneweis’ 2003-performance. At the photo he
is seen together with his brother and partner Darius at a performance in Swedish Circus
Scott 2002.
24
February 2003
Male contortion. In the beginning of January I
mentioned that Walter from Rio
de Janeiro
was searching for information on male contortion. If have now learned that such
information can be found at http://limbermen.com/
. I mentioned that retired world class contortionist Charly Ross was German. Charly has corrected me: I
understand that you are "mixed up" about my nationality. Well, I am Dutch even
if "Kahmann" sounds German. I think a great great grandfather or someone like
that was a German, but I am pure from Holland.
"Charly Ross" was my artist name. - Charlys civil name is Carlos Kahmann.
17
February 2003
The
green lady at Valencia – Lillian Leitzel. Last year Danish world
class magician Heinz Saxburger published his
memories. In his book he tells the following story (my translation from Danish):
”In
the 1960’ies I performed at the Valencia
Music
Hall
in Copenhagen.
When on the second or third night I was sitting in front of the mirror in my dressing room
I suddenly in the mirror saw a young blond lady in green tights smiling at me leaning at
the doorframe. Of cause I turned around to say hello to her but she disappeared which I
found was a strange behaviour. Just smile to me and then disappear without saying
anything. I could not spot her amongst the performers. I found it a strange meeting and
mentioned it to an older colleague at the Artists Trade Union. His reaction was to say:
”Oh, you have seen her. Be happy for that”.
He
told me that the first arial performer to complete the triple from trapeze to catcher died
after a fall in Berlin
in the early 1930’ies. His widow continued as trapeze performer but fall to her death
a couple of years later at the Valencia
Music
Hall.
Once in a while performers at Valencia
saw her. And it meant good luck when she was smiling at one standing in the same tights as
she wore the night she fall to her death! She was only seen in the mirror – to the
best of my knowledge no one ever saw her directly. But I was told that such incident was
not something to talk about. For almost 40 years I have mentioned the incident to no one.
But now when the Valencia
Music
Hall
is closes years ago I feel that I can tell about my knowledge. I guess there might be
other artist, which have had the same experience as me. Whether my good luck after 1960 is
due to the smile of the green lady I don’t know.
There
is a few mistakes in Saxburger’s story: The arial acrobat Lillian Leitzel who died 15
February 1931
after a fall in the Valencia Music Hall 13 February did not perform at trapeze but in
Roman Rings. Part of her performance was a series of swing-owers or one-arm planges.
Generally she executed around 100 turns but her record was 249 flips. From 1919 she was
the reigning queen at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Baily where she met and married a
fellow performer Alfredo Codona the King of
Trapeze being famous for his triple somersault. During the winter months when the circus
was not on tour Alfredo and Lillian played engagements at various theatres in America
and Europe.
On 13
February 1931
Lillian was appearing at the Valencia
Music
Hall
in Copenhagen
and Alfredo at the Berlin Winter garden. Lillian had finished the first part of her
performance and was preparing for the second half consisting of planges of the swivel
ring. As she started that part of her performance suddenly the swivel ring snapped ant she
fell twenty feet to the ground. She tried to get up but was overruled and taken to
hospital where she died two days later. Afterwards Alfredo Codona became more reckless
than ever in his performance. He married another circus performer but the marriage was not
lucky. When the marriage was about to terminate Codona was asked by his wife to meet her
at hers lawyers office. Codona appeared pulled out a revolver shot his wife and killed
himself.
A
few hours before her tragic fall Lillian gave an interview to a Danish Newspaper.
Click
here to
read a translation to English of this interview.
20
February 2003
Teatro
Glimt. Teatro
Glimt (glimt is the Danish word for glint) is a newly created performing company that try
to blend the respective scene arts of theatre, dance, circus, music and street theatre
into a hopefully enjoyable cocktail. Camila
Sarrazin and Lars Gregersen formed Teatro
Glimt in the summer of 2002. Drawing on their past experiences, they wanted to make a
company that expressed the mix of theatre and circus. Creating performances that blended
theatre, dance and street theatre with high quality circus techniques. In January 2003,
the musician Rasmus Skovmand joined. They are
now, together with Johnny Sorensen from the Danish theatre group "Batida",
working on a new street theatre show "The Dinner" for the summer of 2003. Camila
is born in Chile
and have a o taken classes of trapeze and tissue in Santiago,
Rio
de Janeiro
and Barcelona.
Lars Gregersen is educated at the circus school
of Copenhagen
and in the National circus school
of Russia.
He performs a o on slack rope and with handstands. Besides being a musician Rasmus
Skovmand has received education in Acrobatics and Circus skills. Lars Gregersen has - sometimes together with Camilla – performed
at several new wave performances such as Apropos, Nova Exit, False Majeure etc. Find more
about Teatro Glimt at http://teatroglimt.jones.dk
Lars Gregersen Rasmus
Skovmand Camila
Sarrazin
19
February 2003
”New” tent ready for Circus Baldoni. ”Our
new tent is now at our winterquarter”, René
Marvin of Circus Baldoni tells. ”Last weekend Thessa (René’s fiancée) and
I went to Cologne
in Germany
to pick up the tent. It is the same size as the old one being 26 meter in diameter. It is
5 or 6 years old. On our way back from Cologne
we visited Frantz Althoff´s Pferdepalast in Hamburg.
A true circus theatre with artists and actors and a lot of performing horses. Everyone
ought to see that show.” – Pferdepalast is for the time being touring Germany
with the performance ”Der Zauberwald”. More information to be found at http://www.zauberwald.de/
18
February 2003
Many
visitors to Benny Schumann’s minicircus.
From 10 to 15 February Benny Schumann presented his minicircus at the West
Zealand
shopping mall in Slagelse. More than 7,000 saw one of the performances. At one of the performances Benny had a rather
unpleasant experience. After having finished the act with the sleeping pony Mustafa a guy
entered the circle and told in a threatening way Benny to behave and not call his pony for
Mustafa. Benny told him that the name wasn’t chosen to make fun on anyone but because
a horse called Mustafa performed with the same act in Circus Schumann 50 years ago. But
the guy was still very upset although he left the circle. Benny will in the future call
the pony by its nickname Musti although most Muslims are just smiling when the hear that
the pony is named Mustafa.
Benny
Schumann and the pony Mustafa (photo by courtesy of Benny Schumann)
14
February 2003
Circus
Arena’s new tent is
under production in Italy.
It will be a 41 x 49 meter big top with slightly more than 1,700 chairs most of them
numbered. You can find a slide show from the production of the tent and the seating
facility at www.arena.dk.(Language
Danish - click at ”Sidste nyt om teltet under ARENA NYT”)
12
February 2003
Circus
Arena at the Faeroe
Islands.
Due
to a cancelled flight Arena spent only two of the scheduled 3 days at the Faeroe
Island.
3 performances was given and seen by 3,400 people.
Chinese
Tseng-Hai Sun-family performing in Circus Arena at Torshavn,
Faeroe
Islands
(photo by courtesy of Christian Warrer/Circus Arena)
3
February 2003
Circus
Kenny which
today is owned by Haddy Enoch of Circus Dannebrog present an indoor performances at the
Rosengaard shopping mall in Odense
from 17 to 25
February 2003.
Among the performers are Belgian Sandrine Bové
with her dogs, the Finnish juggler Calle Jernström
(son of circusowner Carl-Gustaf Jernström of Circus Finlandia) and the musical clowns di Lello (Alan and Jeany di Lello) who toured with
Circus Dannebrog in 1999. Circus Kenny was founded by the late Kenn Anker Petersen (one of the magicians Key
Brothers) as a wintercircus with indoor performances. Later Kenn Anker Petersen sold
Circus Kenny to Haddy Enoch.
2
February 2003
Tent for
sale.
René ”Marvin” Moenster of Circus Baldoni
wants to sell his old tent. It is a 4-pole tent 26 meters in diameter. Some repair is
needed. The price is 55,000 DKK (7,400 Euro). Send René an email at rene@baldoni.dk if you are interested in his old
tent.
This
it the tent René Marvin offers for sale
2
February 2003
Duo
Aerius.
”We are doing pretty well,” Esben Aerius of the Danish arial cradle duo Aerius
writes. From 8 January to 16 March Esben and his partner Maja can be seen at Roland-Frosch Variete in Münster,
Germany.
Maja is also working in tissue (aerial silk). From September you can meet Duo Aerius at Variete EtCetera in Bochum.
The two talented Danes are interested in offers for April, May, June, July and August. Find more
about Duo Aerius at www.aerius.netkontor.dk
Duo
Aerius in their cradle routine
2
February 2003
I
might have been too optimistic when I on 28 January wrote about the planed renovation of
the Copenhagen
Circus lot at Bellahoj. The
City of Copenhagen
is looking for cost cutting at their budget and the result could be that the Copenhagen
Circus Lot is closed and not renovated. The
City is considering to offer circuses a lot at Amager Faelled – a long distance from
the city centre and not a very attractive location for circuses.
29
January 2003
Christer
Nilsson
from the Swedish Magical Archive suggest you to visit http://www.britishpathe.com/ and
write ”circus” – then you can se a lot of old circus movies. Or write
”magic” if you want to see magicians.
28
January 2003
Renovation
of the Copenhagen
Circus lot at Bellahoj. For
some years the circus lot at Bellahoj in Copenhagen
used by Danish circuses for more than 50 years has been a rather muddy lot in a pretty bad
condition. The City of Copenhagen
owns the lot. The city council will this summer have the lot renovated and drained and
changed to a gravelled lot more convenient to travelling circuses. Renovation will not be
started until late April when Circus Arena has left the Bellahoj after their traditional
opening stand in Copenhagen
from late March to late April.
26
January 2003
Facelift on www.circus-dk.dk My youngest son
and webmaster Lars felt that this page needed a facelift. We do hope you will like
the new look. Fell free to send us an email with
comments.
24
January 2003
Clown
Festival in Lyngby.
Around 5,000 persons mainly children from kindergartens visited one or more of the clown
performances given in connection with the so-called National Classical Clown Festival in
Lyngby (a Copenhagen
suburb) from 22 to 23
January 2003.
Photographer Lise Kokholm took the photos printed beyond.
23
January 2003
Sir
Benny. ”I
wonder if you could help me with the Mail Address from Benny, a Danish
artist who for a long time was a partner in the Trio
Findals and later made
his own magic-act. I would like it very much to get in touch with him and
thank you in advance in case you can help me”, former world class contortionist Charly Ross writes. Assisted by Christer Nilsson from the Swedish Magical Archive
I got in contact with Danish magician and entertainer ”Sir” Benny Fjeldsoe who
for the time being is working at Club La Santa at the Canary Islands. And Sir Benny could
confirm that he and his wife has known Charly Ross since the 1960’ties and would love
to hear from Charly.
Sir
Benny (photo by courtesy of ”Sir” Benny Fjeldsoe)
16
January 2003
Circus
Arena
has published its 2003 programme. Opening day will be on 22 March at Bellahoj in Copenhagen.
Karl Ramwell should be one of the fastest
jugglers in the world. Swedish trick-riders Kosowiik’s
have built up an excellent reputation and have appeared in many circuses but this is their
first visit to Denmark
apart from 3 days in 2001 when Swedish Circus Scott ended their 2001 season in Denmark.
Stephan Cureadeau presents a bike act. Ingo Stiebner performs with his sealions Ruby and
Cecil. He was with Circus Benneweis in 1998, Circus Arena in 2000, Swedish Circus Maximum
in 2001 and Swiss Circus Knie in 2002. Flying
Ciobanu performs in flying trapeze. Suzanne
Berdino (daughter of circus owner Benny Berdino) will present liberty horses. As in
2002 Sonny Frankello will present his African
elephants. He has in earlier years performed at Circus Benneweis and in the Tivoli
gardens in Copenhagen.
The Catanana Troupe will present their
teeterboard act. Clowning will be done by Los
Sittos from Spain
and (as the last two seasons) Bonbon from Denmark.
16
January 2003
As
previous years Circus
Arena will
tour with an indoor performance a couple of weeks in January and February. The indoor tour
will this year end up at the Faeroe
Islands.
Among the performers are Chinese acrobats Tseng-Hai
Sun
family, Finnish juggler Kalle
Järnstrøm
and Danish comical casdeadeurs Steckel’s.
Two members from the Arli family of Circus Arli will take part of the performance: Martin
Arli
as magician, his son Alexander
Arli
with riverdance step and handstand and father and son together as the clowns Martino
& Co. Furthermore the Danish balloon clown Larna
and Suzanne
Berdino
and her liberty horses, dogs and camels will be in the performance. Also Russian
antipodist Svetlana
and her hula-hop-dancing daughter Marina
can be seen, however not at the Faeroe
Islands.
14
January 2003
Elvard ”Elwardo” Johansson passed away.
Danish handstand acrobat Elvard Johansson has passed away 77 years of age. In his younger
days he was internationally well known and had performed with celebrities as Marlene
Dietrich and Edit Piaf. His son Nick Olander is chairman of The Danish Artist Union
13
January 2003
Jens Preben Tersgov passed away. Jens Preben
Tersgov also known as the magician Tergovas
died on 29
December 2002.
Jens Preben Tersgov was born in Hoeng in 1930. As a young man he won the first price at a
competition arranged by the Danish Magicians. Many Danes will remember him from the years
1974 to 1984 when he under the name Tergovas &
co. presented magician acts in Circus Arena
assisted by circus owner Benny Berdino’s wife Hanne Berdino and daughter Suzanne Berdino. From 1963 to 1966 Jens Preben
worked with German Circus Barum which in these
days was owned by Eli Benneweis. From 1968 he
worked as manager with Circus Benneweis. Later
he moved to circus Arena where he as mentioned besides being manager presented his
magician act. In 1985 he returned to Circus Benneweis however not as a performer. 5 year
later he retired. Besides being a performer Jens Preben Tersgov was a collector – his
collections contains more than 4,000 posters.
Tergovas
– at the photo to the right together with Suzanne and Hanne Berdino
10 January 2003
Einar
Trie
from Circus Charlie has for several years each
summer arranged a one week circus summer camp in Frederikshavn in the Northern part of Jutland
for children and youngsters from 10
to 21 years. This year the circus summer camp will take place from 23rd to 28th
June. Further information and a lot of pictures can be found at http://www.cirkusskolen.dk/
6
January 2003
The
talented Swedish trick riders Kosowiik’s
will perform at Danish Circus Arena from 22
March to mid September 2003. The Kosowiik´s comprise of the Wiik brothers who are the
younger generation of the World famous “Jerry Jimmy & Johnny” who were the
circus trick riding stars of the 1970´s. There are 4 members in the troupe, 3 of them on
horseback each with their own white Arabian stallion horse. These young artists have built
up an excellent reputation and have appeared in circus, TV shows, stunt filming, show
jumping and circus festivals. The have just returned from the Circus Festival in Liege in Belgium.
The Kosowiik´s act is fast and furious, with many precision stunts to keep the adrenaline
flowing among their audience. The show is complemented by excellent lighting, smoke
effects and action music. Kosowiik's toured with Swedish Circus Scott in 2001 and Finish Circus Finlandia in 2003. For the time being the
troupe comprise Jerry Wiik’s two sons Antony
(born 1980) and Gary (born 1982), Antony's
girlfriend Rosalie and an additional rider.
5 January
2003
The
comical cascadeurs Steckel’s are among the
performers at an indoor winter circus presented by Circus Arena the first two weeks of
February in some sport arenas etc in Jutland.
5 January
2003
Male
contortion.
“I enjoy very much your site. Very useful for those, like me, who love circus and
circus arts. I have an special interest about male contortion which is getting to be rare
in the modern circus programme and would appreciate any further information (who and where
performing) you could kindly send to me,” writes Walter from Rio
de Janeiro.
- Yes male contortion seems to be rare these days. For many years German Charly Ross ("Die Schlange") was the
champion. He has written a book: Die Schlange erzählt (language German). I received an
email from Charly Ross in may 2001.He was then living in Mexico and was although retired
still interested in the circus world. Charly was born in 1939 and got the idea to dress as
"the human snake" in 1983. He told me that he retired on 30
December 1996.
Last time we saw male contortion in a Danish circus was in 1991 when Argentinean Hugo Zamoratte was with Circus Benneweis. Hugo
Zamarotta called himself the man in the bottle – one of his props was a 5-gallon
bottle into which he pressed himself. Walter remembers seeing Zamoratte perform in the
80ies in an Argentinean circus, which was in season in São
Paulo.
"I chat with him briefly, nice man, he seams to be at the beginning of his career
then," Walter tells. – Send me an email if you can provide Walter with further
information on male contortion.
Charly Ross – die
Schlange
3
January 2002
Success
for Bonbon & Tiina in Norway.
According to Norwegian newspapers the Danish/Finnish clown duo Bonbon & Tiina had
great success at the Bergen Variety Theatre in November/December 2002. The summer season
2003 will bring Bonbon & Tiina back to Danish Circus Arena. The two funmakers were
also on tour with Circus Arena in 1999, 2001 and 2002.
Bonbon
& Tiina
3
January 2003
Bike
acrobat Malte Knapp and fireeater Tabasco
(Rickard Ljungberg) will be on tour with Norwegian Circus
Agora in 2003. Opening day is on Hamar on 15th
March 2003.
Swedish Circus Maximum can celebrate its 20
years anniversary in 2003. Among the performers this year are the two French musical
clowns Yann and Hector Rossyann who also was on
tour with Maximum in 2002. Other performers are Dutch juggler Bert van Vaigt, Swedish Jessica Bengtsson with liberty horses and English Sean Wilson Smart presenting 4 elephants rented
from Italian Enis Togni who earlier provided Danish Circus Arena with performing
elephants. Also an Italian troupe in flying trapeze will be among the performers in Circus
Maximum. Opening day will be 28
March 2003
in Älvsered.
Rossyann
clowns in Circus Maximum’s ring in 2002
2
January 2003
Nelly
Jane Benneweis will
be guest of honour at the Swedish Great Circus Day arranged by The Circus Academy in Sweden.
The arrangements takes place 1 February in Stockholm.
It is 26th year in row the Swedes arrange a Great Circus Day. Nelly Jane was
ringmistress at Danish Circus Benneweis for
many years. At the Great Circus Day she will tell about her life in circus.
Nelly
Jane, photo by Roy Himsel (CEO of The Circus
Academy)
1
January 2003
From
today and for the next 10 years Swedish Wallmans
Nöjen (Wallman’s amusement) are the tenant in the Copenhagen
Circus
Building.
Wallman's will primary use the building as a variety theatre and dancing restaurant.
Hasse Wallman CEO of Wallmans Nöjen in front of the Copenhagen Circus Building
1
January 2003
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