Ukrainian juggler Oleksandr Koblykov wins gold in Paris

The beginning of 2009 has been extremely successful for our circus artists. The Day has already published an article about the trapeze artists Olesia Shulha and Dmytro Hryhorov, who won the Golden Clown Award at the Monte Carlo Circus Festival. Now another Ukrainian artist, the 19-year-old Oleksandr Koblykov, has won gold at the 30th Worldwide Festival of the Circus of Tomorrow in Paris in what was a triumphal victory. Moreover, the young juggler won special prizes from the St. Petersburg Circus and the French Art TV channel, as well as the Best Juggler Prize from Viktor Kikhteev, a famous winner of international circus festivals.

Koblykov is the youngest winner in the entire history of the festival. In Paris he presented the number “Marine Story,” which had already become his calling card and won him the second place at the Russian TV show Minuta slavy (A Minute of Glory). The highlight of the number is that the artist juggles 10 balls at the same time. And this is not a limit for him — he is now dreaming of take the crown at the Monte Carlo Festival with a number involving 12 or even 14 balls.

“The program contained 30 numbers, one for each year that the festival was held. The performances lasted from 8 p.m. until 1 a.m. for several days in succession. All the participants were strong, and I only had to overcome my anxiety and show to the jury what I can do,” Koblykov said. “In general, juggling is considered to be the most complicated circus genre. It is called the devil’s art: the person throws the balls or any other subjects in the air and does not know whether s/he will catch them. Therefore, in order not to have all the balls on the floor, the artist should practice a lot and perform in different competitions, preferably before large audiences. And, of course, one needs to be a fighter.”

Koblykov started to practice his number when he was a second-year student at the Kyiv Academy of Variety Circus Art. Initially, he and his teacher Yurii Pozdniakov invented the image—a ball-juggling sailor. Then they worked on the staging of the number, chose the music, and practiced six or seven hours every day. He performed the completed number for the first time in the Kobzov Circus. There he received his initial experience performing before a large audience and also got an invitation to take part in the Paris Festival.

“When I perform, I never think about balls not falling to floor,” Koblykov went on, “But I cannot be 100 percent sure about this, I’m not a robot after all. The main thing is to collect oneself and think that this is another ordinary concert where I am doing my favorite job. Technique is the most difficult thing in my number. Initially, I couldn’t get all the balls together, they were falling out my hands all the time until I came up with an idea how to place them on my palm, fixing each one with a finger.”

Koblykov has taken a break from performances. He says that he will now have time to consider the offers of cooperation he has received from the circuses in Germany, France, New York, and other places. (It is prestigious for any circus to have the gold winner of the Paris Festival.) But the juggler promises to work in Ukraine as well: it was here that he found his first audience.