Andrey Mantchev

From Circopedia

Acrobat

By Dominique Jando

Andrey Mantchev was born December 1, 1982 in Sofia, Bulgaria, the youngest of three brothers in a family that had nothing to do with the circus or show business in general. His father was a driver in the military, his mother a secretary in the civil service. He started training in gymnastics at the age of six and soon participated in international junior competitions. When he was 14, he was spotted by the Boichanovi Troupe, Nikolai Boichanov's famous group of teeterboard acrobats, who were looking for a lightweight flyer to jump atop their human pyramids. And so, in 1997, Andrey joined the award-winning troupe and discovered the circus world—and he never looked back.

The Boichanovi were in fact reaching the end of their illustrious career. They made their farewell season at the Big Apple Circus, in the U.S., in 1999-2000. The Big Apple Circus offered to let Andrey remain with them as a member of its resident company. He has been performing there since 2001 in a wide variety of acrobatic acts, notably several hand-to-hand balancing acts with Virgile Peyramaure, and an acrobatic act with Regina Dobrovitskaya and Luciano Anastasini's dogs.

See Also

• Video: R. Dobrovitskaya, V. Peyramaure, A. Mantchev, V. Yanovskis (Comedy acrobatic act), in the Big Apple Circus production of Dreams of a City, 2002.
• Video: Virgile Peyramaure & Andrey Mantchev, Hand-to-hand Balancing, Big Apple Circus, Carnevale!, 2003-2004.
• Video: Andrey Mantchev, Virgile Peyramaure & Valdis Yanovskis (Acrobatic Act) in the Big Apple Circus production of Picturesque (2004)

Image gallery

Andrey Mantchev & Regina Dobrovitskaya with Luciano Anastasini's dogs (2009)

Flyer: An acrobat that is propelled in the air, either in a flying act, or in an acrobatic act (i.e. teeterboard).Flying Act: Any aerial act in which an acrobat is propelled in the air from one point to another.Hand-to-Hand: An acrobatic act in which one or more acrobats do hand-balancing in the hands of an under-stander.Teeterboard: A seesaw made of wood, or fiberglass poles tied together, which is used to propel acrobats in the air.Under-Stander: In an acrobatic act, the person who is at the base, supporting other acrobats (for example, the base of a human pyramid). Also known as the "bottom Man" (or "Bottom Woman").