Word: circusing
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...would pay much attention if Sonny Liston reported that a Bach concerto failed to excite him; similarly, no one should pay much attention when I report that the Moscow Circus failed to excite me. Even as a small boy, I was too stodgy to be captured by the romance of Ringling Brothers or the neighborhood carnival. But one can be impressed without being excited. I certainly...
...result is a stunning and memorable show. There are no distractions to hide mediocrity. The Russians put an individual out there on the dirt floor of the ring, spotlight him, and, presumably, he either excels, or next January-after the circus completes a tour of Boston, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Milwaukee and Minneapolis-he will be selling astrakhans in the GUM store...
Strength & Grace. The troupe is small and select, a circus minimus with only 63 performers chosen from 7,000 who tour Russia in multiple subdivisions of the state circus. The performers are young, graceful, good-looking, and built like red bricks. Mixing biceps and ballet, with an orchestra adding swatches of Tchaikovsky and Khachaturian, their show might well have been called Brawn Lake...
...these separate acts are interspersed and punctuated by the subdued gesturing of Oleg Popov, who is celebrated as one of the world's great clowns. A thoroughly trained circus performer, he can walk the tightwire or the slack wire; he is both animal trainer and juggler. He takes no pratfalls, and he is not the sad flopsy-mopsy fopsy that most U.S. clowns make themselves, but it is difficult to see why he is so renowned. Hailed as a star, he is really little more than a mildly engaging filler...
...Mamma bears. Great strong hammer-sickle thick-coated rocket-powered Soviet bears. They eat 700 Ibs. of lump sugar a day and some day their teeth will fall out, but meanwhile they have been so well trained by Valentin Filatov that they are the essential stars of the Soviet circus. They roller-skate, ride bicycles and scooters, and hang from whirling trapezes. Three of them draw a troika. Two of them fight, wearing boxing gloves. They hook and jab at each other's noses with grizzly accuracy (of course, a bear's nose is a big target). They...