Difference between revisions of "Main Page"

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<div style="font-size:175%; border:none; margin:0; padding:.1em; color:#996666;">Welcome! ✫ Bienvenue! ✫ Willkommen! ✫ Добро Пожаловать!</div><div style="font-size:175%; border:none; margin:0; padding:.1em; color:#996666;">Bienvenida! ✫ Benvenuto! ✫ 歡迎 ! ✫ Vítejte! ✫ Καλώς ήρθατ
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<br><div style="font-size:175%; border:none; margin:0; padding:.1em; color:#996666;">Welcome! ✫ Bienvenue! ✫ Willkommen! ✫ Добро Пожаловать!</div><div style="font-size:175%; border:none; margin:0; padding:.1em; color:#996666;">Bienvenida! ✫ Benvenuto! ✫ 歡迎 ! ✫ Vítejte! ✫ Καλώς ήρθατ
 
ε!</div><div style="font-size:175%; border:none; margin:0; padding:.1em; color:#996666;">Üdvözöljük! ✫ Добре Дошли! ✫ Welkom! ✫ Ласкаво Просимо!</div><div style="font-size:165%; border:none; margin:0; padding:.1em; color:#996666;">Velkommen! ✫ Tervetuloa! ✫ Дабро Запрашаем! ✫ Välkommen!</div><br/>
 
ε!</div><div style="font-size:175%; border:none; margin:0; padding:.1em; color:#996666;">Üdvözöljük! ✫ Добре Дошли! ✫ Welkom! ✫ Ласкаво Просимо!</div><div style="font-size:165%; border:none; margin:0; padding:.1em; color:#996666;">Velkommen! ✫ Tervetuloa! ✫ Дабро Запрашаем! ✫ Välkommen!</div><br/>
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<div style="top:+0.2em; font-size:98%;"> ''Circopedia was originally created with the support of the  Big Apple Circus Ltd.''</div><div style=font-size:98%;">''and inspired and funded by the [http://www.sdrubin.org/ Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation]''.</div><br/>
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<div style="top:+0.2em; font-size:98%;"> ''Circopedia was originally inspired and funded by the [http://www.sdrubin.org/ Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation]''.</div><br/>
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==In The Spotlight==
 
==In The Spotlight==
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[[File:Alfredo_and_Vera_Codona_(c.1932).jpg|right|300px]]
 
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===ALFREDO CODONA===
 
  
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The Codonas (and Alfredo Codona in particular) were conceivably, in terms of international fame, the greatest circus stars of the first half of the twentieth century. They owe their distinctive place in circus history to the exceptional talent of Alfredo Codona, but also to the dramatic ending of his career, and subsequently, the tragic conclusion of his life. Not only was The Codonas’ act recorded on film (in E.A. Dupont’s ''Varieté'' in 1925), but they were also the subjects of an Academy Award-nominated documentary, Jack Cummings’s ''Swing High'' (1932), a romanticized biopic, A.M. Rabenalt’s ''Die drei Codonas'' (1940)&mdash;a very rare occurrence for circus artists&mdash;and two romanticized biographies.
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===ALEXIS GRUSS, Jr.===
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[[File:Alexis_Gruss,_Jr.jpg|right|450px]]
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He had been called "Le seigneur des chevaux" ("The Lord of the Horses"): Alexis Gruss (1944-2024) was for many years France’s leading circus personality, a living legend and a true media star, as well as a distinctively innovative circus creator. He was also recognized as one of the greatest horse trainers of his time, both in the circus world and in equestrian circles.
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Alexis Jacques André Gruss was born in his parents' living trailer on April 24, 1944, in Bart, a French village near the city of Montbéliard, in the east of France, not far from the Swiss border. He was fourth generation of a circus family of Alsatian and Italian mixed origins. His father was Théophile André Gruss, better known as Dédé (1919-2003), a talented bareback rider who became not only a circus director, but also a popular auguste. Alexis’s mother, Hélène Maud (1919-2003), née Lautour, came for the world of traveling menageries.
  
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Alfredo (1893-1937) and Abelardo ("Lalo," 1895-1951) Codona were born into a circus family. Their grandfather, Henry, came from a long line of Scottish showmen of Swiss-Italian descent. Francesco (Frank) Codoni (1765-1849), the dynasty's founder, settled in Scotland in the nineteenth century; he was a fairground showman, and illiterate&mdash;which led the family's name to be registered under a great variety of spellings over the years: Cardoni, Cardownie, Cardone, Codone, Candone, and Codona, which eventually stuck in the 1870s. Henry Codona married a French woman, Victorine Régnier (1841-1924), with whom he had two children, Enrique and Eduardo, who was born in Mexico on September 21, 1859. (Enrique and Eduardo also had a half-brother, William). When and for which purpose Henry and Victorine immigrated to Mexico is not known.  
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Alexis Gruss grew up in the Cirque Gruss-Jeannet, the circus co-owned and managed by his uncle, Alexis Gruss, Sr. (1909-1985), André Gruss, and their friend Lucien Jeannet (1902-1977), heir to a dynasty of traveling animal trainers; it was one of France’s premier circuses, variously known under the titles ''Radio-Circus'', ''Medrano Voyageur'', ''Cirque-Zoo Jean Richard'', and ''Grand Cirque de France''. There, Alexis, his brother Patrick (b.1950), and his sisters Bella (1948-2012) and Martine (1956-1994) were trained in all circus disciplines by their father and their uncle Alexis&mdash;who was to become France’s leading Equestrian Master.
  
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In any event, Eduardo Codona (1859-1934) became a Mexican circus performer and entrepreneur. In 1883, he married the fourteen-year-old Hortense (Hortensia) Buislay (1869-1931), a trapezist who hailed from an old French circus family of "acrobats, pantomimists, and gymnasts" (i.e. aerialists). The enterprising [[The Buislay Family|Buislays]] had come to Mexico where, in 1869 (the year of Hortense’s birth), they created with Ricardo Bell the ''Circo Océano'', and rented Giuseppe Chiarini’s circus building in Mexico City before touring the country for some time. Like Chiarini, with whose company they had previously traveled around the world, the Buislay family had settled in San Francisco, in the United States.
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In 1970, Alexis married Gipsy Bouglione (b. 1947), the daughter of Firmin Bouglione, Sr., a gifted tightwire artist and an outstanding juggler, who was to become one of the most versatile and brilliant circus artists of her generation. In 1969, after a very bad season, Alexis Gruss, Sr. left the Cirque Gruss-Jeannet to join the famous French comedian, actor, and amateur lion trainer Jean Richard, who had just opened his very own circus; two years later, Lucien Jeannet also called it quits.
  
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By 1888, Eduardo Codona had formed his own traveling company. He had with him a Comanche Indian who wrestled a bear named Samson, and Hortense partnered with a girl billed as Matilde in a trapeze act. Eduardo worked as a tumbler and in a flying trapeze act "à la Léotard"&mdash;the creator of the genre, who had been the toast of Europe and had even performed in New York in 1868. In essence this means that, like Léotard, Eduardo worked alone, leaping from trapeze to trapeze. Flying trapeze, in whatever form, proved to be a specialty to which Eduardo was particularly attracted. ([[The Codonas|more...]])
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Left under Alexis and his father’s management, the circus united forces in 1972 with Roger Lanzac, the iconic ringmaster of the French television show ''La Piste aux Étoiles''. Alas, Under the title ''La Piste d’Or'', the new venture didn’t meet with the success they had hoped for, and the show folded before the end of the season. At long last, Alexis convinced André that they should tour under their own name, ''Gruss''&mdash;but, after so many different identities, the title ''Cirque Gruss'' had no pull. By the summer of 1974, the family enterprise had reached the end of the rope....  ([[Alexis Gruss, Jr.|more...]])
  
 
==New Essays and Biographies==
 
==New Essays and Biographies==
  
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* [[Mikhail Shuydin]], Clown
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* [[Alexis Gruss, Jr.]], Equestrian, Circus Owner
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* [[Yury Nikulin]], Clown, Actor, Circus Director
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* [[Alona Zhuravel]], Hand-Balancer
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* [[Serge]], Circus Chronicler and Illustrator
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* [[George Carl]], Clown
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* [[Alexandre Palisse]], Clown, Circus Owner
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* [[Cedric Walker]], Circus Owner
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* [[Rico y Alex]], Clowns
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* [[The Aragón Family]], Clown Dynasty
  
 
==New Videos==
 
==New Videos==
  
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* [[Grichenko_Video_(2003)|The Grichenko Brothers]], hand-to-hand balancing (2003)
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* [[Koechlin_Video_(2023)|The Koechlin Twins]], aerial hoop (2023)
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* [[Credo_Video_(2019)|Quatuor Credo]], Russian barre (2019)
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* [[Flying_Gonzalez_Video_(2024)|The Flying González]], flying trapeze (2024)
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* [[Dorozhko_Video_(2007)|Andriy Dorozhko]], aerial hoop (2007)
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* [[Gaston_%26_Roli_Video_(2017)|Gaston & Roli]], clown entrée (2017)
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* [[Paolo_Kaiser_Video_(2011)|Paolo Kaiser]], rola-bola (2011)
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* [[Alona_Zhuravel_Video_(2019)|Alona Zhuravel]], Hand Balancer (2019)
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* [[Volozhanin_Video_(2020)|Volozhanin Troupe]], balancing act (2020)
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* [[George_Carl_Video_(1988)|George Carl]], clown entrée (1988)
  
 
==New Oral Histories==
 
==New Oral Histories==

Latest revision as of 21:56, 2 May 2024


Welcome! ✫ Bienvenue! ✫ Willkommen! ✫ Добро Пожаловать!
Bienvenida! ✫ Benvenuto! ✫ 歡迎 ! ✫ Vítejte! ✫ Καλώς ήρθατ ε!
Üdvözöljük! ✫ Добре Дошли! ✫ Welkom! ✫ Ласкаво Просимо!
Velkommen! ✫ Tervetuloa! ✫ Дабро Запрашаем! ✫ Välkommen!

Circopedia was originally inspired and funded by the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation.

In The Spotlight

ALEXIS GRUSS, Jr.

Alexis Gruss, Jr.jpg

He had been called "Le seigneur des chevaux" ("The Lord of the Horses"): Alexis Gruss (1944-2024) was for many years France’s leading circus personality, a living legend and a true media star, as well as a distinctively innovative circus creator. He was also recognized as one of the greatest horse trainers of his time, both in the circus world and in equestrian circles.

Alexis Jacques André Gruss was born in his parents' living trailer on April 24, 1944, in Bart, a French village near the city of Montbéliard, in the east of France, not far from the Swiss border. He was fourth generation of a circus family of Alsatian and Italian mixed origins. His father was Théophile André Gruss, better known as Dédé (1919-2003), a talented bareback rider who became not only a circus director, but also a popular augusteIn a classic European clown team, the comic, red-nosed character, as opposed to the elegant, whiteface Clown.. Alexis’s mother, Hélène Maud (1919-2003), née Lautour, came for the world of traveling menageries.

Alexis Gruss grew up in the Cirque Gruss-Jeannet, the circus co-owned and managed by his uncle, Alexis Gruss, Sr. (1909-1985), André Gruss, and their friend Lucien Jeannet (1902-1977), heir to a dynasty of traveling animal trainers; it was one of France’s premier circuses, variously known under the titles Radio-Circus, Medrano Voyageur, Cirque-Zoo Jean Richard, and Grand Cirque de France. There, Alexis, his brother Patrick (b.1950), and his sisters Bella (1948-2012) and Martine (1956-1994) were trained in all circus disciplines by their father and their uncle Alexis—who was to become France’s leading Equestrian Master.

In 1970, Alexis married Gipsy Bouglione (b. 1947), the daughter of Firmin Bouglione, Sr., a gifted tightwireSee Tight Wire. artist and an outstanding juggler, who was to become one of the most versatile and brilliant circus artists of her generation. In 1969, after a very bad season, Alexis Gruss, Sr. left the Cirque Gruss-Jeannet to join the famous French comedian, actor, and amateur lion trainer Jean Richard, who had just opened his very own circus; two years later, Lucien Jeannet also called it quits.

Left under Alexis and his father’s management, the circus united forces in 1972 with Roger Lanzac, the iconic ringmaster(American, English) The name given today to the old position of Equestrian Director, and by extension, to the presenter of the show. of the French television show La Piste aux Étoiles. Alas, Under the title La Piste d’Or, the new venture didn’t meet with the success they had hoped for, and the show folded before the end of the season. At long last, Alexis convinced André that they should tour under their own name, Gruss—but, after so many different identities, the title Cirque Gruss had no pull. By the summer of 1974, the family enterprise had reached the end of the rope.... (more...)

New Essays and Biographies

New Videos

  • The Koechlin Twins, aerial hoopA heavy metallic hoop used as a variance of trapeze, usually with contortion moves. (Also called Cerceau.) (2023)
  • The Flying González, flying trapezeAerial act in which an acrobat is propelled from a trapeze to a catcher, or to another trapeze. (See also: Short-distance Flying Trapeze) (2024)
  • Gaston & Roli, clown entrée(French) Clown piece with a dramatic structure, generally in the form of a short story or scene. (2017)
  • Alona Zhuravel, Hand Balancer (2019)
  • George Carl, clown entrée(French) Clown piece with a dramatic structure, generally in the form of a short story or scene. (1988)

New Oral Histories

Circopedia Books

A Message from the Founder

CIRCOPEDIA is a constantly evolving and expanding archive of the international circus. New videos, biographies, essays, and documents are added to the site on a weekly—and sometimes daily—basis. Keep visiting us: even if today you don't find what you're looking for, it may well be here tomorrow! And if you are a serious circus scholar and spot a factual or historical inaccuracy, do not hesitate to contact us: we will definitely consider your remarks and suggestions.

Dominique Jando
Founder and Curator
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