12/10/2012
"They don’t laugh in circus anymore." Interview with Taras Pozdnyakov, the founder of the project [Raw Art] for the "2000 Weekly"

 

Imagine Fellini, Tarkovsky and Von Trier had decided to work in circus. Taras Pozdnyakov knows what the result would have been.

 

Taras Pozdnyakov, the founder and director of the project Raw Art, hates being called ‘circus-man’ – though not only does he ‘make circus’, but also works at Kiev Circus Academy as teacher and director.

 

What’s more, he states that the modern art of circus upsets him rather than inspire. If so, this is quite a fruitful kind of upset, because the acts created by Taras and his actors cast a spell through their dramatic effect, expressiveness and excellence. But of course, this is not the circus in the traditional Ukrainian meaning – it is more like stunt theatre.

 

The works of Taras and his team impress public as well as most demanding professionals. Thus, three of his acts have won Gold medals at most prestigious planet’s fests. Iroshnikov brothers’ act won Gold medal of the fest Cirque de Demain in Paris in 2004 and Silver Clown at the fest in Monte-Carlo in 2005, the acts by Sergey Timofeev and Alexander Koblikov took gold at Cirque de Demain in 2008 and 2009 respectively. The actors who work with Pozdnyakov are regularly offered job from the most fantastic and expensive circus – Canadian Cirque du Soleil. But what seems even more fantastic is that none of Ukrainian circuses has ever invited these people to act – that’s why our spectator can see all those gorgeous performances mostly in the internet, at YouTube.

 

Body drain.

-       I will ask you a question that you must often ask yourself: why are there so few kinds of circus in Ukraine?

- You are right, we actually only have one effective business-model – cheap circus aimed at an undemanding viewer. I have a habit of comparing circus with cinema. Then Cirque du Soleil is an expensive high-quality blockbuster, a sort of ‘Avatar’ – a simple story, but with fabulous special effects. We are more used to Ukrainian clowns and animal trainers – it can be compared with vulgar cheap American comedies with indecent humor. Some people, especially in the depths of the country, do not even know Cirque du Soleil. Some people have heard about it, some have seen its video. But the fact that circus can have its own art-house, dramatic non-commercial cinema is above the imagination of most people. It is this kind of art-house I am trying to make.

 

Of course, modern circus is very abundant. It can appear in theatres, on the runway (some of my acts have taken part in fashion shows), in clubs or just in the street. There are variety-show or dinner-show patterns, sport-and-circus gala-shows – a crazy number of forms. But the people in Ukraine are satisfied with the worst one – a double-dyed post-Soviet cheap nightmare. It is not even the Soviet variant – in the USSR circus used to be a great, even if peculiar show.

 

-       What is the reason? Is it because the viewer is not ready to pay for high-quality show? Or because there is no producer schooling or actors do not offer the product that would meet the standard?

- The most staggering thing is the Ukrainian actors are unique. KievCircusAcademy is regarded the best world’s circus school by many experts, its graduates are highly thought of in the West. For example, our people make up 20-30 % of Cirque du Soleli’s cast. There used to be a popular joke at international festivals – ‘Prepare one medal for China beforehand’. Out of one and a half billion people the Chinese select and prepare through severe drilling actors that are perfect technically but completely devoid of any individuality. Lately people have started to say: “Have the Ukrainians come? Put one more gold medal aside!”

 

But what shocks me is that in spite of that there is no quality circus for mass audience in Ukraine. The very word is corrupted.

As for the insolvent viewer – it is a myth. The organizers of corporate events do pay mind-boggling sums for an evening with Pamela Anderson. But our actors are offered another alternative: to go through the country in circus tents with animals and work their act for 30 grivnas. As a result, we can not only witness brain drain, but also talented bodies drain!

Nobody even tries to transfer other circus business models to our ground. It has come to show business: the mass production of uniform music groups is in process. And it is considered all right to give several thousand dollars for three songs by a boys-band that is not even built-up! But to pay dozen times less to circus actors for a real quality show seems absurd waste of money to many organizers. The prize-winners of most prestigious circus festivals in Monte Carlo and Paris (i.e. people who have won a kind of Oscar in the world of circus) cannot find the job here.

 

The producers are not ready to work with complex shows, they do not know that circus is not about trained dogs, but it is an amazing, dramatic, intricate kind of art.

 

-       But Kobzov, for example did try to employ other patterns: he publicized his version of dinner-show in the Nivki-park, in ‘Allegro’. But it did not work out, and instead of the advertised elite circus the viewer in today’s Kiev is being lured by a vulgar dolphinarium. Does it mean that the viewer has no taste for ‘high art’?

- I think Nikolay Nikolaevich just did not have in his team enough creative people who could have made a good program for the ‘Allegro’-circus.

 

 I usually test my acts at people aged 7 to 80 – and everybody understands them perfectly. Once we were invited to work in a big club, at a popular DJ’s party. When the set was over and the time came for us to act, the noise in the club was terrible. I was afraid the act would not be welcomed. But as soon as the first elements started, I got a feeling as if someone was turning down the sound at an audio mixing console: the flushed audience got quiet and watched the performance in complete silence.

 

A funny incident took place while making Savik Shuster’s program – we had been invited there to insert a couple of acts between the politicians’ speeches. And I was pleased to know that when they started summing up the results of viewers’ interest, it turned out its peak in a political talk-show was during our performance! The society seems to have grown tired of political circus and would gladly prefer ours!

 

The audience are ready for good dramatic circus – but, as it usually happens to a mass consumer, they do not know their own needs or that such product exists at all.

 

The beggarly and the unique.

-As soon as it comes to popularizing anything, one instantly remembers various talents’ shows on TV…

- It is terrible as it corrupts the idea of professionalism. We can, I’m afraid, soon expect a show ‘Everyone operates’!

On TV you could never be given opportunity to show your product in an appropriate informational context. Thus, for a long time I was haunted by scouts from Russian ‘Minute of Fame’ to take part in the show. I explained my reluctance like this: Imagine a professional boxer offered to get into the ring with a Para Olympian. And the shame is that the professional would lose – because the audience judge by compassion, not by craftsmanship!

 

That is why I address all circus actors: do not enter such shows! You debase yourself, and you do it in vain – you will not be able to show your level there.

 

So the task of making it clear to the Ukrainians that we do have interesting, unordinary, alternative circus is the most important and difficult for me. I dream of working at State Circus on Pobedy-prospect, for example, but I am not likely to ever be admitted there – I am the wrong ‘format’.

 

- I have always wondered why in Kiev circus one can never see the acts by the students of CircusAcademy – at least the graduation performances. Do you have graduation performances at all?

- Certainly! We have the state exam as a series of graduation performances in June, 23-25. Then we have a graduation concert by the circus and variety departments. But it does not, for some reason, interest our State Circus, though it does interest managers, agents, potential employers from the West that come to Kiev at this time of year.

 

And this is not the only puzzle. Our Academy – the world’s leading academy – does not have its own dormitory. Students have to ask their parents for money to rent the awfully expensive accommodation in Kiev and to live, at times, together with 6 or 7 other people in a small flat. As CircusAcademy is notAcademy of Law, its students often come from poor families with many children. But it is still not all. CircusAcademy – come to think of it! – does not have its own hall. We rent a hall at CSKA and share it with a gymnastics school. But what is 4 hours for 120 or 130 people?

 

My first speciality was juggler, and I was supposed to have had 12-13-hours’ trainings. A juggles cannot train for less that 7 hours! So, what should one do having no hall? And circus gets government’s assistance all over the world – it is an element of culture and prestige.

 

-       In this strange situation, when KievState Circus does not maintain contact with CircusAcademy, an outsider can not understand where the notorious circus clannishness is. Are there no family ties here?

- The thing is that there are no big circus dynasties in Ukraine anymore. Besides, children from circus families do not usually come to the Academy – it just is not done.

 

Gold medal for 300 grivnas.

-       Apart from separate, even if good, acts do you have a complete program, a ready performance?

- I am presently working at such program, and there is already some interest to it – we are offered to show it in Germany. We have 7 or 8 up-to-date acts and 4 more are being directed.

 

Our project is actually only several months old, and we still lack a lot of things. Today I am the producer, PR-manager and sponsor all rolled into one. And I am not a business person. Raw Art is not a commercial, but ideological project. If you come to circus to make money – you’d better choose some other sphere. Raw Art now unites a dozen of like-minded people.

 

-       A Cirque du Soleil’s show costs several million dollars. How much do you need to create an act?

- We do everything by ourselves and pay our own money for it. The act by Iroshnikov brothers that won most prestigious awards cost about 300 grivnas: it was the price of the costumes. Mind you, how do you evaluate two years of hard work?

 

- The director in modern circus is barely visible. And how important is he for an actor?

- I find it difficult to give an unbiased opinion, as I am a director myself. After my work with Iroshnikov brothers, two more of my acts won gold medals in Paris. Suddenly I came into fashion. I started getting calls and letters asking how much I would take to prepare an act. It was unexpected for me – I do not work that way. I cannot make an act lot-for-lot, without knowing what kind of music the actor loves, what books they read or what they are keen on. First of all, I have to go with them to the cinema, at least!

 

I always choose the people I work with very carefully. It is important that they share my opinions, my views. That is why we do not have ‘boss-people’ kind of relationships at Raw Art today.

 

- Aren’t you afraid that the people, after getting an act from you, will leave with it?

- Not anymore. I have never signed any contracts on this issue and I never will. People are different – sometimes they take what they need from you and leave. You cannot avoid it, and I am not going to worry about it.

 

Raw Art is a group of idealists. We are not only joined by actors. A short while ago I met a great designer and stylist Valeria Kovalskaya. She is helping make the costumes. We are going to put in an act a guy who does break-dance and does not have anything to do with circus. We collaborate with ‘Shtuki’- project that regularly exhibits their hand-made things at the ‘Lavra’-gallery – we share their approach and so we work there almost for nothing.

 

I know it smells of youth maximalism, but I am convinced that the things that are only aimed at commerce rarely bear well.

 

Crossbreeding something strong with something soft

-       We will often hear that the set of stunts has played out – everything that is possible to create has already been performed by someone else. Do you agree with the idea that modern circus can develop on only through drama, choreography, costumes or special effects?

- I do not. Quite the contrary, I do not find it interesting to succeed through choreography. I do not find it interesting to create characters through make-up and costumes, as du Soleil does. The situation can be curious sometimes there: you know the person who is acting but you cannot recognize him or her because of the make-up.

It is the stunt part of the act which is most important for me.

 

-       We can now observe in Russia a kind of attempts to revive the imperial Soviet style with the most vivid example of Zapashny brothers’ show. Does this way have any good chance?

- It does not, it is old and out-of-date. And it is very unnatural, as the soviet circus was famous for its stunts, not images. To stake on the atmosphere of pomposity, brocade and gold in the modern world is stupid. And life has proven this. There are two large circuses in Moscow and no-one to work there.

 

-       Is it possible that some new genres will appear in circus?

- Certainly! For instance, I have Alexandra Savina roll out rings – it is actually horizontal juggling! This idea belongs to my father Juriy Pozdnyakov (he teaches juggling at the Academy) – nobody has ever done that before. There was hot and enthusiastic discussion on all jugglers’ forums after I displayed this video in the Internet. The traditional, banal genre of ‘hula hoop’, which had long ago played out and was not of any interest to the audience, suddenly got such unexpected re-birth.

 

Or take Katya Nikiforova. She used to train as a floor juggler and work with springing balls. We crossbred it with artistic roller-skates slalom. I do not know if it is a new genre – but before us such synthesis did not exist.

 

My mother Natalia Pozdnyakova teaches hand balancing and contortion at the Academy. As a rule, contortion as the demonstration of flexibility starts and finishes with the actor, so to say, ‘putting the bottom on the head’. It has been devoid of any interest for a long time. But try to do it at handstand, in motion! It does not only interest the viewer, it strikes professionals. The thing is that you need a very strong spine for handstand, and soft back muscles for contortion. It is almost impossible to combine.

 

So, plastic balancing is a synthetic genre that does not seem to have anything new in it. But the stunts performed by my mother’s students, Pasha Stankevich and Nastya Mazur, have never been done before, and I think they can be regarded as essentially new.

 

Or here is our new act ‘skipping ropes’ – the fusion of break-dance, acrobatics, skipping ropes and choreography. After I demonstrated it in the Internet, I got mail from world champions in skipping rope sport (I had never heard about it, but I found out it is very popular and fashionable in the USA) – and they thanked me for popularizing the skipping rope and expressed their surprise at the standard of performance.

 

Circus is a living art, it will never exhaust itself. And I believe there is almost no limit to the abilities of the human body.

As for the question of style, it can no doubt be much wider than the familiar stupid smiles of unfunny clowns. People will ask us: Why don’t you smile during the acts? It is but the circus. It has always astounded me, as if you expected the cast to say dirty jokes in a Tarkovsky’s film – it is but the cinema, it should be fun!

 

When I explain what Raw Art is I often give the example of modern simple hand-held cameras. You press the button and get a standard product that you cannot actually affect. Professional cameras have ‘raw’-mode that gives a thoughtful person a chance to get, after some effort, a much more ‘individualized’ picture. Our acts are like this – they demand some effort from the viewer, but they give them a deeper product that differs from a hackneyed picture.

 

I have sometimes heard complaints even from the circus leading figures: Why do you use heavy music for your acts? Why these ascetic costumes? But if I do listen to rather heavy music, such as Muse, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rammstein, Prodigy – why should I adjust to the false joy of the pop? If I am interested in the cinema by Quentin Tarantino and Darren Aronofsky,in the books by Strugatsky brothers and Mikhail Bulgakov – then I try to demonstrate my inspiration by these works.

 

Remarkably, after the Iroshnikovs’ success I am getting less critical comments - other schools and directors have started to pick up this style.

 

By the way, lately I have been getting much help from a rather unexpected thing – practicing aikido. Sometimes it seems even to me that one cannot be such an idealist. Then I look at the mirror - I talk to Maxim Vladimirov (to my mind, the best aikido instructor in all the post-Soviet countries), and this ‘reflection’ that is older, wiser and more experienced than myself makes me sure there still are people who are ready to burn for the sake of Idea, not for making money.

 

-       Do your parents share your approach?

- Without them, there would be nothing at all! They do 70% of work – they train the guys. I only suggest designing the talent of the actors who have been taught by them.

I am actually damned lucky to have my parents. They both belong to circus, but they never tried to lure me into it. When I was 15, it was my own inexplicable decision to enter the CircusAcademy. Of course, we have the generation gap. But what surprises many people is that we have the same approach and the main idea.

 

-       If you do not divide family and work you can’t see the difference between working-days and days off?

- During the past 10 years I once went to the sea, for nine days. And on the second day I started complaining – I cannot do without my work. Mind you, what we do is not literally work – we are burning with this, that’s why we work 24 hours a day.

How can you get tired of the thing you live with, you breath with? I am very lucky – and so I am very happy!

 

The original article.