Denmark
17
December 2004
Cultural prize to John Newman. John Newman alias the English-born clown JoJo was on Wednesday 15 December awarded the City
of Svendborg's
cultural prize 2004. John Newmann is the man behind the annual clown festivals in
Svendborg with many Danish and foreign clowns participating including a number of clowns
from English "Clown International". When Svendborg in 2003 celebrated its
750-year anniversary John Newman got the European Jugglers Festival to the town with more
than 2,000 jugglers performing in the streets of Svendborg. For those initiatives the City
of Svendborg
have nave awarded John with this year's cultural award. Svendborg is the second largest
city on Isle of Funen the largest city being Odense.
After
having been awarded John "JoJo" Newman took seat in the Lord Mayors chair. .
Photo: Lise Kokholm
JoJo
with the boy Jakob. Photo: Lise Kokholm
8
December 2004
This
beautiful poster has just been made for The
Circus Museum at Hvidovre Copenhagen. The
museum has the largest circus collection in the Nordic countries. The Copenhagen county
has some weeks ago granted the museum 100,000 DKK (14,000 Euro) for consultant services
regarding a new strategy for the museum. The plan is to establish an activity centre
connected to the museum within a year or two. A Danish labor market foundation have some
time ago promised to donate 2,900,000 DKK (390,000 Euro) to the museum if such an activity
centre is to be established.
5
December 2004
A
Christmas party was held at the Circusmuseum at Hvidovre, Copenhagen, on 5 December. There
were a lot of visitors. Amongst the activities was a performance especially for children
by the Danish magician Robert
Mark.
Robert
Mark at the Circus Museum
3
December 2004
The film about Agnete Louise Enoch. The author,
circusfan and filmmaker Jorgen Lorenzen is almost done with his film about Agnete Louise
Enoch. Agnete is the oldest daughter of Haddy and Solveig Enoch who established the
present Circus Dannebrog in 1977. 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 press agent for Circus Dannebrog. The film will have its first run
in Aarhus
on 24
January 2005.
It will most likely bee shown in Copenhagen
at the Circusmuseum in Hvidovre, Copenhagen,
on 8
February 2005.
Jorgen
Lorenzen and Agnete Louise Enoch
2
November 2004
Several
buildings under construction at Circus Arena's winterquarter.
Circus Arena is the largest of the Danish circuses. At their winterquarter in Aarslev
close to Slagelse a lot of construction is going on. According to plan "Circus
Arena
City"
will open in October 2005. There will be a large area for visitors with 60-70 animals, a
large basin for sealions (double size of the basin in the Copenhagen Zoo), training ring,
working repair shops and workshops, museum etc. You can see some photos at http://www.arena.dk/Arena_Vinterkvarter.htm
1
December 2004
Seelions
sees again.
One of Hans and Vicky Pedersen's sealions 15
year old Oscar has been blind for some years. Hans and Vicky learned that the Animal
Health Trust in Kentford near Newmarket
might bee able to help Oscar regaining his sight through a cataract operation. Vets tell
that the four and a half hour operation was a great success and Oscar can see well again.
It is said to be the first time ever such an operation has been done at a sealion. But
there is nothing the sympathetic sealion trainer couple Hans and Vicky will not do for
their beloved sealions. The couple and their sealions toured with Danish Circus Dannebrog
in 2003. Hans is a Danish citizen although he has spent most of his life outside Denmark.
Hans
and Vicky Pedersen with their sealions
1
December 2004
APASSIONATA
- The Greatest Horse Spectacular in the World will
have its first stands in Scandinavia
at Forum in Copenhagen
on 29 and 30
January 2004.
As a special attraction her highness princess
Nathalie zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg will perform at the show in Copenhagen.
Princess Nathalie is the youngest daughter of her Royal Highness princess Benedicte who is
the Danish Queen Margrete's younger sister. Princess Nathalie has always been very fond of
horses and has been trained by Swedish Kyra Kyrklund as well as by Klaus Balkenhol in
Rosendahl-Osterwick. She has participated in several competitions and won a bronze medal
at the European Championship in 2001 and was number 4 at the World Championship in 2002.
25
November 2004
"I
am back from the Euroclown Festival in Barcelona,"
Danish comical cascadeur Freddi Steckel writes.
He continues: "It was their 20 years anniversary and nothing was spared in order to
make it a great event. Bandmaster Carmino DAngelo had a 12 piece French band - just
wonderful. There was lots of fun. Remember it was festival Memorial Charlie
Rivel starring Fumagalli, Rossyan, Housch ma housch, Fuma Boys, Sergey Prostetsov,
Nikolai Ermakov and the of cause the Steckel's. Among the guest were Paulina Schumann and
Eugine Chaplin. There was full house for most of the performances and several persons had
to give up to get a ticket. However the show will later be TV transmitted. My next stop is
Gala Tours where I again will meet Fumagalli and Rossyan. It will be great fun!"
From
left: Fumagalli, Zora Nikodemova, Hector Rossy, Freddi Steckel, Yann Rossy, Nicolei
Ermakov and Darix Huesca (Fumagallis brother and partner).
Zora
Nikodemova and Freddi Steckel at one of the Euroclown-performances
24
November 2004
Theft
and magi in Aalborg...!
On 18 November Aalborg
Congress and Culture Centre had first night for their annual winter show this year
presenting among others the Danish world class gentleman thief KENNY QUINN and his partner Joan. Furthermore
Kenny presented the magic entrée he took over from the late Viggo Jahn ("the man
with the black gloves") with a stick and stick knobs. The winter show can be seen
until 11
December 2004.
The newspaper review of Kenny's act was most favourable: "Even with a seat close to
the stage you hardly believe your own eyes when he strip innocent members of the audience
for everything at the stages without they are noticing it!" the largest Danish
newspaper Jyllands Posten wrote.
24
November 2004
Posna's poodles to Circus Dannebrog. According to
German Circus Zeitung Posna's trained poodles has been engaged for the coming season in
Danish Circus Dannebrog. Posna and his dogs could also bee seen at the Enoch-family
produced indoor Circus Kenny in a shopping mall in Odense
in October. The act toured with Danish Circus Arli in 1987 and 1991 where Posna also
presented a monobike act assisted by his partner & wife at that time Cornelia. Martin
Arli tells that Posna's Christian name is Joschi. He is German and comes from East
Berlin.
He is out of an old circus family and started his circus carrier as a boy juggler. - The
main attraction from Circus Dannebrog's 2004-forestilling Chinese Duo Yingling (sometimes spelled Jingling) will in
2005 tour with the large Norwegian Circus Merano.
Posna's
dogs. Photo taken by Lise Kokholm at Circus Kenny in Odense
in October 2004
23
November 2004
Kim
Kenneth to Massy.
The Danish magician Kim Kenneth who in 2004 have performed for circus owner Tony Hopkins
in the large English Circus Billy Smart will be among the performers at the Circus
Festival in Massy (Festival International du Cirque de Massy) in France from 13 to 16
January 2005. You can find further information on the festival at http://www.cirque-massy.com/
19.
november 2004
Mystical
Mr. Mox
alias 23-years old Danish magician Mikkel Larsen took part in the final of the Danish
version of the TV-show StarSearch on 19
November 2004.
His opponents in category 'comedy' in the finale were a female stand-up comedian Susanne
Billeskov Bredtoft and the two comedians Bay & Dupont. Mikkel presented a nice entrée
with his very own version of the transformation trunk trick. However the winner of the
competition became the stand-up comedian Susanne Billeskov Bredtoft. - Mikkel 'Mox' Larsen
is born and grown up at the Isle of Bornholm but lives today in the Copenhagen
suburb Herlev. He started to practice magic when he was 5 only years older. In a more
serious way he began as magician when he was 12 inspired and assisted by his father,
himself a magician. Since Mikkel has trained and trained with a combination of stand up
comedy and magic show. He have given several performances as a professional in Denmark and
hopes to be able to tour his very old Las Vegas style show first in Denmark and then
elsewhere in Europe.
Mystical
Mr. Mox
17
November 2004
"We
are now on full swing with Circus Nissesjov (in
English: Circus Christmas elf show) this year touring with two units: one at Zealand
and one in Jutland
and Funen," René Marvin Moenster writes. In the summer season René is running the
Danish medium-sized Circus Baldoni. Circus Nissesjov's tour started on 8 November at Zealand
and 15 November for the unit touring in Jutland
and Funen. The two units will visit a total of 53 cities and perform for an audience of
more than 30,000 persons, mainly kids from kindergartens. René is also planning the 2005
season for Circus Baldoni. The name of the performers in Baldoni's 2005 performance will
be released before yearend.
Nis,
alias René Marvin Moester, with his ventriloquist doll Anton the Christmas Pig. Photo by
courtesy of René Marvin.
The
contortion Christmas elf Kristina is from Latvia.
She is also presenting a hula-hoop act and a dancing act together with her partner Alex.
Photo by courtesy of René Marvin.
16
November 2004
CIRCUS
3 can celebrate their 25-year's anniversary. Although the classical Danish clown trio Circus 3
have not performed together for 5 years their entrées has often been shown in TV in the
children programme TV for you. But all 3 member
of Circus 3 are now again performing together to celebrate their 25 anniversary. The three
clowns Alfredo (Jan Maartensson), Charlie (Bo Bjerregaard) & Binalto (Jan Kierulf)
have together performed at more than 6,000 clown performances in Denmark,
mainly for kids, either as Circus 3 or as Charlie & Binalto from Circus 3. Their
jubilee performance was presented on 6 November at Mantziusgaarden in Birkeroed 15 miles
north of Copenhagen - the same place where they 25 years ago had their
very first performance. Their most popular entrée is their sandwich
cake entrée. The three clowns are by profession leisure-time teachers and have never
performed in a traditional circus but mainly given performances in Kindergartens, at
shopping malls etc.
12
September 2004
Greetings
from Freddi Steckel.
The Danish acrobat Freddi Steckel has with Isabella Enoch as partner participated with his
Comedy
Cascadeur act at a street festival in Japan.
Freddi tells. - Isabella and I are now back
from Shizuoka
in Japan.
It was a great experience. It was interesting to see if the Japanese liked our act - and
they surely did! The audience was enthusiastic which made it easy to work. And both
Isabella and I are good to improvise and that's great fun. Everything was very well
organised and we were treated very well. The Japanese are very polite and friendly. I
enclose a few photos. As you can see is was a street festival taking place at streets and
squares all over town. There were as far as I know more than 50 performers and it was the
worlds largest Street Festival. Shizuoka
has a population of 800,000 and there were 2 million visitors. Is was a great success and
thirteenth time the town held the festival. I am sure it will be repeated and maybe there
will be more trips to Shizuoka
for Steckels. On Monday I will together with Zora Nidodemova leave for Barcelona
to perform at the Clownfestival."
Freddi
and Isabella in Shizuaka
Freddi
and Isabella. In the background Mt. Fuji
10
November 2004
Circuscamp
2005.
For several years Einar Trie from Danish Circus Charlie been the driving force for a
circus summercamp for children and youngsters from 10
to 21 years of age. In 2005 the camp will be held from 20 to 25 June in Selde in the
northern part of Jutland.
Further information at www.cirkusskolen.dk
5
November 2004
Circus
Charlie 2005.
"Look forward to 2005 when we will present our jubilee show" the Danish high
grass show Circus Charlie writes at their webpage. Opening day will be 12
March 2005.
As in 2004 music will be provided by the Danish pop duo Souvenirs. The clowns RED and BLUE
always introduce a performance in Circus Charlie. In 2005 Genada from Riga
in Latvia
and Katja from Moscow
will perform the two characters. You will also meet the clown Charlie alias circus owner
Einar Trie. Circus Charlie was founded in 1988. But in 1985 Einar Trie toured with a
one-man performance called "The tiny circus".
The clown Charlie together with Niels Torp from Souvenirs. Photo from Circus
Charlie's 2004-performance in which Charlie and Niels presented the Busy Bee clown entrée
1
November 2004
The
photographer Lise Kokholm saw the Danish magician Henrik
Christensen's show Its magic 2004
Vegas has to wait on 17 October in Odense. Lise writes - I saw the magician Henrik
Christensen's 10 years jubilee show in Magasinet in Odense.
It was a spectacular and a bit different show since Henrik had involved two singers, the
sisters Anne and Mette Skovmark in the show.
The youngest of the sisters is known from Danish TV channel 2's program "The winner
takes all". Henrik Christensen's show was a show filled with great magical act,
excellent light setting and good singing. In several numbers members of the audience was
invited to the stage, both children and grown-ups. The acts presented by Henrik were
outstanding. The audience was very well entertained and I had a super magical evening
combined with good singing.
The
magician Henrik Christensen (standing to the left!). Photo: Lise Kokholm
30
October 2004
Hanne
Berdino 60 year.
Circus owner Benny Berdino's wife Hanne can celebrate her 60 years birthday on 30
October 2004.
Her maiden name is Hanne Thunoe. Her stepfather was the jockey and horsetrainer Alex
Reinsch. This made is quite natural for Hanne to become an artist and perform under the
name Hanne Reinsch. I 1964 she married Benny Berdino who at that time was assisting
manager in his father's Circus Arena. In the years to follow Hanne presented trained
pigeons, dogs and horses in Circus Arena and she performed as acrobat together with
her
sister Myrna Reinsch
using the name Reinsch sisters. She was also the female partner in the magician act
Tergovas & Co. As the children Suzanne (born 1965) and Jackie (born 1969) grew up and
became more and more active in the performance Hanne retired as performer. Her last season
as performer was in 1984 with the magician act Tergovas & Co. Celebration of the 60
years birthday will take place at Circus Arena's winter quarter in Aarslev at Slagelse
Jackie,
Suzanne, Hanne and Benny Berdino. Photo from Circus Arena's 1976-program
27
October 2004
Old
Danish circus posters for sale. Dutch
collector Henk van den Berg offers a number
of Danish circus posters for sale. Most of the posters come from the late Jens Preben Tersgov's collections. Among the
posters are Benneweis posters from the period 1949 to 1989, among those 3 posters from
1973 painted by the well-known Danish artist Oscar Knudsen. Prices are from 15 to 60 Euro.
The Oscar Knudsen posters cost 40 Euro each. Furthermore there is in the collection
posters from Circus Arena, Circus Binger, Circus Schumann, Circus Moreno (another Oscar
Knudsen-poster, price 60 Euro), Circus Meta, Circus Robert Daniels, Circus Royal and
Circus Vivi. Send me an email if you want a copy
of Henk's list of Danish posters and programmes for sale.
Among
the poster for sale is this beautiful Oscar Knudsen poster from 1963. Photo from the front
page of Anders Enevig's book from 2001 on Danish Circus posters presenting many full
colour reproductions of posters by Oscar Knudsen and Erik Stockmarr. A very interesting
book also for non-Danes and containing a summary in English, German, French and Spanish.
24
October 2004
Another
hoseshow to Copenhagen.
In
February 2004 Swedish Robert Bronett presented his horse show Levade Noble Horse Gala in Copenhagen.
Since then the show has visited Aarhus,
Oslo
(Norway),
Stockholm,
Gotenburg and Malmö (Sweden).
In January 2005 another hose show will visit Copenhagen:
APASSIONATA - The Greatest Horse Spectacular in the
World. This show is produced by two Germans: Robert Wagner and Peter Massine through
their company EquiArte GmbH & Co. KG. The show can be seen in Copenhagen
on 29 January. According to the press release the show will present "a beautiful,
exciting and truly breathtaking equestrian extravaganza, Apassionata features Thirty-three
stallions and one mare, all from some of Europes
most famous riding centres. This dazzling show brings you five of the royal baroque
breeds; dancing Andalusians, fiery Arabians, powerful Friesians, elegant Lipizzaners and
royal Lusitanos, all demonstrating the perfect classical horsemanship that has been the
wonder of Europe for many centuries. Apassionta promises pure entertainment for all the
family. As well as opera singers, fiery flamenco dancers, dazzling lighting and exquisite
music, this UK
premiere will feature stunt riding, classical dressage, pas de deux and quadrilles. Even
the mythical horse Pegasus makes an appearance! From Arabian
desert
scenes and the noble court of imperial Vienna
to Spanish cowboys performing elegant dances with their garrochas, Apassionata
demonstrates perfect collaboration between man and horse." Apasionate has in 2004
toured in Germany.
The show to be presented in Copenhagen
will have its first night on 2
January 2005
in London's
Wembley Arena and will tour until 23 April, visiting Birmingham,
Belfast,
Copenhagen,
Bern,
Helsinki,
Glasgow,
Manchester
and Geneva.
Further information can be found at www.hestegalla.dk
23
October 2004
Haddy
Enoch 70 years. On
28
October 2004
circus owner Haddy Enoch of Circus Dannebrog can celebrate his 70 years birthday. Haddy
Enoch is from an old circus family. His father was a musician and worked as such in a
circus. He wanted Haddy to become a priest or a violinist. But Haddy had a dream of
becoming an acrobat and a circus owner. For a short while he was an errand boy using a
bike. But he thought that a bike could be used for more interesting purposes and changed
his carrier and became a skilled bike acrobat. First touring with an act called 3 Haddies together with the sisters Grethe and
Solveig Bolin. When Grethe left the act the name was changed to 2 Haddies. And after some
years Solvieg became mrs Enoch. 2 Haddies toured 5 continents and 32 countries and worked
in circuses, at variety theatres and other shows. Haddy's and Solveig's son Dennie and
their three daughters Agnete, Isabella and Katja have all from time to time taken part in
the bike act. For the time being The Haddies has up to 8 members - the leading member now
being Haddy's 20 years old grandson Jimmy Enoch, son of Dennie. Haddy's dream about becoming a circus owner came
through in 1977 when he assisted by his family re-established the Enoch family's Circus
Dannebrog which had toured until 1922. The first season was pretty rough. "I was free
from debt when we started the season but not when it closed," Haddy Enoch admits. But
despite some difficulties in the first seasons Circus Dannebrog has toured since 1977 and
is now a well-established circus with a tent seating 999 persons and an international
programme. And the families own bike act The Haddies is always a popular part of the
program however not any longer with Haddy and Solveig as performers.
Haddy
Enoch
21
October 2004
Award to artists from Circus Benneweis. Several of
the artist from this years Circus Benneweis performance was awarded at the 9 International
Circus Festival in Warsaw
(Cyrk Zalewski). Gold medals were awarded to the high wire artist Los Quiros and to the young juggler Allan Sulc. Mr.
Dalmatin was awarded a silver medal for his act with ponies and dogs. Los Quiros have
been re-engaged for Circus Benneweis' 2005-season where they will appear in Spanish
costumes.
The
high wire acrobats Los Quiros. Golden clown Monte Carlo 2002 and gold medal this year at
the Cyrk Zalewski festival. Photo taken in Circus Benneweis in 2004. Los Quiros will be
back at Benneweis in 2005 working in Spanish costumes.
18
October 2004
The Haddies to Zirkus Liliput. The Danish Enoch
families fine bike act The Haddies will from 25 November to 31
December 2004
perform at the Christmas Circus to be presented by Swiss Zirkus Liliput in St.
Gallen,
Switzerland.
At Liliput performing artist in The Haddies will be 20 year old Jimmy Enoch, his Aunt
Isabella Enoch and his cousins Edward and David. The Haddies is sometimes called The
Haddies JR or The Haddies JR JR to indicate that it is second and third generation of the
original act created by Haddy Enoch together with the sisters Grethe and Solveig Bolin.
Solveig later becoming Mrs. Enoch and mother to Isabella, Dennie, Agnete and Louise. -
Zirkus Liliput is owned by Daniel and Rose Gasser-Belli. You can find mere information on
their circus at http://www.zirkus-liliput.ch/
17
October 2004
Several
shopping malls presented circus performances as free attractions during the Danish school
childrens autumn holiday in week 42. I managed to visit two of the performances. The
performance at Circus Kenny in Odense
ran 45 minutes. Ringmistress Agnete Louise Enoch presented Posnas dogs, a female foot
juggler, Swiss juggler Eddie Carello and the musical clowns di Lellos. Click here to se some photos from the performance.
Circus
Macot's performance in Slagelse ran for 20 minutes. However Mascot presented two different
shows. Both shows started with 7 years old Andreas Deleuran's welcome song. Furthermore
you met juggler and clown Gulio, Marianne Deleuran with her poodles and a pony and Andreas
as "strong man" and snake charmer. Click here to se some photos from Mascot's performance.
16
October 2004
Performing
poodles
have always been a popular circus act. At least two of the circus performances presented
as free attraction in Danish shopping malls during the childrens autumn holiday in October
have presented performing poodles. In the West Zealand Shopping Mall in Slagelse you could
meet Marianne Deleuran with Circus Mascot's poodles. And in Circus Kenny in the Rosengaard
Shopping Mall in Odense
you could meet Posna's poodles.
Marianne
Deleuran with her poodles
Posna's
poodles
15
October 2004
Circus
Nissesjov (in
English: Circus Christmas elf show). Circus
owner René Marvin Moenster of Circus Baldoni is preparing this year's version of his
Christmas Circus called Circus Nissesjov. He will have two touring units. The unite
touring at Zealand
will start on 8 November and the unit touring in Jutland
and Island
of Funen
a week later. The tour will end on 22 December. The performances a mainly for kids. Among
the performers are some of the performers from Latvia
who have toured with Circus Baldoni the later years.
11
October 2004
Interview
with Benneweis.
At the German website www.circusinfo.de you can read an interesting
interview with circus owner Diana Benneweis of Danish Circus Benneweis. The text can be
read in German, English of French.
9
October 2004
Circus
Arena at Greenland.
"Hi Ole. Here is our Greenland Circus," press agent Christian Warrer of Circus
Arena writes. "Transport for our tour this year was aeroplane, a red helicopter and
boat. It was this year 20-year since Circus Arena visited Greenland
first time and our performance was very popular. In some cities between 20 and 25 % of the
total population came to see our show. The large audience created a fantastic atmosphere
in the sport centres in which we presented our performance." - At the photo below you
can see from the left: Danish comical cascadeur Freddi Steckel and his partner Zora
Nikodemova, circus owner Benny Berdino, the Danish clown BonBon, clown and multi artist
Martin Arli, Kenya
acrobat Samson, Ib "Pjerrot" Rasmussen, clown and multi artist Bettina Arli, the
sword swallower Jewel, diabolo player Martin
Mall
and the multi artist Alexander Arli.
8
October 2004
Old circus related movies on DVD. The Danish Film
Institute (DFI) has launched a project to digitise and make available the Danish silent
film heritage on DVD. Some of them have circus-related stories. So far two such DVD' are
for sale through the DFI Bookshop:
DVD
with film starring Valdemar Psilander.
Valdemar
Psilander (1884-1917) was probably the greatest male star of Danish silent cinema. He died
in 1917, only 32 years old. Despite his early death, he nevertheless acted in 83 films
during his 6 years with the Nordisk Films Kompagni. The three films on this DVD are not
only representative of Valdemar Psilanders qualities as an actor, but also the
production of Nordisk Films Kompagni during the most productive and successful years of
Danish cinema.
Content of DVD: TEMPTATIONS OF A GREAT
CITY,
Denmark,
1911. THE GREAT CIRCUS CATASTROPHE, Denmark,
1912. THE CANDLE AND THE MOTH, Denmark,
1915.
Total
running time 140 minutes.
DVD
with 2 films directed by Alfred Lind:
The
flying circus, Denmark,
1912 (running time 46 minutes). The bear trainer, Denmark
1912 (running time 40 minutes). Extra: Daredevils of the movies (1923) with Emilie Sannom.
The
films can be bought at the DFI bookshop at Vognmagergade 8B, 1120 Copenhagen
or at the DFI netshop.
Planed
is a release of "The clown" from 926 starring Gösta Ekman Sen.
10
October 2004
Interesting book about circus families etc. A
month ago the dean of Danish circus historians published a very interesting book called
"Cirkus og göglerslägter - miljö og stamtavler" (Circus- and fair performer
families - atmosphere and genealogical tables). The book is written in Danish but with a
"Deutsches vorwort". And the genealogical tables can easily been read and
understood by non-Danes. The following families are mentioned in the book:
·
Altenburg
·
Bech-Olsen
·
Belli
·
Benneweis
·
Blumenfeld
·
Bruun
·
Daniels
·
Daucke
·
Dubsky
·
Enoch
·
Gautier
·
Goldkette
(Bronett)
·
Hertzberg
·
Hoffmann
·
Houcke
·
Kronberg
·
Lott
·
Meggele
·
Miehe
·
Mundeling
·
Moeller
·
Olschansky
·
Overgaard
·
Pless
·
Price
·
Reinsch
·
Renard
·
Rosenhagen
·
Sambleben
·
Schenstroem
·
Abe
Schmidt
·
Schmidt
brothers
·
Schmücker
·
Schultz
·
Schumann
·
Steckel
·
Winter
Most
of the families have their roots in Germany.
Most of the genealogical tables go back to about 1800 (some a tables a bit earlier, some a
bit later). The book is published in hardback and has 364 pages and many interesting
photos. Price for the book delivered to you address free of postage (Europe
only) is 69 Euro. The book can be ordered from the publisher Wisby and Wilkens by sending
an email til wisby@mail.dk. Then you will receive a
mail with payment instructions. Orders to be sent outside Europe:
mail the publisher and ask for a price.
8
October 2004
School
children in Denmark
have autumn holiday from 11 to 16 October. Due to this several Danish shopping malls
presents circus performances as free attraction. In the Rosengaard Shopping Mall in Odense
you can meet Circus Kenny which is owned by
Haddy Enoch who also owns Circus Dannebrog. Among the performers are di Lello clowns who
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 and the clown Gulio. In the Elsinore City centre you can
meet Benny Schumanns mini circus with the
clown and multi-artist Benny Schumann, the ponies Laban, Musti and Shadow and Bennys
groom Brian Briano Behrendt. At the shopping mall in Kolding
Circus Arena presents a performance with
Pierrot, the arial acrobat Miss Tina, the roller skate acrobats Duo Rollelsls`, a juggler
and some performing animals. The small Danish Circus
Krone will during the autumn holidays visit a number of cities in Jutland.
In Esbjerg
the Danish comical cascadeur Freddi Steckel
performs assisted by Line Vittrup and Lucy and Patrick Berdino (respectively circus owner
Benny Berdino's daugter in law and grandson). And on 15 October a performce presented by Circus Baldoni can be seen at the Naestved
Shopping Mall.
The
di Lello clowns can been seen at Circus Kenny in Odense's
Rosengaard Shopping Mall
3
October 2004
Rumours
say that the German family circus Renz-Berlin
will visit Zealand
in 2005. From June to September this year Circus Renz-Berlin have toured Jutland
and the Funen
Island
however without attracting much audience. Often only about 50 people came to their
performances. But they may believe that things would have been even worse if they have
stayed in Germany.
2
October 2004
News from ECA (European Circus Association). ECA
board has decided to organise a number of regional meetings for members. The board wishes
to discuss with the members about strategies to be carried out and bottlenecks of members
at work. The next regional ECA meeting will be held in WIESBADEN
(Germany)
on 6
November 2004
at 10:00
AM
in the extra tent at the festival field. This meeting is organised in co-operation with
the organisation of the European Youth Circus.
PROGRAMME:
10:00
hours: Talks with the ECA board and the members. ECA
wish to talk about the bottlenecks at their members work and what the ECA can do.
The
following meeting is open for all persons involved in the circus. Theme of the day is The
youth in the circus
11:30
hours How do we get the youth back in the circus?
The
Gasser family
(Circus Starlight Switzerland)
relates about the strategy they followed with their circus to become more attractive to
the youth. xperiences of others can also be given and subsequent discussion about
possibilities.
12:30
hours Lunch
13:30
hours Education to circus children
Wouter
Tuyn
is manager of the Stichting de Rijdende school (Moving School Foundation) in The
Netherlands. His organisation caters for education to circus and funfair children in The
Netherlands. He is also involved in initiatives to place this work in a European context.
Anette
Schwer
will talk about the situation in Germany
as representative of the organisation Schule für Circuskinder (Schools for Circus
children) in North-Rheinland-Westphalia. Birgid
Oertel head of the department for education to children from the professionally
travelling population, of the Hessisches Kultusministerium ,will talk about actions to get
the subject education to professionally travelling population in an European
context. Which experiences do the circus people have themselves and what would they like
to change. An exchange of ideas.
15:00
hours Coffee / tea break
15:30
hours Training of circus artist
Philippe
Haenen
is chairman of FEDEC the organisation of professional circus schools. He is also
manager of the ESAC ( École Supérieure des Arts du Cirque) in Brussels.
He will talk about European activities of FEDEC. Those present will have every opportunity
to put forward their thoughts and wishes about the professional training of circus
artists.
16:30
hours Conclusion
The
Wiesbaden
festival organisation gives free tickets for the gala night or the Friday night shows to
ECA members.
1 October 2004
News
from the Circusmuseum at Hvidovre, Copenhagen.
On Friday the 1 October the Circusmuseum opened a new exhibition with the title: Aase Tribini the Sorcerers Apprentice. The
focus of the exhibition is Aase Tribini's exiting life as a child artist. Her father was
the well-known Danish entertainer by the name of "professor" Tribini. He taught
her tricks throughout her childhood and the exhibition contains pictures with Aase and her
father and different props used in her acts. Aase has her debut in her father's variety
theatre in 1949 when she was 3 years old. She stopped as an artist when she was 21 and has
since worked as a dentist's assistant.
Aase
Tribini in front of some of her props and a photo of herself wearing a top hat
29
September 2004
Theft
and magi in Aalborg...!
On 18 November Aalborg
Congress and Culture Centre will present their annual winter show this year presenting the
Danish world class gentleman thief KENNY QUINN and
his partner Joan. Furthermore Kenny will present the magic entrée he took over from
the late Viggo Jahn ("the man with the black gloves") with a stick and stick
knobs. The wintershow can be seen until 11
December 2004.
After Aalborg Kenny and Joan hurries to Germany
where they have been engaged for Circus Probst wintercircus in Gelsenkirchen.
This engagement will end in the beginning of January 2005.
Kenny
Quinn presenting Viggo Jahn's entrée
26
September 2004
Human Cannonball at the GunPowder Cafe. A little
less than 100 persons had Sunday afternoon found their way to the GunPowder Cafe at the
western rampart in Hvidovre, Copenhagen.
The met as a free attraction the popular Danish clown Bonbon (Lasse Norager) who assisted by his wife
Tiina presented his comic human cannonball entrée. Quite appropriate for the GunPowder
Cafe which is established in a former powder magazine. After the performance Bonbon told
me that he on 27 September would leave for Greenland
where he takes part in Circus Arenas performance at Greenland.
December and January will find Bonbon and Tiina with Circus Krone in Kronenbau in Munich,
Germany.
Human
Canon Ball Bonbon and Mrs. Tiina
26
September 2004
As
the latest of the larger Danish circus Circus
Dannebrog closed their season on 25 September in Vamdrup, close to the winter quarter
in Hejls. As earlier mentioned on this page Miller
Benneweis joined Circus Dannebrog in early June. Miller stayed with the show for the
rest of the season. As an experienced horsetrainer he managed to improve the quality of
Circus Dannebrog's liberty horse act which by the end of the season was presented by
Miller together with Katja Enoch and 10 years old Victoria Enoch (daughter to press agent
Agnete Louise Enoch). It would be great if Miller and circus owner Haddy Enoch could agree
also to have Miller training and presenting the Dannebrog horses in 2005.
Miller
Benneweis with Circus Dannebrog's horses. Photo taken in Copenhagen
on 11
September 2004.
24 September
2004
Circus Arena's 50 years anniversary. In 2005
Circus Arena can celebrate its 50 years anniversary. 2 popular Danish singers and
entertainers will present the 2005 program: Soes
Fenger and Dario Campeotto. Performing
circus artist will be Suzanne Berdino
presenting 12 Arab horses in a liberty act, the 3
Rivelinos clowns and Alexia and Marylou
Casselly plus Suzanne, Charmaine and Stephanie
Berdino riding high school. The 4 daredevils Diorio`s from Brazil toured with Circus Arena in
2002 driving motorcycles in their globe of death. But the globe they will use in 2005 does
open under their ride! The Danish/Finnish clown
duo Bonbon & Tiina will present their
unique Badminton Comedy Act. Russian Truppe
Puzanovi will present a skipping act and the springboard acrobatic act for which they
was awarded a Golden Clown in Monte
Carlo
in 2003. The five persons from Truppe Flying
are bungee-aerial acrobats. Furthermore in the program will be Mexican juggler Juan Pablo Martinez, Rene & Alexia Casselly with
4 African elephants and 3 andalusian horses and Rosi
Hochegger with her comedy dogs. She was also with Circus Arena in 1995 and 1998.
Opening day will be in Copenhagen
on 22 March. After Copenhagen Circus Arena will visit 109 cities in Denmark.
21
September 2004
Adi
and Benny.
In July a documentary film was produced regarding the co-operation and friendship between
the Danish clown and multi-artist Benny Schumann and Austrian painter Adi Holzer. The film
can bee seen at the Danish TV station Chanel Copenhagen on 25 September at 18.30 and
repeated the day after at 21.
20
September 2004
Freddi
and his partners.
"Season is almost over. We have given about 200 performances in 122 cities and have
driven a little more than 4,000 kilometre in tiny Denmark",
Danish comical cascadeur Freddi Steckel writes. Freddi has spent the summer season with
Circus Dannebrog. "I have enjoyed the season and it have been great fun to be back
again in Denmark,"
Freddi continues. In the coming months he has a lot of jobs with different partners. In
Circus Dannebrog his partner has been Isabella Enoch. And Isabella will join Freddi when
he in November goes to Japan
to perform at a festival for 2 weeks. Before Japan Freddi goes to Greenland
with Circus Arena. At Greenland
his partner will be Zora Nikodemova. After Greenland
but before Japan
he will tour with a theatre performance for children with Line Vittrup as partner. Both
Line and Zora have performed as partners with Freddi several times before. From Japan
Freddi will take a direct flight for Barcelona,
Spain,
where he assisted by Zora has a job at a clown festival. After that festival he will make
a short visit to Copenhagen
before he in December together with Zora is going to Gala in Tours
in France.
'
Freddi
Steckel performing with Line Vittrup (photo Roger Malmer)
Freddi
Steckel performing with Zora Nikodemova (photo Ole Simonsen)
Freddi
Steckel performing with Isabella Enoch (photo Ole Simonsen)
19
September 2004
Valentino
Rivel passed away.
Benny Schumann has told me that his uncle the Spanish acrobat Valentino Rivel after long
time sickness died in Portugal on 5 September 78 years of age. Valentino was the youngest
of Charlie Rivel's and his wife Carmen's four children. For many years he performed
together with his brothers Charlie JR. and Juanito as The Charlivels. Charlie JR, today 80
year old, is still alive and running a dancing academy. The two other brothers have passed
away.
Charlivels
- seen from left Charlie JR., Valentino and Juanito (Benny Schumann's collection)
12
September 2004
Circus
Benneweis. "You did the hell of a good job",
circus owner Diana Benneweis said by the end of
this years last performance to the 12 artist who since opening day in Hilleroed on 7 April
has performed in Circus Benneweis. When Diana in April 2005 will open Circus Benneweis'
2005 season it will be in a brand new tent: a 4 pole Cannobio tent with a diameter of 36
meter and a seating capacity somewhere between 1,200 and 1,400. The tent is slightly
smaller than the old Benneweis tent. It is of the same size as the tents used by Circus
Roncalli in Germany
and Circus Maximum in Sweden.
The reprise clown Francesco is reengaged for
season 2005. Among the other performers will be Martyn
Chabri (daughter to the clown Toto Chabri and his wife Nora). Martyn was last time at
Benneweis in 1998 with her musical quick-change act.
12
September 2004
Circus
Arena ended
their 2004 season with an almost sold out performance in Lyngby on 12 September. The
season has been the best ever for Circus Arena. Next year Circus Arena can celebrate its
50 years anniversary. The program for the 2005 season will be released on 23 September.
Opening day for the 2005 performance will be on 22
March 2005
in Copenhagen.
As former years Circus Arena will late September/early October present an indoor
non-animal performance in several towns on Greenland.
Among the performers will be Martin,
Bettina and Alexander Arli,
The
Steckel's
(Freddi Steckel and Zora Nikodemova) with their comical casceadeur act and the clown Bonbon.
The Steckel's
12
September 2004
As
mentioned 10 September a lot of foreign cirkusfans visited Copenhagen
11 and 12
September 2004.
On the photo below you can se Olaf Werner and
his group of 33 circusfreaks from Germany,
Holland
and Switzerland.
The photo was taken in Circus Dannebrog 11 September. Also artistically director Urs Pilz
from the Circus Festival in Monte
Carlo
was in Copenhagen
on 11 September and visited Circus Dannebrog as well as Circus Benneweis.
Olaf
Werner's Cirkusreisen had their first circus trip ever to Denmark.
Olaf Werner can been seen as number three from left (behind elephant trainer Bernhard
Casselly). Olaf Werner has earlier arranged circus trips to various countries in Europe.
On
12 September Olaf Wernes group and a group of Swedish circusfriends visited the Circus
Museum
at Hvidovre, Copenhagen.
The museum is the largest circus museum in the Nordic countries and have more than 110,000
items in the collections (however not all of them at display!). Jens Frobenius of the Barly Associations (friends
of the circus museum) gave the visitors a guided tour through the museum. And the visitors
was delighted to meet former Benneweis press agent and ringmistress Nelly Jane Benneweis, for many years know as
lady of the ring.
Nelly
Jane at the Circus
Museum
standing next to a live-size Photostat of herself
10
September 2004
Foreign
circusfans in Copenhagen.
Olaf
Werners Circusreisen from Oldendorf in Germany
will visit Copenhagen
from 10 to 12 September with at group of 34 circusfans from Germany,
Holland
and Switzerland.
On 10 September they will visit Circus Benneweis. On 11 September Circus Dannebrog. 12
September in the morning they will visit the Circusmuseum at Hvidovre, Copenhagen.
And in the evening they will visit Circus Arena. They will also find time for a visit to
the Tivoli
Gardens
with acrobat performances at the open-air stage. - Also a group from the Swedish
Circus
Academy
will visit Copenhagen
during the weekend. On 11 September they will visit fist Circus Dannebrog and then Circus
Benneweis. 2 September in the morning they plan a visit to the Circusmuseum at Hvidovre, Copenhagen.
And in the evening they will visit Circus Arena.
9
September 2004
Circus
Charlie.
On 2 September I wrote that Danish Circus Charlie would have its final stand on 11
September. It was a mistake. Einar Trie and his circus can bee seen in the northern part
of Jutland
at least until 22 September. You can find route etc. in What's on (Circus Routes in Denmark)
The
clown and circusowner Einar "Charlie" Trie
6
September 2004
Nelly Jane Benneweis retires. On 2
April 1971
Nelly Jane had her début as ringmistress at Circus Benneweis. 1974 saw Nelly Jane back at
Circus Benneweis where circus owner Eli Benneweis asked Nelly not only to be ringmistress
but also to be press agent and be responsible for tour planing, public permits etc. Nelly
Jane was ringmistress at Circus Benneweis from 1974 to 1994. Most seasons she worked with
the tented how. But from 1969 to 1982 she presented the circus performance in the Copenhagen
Circus
Building,
which Eli Benneweis run from 1970 to 1990. She became an extremely popular ring mistress.
She continued as Circus Benneweis press agent until 2003. For season 2004 she has assisted
the present owner of circus Benneweis Diana Benneweis with a number of tasks including
route planing. But Nelly who celebrated her 70 years birthday on 15 June this year has
decided to retire when Circus Benneweis end their 2004 season on 12 September.
Nelly
Jane got the surname Benneweis when she on 9
April 1977
married the elephant trainer Sonny Benneweis. Two years later Sonny died by cancer (photo
by courtesy of Nelly Jane Benneweis).
5
September 2004
Benny
Schumann at the Circusmuseum at Hvidovre, Copenhagen.
The
clown and multiartist Benny
Schumann
will give a one-hour performance at the circus tent next to the museum on 14 and 15
September at 14.15. In the performance he will present some of his best acts and a pony
show with then ponies Laban, Musti, Shadow and Benny's groom Briano. Tickets can be
ordered at + 45 36 78 69 67.
Benny Schumann
with the pony Musti
2
September 2004
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. Among the Danish circuses Circus Arli
had its final stand for this season on 1 September. This year they visited 105 cities on Zealand.
Both Circus Benneweis and Circus Arena will close their season on 12. Circus Charlie will tour until 11 September. Circus Krone will end their summer season on 17
September. Circus Dannebrog will have their
final stand on 25 September. Circus Baldoni will
close their season on 26 September. Circus Mascots final
stand for 2004 is by the end of September. Circus
Arena will visit Greenland
late September/early October and furthermore present a winter circus in February 2005 in
some sports centres etc. Also Circus Krone and Circus Mascot is active during the winter season
with performance in shopping malls etc. René
Marvin from Circus Baldoni in touring with indoor performances during the winter
season. Also the Arli family is active during
the winter season. -
The 2004-season seems to have been fairly good for most Danish circuses with the number of
visitors being somewhat higher than in 2003.
The
clown Martin Arli has closed his season 2004 in his fathers tiny Circus Arli. But in Greenland
he can be seen later in the month when Circus Arena visits Greenland
(indoor performances only - it's mighty cold up there!)
1
September 2004
No
acrobats at the open air stage in Tivoli
in 2005. Next
year is the 200-year of H. C. Andersen's birth and Copenhagen's
famous Tivoli
Gardens
is celebrating that with a show, greater than ever before. Five-meter tall dolls will
float in the air from at scene by the fountains before the concert hall via a podium and
end up at the big open-air stage. Everything accompanied by new fantastic music, light and
glitter. 10 fairytales will be shown including »The little mermaid« and »The ugly
duckling«. The man behind the parade, which has been named »A Tivoli Fairytale«, is
Gary Paben. Gary Paben is also known as the man who created the Disney Millennium Parade
and the opening and closing-ceremonies of the Olympic Wintergames in Salt Lake 2002. For
decades Tivoli
has at their Open Air Stage presented some first
class acrobats as free attractions. Unfortunately Tivoli
has decided to abolish this presentation in 2005. Thus, you can in 2005 see mechanical
dolls in stead of life performers. So better hurry up if you want to see acrobats at the
open-air stage in Tivoli.
The remaining part of the 2004-season, which will close on 19 September, you can meet Ukrainian
juggler Ruslan Fomenko and the Canadian new wave partner equilibristic act Symbiose
Until
19 September you can in the Tivoli
Gardens
meet Symbiose (photo) and the juggler Ruslan Fomenko. In 2005 the artist will be replaces
by a parade with mechanical dolls.
29
August 2004
As
usual some circus performers have been engaged for an autumn show from 20 September to 11
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. From 1978 to 1980 Freddy Anthony toured
with Danish Circus M. Schumann. Season 2000 he spent with Circus Arli. The juggler Lynn
Carol (Line Carol) is the oldest daughter of the 73-year old Belgium
clown Toto Chabri and his wife Nora. Lyne 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. She was engaged to Rode Kro in 2003 but had to cancel her
contract because she was pregnant. But now she has got her child and is ready to start
juggling again. 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.
27
August 2004
Tivoli
Variety 2005.
Danish comedian Soren Ostergaard had success
this summer with a show in Tivoli
called Tivoli Variety 2004. He will be back again next year with Tivoli Variety 2005 which
according to the press release will present some top comedians and artist from all over
the world.
Soren
Ostergaard with his broken ventriloquist doll.
24
August 2004
The
2004 Aarhus Festival
will take place between the 27th of August and the 5th of September. This year´s theme is
'From Aros with Eros' (Aros is
the old Norse name for the city of Aarhus).
In
2004 the Aarhus Festival is able to celebrate its 40th anniversary.
Four
of the events presented at the festival are circus related. Spanish Circo Imperfecto is a trio of circus acrobats
presenting a 1-hour performance in new wave style. Compagnie
CirkologioM has only one performer in their 30 minutes performance: a clown performing
with diabolo juggling etc. Circus Imperfecto as well as Compagnie CirkologioM can free of
charge be seen daily in the daytime from 28 August to 4 September.
The
Hall of mirrors or Palais de Glaces stages a cabaret show called Lamour de Paris.
A chorus line of 8 dancers will together with a french singer and the Russian acrobat Rustam, the German develstick juggler Andy Gebhardt, the Danish gentleman thief Kenny Quinn and the comedians Jigalov and Csaba (awarded with a silver clown at
the Monte Carlo Circus Festival in 2003) present a cabaret show. The show can be seen 26
August, 27 August, 30 August, 31 August, 1
September, 3 September and 4 September. The performance starts at 20:30.
Tout
Fou to Fly
is a French comtemporary circus company. Since 1993 they have produced a number of
spectacular touring circus performances. Orfeú is Tout Fou To Flys new circus opera
based on the ancient myth of Orfeus and Euridice the eternal lovers of Greek
mythology. Pierrot Bidon is the director of the performance, and Jean-Michel Poitreau is
the originator of the overall artistic concept and the choreography. The legend of Orfeus
and Euridice tells the story of Orfeus wanderings to find the entrance to Hades, the
kingdom of the dead, from where he is determined to free his beloved Euridice, who died
from a snakebite. With his pure heart and beautiful singing-voice he placates the gods,
tames the wild animals, arrests the fury of the elements. The deep feelings shared by the
two lovers move Cupid to reunite them and lead them back to the land of the living.
Following the libretto of Glucks classical opera, Orfeú takes place in an Italian
big top tent measuring 41 metres across. The audience is placed on a raised platform
between heaven and hell. From this elevated vantage point they may let themselves be
transported by the fascinating aerobatics of 14 bird-like creatures. Magically they
seem to defy the law of gravitation using techniques evolved in mountain climbing and
speleology. This performance
takes place in a big top tent accessed via the outdoor amphitheatre of the Concert Hall
Aarhus - Thurs. 2nd Sept. and Fri. 3rd Sept. at 7.30pm, Sat. 4th Sept. at 2pm and 10pm.
Duration: 70 min.
22
August 2004
Circusphotos.
We have often used photos by the photographer Lise Kokholm at this website. Lise have now
created her own website on http://www.cirkusfoto.dk/ to show you some of the
photo she take of Circuses and of different festivals around in Denmark.
18
August 2004
Nelly
Jane and José Michel.
When Nelly Jane Benneweis (former ringmistress and press agent for Danish Circus
Benneweis) on 8 August visited Swedish Circus Maximum she met the Spanish clown José
Michel. They exchanged memories about old days. The black and white photo below, which is
from Nelly Jane's collection, is from the Copenhagen
Circus
Building
and was taken in the autumn 1987 when Nelly Jane introduced the Michel clowns. José can
be seen to the left of Nelly Jane. José is the only of the clowns from 1987 who still is
a member of the clown trio. His brother performs today with his twin sons with the Risley
Act Rampin Brothers at Cirque du Soleil. At Circus Maximum it is circus owner Bengt
Källquist who introduced the Michel-clowns. The white-faced clown in the trio is today
José's wife Julia. The last member is José's partner Gigi.
José
Michel and Nelly Jane in the ring 1987
José
Michel and Nelly Jane 2004
20
August 2004
Albert
Schumann inducted into Circus Hall of Fame.
The famous horse trainer and circus owner Albert Schumann who passed away in 2001 was on 24
July 2004
inducted into Circus Hall of Fame in Peru,
Indiana,
USA
as a Circus Great. The men and women honoured in the Circus Hall of Fame are shown in blue
frames accompanied by a personal history. There are also artifacts, costumes, photographs
and lithographs of many of the circus greats. These frames are arranged in chronological
order. Actually Albert Schumann never performed in the USA
although he received several flattering offers from Ringling. But Circus Schumann's
performances in Denmark
and Sweden
was shown on television in the USA
making the Schumann family famous even outside Europe.
Two Danes have earlier been inducted into the Circus Hall of Fame: the animal trainer
Jorgen Christiansen in 1967 and Ernest Millette (flying trapeze) in 1968.
Albert
and Paulina Schumann riding high school in 1967. From Anders Enevig's collection.
17
August 2004
Circus Baldoni - Danish or German. Most Danish
circus friends know René Marvin Moenster's child-friendly Circus Baldoni. But even in Germany
there is a Circus Baldoni. It is owned by Anton (Tony) Kaiser and travels in Bavaria.
There is no connection between the two circuses. The likeness of names is a pure
coincidence.
16
August 2004
News
from Duo Aerius. Esben
of the talented Danish arial cradle Duo Aerius tell that they are having a wonderful time
performing at the Benidorm
Palace
at Costa Blanca in Spain
(14o kilometres south of Valencia).
Their engagement with Benidorm
Palace
runs into 23 October. And it is a big show: 35 dancers, a 8 piece band and up to 1,400
visitors and always almost full house. And Esben and Maja Aerius has s nice little
bungalow at their own. After Benidorm Duo Aeirus has engagements at German variety
theatres until august 2005. After that time they are open for offers.
Due
Aerius performing at Benidorm
Palace
(Photo: Peter Penders)
15
August 2004
The
international Clown Festival at Bakken, Copenhagen
was as previous years a huge success with a lot of visitors. And luckilly enough it was
nice weather the 11 days the festival performance could been seen at the open-air stage at
the amusement park Bakken. Favourite performer among the audience was 95 year old Konrad
Thur who together with his 58 year old son John-John for many year have been performing
with the comical tight wire act Thuranos. The artistically director of the festival Benny
Schumann has accepted also in 2005 to be in charge of the festival which then can
celebrate its 10 year anniversary. And there will be more to celebrate for Benny in 2004:
he can celebrate his 60-year birthday.
From
the Grand finale at Bakken's open-air stage. From left to right can be seen Benny
Schumann, Konstantin Mouraview, Koichiro Mori, John-John and Konrad Thur
("Thuranos"), Patricia Schumann, Pierrot, Briano and samt Toto Chabri & Co.
14
august 2004
Miller
Benneweis who
has not been active in a circus since he left Danish Circus Arena after the 2001-season
has since early June this year been working as horse trainer for Circus Dannebrog. In the
beginning he was just supposed to train he horse which were presented by circus owner
Haddy Enoch youngest daughter Katja Enoch and Haddy's granddaughter Victoria. But now
Miller goes into the ring together with Victoria and Katja. From 27 August Circus
Dannebrog with Miller and the horses and a lot of other nice acts can bee seen in Copenhagen.
9 August 2004
New
artist at the Open Air Stage in Copenhagen's
Tivoli
Gardens.
Until the end of the 2004 season on 19 September you can see Ukrainian juggler Ruslan Fomenko and the Canadian new wave partner
equilibristic act Symbiose. The actress and
singer Susanne Breuning present the performance. Tivolis
Big Band (a full size big band) accompanies the performance.
The
juggler Ruslan Fomenko and the equilibrists Symbiose
8
August 2004
At
the gala performance 8 August at 11
a.m.
in connection with the 9 International Clown
Festival at Bakken north of Copenhagen
you could meet several outstanding performers. Producer Benny Schumann and his daughter Patricia opened the show as Elvis and Dolly
Parton. Then Danish comedian Soren Ostergaard
entered the stage as the ventriloquist whose doll falls apart. Next act was Konstantin Mouraview in a fantastic comical act in
a German Wheel as the fat man who wants to get thinner. It was very well deserved that he
was honoured with the festival's talent prise The Golden Nose for his presentation. After
another run in with Soren Ostergaard we met Toto
Chabri & Co. with several of their popular entrees. Then Nelly Jane Benneweis introduced one of her and my
favourite clowns: Chicky (Eugen Altenburger).
Although Chicky retired by the end of January this year he had for a very last time
dressed up in his famous costume to be awarded with the festivals first price: The World
Artist and Clown Reward (often called the Charlie Rivel Award). A very well deserved
honour for the 76 year old clown who from 1957 to January this year worked in leading
circuses all over Europe including 11 seasons in Denmark and 4 seasons in Sweden. Paulina
Schumann (daughter of Charlie Rivel and Benny Schumann's mother) presented the price. Next
performer was Japanese Koichiro Mori with a
break dance entree. The last act in the performance was The Thuranos with 95 years old Konrad Thur and his
son. The audience awarded them with standing ovations.
And
what does a price winner do after having received the first price at a festival? He visits
a circus! Chicky's godson the juggler Serge
Percelly does this year tour with Swedish Circus Maximum who at the day of the gala
performance visited Malmo in the Southern part of Sweden less than one hours drive from
Copenhagen. Serge is the son of Chicky's partner Bruno and Bruno's wife Patricia who was
the female member of Chicky & Co. Together with Nelly Jane Benneweis Chicky visited
Sunday evening Circus Maximum where Serge and his wife and their two small daughters and
circus owner Bengt Källquist warmly welcomed them. Also other artist visited Circus
Maximum the same night: Danish comical cascadeur Freddi
Steckel who toured with Circus Maximum in 2003. This year Freddi is with Danish Circus
Dannebrog. And from French Circus Pinder the owner Edelstein's daughter and son in law saw
Circus Maximum's great performance.
The
famous clown Chicky
Eugen
"Chicky" Altenburger together with his godson Serge Percelly's dog
4
August 2004
Danish
and Swedish circusfans visiting German Circus Barum. 22
Danish and Swedish circusfreaks visited Circus Barum in Flensburg
in the northern part of Germany
(8 kilometre south of the border to Denmark)
on 3 August. They were very impressed by the excellent performance with animal act of a
quality, which you for the time being can't see in any Nordic country. As big cats acts
are neither allowed in Denmark
nor in Sweden
is was for several of the fans first time they saw a big cage act: 4 tigers and 4 lions (3
females and one male) presented in a most charming and talented way by English Alex Lacey.
All the fans certainly can recommend a visit to Circus Barum to everyone who likes to see
a great circus performance.
Among
the many performing animals in Circus Barum is the rhino Tsavo. As the horses, zebras,
lamas and camels it is presented by Sandro Montez. Photos: Lise Kokholm.
1
August 2004
Viggo Jahn - the man with the black gloves. On 26
July I mentioned that the Danish magician Viggo Jahn passed away on 20
July 2004.
Viggo Jahn was born in 1907. He started his carrier as professional magician in 1942. He
became internationally known when he won the grand prix at a congress for magicians in Amsterdam
in 1949. From 1952-1962 he performed at leading hotels in USA
and Canada.
Three times he performed in Ed Sullivan's TV-shows. When performing he was often assisted
by his wife Gudrun sometimes using the names Chapo and Barette. After Gudrun died Viggo
left America
and went back to Denmark.
In the following years he performed in variety theatres, cabarets, circuses etc in Denmark,
Norway,
Sweden,
Japan,
India,
Hong
Kong,
Taiwan,
Holland
and Switzerland.
He retired as a magician in 1992 when he was 85 year old. In 1999 he saw the Danish
gentleman thief Kenny Quinn in Danish Circus Arena and decided to let Kenny take over his
most well-known trick with a stick and stick knobs. Kenny uses this trick as introduction
to his pick pocket act.
Viggo
Jahn (photos from Kenny Quinn's archives)
31
July 2004
Benny
Schumann at Roskilde.
It is a tradition that the Danish clown and multiartist Benny Schumann together with a
couple of other artists performs at the open-air stage at the Peoples
Garden
in Roskilde
in the end of July. This year the performance took place on 29 July. Approximately 2000
persons many of them children from kindergartens were delighted by the one-hour
performance presented by Benny Schumann and his guest artist Sorensen and Palle (Mogens
"Mugge" Petersen and Palle "Mr. Toons" Bay Henriksen).
28
July 2004
The
Copenhagen
circus lot Bellahoj.
The owner of the lot the Copenhagen
city council has now completed the renovation and draining of the lot. Danish tented
circuses have used the lot during their visit to Copenhagen
at least since 1951. The lot has for several years been a muddy lot in a rather miserable
condition. But after the renovation it will provide the visiting circuses with fine
facilities. First circus to use the renovated lot will be Circus Benneweis, which this
year will be at Bellahoj from 2 to 12 September.
The
newly renovated circus lot at Bellahoj. Entrance for the audience is at the path through
the grove.
26
July 2004
Viggo Jahn passed away. The Danish magician Viggo Jahn passed away on
20
July 2004.
After having won world championship in magic in 1949 Viggo Jahn performed over most of the
world, including 10 years in USA.
He retired as magician about 20 years ago.
25
July 2004
Circus
at Bonbon-land.
The Danish amusement park Bonbon-land at Holme-Olstrup has as previous years from mid June
to mid August as free attraction a 50 minute long circus performances. All performers are
from the 2004 production of the Swedish Circus Skratt. By tradition, Circus Skratt does
not tour from mid June to mid August. The performance in Bonbon-land is presented in the
big top which Benny Berdino of Danish Circus Arena earlier this year bought from Austrian
Circus Elfi Althoff-Jacobi. The clown Lars Larna
acts as ringmaster. First act is a nice hula-hoop act performed by Ljuba Gorbotsjova. Then comes a run in by the
clowns Yuri & Leon. Next act is liberty
horses presented by the Casselly-family. The
youngest member of the family, 8 years old René JR, rides on a rearing horse. Then comes
another run in by Yuri & Leon showing how to make rola-bola on a human pad. Yuri &
Leon are followed by 13 year old Marilou Casselly
in at brand new contortion routine. Very impressive but hardly healthy for her back. Then
the clown Mr. Chap invites six gentlemen from
the audience into the ring using four of them as the corners of a boxing ring and boxing
in slow-motion with the fifth gentleman while the last person takes care of the gong. Last
act in the performance is the Caselly's with their four African elephants Mambo, Tanga,
Kimba and Nanda. All in all a very nice performance.
Circus
Bonbon
Bonbon-land
also offers performing sealions as free attraction. The Danish trainer Addie Jepsen
presents two sealions. They perform both on a stage and in a pool. Two additional sealions
are being trained. The sealions belongs to Benny Berdino of Circus Arena but are trained
by Addie Jepsen. Benny plans to present performing sealions at his winterquarter in
Slagelse. Nelly Jane and Addie met first time in 1972 when Nelly Jane was ringmaster in
Swedish Circus Scott and Addie presented sealions trained by Vivi Schmidt at Circus
Scott's performance. It goes without saying that Nelly and Addie should exchange old
memories when Nelly Jane visited Bonbonland.
23
July 2004
Festival
meeting of Danish Youth Circuses. The
seventh Danish Youth Circus Festival will be held on 20 to 22 august in Odense
hosted by Circus Flik-Flak. 250 youthful performers, educators and coaches will attend and
workshops will be conducted. On 21 August from 13 to 17 everyone if welcome to see the
young performers performing non stop in 5 circus tents. Further information from Tommy
Hardam at phone + 45 66 11 48 83.
From
an earlier youth circus festival. Photo by courtesy of Tommy Hardam/Circus Flik-Flak
23
July 2004
9 International Clown Festival at Bakken (Denmark's
oldest amusement park, 8 miles north of Copenhagen).
The final programme for this year's festival, which will take place from 5 to 15 August,
is now ready. Festival producer and artistic director Benny Schumann has for the festival engaged the
following artists:
The
Thuranos (including 94 year old Konrad Thur who in 1999 received the Charlie Rivel Price),
Toto Chabri & Co. (Toto Chabri was awarded the Charlie Rivel Price in 2001), the
Japanese electric boogie master Koichiro Mori, Konstantin Rhörad, Patricia Schumann,
Marie V. Jacobsen, Bakken's Pierrot, the orchestra Jollyday and Briano and the pony Musti.
There are daily performances at 15:30
and 19:30
at the open-air stage. A special gala performance will be held Sunday 8 August at 11 with
additional star clowns. Among those popular Danish comedian Soren Ostergaard and the
famous Swiss clown Chicky who will be honoured with The World Artist and Clown Award (The
Charlie Rivel Price). Chicky retired by the end of January this year but he has promised
Benny Schumann to turn up in his famous dress and to present a short musical entrée.
Benny
Schumann and the pony Musti is among the performers at this years clown festival at
Bakkenb.
20
July 2004
The
Danish crown prince couple and Benny Schumann.
On Tuesday 27 July Benny Schumann and Swedish Ludvika Young Stars will give a special
performance at the harbour in Aalborg
in connection with The Tall Ships race 2004. The Danish crown prince Frederik and his wife
crown princess Mary will se part of the show. Furthermore Benny Schumann tells that Danish
TV is producing a documentary on Benny Schumann and his co-operation and friendship with
Austrian painter Adi Holzer.
18
July 2004
Frankello's
elephants.
As in many other countries discussions regarding use of animals in circuses have been
pending in Denmark.
Big cat acts has been forbidden since 1962. An advisory committee to the ministry of
Justice proposed last autumn not any longer to permit elephant and sealion acts in Danish
circuses. However the ministry of Justice felt that very strong arguments was needed
before she would issue a prohibition against elephants and sealions in circuses. And at
least for this season Circus Arena, Circus Benneweis, Circus Dannebrog and German Circus
Renz-Berlin (for the time being on tour in Denmark; however audience for an in Denmark
unknown German family circus seems to be rather limited) has got permission to present
elephants in their circuses. A very popular elephant trainer is in Denmark
is German Sonny Frankello (39 years old). His
first year with a Danish circus was with Circus Dannebrog in 1981 where he presented a
single elephant in an act called Tarzan and Sahib. Since then he has been in Denmark
in the Copenhagen
Circus
Building
in 1988, in Circus Dannebrog in 1993, in Circus Benneweis from 1996 to 1998, in Tivoli
Gardens
in 1999 and with Circus Arena in 2002, 2003 and 2004. This year three of Sonny's elephants
takes part of the performance: Timba (24), Mala (19) and Kenia (16) all of them females.
Furthermore Sonny Frankello owns two more elephants: the bull Sahieb (25) and the
25-year-old female Sandra which Sonny Frankello bought earlier this year from Swiss Circus
Pajazzo. Sahieb and Sandra are at Sonny Frankello's winterquarter at Platschow in Germany
together with Sonny's wife Lillian Kröplin. During his stay in June with Circus Arena the
young Danish circusfan Stefan Rothmann took a number of photos of Sonny Frankello and his
elephants.
Frankello's
elephants (photo: Stefan Rothmann)
14
July 2004
Wet
cabaret at the terrace.
14 July at 20:30
was opening night for the show Untamed cabaret at
the terrace at the terrace outside Culture
Housea at Islands Brygge, Copenhagen.
This summer has so far been very rainy in Denmark.
However, on 14 July there was no rain until in the evening a shortly before the
performance began. A sign on the stage mentioned that it was a show
created by 30 young artist during 4 rainy days. And the opening night was rainy as well.
But the young performers, many of them newly graduated from the 1 year Danish Circus
School AFUK did not want do disappoint the approximately 100 people who despite the rain
turned up to see their outdoor show. The show lasted for one hour and we saw acts in arial
straps, tissue, swing trapeze and on slack wire. Traditional acrobatic acts were due to
the very wet stage difficult to present. Producers were Rasmus
Aitouganov
and Josephine Wulff Randrup of Duo Pelmeni. A
very nice initiative with such show. And a pity that the weather wasn't more favourable to
the young artists.
Photos
from Untamed Cabaret 14
July 2004
11July
2004
The film about Agnete Louise Enoch. The author,
circusfan and filmmaker Jorgen Lorenzen are proceeding with his film about Agnete Louise
Enoch. Shooting started in May and the last scenes were taken 8 to 10 July in connection
with Circus Dannebrog's visit to Blokhus and Aalborg.
Jorgen is happy with the result. Now remains "only" the heavy tasks with cutting
the movie. The film lasting between 30 and 40 minutes should hopefully be ready before
Christmas. The film will tell the story of the life of Agnete Enoch. She is the oldest
daughter of Haddy and Solveig Enoch who established the present Circus Dannebrog in 1977.
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 press agent
for Circus Dannebrog.
Jorgen
Lorenzen and his star Agnete Louise Enoch
11
July 2004
Katja Schumann leaves Big Apple Circus. When the
Danish Circus M Schumann stopped after season 1982 the owner Max and Vivi Schumann's
daughter Katja left for USA.
She had been with New
York's
famous Big Apple Circus in the winterseason 1981/82 with the stallion Dabo rented from
Swiss Circus Knie. From the winter season 1982 and until spring 2004 Katja Schumann was a
permanent member of the Big Apple company presenting horses (liberty horses as well as
high school riding and riding acts as the Courier) as only a member of the famous Schumann
family can do it. English cirusfriend Terry Willard visited Big Apple Circus on 13
March 2004
and describes Katja's act like this in the June issue of the English Circus Magazine King
Pole: "Katja Schumann is next with yet another brand new routine. Three white horses
with beautiful radiant blue plumes enter in turn and perform at liberty. Similarly plumed
Shetlands then enter and finally, two Arabians perform intricate manoeuvres between
arches. Another classic performance." The later years Max and Vivi Schumann spent a
good part of the year with their daughter in USA
and Max Schumann was amongst the performers in several seasons together with Katja's two
children Katherine Schumann Binder and Max Schumann Binder. When Big Apple Circus in
September opens their 2004/2005 season, with
their new performance called
Picturesque English Yasmine Smart will present liberty horses and Katja will not any
longer be a member of the Big Apple company.
11
July 2004
"The
rainy summer has some consequences," René Marvin Moenster writes on the website of
his Circus Baldoni. The bad weather destroyed many of his posters
(Danish circuses ordinary reuses the posters). Thus he has changed the design and bought
plastic posters, which can sustain all sort of weather. And the rainy summer has improved
the number of visitors to his circus. A visit to a circus is even for a person not being a
circus freaks a very nice entertainment when you have stayed some weeks in a summerhouse
while the rain is pouring down. Also other
circuses seems fairly happy with the sizes of the audience.
10
July 2004
Summer holiday at Circus Arena. A young Danish
circus fan Stefan Rothmann spent his summer holiday in June with Circus Arena, which for
the time being is the largest circus in the Nordic countries. Stefan who works for the
Danish railways found it very interesting to travel with a touring circus and be part of
the daily life. He took a number of photos during his stay with Arena. I will in the
coming weeks show a number of these photos. The photos below was taken at a gala
performance in Mogeltonder on 24 June in aid of a foundation for children with cancer
Circus
owner Benny Berdino, HRH princess Alexandra, HRH Prince Joakim and Benny's son Jackie
Berdino entering the circus tent
Benny
Berdino present HRH princess Alexandra with a cheque of 30,000 Euro to the foundation for
children with cancer.
9
July 2004
Danish
new-wave acrobats in Copenhagen. "Untamed cabaret at the terrace" is
the tittle of a performance produced by the Danish Circus School AFUK and InnerCirq
(an association of new wave artists). You can see the show free of charge every evening at
20:30
from Wednesday 14 July to Saturday 17 July at the Culture House, Islands Brygge 18, 2300 Copenhagen.
AFUK and InnerCirq do also offer "Circus
workshop at the terrace" from
Thursday 15
July to Saturday 17 July, each day from 14 to 16. Her you can be taught acrobatics and
fair entertainment. Also this is absolutely free of charge.
7.
July 2004
Swedish
Circus Bronett postponed until spring 2005.
Season 2003 was very bad for Swedish Circus Scott.
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 used to have between 200,000
and 250,000 visitors. In 2003 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. And it forced the owners of Circus Scott
Bronett Bros. Event Ltd. (owned by Henry and Robert Bronett) to enter under an
administration order. Since then Robert Bronett
has toured with a horse show Levade Noble Horse
Gala and for Italian TV produced Circo
Massimo in Rome.
His elder brother Henry Bronett announced in
April that he would start a new circus under the name Circus Bronett with at season
starting autumn 2004. However Henry has now reconsidered the matter and has decided not to
start his new circus until spring 2005.
Henry
Bronett
5
July 2004
Circus
websites with possibility for ticket ordering. 3
of the Danish circuses offer you then possibility to order ticket at their webpages. Circus Benneweis offer you the possibility to
order ticket until 5 days before the performance. Tickets are delivered by ordinary mail.
Unfortunately for non-Danes you have to pay when ordering and payment can only be done if
you have a Danish Credit Card. At Circus Dannebrog
you can decide yourself if you want to pay when ordering (you can apart from Danish Credit
Cards use a VISA-card) or wait with payment until you pick up your tickets. Tickets can be
ordered until 11
a.m.
at the performance day. Tickets have to be picked up not later than 15 minutes before the
performance. Circus Baldoni offer you the
possibility for reserving tickets at the terrace. Payment when you pick up your tickets
not later than 15 minutes before the performance.
5
July 2004
Kenny
Quinn. "Greeting
from Copenhagen
where we have spent the last month after 5 months at variety theatres in Germany,"
the Danish world class gentleman thief Kenny Quinn writes. Together with his wife and
partner Joan he will perform at the Aarhus Festival from 23 August to 4 September. In
November and December 2004 they will perform at revue in the Aalborg Congress Centre. The
late Danish pickpocket artist Gentleman Jack (Tommy Iversen) trained Kenny Quinn. 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 spectacular, high class pickpocket act is at true showstopper!
The
Gentleman Thief Kenny Quinn (photo by courtesy of Kenny Quinn)
3 Juli 2004
Clown Festival
at Svendborg. A
lot of clowns met at the clown festival in Svendborg from 13 to 16 May. The photos below
are taken by the photographer Lise Kokholm
English
clown Leyo; English clown Jolly Jingles and Dutch clown Antonio.
The
English clown Fuzzi and the clown Jo Jo alias John Newman who is the organiser of the
festival.
1 July 2004
New-wave
circus in Odense.
Not
only Copenhagen
and Aarhus
but also Odense
(the third largest city in Denmark)
can this year present a new wave circus performance. From 7 to 9 July the troupe
Fan-atticks can be seen at Munke Mose each day at 20. Fan-atticks is an international New
Circus Company which was founded in October 2003 by students of Circus Cirkör´s
education Cirkuspiloterna. They are based in Stockholm
and supported by CIRKÖR EXPERIMENT. Their current show is called "Lost &
Found" and had its successful premiere in Kulturhuset Stockholm (Kilen) this April.
They describe the story like this: "The scene is set in an old attic full of boxes,
empty birdcages, furniture, old toys and long lost and forgotten memories.
Everything is covered in a thick layer of dust. There the story takes place as an
interaction between the different characters nesting in the attic. The nesters
represent memories of the past as they unfold the stories that the old boxes and items
contain. Unreeling childhood memories and dark secrets of the past. . ". Members of
the troupe is 24 year old Frederik Iversen from
Denmark, 24 year old Lena Köhn from Germany,
24 year old Rune Andersen from Denmark, 23 year
old Gry Lambertsen from Denmark and 25 year old
Anja Zuber from Switzerland. After Odense
Fan-atticks can be seen at Stockholm's
Pride Festival from 28 July to 1. August and t the Malmö festival on 14 August.
27
June 2004
Dawid Benneweis to Circus Knie. Circus owner Diana
Benneweis 17-year-old son Dawid will from late July and until December be trainee at
Circus Knie in Switzerland. Circus Knie is among the leading circuses of the world. Circus
Knie will end their season 5 December in Lugano. Dawid is very interested in circus. His
twin sister Nadia will after the summer holiday start at commercial school. She does not
share her brother's love for circus. But it is said that she as many other young girls
would love to have her very own saddle horse.
26
June 2004
Royal
command performance.
"The Prince and his family were in circus", press agent Christian Warrer from
Circus Arena writes. When Circus Arena on 24 June visited Mogeltonder in the southern part
of Jutland
the income from the ticket box DKK 215,120 (approximately 30,000 Euro) was donated to a
foundation for children with cancer. Queen Margrethe's youngest son Prince Joakim, his
wife princess Alexandra and the couples two sons prince Nikolai and prince Felix was
among the audience. Princess Alexandra is patroness of the foundation for children with
cancer. Circus Arenas visit to Mogeltonder where the circus lot is next to the castle will
be repeated next year when Circus Arena can celebrate its 50 years anniversary.
Circus
owner Benny Berdino (to the right) welcomes HRH princess Alexandra and HRH prince Joakim
(photo by courtesy of Christian Warrer/Circus Arena)
24
June 2004
Circus
Benneweis come and train with the performers. From
1st to 18th July Circus Benneweis will visit Aarhus
(the second largest town in Denmark).
On Saturday 3rd
July
the circus invites everyone to visit them between 12 and 14:30 and free of charge get a
touch of training as artist by the performers at this years Benneweis performance. You can
also meet the animals and hear about life in a circus. The Aarhus
circus lot is placed at Tangkrogen, Strandvejen 999, Aarhus.
23
June 2004
Tara
Mistry Thyra Nielsen.
The female trapeze artist in this years performance in the small Danish Circus
Charlie is from South
Africa.
Her name is Tara Mistry. However she is born in Koge in Denmark
as daughter of former elephant and horse trainer at Circus Benneweis Hans Nielsen. Taras
Christian name is Thyra Nielsen. Hans Nielsen is today working as a horse trainer in South
Africa
where Tara
has spent most of her life. She can not speak one word of Danish. But her trapeze act is
very nice.
Tara
Mistry
22
June 2004
Cirkaos.
If you last summer visited the western part of Jutland and passed the beach resort
Sondervig close to Ringkobing you would meet a tiny two pole tent called Cirkaos. Apart from some animals there were only
two performers: the owner Venzel Zalmov and his
assistant presenting what they call a
Musicomedy Show with no spoken words. This summer Cirkaos has moved to another beach
resort: in Jutland
called Blaavand. Cirkaos hope to attract the many tourists visiting Blaavand, most of the
tourist being Danes, German, Dutch, Swedes, Norwegians and English. They present
themselves as a small circus where the horses drinks bear and are dancing. The rabbits
sleep in beds, the chickens ride bicycles on a tight wire, the house cats is the stars in
the ring and the two human performers Augustin and Sascha are only admitted to the ring on
the terms set by the animals.
20
June 2004
Circus
Renz Berlin.
Danish author and circus fan Jorgen Lorenzen visited Circus Renz in Aarhus
on 20 June. Approximately 200 people saw the performance. The equipment was in a good
condition with 12 large trucks. The tent was a 4-pole tent with a seating capacity of 960.
Members of the owners family did the entire performance. Classical circus act, being
neither especially good nor especially bad. Best acts were high school riding, the 4
elephants and a tight wire act. But the performance was missing what Germans calls
Spitzenleitstung. Not much fun or smiles. But a superb 6-piece circus band
from White
Russia.
The owner presented the performance in German however with a few words in Danish. Linda
Due Mortensen from Apenrade assisted him. At
other performances he is assisted by Janni Birk whose partner former strong man Hercules
is a relative of the Renz family. Danish agent is Kurt Heilmann from Krusaa.
Bernhard Renz Jr. with 4 Indian elephants
19
June 2004
Marianne
and Jess Deluran established Circus Mascot in 1994
as a dog and pony show. They have since then every year presented nice performances. The
2004-performance is opened by 6-years old Andreas
(Jess and Mariannes youngest son) with a nice little song. Then comes the juggler Ulmas (Ulmas Gulyamov) with a nice act. Trio Bilovodska (father, mother and son) follows
him with a human doll act. Miss Prymachenko
(Tatyana Primachenko) has a fine act in vertical rope assisted by her husband Ulmas
Gulyamov. Next act is a magician act performed by Jess,
Andreas and Marianne Deleuran. Then comes Gauca
Igor (the father from Trio Bilovodska) with a handstand act. Last act before the
interval is Marianne Deleuran with her trained
puddles. First act after the interval is Daniel
(Marianne and Jess oldest son being 14) on slack wire. Jess Deleuran present his 4 ponies in a most
charming way. After him comes Mykhaylo (father
and son from Trio Bilovodska) with a perch act. It is first time Circus Mascot presents
such an act. Gulio (Ulmas Gulyamov) who has
several fine entrees does run-in clowning. The
performance runs for 2 hours and is backed up by taped music. Circus Mascot has this year
got new and improved seating facilities.
Jess
Deleuran with 2 of Circus Mascots ponies
18
June 2004
Circus
Renz-Berlin in Denmark.
For the time being German Circus Renz-Berlin is touring Jutland.
They have horses, elephants, camels and dogs but are despite their large tent in reality a
small family show where most acts is presented by members of the family. Owners of Circus
Renz-Berlin are Bernhard and Theresia Renz. As ringmistress in Denmark
they have engaged Danish Janni Birk, who many years ago was working in American circuses.
Janni did also present the program when Circus Renz-Berlin about 10 years ago without
success tried their luck in Denmark.
Since then she have together with her husband the strong man Hercules run the tiny Danish
Circus Pinocchio (sometimes called Circus Prinsess (sic)) with Janni and Hercules at the
only performers.
The last couple of seasons have not been good to circuses in Germany.
Thats why some of them try their luck in other countries. Circus Renz-Berlin intents
to stay in Denmark
until late August. Their first performance in Denmark
this year was on 11 June in Aabenraa (Apenrade).
16
June 2004
Narren
international festival of street theatre and comedy. In
1995 Kulturhus Aarhus was asked to start organising the city's summer entertainment in the
Aarhus Botanical Gardens. For more than 50 years the city has been organising various
forms of entertainment for children during the school holiday, featuring a wide variety of
music and stage performances. During the 1990s it was not financially possible to maintain
the wide variety of events in the programme, and at the same time many other cultural
activities were being arranged for children and families by private organisations. As part
of the summer entertainment Kulturhus Aarhus has since 1999 every summer produced an
international festival of street theatre and comedy called Narren (Narren is
Danish for The Jester). This year the festival takes place from 25 to 27 June. Among the
performers this year are the young Irish acrobat troupe Yella Fever Foundation, Danish/Argentinean
acrobats Teatro Glimt, (Lars Gregersen and
Camila Sarrazin), The Joyful Juggler (Jon
Skjerning-Rasmussen), the female clown Marta Gabayo
from Spain and Danish arial cradle acrobats Duo
Aerius (Maja and Esben Aerius). Duo Aerius have performed at German variety theatres
since the in September 2003 was awarded the first price at the Dresdner Variete- und
Zirkus Festival. Esben and Maja have just started an engagement at Benidorm
Palace
at Costa Blance in Spain
where they can bee seen until October. Thus, their visit at the Narren festival might be
the only chance to see the two talented Danes in Denmark
in 2004
Female Spanish clown Marta Gabayo is among the performers
at this years Narren Festival. (Photo taken at the International Clown Festival at Bakken
2003)
12
June 2004
The
Circus
Museum
at Hvidovre, Copenhagen.
On 10 June the Circus Museum opened a new special exhibition called The Circus
Ring prepared by 4 young ethnography students from the Copenhagen University. The
museum's activity co-ordinator Mikkel Knudsen has sent me the photos shown below. As part
of the new exhibition the late world famous clown Charlie Rivel's wig, guitar and clown
nose is on display.
11
June 2004
Nelly Jane Benneweis 70 years. Tuesday 15 June
Nelly Jane Benneweis, former ringmistress and press agent for Denmarks
famous Circus Benneweis, will celebrate her 70 years birthday. She was born in Bronshoj (a
Copenhagen
suburb) as daughter of a master cabinetmaker. Her Christian name was Annette Otto Jensen.
Her father called her by the pet name Nelle-girl. Thats where her artist name Nelly
Jane comes from. After having finished school she got at job as ballet dancer at the Copenhagen
variety theatre Lorry. After that she worked for several years as ballet dancer at various
variety theatres especially in Germany.
A
young Nelly Jane as dancer
In
1964 she was back at the Lorry Variety theatre in Copenhagen
as compére. During those days Lorry each year in December presented some Danish acrobats.
The late Eli Benneweis, owner of Circus Benneweis, saw one of the performances at Lorry
and offered Nelly Jane a job as ringmistress in his circus. Thus, on 2
April 1971
she had her début as ringmistress at the circus lot in Hilleroed 20 miles north of Copenhagen.
In 1972 she worked as ringmistress for Circus Scott in Sweden.
From December 1972 to February 1973 and again from December 1973 to February 1974 who was
ringmistress at the famous English wintercircus Belle Vue in Manchester.
This job gave her the well-deserved pet name Lady of the Ring.
Nelly
Jane on the front cover of Circus Belle Vues 1973/74 program
1974
saw Nelly Jane back at Circus Benneweis where Eli Benneweis asked Nelly not only to be
ringmistress but also to be press agent and be responsible for tour planing, public
permits etc. Nelly Jane was ringmistress at Circus Benneweis from 1974 to 1994. Most
seasons she worked with the tented how. But from 1969 to 1982 she presented the circus
performance in the Copenhagen
Circus
Building,
which Eli Benneweis run from 1970 to 1990. She became an extremely popular ring mistress.
She continued as Cirrus Benneweis press agent until 2003. She is still assisting the
present owner of circus Benneweis Diana Benneweis with a number of tasks. Nelly Jane got
the surname Benneweis when she on 9
April 1977
married Eli Benneweis smaller brother Sonny. Two years later Sonny died by cancer. Nelly
Jane has had a number of positions of trust in the circus world. Among those a position as
judge at the Circus Festival in Monte Carlo in 1990 and the European Youth Circus
Festivals in Wiesbaden in Germany.
Nelly
Jane and his highness Prince Rainer. Photo taken at the Circus Festival in Monte
Carlo
in 1990
Nelly
Jane as hundred of thousands Danes remember her (Photo: Roy Himsel, from Swedish Circus
Magazine Cirkuläre Notiser)
7 June 2004
New
artist in Tivoli.
The
performers at the Open Air Stage in Copenhagens
famous Tivoli
Gardens
change several times during the season. From 7 June to 8 August you can see French Max Weldy with his great comical trampoline comedy
act and the 3 young break-dancers Old School
Killarz. The actress and singer Susanne Breuning present the performance. Tivolis
Big Band (a full size big band) accompanies the performance.
One
of the three Old School Killarz
4
June 2004
Royal command performance. When Circus Arena on 24 June will perform in
Mogeltonder in the southern part of Jutland
the income from the ticket box will be donated to a foundation for children with cancer.
Queen Margrethe's daughter in law princess Alexandra (married to the queens youngest
son prince Joakim) and the couples oldest son prince Nikolai will be among the
audience. Call Circus Arena at + 45 40 30 30 40 if you want to buy tickets to this special
royal command performance.
3
June 2004
Clowns
in Hilleroed.
Several of the clowns who had participated in the International Clown Festival in
Svendborg from 13 to 16 May made a visit to Hilleroed 20 miles north of Copenhagen
on 18 and 19 May. The people of Hilleroed could meet clowns all over town. Lise Kokholm
took the photos below.
Female
Dutch clown Masjolie as hairdresser
Clown Palle of Toons watching for the other clowns
Female clown Pee-wee (Mette Moeller) had arranged the
visit to Hilleroed
1
June 2004
Benny Schumanns Mini Circus. The Danish
clown and multi-artist Benny Schumann (son of Albert and Pauline Schumann and the late
Charlie Rivels grandson) has since 1980 performed all over Denmark
with his one-man show as juggler, ventriloquist, tightrope walker, magician and clown with
music and gags written by himself. Sometimes a pony show is included in the performance.
The photo below of Benny and the pony Musti was taken in Elsinore
on 29
May 2004.
Please notice the beautiful back cloth.
26
May 2004
News
from the Circus
Museum
at Hvidovre, Copenhagen.
The
museum, which has the largest circus collection in the Nordic countries, have just
received a donation DKK 2,870,000 (equivalent to 285,000 Euro or 470,000 USD) from the
Danish Labour Markets Holiday Foundation. Receiving such donation of cause delights
the museums new management team Anja Olsen (curator) and Mikkel Arne Knudsen (co-ordinator
of activities). On 10 June the museum will open a new exhibition with clown
costumes. The museum has borrowed the chair, the wig and the guitar used by the late world
famous clown Charlie Rivel from Charlies grandson Benny Schumann.
The
museums new management team Anja Olsen and Mikkel
Knudsen in front of the museum
24
May 2004
German
circus friends to visit Denmark
in September. Olaf
Werners Circusreisen in Oldendorf,
Germany,
will arrange a circus trip to Copenhagen,
Denmark
from 9 to 13 September. The group will visit Circus Arena, Circus Benneweis, Circus
Dannebrog and the Tivoli
Gardens.
You can call or fax Olaf Werner on (0049) 0 51 58-20 51 for further information.
16
May 2004
New tent for Circus Charlie. Shortly before season
opening in March Circus Charlies tent was destroyed at a heavy storm. Thus, the
opening took place in a borrowed tent. The destroyed tent was 10 years old and circus
owner Einar Trie had planed to purchase a new tent in 2005. Now he was forced to speed up
the purchase and ask his tent supplier Studsgaard Sails in Frederikshavn in the northern
part of Jutland
to deliver him a new tent ASAP. The new tent, which was manufactured in less than a month,
is similar to the old one a four-pole tent seating 450 people. Nice to see that it
is not only Italian firms who can produce high quality circus tents.
Circus
Charlies new tent
13.
May 2004
New
wave circus in Copenhagen
in June, July and August.
As previous years Copenhagens
International Theatre (KIT) will present some new wave circus performances in Copenhagen.
First
show will be Le Cirque Invisible. A circus with
only two performers: Victoria Chaplin & Jean Baptiste Thierrée. Wondrous!
Quite simply. When Victoria Chaplin and her husband Jean Baptiste Thierrée enter the
stage to create their invisible circus the effect is magical, fantastic, poetic and
mysterious. The greatest show on earth with the smallest cast imaginable The
Observer wrote. Le Cirque Invisible can be seen from 28 June to 2 July.
Next
show is Licedei from Russia
with a performance called Semianyki.
Semianyki is Russian for family. Licedeu is Russian Clowns at
their best. This highly entertaining family show about a completely chaotic Russian mother
and her spoiled children can melt hearts within minutes with their original and both
believable and unbelievable figures. With an amazing technique and perfect timing they
communicate the most complex situations through facial expressions, rubberlike bodies,
twitching eyebrows, slap stick and a nonsense language. The performance can be seen from 6
to 10 July.
Third show is Okidok from Belgium
with the performance HaHaHa!!!.
It can be seen from 10 to 13 July. Based on the classic clown and inspired by
Tolkiens universe, the duo Okidok takes us into their make-believe world, where the
smallest details can make a world of difference, normality changes into complete
absurdity, and simple things become amazingly complicated. This is Laurel and Hardy staged
by Beckett for the family. As a result, the audience of all ages is soon helpless
with laughter The Guardian wrote.
New
wave circus number four is simply called Cirque.
They are from Switzerland
and France
and their performance is called Smile at the Foot of the Ladder. Less is
really more. Magic simply grows out of nothing in this life-affirming and glowing
creation. The story should be based on a novel by Henry Miller. Cirque will perform from 8
to 14 August.
The
last show, which can be seen on 12 and 14 August, is Circus Baobab from Guinea
with the performance The legend of the drumming monkey. Directed by the
legendary Archaos director Pierrot Bidon, this is an African extravaganza of uninhibited
dancing, high-risk acrobatics, amazing juggling and clowning to high energy traditional
live West African music. With an extraordinary set of the Baobab Tree as the central
feature of a show which literally explodes in a sensational finale which will light up all
the open-air amphitheatre of Hedeland.
10
May 2004
News
from Teatro Glimt. I
hope everything is well in Denmark.
Down here at Barcelona
in Spain
we are still waiting for the summer, Lars Gregersen of the Danish/Chilean artist
troupe Teatro Glimt (Lars Gregersen and Camilla Sarrazin) writes. He continues: We
will this season give 3 performances in Denmark:
on 18 and 19 June in Copenhagen
and on 25 June in Aarhus.
It will be with our new show. "...2 minutes, and we open!" The history occurs in
a travelling bar, where the barkeepers, a most peculiar couple, prepare to receive the
clients. It is the history of the two proprietors, of their love and hate between
themselves and their customers. It is
streettheatre, circus techniques, dance, live music, humour and with a lot of love. A mix
of the stagearts. The show can be done in the street and in indoor theatre. You can find
further information on Teatro Glimt and their new shows at http://teatroglimt.jones.dk
(language: English)
8
May 2004
Ulla
Böttner passed away.
On 16 April circus owner Diana Benneweis half-sister Ulla Böttner passed away 53 year of
age. For some years Ulla Böttner had been chief financial officer in Circus Benneweis and
in this and other capacities an outstanding assistant to Diana Benneweis. On 16 April the
staff from Circus Benneweis had a day off in Roskilde.
Ulla
Böttner had been doing some shopping in town together with her boyfriend Leszek.
Shortly after
they were back on the circus lot Ulla
Böttner suddenly collapsed in a coma in her living wagon. She died shortly after without
regaining consciousness. Funeral took place on 23 April in Middelfart. The death of Ulla Böttner has been mentioned in a couple of
weekly magazines in Denmark.
7
May 2004
The
Danish dog and pony show Circus Krone (no
connection with the large German circus) can this year celebrate its 20 years anniversary.
The present circus owner Irene Thierrys late father started in 1939 a small circus "Circus
Thierry" giving performance at local fairs. Later on the name was changed to Circus
Krone. There were only 3 performers: Regner Thierry and his wife Ebba and his brother in
law Ejner Holmberg. Later on Irene Thierry and her brother Ricard joined the team. Later
on the family bought a touring carnival and the circus stopped. In 1984 Irene Thierry
re-established Circus Krone together with her sons Frank and Mark. Since 1984 Circus Krone
has been on tour every year. For this season Irene Thierry has engaged Roland and Nemeth Dittmar from Hungary,
Ivana and Konstantin Bessogonov from Czech
(rola bola and quick change act) and Ruth Salama
from France
(tight wire and arial act). Frank Thierry
presents a comical magician act. Irene Thierrys husband Jan Allan presents liberty horses and performs at
the clown Allando.
6
May 2004
Circus Poodle as a movie star. One of Marianne Deleurans poodles has recently had
a minor part in a new Danish movie about Danish fairy tale author Hans Christian Andersen.
If the shot is used in the final version one can for about 20 seconds see Pico dancing
around on his forelegs. Shooting took place in 7 April. The day after Pico and Marianne
Deleuran were back in the Deleuran familily's Circus Mascot.
Marianne Deleuran with some of her dogs. I believe it is
Pico pushing the pushchair.
30 April 2004
New
management at the Circus
Museum
at Hvidovre, Copenhagen.
The Circus
Museum
has engaged Anja Olsen as curator as of 1
May 2004.
She has an BA in ethnology from Copenhagen
University
and has previous worked at the Danish open-air museum. She was in January 2004 involved in
the preparation for the Circus
Museums
special exhibition of ventriloquist dolls. Furthermore the museum has as of 1 May engaged Mikkel Arne Knudsen as co-ordinator of
activities. He has a BA from Aarhus
University
in history and has worked for the Aarhus
City
Museum.
The
new curator Anja Olsen seen at the opening of the special exhibition of ventriloquist
dolls on 29
January 2004. Photo: Lise Kokholm
28
April 2004
The
Copenhagen
circus lot Bellahoj.
The owner of the lot the Copenhagen
city council has now started a renovation and draining of the lot. Danish tented circuses
has used the lot during their visit to Copenhagen
at least since 1951. The lot has for several years been a muddy lot in a rather miserable
condition. The cost of renovation is estimated to 470,000 Euro. The renovation will take
some months. First circus to use the renovated lot will be Circus Benneweis, which this
year will be at Bellahoj from 2 to 12 September.
Shortly after the audience has left Circus Arena after
their last performance for this year at the Bellahoj lot (photo: Stefan Rothman) the Copenhagen city council started the renovation and draining of the
lot. Both photos are taken form the same position at the corner of Hulgaard Street and /Borups Avenue.
25
April 2004
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 2003 - Denmark.
23
April 2004
Valentin Glazyrin does retire. Our fantastic trainer, good colleague and
close friend Valentin Glazyrin has decided to leave his position as trainer/teacher at the
Copenhagen Circus School AFUK and revert to Moscow to enjoy his retirement. He will be
celebrated at a reception to be held Tuesday 27 April from 16 to 19 at AFUK, Kigkurren 1, Copenhagen",
writes a spokesman for AFUK. Valentin Glazyrun has trained a number of new wave artist
among those Esben and Maja Aerius from the arial cradle Duo Aerius (well-known star
performers at e.g. German Variety Theatres). Valentin is one of the greatest and
most important personalities within the development of "cirque contemporaine" in
Denmark,
Duo Aerius writes. They add: "Mji Tebja Ljubjem" We love you.
20
April 2004
A small circus but a good experience!
Danish circus fan Hans Vedel writes. He continues: A chilly evening in the small village
of Terndrup.
Not large expectations for a good circus experience. The dog and pony show Circus Mascot the Deleuran family and two
foreign artist families. Worth to see?
The
answer is a clear yes. There is not much room in the small tent but this is all forgotten
when there is check on light setting, sound and a friendly atmosphere only to be found in
smaller circuses. Ponies, dogs, magicians, jugglers, a fine act in vertical line, clowns,
perch and handstand acts. A well-running performance where the light setting and the taped
music backed up the individual acts especially the clown Gulio who made the kids cheer
loudly. A good circus experience which made me a fan of the large circus Arena happy to
realise that we still have small circuses spreading joy to the people even in smaller
villages.
19
April 2004
Artist
in Tivoli.
The
performers at the Open Air Stage in Copenhagens
famous Tivoli
Gardens
change several times during the season. Until 6 June you can see The Argentinean Devils with their
Bolas/Gauchos/Argentinean Folklore Dance Act and the four young acrobats Crazy Flight presenting a Handvoltige
Acrobatic/Partner Equilibristic Act. The actress and singer Susanne Breuning is presenting
the performance. Tivolis
Big Band (a full size big band) accompanies the performance.
Argentinean
Devils
Crazy
Flight
16
April 2004
Circus
Baldoni
had at the last of the tented Danish circuses its opening day on 16 April in Dragor.
However they toured Isle of Bornholm during the Easter holidays as dress rehearsal. The
tent is the same as in 2004 but the stage on which the non-animal performance takes place
have been rebuilded and enlarged and the entrance to the stage has been changed as it can
be seen at the picture beyond of circus owner Baldoni with his lion Leonardo.
15.
April 2004
Agnete
Louise Enoch. We
are now starting to produce the film about Agnete Enoch, tells Jorgen Lorenzen, author of circus books and film
producer. Jorgen further tells that Aarhus Movie workshop will provide the funds for
camera-team, equipment and editing facilities. Shooting will start in May and will take a
couple of month. The film lasting between 30 and 40 minutes should hopefully be ready
before Christmas. The film will tell the story of the life of Agnete Enoch. She is the
oldest daughter of Haddy and Solveig Enoch who established the present Circus Dannebrog in
1977. Agnete Enoch is press agent and ringmistress for Circus Dannebrog. She is trained as
an artist and has lived all her life in circuses.
Agnete
Louise Enoch and the author and producer Jorgen Lorenzen
9
April 2004
Circus
Dannebrog opened
their season on 3 April in Kolding
but did not invite the press to se the performance until 8 April in Odense.
Circus Dannebrog has got new and improved seating facilities and is considering to
purchase a new tent in 2005. Their present tent having a diameter of 34 meter and seating
999 persons is from 1998. The performance took place in the ring and on a stage. After
circus owner Haddy Enochs welcome you met
Trio Tsytko (two men and a woman) whose male
partners performed with a combination of foot juggling and Risley act. Next act was Marina and Igor Markevich with their dogs. Igor
was dressed up as a clown and the couple had a run-in later in the performance. Next
performers were the di Lellos clowns
presenting first a comical ballet act and then the classical act with the broken mirror. Katja Enoch (Haddy and Solveig Enochs
youngest daughter) and Rachid Nouri riding
high school introducing Isabella Enoch (Katjas sister) in trapez followed them. Then
Freddi Steckel who acted as ringmaster in the
first part of the performance told that many visitors had been missing Dennie Enoch (Haddy and Solveig Enochs son)
in the Enoch familys traditional bicycle act. Thus Dennie would present the act in
2004. But after Dennie had made a few turns in the ring yelling was heard from the
entrance and the younger members of the Enoch family and some of their friends entered the
ring and wanted to show who was the true bike acrobat stars! In the troupe you could among
others see Dennies son Jimmy Enoch,
Isabellas sons David and Edward Enoch, Agnete Louise Enochs daughter Victoria Enoch and Bernhard Cassellis two
daughters. After the bike act Chinese Duo
Yingling had their first act juggling and balancing sunshades on their feet. It was a
very elegant act. Liberty
ponies presented by Victoria Enoch and
liberty horses presented by Katja Enoch
followed them. Bernhard Casselly presented his
camels and Mr. Vitaliy an act in aerial
straps. After the interval Agnete Louise Enoch
(Haddy and Solveig Enochs oldest daughter) took over as ringmistress and presented Duo Yinglings second act: juggling with
scarves. An outstanding presentation receiving more applause than any other of the acts.
Very well deserved indeed.
Duo
Yingling
Next
act was the comical casceadeurs Two Steckels (Freddi
Steckel and Isabella Enoch) with the great act with which Freddi for several years using
various female partners have entertained the audience. They got almost the same applause
as the Chinese girls. Again very well deserved. The di
Lellos presented their musical entrée with the female partner as white-faced clown.
Before that the couple have had a couple of run-ins. Last acts in the performance were Bernhard Cassellys 2 African elephants Rambo
and Baby and the teeterboard acrobats Trio Nikita.
As for the last number of years taped music was used. The performance runs for 2 hours and
40 minutes. However circus owner Haddy Enoch want to shorten the performance a bit. It
will not be an easy task with such a nice and well-running performance.
Two
Steckels
8
April 2004
Circus
Benneweis
had their opening day in Hillerod on 7 April. It was a rather nervous circus owner Diana Benneweis who welcomed the audience. There
had been many problems close to the opening much more than usual. The most serious
problem was when Laci Endresz who for several
years have directed and staged the performance (as he is directing and staging several
other circus performances apart from his very own performance in Blackpool Tower Circus in
England)
due to other activities hadnt time to assist Diana in 2004. In her distress Diana
Benneweis with short notice called her cousin Kim Benneweis who left Circus Benneweis in
season 1995. From 1998 to 2001 Kim worked for competing Circus Arena and in 2002 he was
property boss in Swedish Circus Scott. Apart from that Kim have been working as export
truck driver. Kim promised to assist his cousin and he has certainly done an outstanding
job. Thus Diana had no reason to be nervous. First act in the performance was the clown Francesco. Then Mr. Dalmatin (Sergej Prostetsov) presented his two
Dalmatians plus ten poodles and two Shetland ponies in an impressive routine with the
poodles as trick riders. Next act were Russian handstand acrobat Maxim Popazov with an elegant act. Duo Minasov presented a quick-change act. Last act
before the interval were Evgeni Shmarlovskiy (sometime
spelt Chmarlovsky) with his comical magician act with animals. Especially his living mink
coat is well known. After the interval Amadeo
Renz assisted by his father Franz Renz presented 3 Indian elephants. Next act was Victor Minasov as Mr. Ballon. Then followed the
two best acts in the performance: First 13 year old juggler Allan Sulc bounce-juggling up to 9 balls in
river-dance style and with great speed. An outstanding world class act.
Allan
Sulc
Then
we saw the high wire troupe Los Quiros with the
greatest high wire act I have seen for many years. When they was rewarded a Golden Clown
in Monte
Carlo
in 2002 the troupe had 4 members. Only 3 were seen at the opening in Circus Benneweis. But
the presented the same outstanding acts for which they were awarded the Golden Clown in
2002. In the interval between the other acts Francesco
had several run-ins. At the opening Kim Benneweis acted
as ringmaster. However according to plans he will leave Circus Benneweis in a week or so
and will as ringmaster be replaced by Circus Benneweis press agent Jannik Stanley Nielsen. Hopefully Diana Benneweis
will again in 2005 ask Kim to direct and stage the performance unless some foreign circus
owner is faster to offer Kim such a task for which he has proved to be highly qualified.
The performance was backed by a 5 piece-band. Unfortunately last years bandleader
Pete Robinson has become ill and cant play his keyboard. At the opening he was
directing the 5 musicians but he will probably only stay for a while.
Los
Quiros
After the performance Diana Benneweis thanked Kim
Benneweis for his very valuable assistance with this years performance
5.
April 2004
The
Copenhagen
Tivoli
Garden.
As always Tivoli
will at their Open Air Stage present some first class acrobats as free attractions. This
season's acts are subject to change: 17 APRIL-6 JUNE: Crazy Flight (4 acrobats from Ukraine
presenting a Handvoltige Acrobatic/Partner Equilibristic Act) and The Argentinean Devils (Bolas/Gauchos/Argentinean
Folklore Dance Act). 7 JUNE-1 JULY+12 JULY-8 AUGUST: Max Weldy (Comical Trampoline Comedy Act). 9
AUGUST-19 SEPTEMBER: Symbiose (2 Canadian acrobats presenting a Partner Equilibristic Act)
and Ukrainian Ruslan Fomenko (Ball Juggling
Act).
2
April 2004
Mark
of honour to Chicky. At
the gala performance on 8 August 2004 at the International
Clown Festival at Bakken north of Copenhagen famous Swiss clown Eugen Altenburg better
known as Chicky will be honoured with The World Artist and Clown Award. Chicky retired by
the end of January this year but he has promised festival producer and artistic director
Benny Schumann to turn up in his famous dress and to present a short musical entrée. His
partner for many years the white-faced clown Bruno (Bruno Stutz) can due to an engagement
with German Circus Krone not attend. Chicky and Bruno had as Chicky & Co. their first
performance in 1957 in Trolle Rhodins Zoo Circus in Sweden.
The have performed many times in circuses in Denmark: in Circus Moreno in 1961, at Circus
Schumann in the Copenhagen Circus Building 1964, in Circus Benneweis in 1972 and 1978, in
the Copenhagen Circus Building in 1979 and at Circus Benneweis in 1984, 1989, 1992, 1993,
1994 and 1995. Their latest performance in the Nordic countries was in 1999 in Circus
Maximum in Sweden.
Then latest couple of seasons before retirement Chicky spent with Circus Krone in Germany.
Eugen
Chicky Altenburger
31 March 2004
Clown Festival
at Svendborg. As
earlier years the Danish Clown Association will arrange
a clown festival at Svendborg from 13 to 16 May. You can find the full program and other
information at www.clownfestival.dk
28
March 2004
Ringmaster at Circus Benneweis. Until season 1994
the Benneweis performances were as in most circuses introduced and presented by a
ringmaster. In 1971 and from 1974 to 1994 the ringmaster was a woman: Nelly Jane Benneweis known at Lady of the Ring.
She was a gifted ringmistress. But in 1995 she stopped as ringmistress but continued as
press agent for Benneweis. In 1995 no ringmaster was used at the start of the season.
However by the end of the season in Copenhagen
the white-faced clown Bruno of Chickys presented the performers. In 1996 and 1997
Gitte Jespersen was ringmistress. However she became never as popular as Nelly Jane. And
since 1998 Circus Benneweis have used no ringmaster. It have only been in the printed
program you could find the names of the performers. Many in the audience have been missing
the ringmaster. Thus, in the coming season Jannik
Stanley Nielsen will act as ringmaster. He is a reporter by education and joined
Benneweis last season. This year he is also the shows press agent.
25
March 2004
The
Danish high grass circus Circus Arli has
published its 2004-program. Circusowner Soren Arli's daughter in love Bettina Arli is ringmistress. The performers are
Samson Power (Luka Odhiambo, born in Nakutu,
Kenya)
with African acrobatics and folklore. The clowns Martino
& Co. (Martin and Bettina Arli) present a brand new entrée. Darius presents ladder balancing. Martin Arli can be seen as ventriloquist with a
naughty doll. Picards from Hungary
presents a canine act. Alexander Arli presents
a rola-rola act. Vicurius is called funny
jugglers and clowns. Furthermore the audience will meet pigeons and stepdansers and lots
of funny clowns. Opening day is in Flong on 3 April.
Martino
& Co (photo from 2003)
24
March 2004
German
circus to Denmark?
Rumours have several times said that German circuses were planning to tour the Jutland
peninsula. Such rumours have often made Danish
circusowners a bit nervous. In
2001 the German non-animal show called Manege Visionen der Phantasie
was planning to tour Denmark for two months and last year Circus Berolina had decided to
visit Kolding in the southern part of Jutland in October. But the visit was cancelled.
Apparently Circus Berolina 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. This year a rumour says
that Circus Renz-Berlin is planning to tour Jutland.
If information at their website www.circus-renz-berlin.de is
to be trusted they have a large tent with a diameter of 48 meter seating 1,800 persons.
They have horses, elephants, camels and dogs but are despite their large tent in reality a
small family show where all act is presented by 8 members of the family. Owners of Circus
Renz-Berlin are Bernhard and Theresia Renz. Bernhard Renz senior who was born in 1920
claims to be the oldest circus owner in Europe.
The last couple of seasons has not been good to circuses in Germany.
Thats why some of them tries their luck in other countries such as Holland
and Austria
and maybe now also in Denmark.
Apart from some new wave shows most foreign circuses visits to Denmark
has been a disaster from a financial point of view. Even
for international high quality shows it is mighty difficult to tour in an area where their
name are totally unknown.
24
March 2004
Circus
Dannebrog 2004. A
circus fairy tale all around Denmark
is Circus Dannebrogs 2004-performance called. Opening day is at Kolding
in the southern part of Jutland
on 3 April. As previous years circus owners Haddy and Solvej Enoch's oldest daughter Agnete Louise Enoch is ringmistress. Her smaller
sister Katja Enoch present Circus
Dannebrogs liberty horses. Freddi Steckel
presents his comical casceadeur act assisted by Haddy and Solvej Enochs third
daughter Isabella Enoch who also will perform in trapeze. The Enoch
family speciality, a bike act, can this year be seen in a new version called The Haddies family and international friends.
Bernhard Casselly presents his camels and his
two elephants. Duo Yingling from China
are acrobats. Mr.
Vitality can be seen in an aerial
strap act. Trio Tsytko combines foot
juggling with a Risley Act. Vyacheslavs is
a juggler and Trio Nikita teeterboard
performers. Marina and Igor Markevich present
their dogs. Di Lellos who became very popular
when they toured with Circus Dannebrog in 1999 does clowning.
Trio
Tsytko
23
March 2004
Circus
Arena
had as the first of the Danish circuses their season opening on 23 March in Copenhagen.
As usual circus owner Benny Berdino was
ringmaster. After a short musical intermezzo by the clown brothers Hector and Yann Rossyan the ring was filled with
smoke and Suzanne Berdino (Benny
Berdinos daughter) presented 6 beautiful Arabian horses in an liberty act. After
Suzanne her husband Karsten Berdino presented 6
black Friesian horses. Next act was the foot juggler Claudia Bremlov who amongst other tricks built
an upturned pyramid consisting of boxes of different sizes on her foots. Julia (married to Jochen Krenzola) and her
poodle that is a master of balancing followed her. After Julia the Rossyan clowns made their main entrée. First the
classical entrée where the white faced clown want to shoot a bullet into the mouth of the
august who shall climb a chair and spit the bullet on a plate. Then a musical entrée
using amongst other things air madras pumps. They were followed on Krenzola Jrs animal acts with gooses,
parrots, cats, chickens, pigeons, a fox and an eagle. An act Johcen Krenzola has inherited
from his father. After Krenzola the Danish clown Bonbon
had a run-in. Last number before the interval was the four Skating Aratas. After the interval Flying Neves presented a fine trapeze act with a
perfect triple (hand-to-hand ant not just as often seen hand to forearm). Then Bonbon and Tiina had a run-in in form of a canon
act parody. Karsten Berdino followed them with
6 dromedaries. Then Krenzola was back with an
act I never before have seen: Indian runner ducks in a liberty act presentation. Shortly
before the opening day two of his duck were stolen. One came back. The other was replaced
by at tiny little ordinary white duck. Next act was s short run-in by the Rossyan clowns juggling with their hats. They were
followed by a speedy performance by the diabolo juggler Xelo. After Zelo Bonbon presented a brand new entrée: Circus under
the water. Last act in the performance was Sonni
Frankello with 3 African elephants. All in all a great performance that I am sure many
Danes and foreign visitors will enjoy for the next 6 months.
Suzanne
Berdino with Circus Arenas Arabian horses (photo by courtesy of Christian
Warrer/Circus Arena)
Circus
Arenas new entrance seen by night.
19
March 2004
Levade
Noble Horse Gala to Aarhus.
From 6th to 22nd
February 2004
Swedish circus producer Robert Bronett presented the horse show Levade in Copenhagen.
From 15th to 25th April the show can be seen in Maarslet south of Arhus
(the second largest city in Denmark).
As in Copenhagen the performers are Miguel
Barrionuevo, Spanish champion from 1995, together with twenty of his finest andalusian
horses and ten his best riders, Showteam Kaiser from
Germany presenting some of the skills which the medieval knights had to master if they
wanted to take part in a tournament and French Gabi
Dew riding the Courier.
17
March 2004
The
2004-performance in the Danish non-animal circus Circus
Baldoni is called Circus from four Continents. Circusowner Baldoni alias René Marvin Monster and the circus princess Bina will present the program. Baldoni who is a
ventriloquist is furthermore assisted by the lion Leonardo. From Africa
come the 6 tumblers from Mombassa Boys. Los Gaucho's are cowboys from South
America.
Magician and fakir Ali Bonga (René Monster)
will present a comical fakir act. From Latvia
comes The Barbi Family, who also toured with
Baldoni in 2002 and 2003 with a comical casceadeur act. 8-yar old Ernita performs with hula hop. The juggler Andrey presents his act on a monobike. Sergej takes care of run-ins and August present a clown entrée. Circus Baldoni
will start its season on 3 April on Isle of Bornholm.
Mombassa
Boys. Photo by courtesy of Circus Baldoni
Los
Guachos.
Photo by
courtesy of Circus Baldoni
17
March 2004
Circus
Benneweis
will open their season no. 117 in Hillerod (30 miles north of Copenhagen)
on 7
April 2004.
The performance is called Startime 2004. The clown Francesco appears with run-ins. He was also with
Benneweis in 1995 and 1996 and became very popular. 13-year-old juggler Allan Sulc will present the act for which he was
awarded a bronze clown in Monte
Carlo
this year. Amando Renz will present his Indian
elephants. Mr. Dalmatin (Sergej Prostetsov)
will present his three Dalmatians plus ten poodles and two Shetland ponies in an
impressive routine. Duo Minasov (Victor and
Elena Minasov) from Russia
will present their Quick Change/Magical Transformation Act.
Victor Minasov was born in 1974 in Moscow
descending from a professional circus artist family. 1993-1999 he presented a bear and
wolf training act together with his wife Elena. Since 2000 the couple has performed with
their actual act. At circus Benneweis Victor
Minasov will furthermore perform as the Balloon Man. Evgeni Shmarlovskiy (also called Chmarlowski) is
working as magician using animals. He was in the Copenhagen
Circus
Building
in 1989 and with the Benneweis tented show in 1997. The four acrobats from
Spanish/Colombian high wire troupe Los Quiros
present the act for which they was awarded a Golden Clown in Monte
Carlo
in 2002. Maxim Popazov performs an original equilibristic
act using different combinations of floor and handstand acrobatic elements. He is the
fifth generation of the well-known Russian artiste family Popazoi. He has formerly been
with Circus Krone in Munich
in Germany
and with Circus Knie in Switzerland.
At the Monte Carlo Festival this year he was awarded Prix du Monte-Carlo Grand Hotel and
Prix Stardust Circus International.
The
clown Francesco
11
March 2004
Springtime
at Bellahoj.
Today spring came to the Copenhagen Circus lot Bellahoj: Circus Arenas Polish tent
crew raised Arenas large red/yellow tent, which Arena took in use last year. Is will be
Circus Arenas season number 50. at the Danish roads.
9
March 2004
Small change in the program for Circus Arena. It
was earlier announced that Italian Tonitos would perform at Circus Arena in flying
trapeze, at trampoline and on tight wire. But Tonitos will not tour with Arena this
season. They have been replaced by The flying
Neves from Brazil.
Flying Neves performed in Circus Krones February program in Munich.
Also new with Arena are Italian Skating
Aratas (The Arata family Mama Carmen and her 3 children Vittorio, Billy
and Emilia). Apart from this the performers will as earlier announced be the diabolo
juggler Xelo, the Danish clown Bonbon (repeat from 2002 and 2003), the musical Rossyan-clowns from France, Marina & Alex in tango trapeze, Suzanne Berdino with horses and dromedaries, Sonny Frankellos elephants (repeat from 2002
and 2003), Krenzola JR. with goose, parrots, cats, chickens, pigeons
and a fox and the antipodist Claudia Bremlov.
Circus Arena will open season 2004 at Bellahoj in Copenhagen
on 23 March with dress rehearsals on 19, 20 and 21 March.
The
flying Neves. (Photo by courtesy of Circus Arena)
1
March 2004
Circus
Mascot 2004.
Circus owners Jess and Marianne Deleuran of the Danish dog and pony show Circus Mascot
have now released their 2004-program. Performing artist will be Marianne Deleuran with her poodles, Jess Deleuran with his Shetland ponies, Daniel Deleuran on slack wire and on rola-rola,
6 year old Andreas Deleuran with a magic act,
the clown Gulio (Ulmas Gulyamov, repeater from
2003), the juggler Ulmas, Tatjana (Tatiana
Prymachenko, married to the clown Gulio, repeater from 2003) in tissue, Duo Bilovodska with an act called the living
suitcase, Iga Cauca with handstand and Mykhaylo with an perch act. Opening day will be on
April 1 in Roslev in the northern part of Jutland.
To
the left: The clown Gulio. To the right: Daniel Deleuran on slack wire. Photos from Circus
Masot 2003.
28
February 2004
Circus
Kenny
is the name of an indoor performance produced by Haddy Enoch of Circus Dannebrog for the
Rosengaard Shopping Mall in Odense
and shown from 16 to 21 February. The photographer Lise Kokholm visited the show and was
impressed by the excellent performance. Ringmistress Agnete Louise Enoch presented
well-known artist as the Dubsky-Rivel clowns, assisted by Dennie Enoch as white faces
clown and Peter Harrison and his Hot Dogs as well as some young and very talented
acrobats. Lise Kokholm mentioned especially a girl on tight wire.
The
tight wire danser (photo: Lise Kokholm)
Peter
Harrison and his Hot Dogs (photo: Lise
Kokholm)
The
Dubsky-Rivel clowns (photo: Lise Kokholm)
To
the left:: Josef Dubsky, To the right: Josétte
Rivel (photo: Lise Kokholm)
26
February 2004
The
2004-performance in the Danish non-animal circus Circus
Baldoni will be called Circus from four
Continents and will present acrobats from Europe,
Asia,
Africa
and South
America.
Season opening is in April.
25
February 2004
Maja
Aerius.
On 16 February I mentioned that Maja of the Danish aerial cradle Duo Aerius had created a
new act in tissue: Action-girl for the EtCetera variety theatre in Bochum,
Germany.
Esben Aerius has sent me this picture from the act.
22
February 2004
Steckels to Circus Dannebrog. Agnete Louise
Enoch, press agent and ringmistress of Circus Dannebrog has told me that the excellent
Danish comical casceadeur act Steckels will be among the performers in the coming
season. Freddi Steckel had great success in 2003 at the Swedish Circus Maximum first with
Line Vittrup as partner and later in the season with Zora Nikodemova as partner. In Circus
Dannebrog Freddi will once again get a new partner: Agnete Louise Enochs younger
sister Isabella Enoch. Isabella is best known as trapeze artist but as a skilled acrobat
she will for sure be a fine partner for Freddi Steckel.
16
February 2004
News
from Duo Aerius.
We are happy and doing very well, trapeze artist Esben Aerius of the Danish aerial cradle Duo
Aerius writes. Esben continues: We have been busy since August 2003. During the
summer we created a new doll act which you saw in a slightly shortened version
in Copenhagen
at the new-wave performance Circus Grand Prix. We presented the full version at the Circus
and Variety festival in Dresden
in September and were awarded the first prize. Directly from Dresden
we went to Kiel
in Germany
to perform in Variety EtCetera and after that to Variety EtCetera in Lübeck. In January
2004 we presented our doll act at a casting with a jury Chamäleon Variety in Berlin.
And once again we ware awarded the first prize. In January we visited a number of German
variety theatres. Among those Variete-Palast in Speyer.
They saw our act in the afternoon and we saw their present performance in the night. And
the next day we signed a contract with them from 1
February 2005
to 30
July 2005.
For the next 3 months we will be at the EtCetera variety theatre in Bochum
in the performance called "Die Alte Helden". We are still presenting our doll
act but Maja is furthermore presenting her new act in tissue. The theme is
"Action-girl". The sound track says almost everything: 1) James Bond/Mission
impossible, 2) Perry Mason-theme, 3) The Good, the bad and the ugly, 4) Pink Panther, 5)
Space-patrouille Orion. The act is created especially for the performance "Die Alte
Helden" which has the movie-world as theme. In the spring we will perform at a new
variety theatre Scala Variete in Fritzlar. And as mentioned the first half year of 2005 we
will be at Variete-Palast in Speyer.
Esben
and Maja Aerius with their doll act (photo taken at Circus Grand Prix 2003)
15
February 2004
The
Danish magician Joachim Solberg will in April
2004 give lectures to magicians in ten different cities in Japan.
It will be Joachims 5th tour to Japan.
15
February 2004
The
young Danish magicians Star Magic (Anders
Hansen and Jan Hellesoe) are among the performers at a variety show at Hotel Vildbjerg in Jutland.
The show can bee seen each Friday and Saturday until 27 March.
Star
Magic
11
February 2004
The
horse show Levade which
I did mention on 6 February present a lot of beautiful horses but are mainly for
horse-freaks. The Danish Newspaper Politiken called the show an extremely fine
horseshow with all sort of riders. However the reporter Monna Dithmer found that there was
a bit too much folklore in the performance. In the Danish newspaper B.T. Birgit Grue
mentioned that is was the horses which were the stars the four-legged was better
than the two-legged. Producer Robert Bronett hopes to be able to tour with the show to
other cities in Europe.
7
February 2004
Benny Berdino of Danish Circus Arena buys the entire
equipment from Austrian Circus Elfi Althoff-Jacobi. After some bad seasons the owner
of Austrian Circus Elfi Althoff-Jacobi, 64 year old Adolf
Adi Lehner decided earlier this year to sell his circus: tent, wagons and
all other equipment. For a while it has been known that Benny Berdino (owner of Circus
Arena, the largest circus in Denmark)
was interested in the equipment. And now the deal is a reality. The equipment will in near
future be transported to Denmark.
Benny has not acquired the right to the name Elfi Althoff-Jacobi. Adolf Lehner has worked
in Circus Elfi Althoff-Jacobi since the circus was established in 1974 and has been owner
of the show since 1993. The last couple of years have been terrible for circuses in Austria.
Another circus Österreichischer
National-Circus (owner Heinz Knapp) was declared bankruptcy some weeks ago
and the tiny Circus Adriano (owner Emil Pfeiffer junior) has just been declared bankruptcy.
6 February 2004
Levade
Noble Horse Gala
is the name of a horseshow presented in Copenhagen
from 6th to 22nd
February 2004
by Swedish circus producer Robert Bronett. He calls the show one of the worlds most
spectacular horse shows. The show is presented in an 8-pole tent with the measures 100 x
45 meter. It contains a riding ring of 17 x 45 meter and seats 2,500 people. Robert
Bronett promises the audience a journey through the centuries of the history of
partnership between man and horse and tells that some of the finest horses and the best
riders have come together to perform in this spectacular show were the combination of
light, sound, artistry and beauty create a unique experience never seen anywhere else
before. Among the performers are Miguel Barrionuevo,
Spanish champion in 1995, together with twenty of his finest andalusian horses and ten his
best riders. Together with 8 flamenco dancers and 6 flamenco musicians they present
classical Spanish high school riding. Showteam
Kaiser from Germany
should be some of Europes
best stunt riders. In this show they will demonstrate some of the skills which the
medieval knights had to master if they wanted to take part in a tournament. French Gabi Dew will present the exciting discipline
called Hungarian Post or St Petersburg Courier. An act first showed by the famous rider
Andrew Ducrow in 1826. Gabi Dew toured with Circus Scott in Sweden
in season 2000, 2001 and 2002. Further information on Levade Noble Horse Gala can be found
at www.levade.nu.
The
8-pole tent used for the Levade Horse show is rented in Germany and is according to Robert
Bronett the worlds largest. The latest statement is hardly true. To the left you can see a
white circus tent used for stables.
4 February 2004
Circus
Kenny
is the name of an indoor performance produced by Haddy Enoch of Circus Dannebrog for the
Rosengaard Shopping Mall in Odense
and shown from 16 to 21 February. Haddy and Solvej Enochs oldest daughter Agnete Louise Enoch is ringmistres. Among the
performers are Peter Harrison's Hot Dogs and
the clowns Josef Dubsky and Josette Rivel (Josefs wife) assisted by Dennie Enoch as white face clown. Dennie is son of
Haddy and Solvej Enoch and is mostly known as an excellent bike acrobat. However he did in
2000 for some weeks fill in as white face clown in for Josef and Josette's youngest son
Janos Dubsky (now performing in Hong
Kong
with Dubskys football dogs) who due to an accident wasnt able to work. Josef
and Josette decided to retire after season 2000 but have promised their close friends from
the Enoch family to make a comeback for one week.
Josef
Dubsky and Josette Rivel, also known as the Dusby-Rivel family clowns
3
February 2004
In
the coming season German Amando Renz will
present the Renz familys Indian elephants in Circus Benneweis .The Renz family
performed in 1980 and 1982 with their 3 Indian elephants in Danish Circus Dannebrog. At
that time Amados father Franz presented the act. It will be first time since circus
owner Diana Benneweis in 1995 sold Circus Benneweis Indian elephants Thai, India
and Ceylon
we can meet Indian elephants in the Benneweis ring. Most of the elephants nowadays seen in
Europe
are African.
2
February 2004
International
Clown Festival 2004.
For this years festival producer Benny
Schumann
has engaged The
Thuranos
with their comical tight wire act (including 94 year old Konrad
Thur
who in 1999 received the Charlie Rivel Price) and Toto
Chabri & Co.
(Toto Chabri was awarded the Charlie Rivel Price in 2001). Danish actor and comedian Soren
Ostergaard
will be guest artist on 9, 10, 11 and 15 August. From Japan
comes the electric boogie master Koichiro
Mori.
Furthermore you can meet Patricia
Schumann
and Bakkens
Pierrot.
At the gala performance 8 August at 11 a number of additional international clowns will
participate. The festival will take place at
the amusement part Bakken north of Copenhagen
from 5 to 15 August.
27
January 2004
The
Casselly family.
The contortionist Merrylu Casselly and Alexia and René Casselly with their horses and
elephants has signed a contract for the seasons 2004 and 2005 with Danish circus owner and
producer Benny Berdino. In 2004 they will tour with Circus Skratt in Sweden
(produced by Benny Berdino for the Swedish circusowner Bo Rönnberg) and from mid June to
mid August they will perform at the free attraction circus in the Danish amusement park
Bonbonland (also this circus performance is produced by Benny Berdino). In 2005 the
Cassellys will tour with Circus Arena in Denmark.
René Casselly was with Circus Arena in 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1997. The last couple of
years Alexia and René Casselly have toured with German Circus Busch-Roland. However they
left Busch-Roland on 9
October 2003
and went to German Circus Paul Busch after a quarrel with members of the Wolf family
working for Circus Busch-Roland.
2 of the elephants owned by Alexia and René Cassellys at
Circus Busch-Roland (photo from 2001)
26
January 2004
Freddy
Anthony to Danish holiday resort centre Lalandia. From
25 June to 25 August the musical entertainer Freddy Antony together with the Danish
magician Niels Plys will present 6 shows a
week at the Danish holiday resort centre Lalandia. In 2003 Freddy Anthony toured with
Circus Dannebrog and in 2000 with Circus Arli. In 1978, 1979 and 1980 he worked in Denmark
for Circus M. Schumann.
25 January 2004
Danish
artists at German Variety Theatres. From
6 February to 25 April you can meet the Danish arial craddle duo Duo
Aerius
at the Et Cetera variety theatre in Bochum.
The female partner Maja will also perform in tissue. Further information about Et Cetera
can be found at www.variete-et-cetera.de. At Starclub in Kassel
you can meet the Danish gentleman thief Kenny
Quinn
and his partner Joan. You can find further information about Starclub at www.starclub.de.
24 January 2004
The
collections at the Circus
Museum
at Hvidovre, Copenhagen handed over to the Hvidovre municipality. A
reception on 23 January marked the transfer of the collections at the Circus
Museum
at Hvidovre to the local municipality, which have promised to pay the cost for running the
museum. The museum has the largest circus collection in the Nordic Countries.
The
deed of transfer is presented to Ms. Britta Christensen, lord mayor of Hvidovre, by Jens
Frobenius (photo: Lise Kokholm)
Among
the guests at the reception was the reporter Jorgen Siegumfeldt and former ringmistriss in
Circus Benneweis Nelly Jane Benneweis (known as lady of the ring)
23 January 2004
The
(un)human doll is
the name of a special exhibition of ventriloquist dolls at the Circus
Museum
at Hvidovre, Copenhagen.
The special exhibition will open on 29 January and can bee seen for the rest of the year.
22.
January 2004
Greeting from Janos Dubsky. Everything is
well here in China is it Chinese new year tomorrow, the year of the monkey,
writes Danish artist Janos Dubsky who for the time being is performing with Dubskys football dogs at The Great Moscow
Circus in Hong Kong. Janos further tells that the circus is doing splendid business and
that the audience loves the show. Dubskys football dogs are presented as the
most hilarious soccer match you'll ever see, 2 teams, 2 goalkeepers, lots of soccer balls
and side splitting fun. The Dubsky's present a trained dog act that will prove to be a Hong
Kong
favourite. Australian producer Michael Edgley produces the Great Moscow Circus.
Opening day was in Hong
Kong
12
December 2003
and the season will close on 6
June 2004.
Performance is given in a 4-pole tent seating 2,000 people. Further information can be
found at www.moscowcircus.com.hk
22
January 2004
Gold-, silver and bronze clowns. At the 28th
international circus festival in Monte
Carlo
from 15 to 22 January the Golden
Clown was awarded to La Troupe
acrobatique from Beijing,
to The Flying Tabares (flying trapeze) and Fratelli Errani (risley act). A Silver Clown was awarded
to the Kovgar Troupe (teeterboard), Florian Richter (acrobat on horseback), Wallenda-truppen (high wire) and Stefano Nones Orfei (tigers). A Bronze Clown was
given to the ventriloquist Willer Nicolodi (touring
with Danish Circus Benneweis in 2002), the
acrobats Les
Golden Power,
the young juggler Alan Sulc (will tour with
Danish Circus Benneweis in 2004) and the Sea World
acrobat troupe (toured with Swedish Circus Maximum in 2003). Alan Sulc was also awarded the COUPE DE S.A.S. LA
PRINCESSE ANTOINETTE and PRIX MONTE-CARLO TELEVISION. In 2002 he won a gold medal at the
European Youth Circus Festival in Wiesbaden,
Germany.
Bronze clown awarded juggler Allan Sulc will perform with
Circus Benneweis in 2004. Photo taken by Thorbjorn K. Flo in Circus Merano in Norway in 2003
20 January 2004
New
wave circus from Poland
to visit Denmark.
From
27 to 29 February Circus Ocelot from Poland
will visit Denmark.
Circus Ocelot is called the circus of dreams. There are 30 performers and live music at
the stage. Bogdan Zajak who for many years worked for Cirque Du Soleil established circus
Ocelot.
16 January 2004
Circus
Mascot 2004. Circus
owners Jess and Marianne Deleuran of the Danish dog and pony show Circus Mascot will have
new and better seating facilities for their audience in 2004 with back on all benches.
Performing artist in the 2004 program will be Marianne
Deleuran with her poodles, Jess Deleuran
with his Shetland ponies, Daniel Deleuran on
slack wire, the clown Gulio (repeater from
2003) and the juggler Ulmas. Names of a
couple of additional artists have not yet been released. Opening day will be on April 1 in
Roslev in the northern part of Jutland.
The
clown Gulio (photo taken in Circus Mascot 2003)
15
January 2004
The
Danish magician Kim Kenneth will this season
tour with Circus Billy Smart in United
Kingdom.
The tour will start on 15 February and season closing is scheduled for 28 November. In
1999 Kim Kenneth toured in UK
with Circus Tony Hopkins. Tony Hopkins is also the owner of Circus Billy Smart. Last
season Kim Kenneth toured with Circus Elfi Althoff-Jacobi in Austria.
15.
January 2004
Joe
Labero to Oslo.
Swedish star magician Joe Laberos show Expect the Unexpected could be seen in the Copenhagen
Circus
Building
in November and December 2003. In near future the show can bee seen at the Edderkoppen
Theatre in Oslo,
Norway.
11
January 2004
Bjorn
Heimann passed away.
The Danish magician Bjorn Heimann has passed away, 79 years of age. Apart from being a
magician (well known for his close-up magic) Bjorn Heiman was a chef.
9
January 2004
Circus
Arena
has published its 2004 programme. Opening day will be on 23 March at Bellahoj in Copenhagen.
Dress rehearsals on 19, 20 and 21 March. The performers are the juggler Xelo, the Danish clown Bonbon (repeat from 2002 and 2003), the musical Rossyan-clowns from France, Marina & Alex in tango trapeze, Suzanne Berdino with horses and dromedaries, Sonny Frankellos elephants (repeat from 2002
and 2003), Tonitos in flying trapeze, Krenzola JR.
with goose, parrots, cats, chickens, pigeons and a fox and the antipodist Claudia Bremlov.
The
brothers Yann and Hector Rossyan will be among the performers at Circus Arena in 2004.
(Photo taken in Swedish Circus Maximum in 2003)
As
previous years Circus Arena will tour with an indoor performance a couple of weeks in
January and February. The indoor tour ends up at the Faeroe
Islands.
Among the performers are Sebastians
with
contortion and Stephan
Curaudeau
on BMX-bike. Two members from the Arli family of Circus Arli will take part of the
performance: Alexander
Arli
with ladder balance and his father and mother Martin
and Bettina Arli
as the clowns Martino & Co. In addition Italian reprise clown Jimmy
Folco
can be seen and at the Faeroe
Islands
even the Danish clown Bonbon
will be among the performers. Claudia
will present an antipode act and a hula-hoop act. In the southern part of Denmark
circus owner Benny Berdino's daughter Suzanne
Berdino will
present horses and dromedaries. At the Faeroe
Islands
Samson,
alias Luka Odhiambo, will replace her with his African Power-show.
2
January 2004
Exhibition of ventriloquist's dolls. By the end of
January the Circusmuseum at Hvidovre, Copenhagen
will open a special exhibition with ventriloquist's dolls. As part of the opening the
Danish ventriloquist Preben Palsgaard will
give performances at the museum on 1
February 2004.
1
January 2004
This
website had 23,253 hits in 2003.
1
January 2004
At
his webpage www.schumann.dk Benny
Schumann tells that more than 90,000 people in 2003 saw his performances Hey
Clown!" (94 performances), Schumann`s Mini Circus (35 performances) or Benny Schumann
and Ludvika Young Star Circus (3 performances). In addition more than 20,000 saw the
performances at the International Clown Festival at Bakken north of Copenhagen.
Benny is both performer and artistically director of the said festival. Benny is working
on a film called Benny Schumann Circus Story, an entertaining video/ DVD, including the
circus history of Benny Schumann, the circus ponies and amusing ventriloquist's dolls. The
video/dvd should be ready for sale in November 2004.
Benny Schumann (photo Benny
Schumann)
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