The Kyiv Circus opened its new season last weekend. The new program called the Great European Circus, apart from the local Ukrainian Star company, features a foreign number by the British taming dynasty of the Laurenti. There are many numbers with animals, including bears and Indian elephants. But perhaps the most interesting one is Olha, Eduard, and Viktoriya Shatkovska’s Flying Fox Terriers where the dogs are parachuted from the cupola and then race around on skateboards, doing all sorts of stunts on them. And the props are unusual. The number starts with a brand new BMW driving into the arena. The whole show is rich in interesting and original numbers, although journalist Larysa Demydenko considers it a little drawn-out. The young spectators cannot wait for the intermission, despite the dedicated efforts of a team of clowns filling in pauses between the numbers, making young and old roar with laughter.
The second part of the performance is a separate magic show called Focuses of World Nations, directed by Pavlo Shatkovsky. The tricks are familiar, yet the show is quite spectacular and highly entertaining. Pavlo Shatkovsky also gives hypnotic seances to the daring few from the audience. He treats them to a shot of Smirnoff whereupon they fall down and afterward (so they say) will never even look at liquor again. In a word, going to this show is economical and convenient: entertaining and spares one a visit to a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center.






