- Valentin Gneushev
Valentin Gneushev (born
December 20 ,1951 ) is aRussia ncircus director andchoreographer .Gneushev was born in the city of
Nizhny Tagil in the Serdlovsk region.He studied to be aclown at theMoscow State Circus School and later graduated from the Russian Academy of Theatrical Arts as an artistic director.The first circus act he worked on, the aerial group performance “Cranes” (1985), was an instant success. It was on tour in many countries and received various awards.
In 1986, Gneushev’s "The Red Harlequin", performed by Vladimir Tsarkov, was awarded the Gold Medal at the International Circus Festival in
Paris .In 1989, he created an aerial act for Vladimir Kekhaial, who went on to work in
Cirque du Soleil 's "Nouvelle Experience" show, and later became a star in Las Vegas.In 1991 his show “Cirk Valentin" performed on stage of the
Gershwin Theatre on Broadway. This was an unusual production which did not feature any animals as a traditional circus show always does, and was designed for a theatrical stage. An original music score for the show, which fully consisted of acts created by Gneushev, was written bycomposer Bobby Previte .Many of Valentin Gneushev’s acts have been used in different circuses, including the
Moscow State Circus , which often toured theUnited States , theMoscow Circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard , Cirque du Soleil, which adopted them to their style, and in Las Vegas.His unique approach to creating circus acts has made him over the years one of the most influential directors in the contemporary circus and a regular invited guest of the prestigious annual International Circus Festival in
Monte-Carlo .In the 1990s Gneushev worked with the famous Russian clown
Yuri Nikulin and was the artistic director of Nikulin’s Circus in Moscow.Valentin Gneushev worked with prominent Russian film directors, such as
Andrey Konchalovsky , and theatre directors such asRoman Viktyuk andKonstantin Raikin .He also played in the 1977 Soviet children's
fairy tale film The Scarlet Flower (Alenkiy Tsvetochek).External links
* [http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=4649 “Cirk Valentin” on Broadway]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE1DB1239F93BA35752C1A967958260&sec=&pagewanted=print "For Moscow Daredevils, All the Air's A Stage"]
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