THE GREAT MOSCOW STATE CIRCUS / OUR CIRCUS

The Great Moscow State Circus was opened on 30th of April 1971. It has been designed and built by a group of the architects and engineers under the leadership of Mr. I.Belopolsky and still today it strikes everyone with its technical possibilities. There wasn't and still there isn't a similar circus anywhere in the world. Its auditorium represents a 36 meters high amphitheatre consisting of 23 rows totaling to 3400 seats.

Five interchangeable rings are located in a huge machine hall at the depth of 18 meters. With perfectly adjusted mechanical and electronic equipment the replacement of one ring with another takes 5-6 minutes. One huge thirteen-meter ring goes down, slides aside while another one takes its place and is lifted upwards by a "giant hand". All five rings were used in many shows of the Circus: horse ring, water ring, ice ring, illusion ring and light ring.

The Circus has also a sixth ring - the rehearsing one. It is occupied since the morning till the late night. Here the new acts are being created, here the artistes warm up before the performance.

The Circus has all and everything necessary for the creative activities. Its directors, choreographers, musicians, designers help the artists to create new acts. The Circus workshops manufacture costumes and props.

At present time the Circus employs several hundreds of the artistes who perform the acts of practically all known circus genres. Many of the artistes hold the honorary titles of People's Artistes and Honored Artistes of Russian Federation Their high artistic and professional level is proved by the fact that every year the artistes of the Great Moscow Circus take part in the most prestigious international festivals and contests winning highest awards. The whole programs and separate acts tour every year in more than 20 countries of the world performing not only in the circuses, but on the theatre stages, in the cabarets and in the theme parks.

In 1996 the Circus celebrated its 25th anniversary with the "Silver Show on the Vorobievy Hills" staged by the People's Artist of Russia Mr.Leonid Kostyuk. The performance was a great success, more than 500 000 spectators including foreign guests visited this show.

From the moment of its birth the Circus presented to the spectators over one hundred different programs including theme shows and divertissements performances where best Russian and foreign circus artistes took part.

In 2001 the Great Moscow State Circus will celebrate with a grandiose show its 30th anniversary.

For many years already the Great Moscow State Circus is headed by a person, who himself in the past was performing in the ring and won the "Golden Clown" prize of the International Circus Festival in Monte-Carlo, now its General Producer, People's Artiste of Russian Federation, world renowned circus director, professor of the Russian Academy of Performing Arts, academician Mr.Leonid L. Kostyuk.