Hernán
From Circopedia
Hand Balancer
By Dominique Jando
Born in 1983 in Paraguay, Jesús Hernán Arnestica belongs to the fourth generation of an Argentinean circus family. His father was a comic acrobat; his mother performed a bird act. Hernán's father trained him in hand-balancing, and he made his debut at age seven, in a performance given for inmates in a jail, with the Mexican circus for which his parents worked at the time.
By the time he won a Silver Medal at the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain in Paris in 1998, Hernán had already enjoyed a significant performing career: he had been featured at Circo Hnos. Suarez in Mexico and Beto Carrero World Circus in Brazil, in variety theaters in France and Germany, and at Busch Gardens in Florida in the United States. He also won a Bronze Medal at the International Circus Festival of Mexico City in 1993.
After an injury on his right elbow in 2001, hr quit hand-balancing for a time, and began working on different circus-related projects, notably with Circo Social del Sul, an Argentinean non-profit organization that teaches circus skills to underprivileged children and children at risk. He has also been working on an Argentinean circus museum project.
See Also
- Video: Hernán, hand balancer, at the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain, Paris (1998)
- Video: Hernán, hand balancer, in the Big Apple Circus production of Bello & Friends (1999)
