Paths and challenges of the current circus

Nowadays it is difficult to see animals in circus shows because of the ban in place in many places.

From January 19 to 28, the 46th Festival International du Cirque and the 11th New Generation were held in Monte Carlo, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the festival and the centenary of the birth of Prince Rainier III, who is the one who promoted the festival in the distant 1974. In Montecarlo, you can see the two historical traditions of the circus: the horses and the acrobats, together with the traditional shows of lions, elephants or farm animals. Three generations of Gruss have presented balancing on horseback, pyramids of men on moving animals, high-level amazons and the great Master, Alexis, who at 80 years old did somersaults in the air in the middle of the track with his horse d'Artagnan

The Golden Clowns went to the Gruss, the elephants of the Errani family, and the Italian couple Kolev Sisters, aged 22 and 24, who executed a hand-to-hand, a usually male discipline, full of strength and flexibility, with a repeated leg-on-the-floor lift that left the audience gasping and rapt.

In Paris, from 25 to 28 January, the 43rd Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain could be seen, a celebration of the most current circus, made of acrobatics, gymnastics, dance, harmony, balance, imagination and success.

Circus schools, numerous throughout Europe and in France in particular, train hundreds of artists who feed the Parisian festival. The grand prize went to the Italian Marica Marinoni, who with a Cyr wheel number seduced and excited the audience with the originality and artistic beauty of her relationship with the wheel, which usually in these numbers just spins and turn