Difference between revisions of "Marie-Pierre Bénac"

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(Acrobat, Aerialist)
(Acrobat, Aerialist)
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In 1988, Marie-Pierre Bénac and David Dimitri performed their tight-wire act with [[Circus Knie]] in Switzerland, as well as a Russian Barre act with David Dimitri and [[Franco Knie]].
 
In 1988, Marie-Pierre Bénac and David Dimitri performed their tight-wire act with [[Circus Knie]] in Switzerland, as well as a Russian Barre act with David Dimitri and [[Franco Knie]].
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[[Category:Artists and Acts|Bénac, Marie-Pierre]]
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[[Category:Acrobats|Bénac, Marie-Pierre]]
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[[Category:Aerialists|Bénac, Marie-Pierre]]
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She retired from the circus at the end of that season, and returned to the United States, where she married musician Dino Govoni. She went back to college, got Associate and Bachelor’s degrees in physiotherapy, and Masters in Adolescent Education and French. She and Dino have a son, Michael.
 
She retired from the circus at the end of that season, and returned to the United States, where she married musician Dino Govoni. She went back to college, got Associate and Bachelor’s degrees in physiotherapy, and Masters in Adolescent Education and French. She and Dino have a son, Michael.

Revision as of 19:33, 4 November 2008

Acrobat, Aerialist

Marie-Pierre Bénac was not born to the circus, yet, during a circus career that spanned 12 years on two continents, she has proven an extremely gifted and amazingly versatile performer. Born in Toulouse, France, on August 3, 1956, she began training in gymnastics at age 12, at the Lycée of Font-Romeu in the French Pyrenées Mountains, where she had been send to treat her asthma: Font-Romeu had a training facility for the French national gymnastics team.

Upon graduation from high schoolA display of equestrian dressage by a rider mounting a horse and leading it into classic moves and steps. (From the French: Haute école), she went on to study design at Paris University, but she missed the physical activity she had had in Font-Romeu. In 1976, to “keep in shape,” she decided to apply for the Conservatoire National des Arts du Cirque, directed by Alexis Gruss—France’s first circus school and, created in 1974, the Western world’s very first professional circus school.

Marie-Pierre’s gymnastics background impressed Alexis Gruss enough to prompt him to take her into the company of his Cirque à l’ancienne. Alexis Gruss’s Cirque à l’ancienne (old-time circus) was a repertory circus part of the Paris Cultural Center’s activities; it has been credited for spearheading the European circus renaissance of the 1970s, and the “new circus” movement. It would become, in the 1980s, the French National Circus.

Trained subsequently within the Gruss family, Marie-Pierre has performed fifteen different acts during her seven years with the Cirque à l’ancienne, including Russian Barre; several equesrian acts, including a unique acrobatic adagioAcrobatic act, generally involving a man and a woman, presented in a slow or romantic mood. on horseback with Alexis Gruss; 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); Roman Rings; floor acrobatics; and even a teeterboardA seesaw made of wood, or fiberglass poles tied together, which is used to propel acrobats in the air. act with elephants, to name but a few.

Marie-Pierre Bénac moved to the United States in 1984 and joined the Big Apple Circus’s resident company of performers. There she went on the recreate her Russian Bar act with David Dimitri and Sacha Pavlata, and during a little more than three years, she again showed her remarkable versatility, performing among other acts a superb tight-wire duet and a pas-de-deux on the back of two elephants with David Dimitri.

In 1988, Marie-Pierre Bénac and David Dimitri performed their tight-wire act with Circus Knie in Switzerland, as well as a Russian Barre act with David Dimitri and Franco Knie.


She retired from the circus at the end of that season, and returned to the United States, where she married musician Dino Govoni. She went back to college, got Associate and Bachelor’s degrees in physiotherapy, and Masters in Adolescent Education and French. She and Dino have a son, Michael.