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By BY NATALIE STOREY | The New Mexican
October 13, 2006
Gymnasts, contortionists present their version of the classic tale
Katerina Bazarova, 20, an extremely nimble, pretty blonde, sat backstage in a circus tent Thursday night trying to keep warm.
The Russian contortionist and gymnast, who is part of Circus Chimera, rubbed her hands together violently. In a few minutes, she would be in the center of the ring, flying from a hoop connected to a cord, wearing a blue skirt. Just then, she was still wearing a black jumpsuit and flirting with a clown.
“I love it. It’s my life,” she said of the circus. “Of course, it’s hard sometimes, but life is hard. I like my work. I never want to change my work, not for nothing.”
Bazarova has been performing since she was about 6 years old, when she began training as a gymnast, and has been in circuses for nine years. She’s been all over the world doing her act — in Japan, Turkey, Germany and India. She’s also the world’s champion in “Competitive Twister,” the circus’ Web site relates.
In Santa Fe this weekend, she will play Alice in Circus Chimera’s reinterpretation of Alice in Wonderland. The story is still an adventure, but it’s told circusstyle with acts like Bazarova, clowns, a French woman who spins a burning hula hoop around herself, a troupe of Chinese gymnasts and a group of Venezuelan motorcyclists who ride together in the “Globe of Death.”
Circus Chimera has been coming to Santa Fe for the past four years, usually drawing 500 to 800 people over the weekend. The circus uses no animals and relies instead on human talent, said ringmaster Roy Ordaz, one of its owners.
“We aren’t against animals,” Ordaz said. “We hired the best human talent possible so we didn’t feel like we needed to accent it with animals.”
The circus recruits different acts each year to fit into a theme Ordaz chooses. Performers send him videotapes of their acts, and he decides who fits his theme. This year, performers are from Venezuela, Russia, Peru and China, among other countries. They travel across the Southwest from February to November, Ordaz said.
The rigorous travel schedule is something most of the performers, including Bazarova, have gotten used to. The circus arrived in town from Taos at 3 a.m. Thursday.
What’s difficult is sustaining the act during every performance, during all sorts of weather conditions, sicknesses and bad moods. “You have to be in a good mood, always,” Bazarova said. “You have to smile all the time. I guess that’s what’s difficult sometimes.”
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