Difference between revisions of "Elena Panova"

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[[File:Elena_Paniva_Heel_Catch_(1994).jpg|right|400px]]
 
==Swinging Trapeze==
 
==Swinging Trapeze==
  
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''By Dominique Jando''
+
''By Guy-Marie Achille''
  
  
−
[[Image:Elena_Panova.jpg|right|thumb|150px|Elena Panova]]Elena Panova was born Elena Nikolaevna Borisova on July 18, 1964 in Murom, Russia. Her father, Nikolai, and her mother, Klavdia, had nothing to do with the circus: they both worked in a factory in Murom. Actually, Elena had never seen a live circus performance in Murom, which is too small a town to have a circus building.  
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Elena Panova is credited with having originated a new swinging trapeze style and technique, which she developed quite by accident at the [[State College for Circus and Variety Arts]] in Moscow along with her teachers, [[The Durov Dynasty|Tereza Durova]] and [[Victor Fomine]]. When it was presented for the first time in the West in 1987 (it was at a time when communist Eastern Europe was still secluded), her act was a sensation that triggered the creation of a string of new swinging trapeze acts in a similar style, notably in Canada.
  
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Yet, Elena saw circus on television, and at age fourteen, she joined the local Amateur Circus—the Soviet equivalent of a European or American youth circus, albeit with a much higher level of training. "Amateur circuses" were burgeoning in the Soviet Union, a country where circus arts were held in high esteem.
+
===Early Apprenticeship===
  
−
During these years, Elena was trained in basic acrobatics, but her tastes led her to static trapeze. She eventually created a "bambou" (aerial perch) act with a fellow student. She performed a small static trapeze act for the first time in April 1978, in the show the Amateur Circus had staged in Murom’s Grand Theatre for Easter.
+
Elena Panova was born Elena Nikolaevna Borisova on July 18, 1964 in Murom, four hundred kilometers from Moscow, the third daughter of Nikolai Borisov and his wife, Klavdia, née Kazanskaya. Her parents had nothing to do with the circus: they came from peasant stock and both worked in a local factory.  
 +
[[File:Elena_Panova_-_Murom.jpg|thumb|left|400px|Elena Panova's debut in Murom (1978)]]
  
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Since she was bent on becoming a circus artist, and showed abilities to do so, her coach suggested that Elena apply for an audition to Moscow’s [[State College for Circus and Variety Arts]]. She sent the proper forms and documents, and to her surprise, was invited to audition in Moscow. She was seventeen and had never left Murom.
+
Murom is one of Russia's oldest cities, dating back to the 9th century, and "home" to the Kievan Rus folk hero of yore, Ilya Muromets. It is also a Holy City that managed to keep some of its monasteries and convents open during the communist era. Yet, it is a small town, and although the Soviet government gave it a theater building, it didn't have a circus, neither was it important enough to receive the summer visit of a ''shapito'' (or ''chapiteau'' in French—a traveling circus). In fact, Elena never saw a live circus performance while growing up.  
  
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After a strenuous exam, she was accepted, and would train for the next four years in all circus disciplines, acting, and ballet, eventually specializing in swinging trapeze. The creation of her act, which would drastically change the traditional concept of swinging trapeze acts, was however due to a series of coincidences.
+
She did see circus shows on television, however, as well as ballet performances, and in her early teens, she enrolled herself in her school's amateur dance company. Meanwhile, a friend of hers had joined the local "Circus Club" and suggested that Elena, who was then fourteen, came with her. "Circus Clubs" were the Soviet equivalent of European or American youth circuses, though generally at a much higher level in terms of the training they provided. They flourished in the Soviet Union, where circus arts were held in high esteem.
  
−
First, although Elena wanted to do a trapeze act, the five-year plan that dictated the Soviet circus industry didn’t call for new trapeze acts. Yet, since she adamantly insisted on learning swinging trapeze, her teachers caved in and assigned a trapeze coach to her. But her coach suddenly had an opportunity to go and live for a time in Paris, which was too good to miss, especially in the Soviet era. The coach asked a friend, [[The Durov Dynasty|Tereza Durova]], an act director who had recently joined the College staff, to take care of creating a swinging trapeze act for Elena.
+
During these years, Elena trained in basic acrobatics, but her tastes drew her to aerial apparatuses; while still at the Circus Club, she and a fellow student developed a "bambou" (aerial perch) act. Her performance debut came in April 1978, when she presented a static trapeze act in the Easter show the Circus Club staged in Murom’s Grand Theatre.
  
−
Tereza Durova came from a dynasty of clowns and animal trainers and had never worked on an aerial act before. She asked another newcomer to the staff, [[Viktor Fomin]], a former competition gymnast who had performed in a horizontal bar act, to assume the technical part. To Fomin, who complained that he had never worked on an aerial act before, Durova just said, "A trapeze is a bar hanging from two ropes; go to the school library, and read every book you can find on the subject!"
+
Since she was bent on becoming a circus artist—and had the ability to succeed—Elena's coach suggested she applied to the entrance exam for Moscow’s famous [[State College for Circus and Variety Arts (Moscow)|State College for Circus and Variety Arts]]. She submitted the proper forms and documents and, to her surprise, was invited to audition in Moscow. She was seventeen and had never left Murom.
  
−
Durova, Fomin and Panova worked on the new act for a total of three years, trying to give life to Durova’s ideas, coming up with new tricks, and experimenting with various techniques to achieve them. Some were found by sheer luck, others by trial and errors.  
+
Following a strenuous physical exam, Elena was accepted to the College—one of the few among hundreds of applicants from all over the Soviet Union. Over the next three years, she trained in acting, ballet, and all circus disciplines, eventually specializing in swinging trapeze. Even so, the creation of her act—an act that would redefine the swinging trapeze specialty—was the result of a fortunate stroke of serendipity.
  
−
When ready, Elena Panova’s act didn’t look like anything that had been seen before: performed entirely in full swing, it included pirouettes between the ropes caught by the ankles and half-pirouettes caught by the heels, without ever interrupting the swing, or having it re-energized by an assistant.
+
=== The Birth of a New Act ===
  
−
Furthermore, Elena's act was not conceived around the notion of danger, but on the aestheticism of movements. It was a seductive ballet, danced in space (eventually, in 1987, to the accents of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons—at a time when classical music was still a rarity in the circus). Elena made her professional debut in 1985, in a show presented by the [[Moscow Circus]] in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
+
Although Elena wanted to do a solo trapeze act, the five-year plan then in effect did not call for new trapeze acts. In the Soviet Union, five-year plans were centralized methods of promoting economic growth through the use of quotas. The first Soviet five-year plan (1928) had called for the rapid collectivization of agriculture, a policy that was not revised even though it led to millions of deaths from starvation. In the light of this, there seemed to be little hope that Elena would get her trapeze act since it deviated from the five-year plan then in place.
  
−
In 1987, Elena Panova was the great revelation of the [[Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain]] in Paris: It was the edition where the new tendencies of the contemporary circus emerged for the first time. She won the Gold Medal. She was a revelation for [[André Simard]], too, who was then teaching acrobatics at the [[Ecole Nationale de Cirque]] in Montreal. Back to Canada, he decided to build trapeze acts in this new style: adding his own ideas, he would develop a Canadian school of swinging trapeze. (After the fall of the Soviet regime, Viktor Fomin would eventually re-settle in Montreal, where he opened his own, very successful, trapeze school.)
+
[[File:Elena_Panova_-_Victor_Fomine_(2001).jpg|thumb|right|400px|Elena Panova and Victor Fomine (2000)]]Nonetheless, she insisted on building a trapeze act. Perhaps tired of her recriminations, her teachers eventually caved in, and Elena was assigned a trapeze coach. The coach's husband then was offered a job in Paris with the Soviet Television, and  his wife would not miss the opportunity to live for a time in France. Before leaving Russia, the would-be coach asked a friend, Tereza Durova—an act director who had recently joined the College's faculty—to take her place and create a swinging-trapeze act for Elena.
  
−
In 1988, Elena Panova won the All-Union Circus Competition of the USSR, which was arguably, at the time, the world’s most difficult circus competition. From 1985 to 1990, she performed in the Soviet Union and toured with various units of the [[Moscow Circus]] in Mongolia, Cambodia, Vietnam, France, Belgium, Austria, Germany, and Israel, before becoming an independent contractor in 1991, after the fall of the Soviet regime.
+
Tereza Durova came from a famous dynasty of clowns and animal trainers and had never worked on an aerial act before. She asked another newcomer to the College's staff, Viktor Fomin (known today as Victor Fomine, the French spelling of his Russian name)—a former competition gymnast who had performed in a horizontal bar act—to take on the technical aspects of the act. To Fomin, who complained that he had never worked on an aerial act before, Durova is famously remembered to have said, "A trapeze is a bar hanging from two ropes. Go to the school library and read every book you can find on the subject!"
  
−
Elena's first independent engagement was with the [[Big Apple Circus]] in the United States, in 1991. She subsequently appeared in some of the world’s leading circuses on four continents, including [[Circus Knie]] in Switzerland and the [Cirque d’Hiver]]-Bouglione in Paris. She has performed her act under the nave of the Cathedral of St. John The Divine in New York, and at the Victorian Arts Festival in Melbourne, Australia, where it was also featured in a musical, ''Amore''.
+
Durova, Fomin, and Panova spent three years developing Elena's act at the College. Fomin and Elena struggled to realize Durova’s often far-fetched ideas. They experimented with various techniques to try to achieve them, and in doing so, eventually came up with new tricks; some were found by sheer luck, others by trial-and-error.  
  
−
Elena married the clown Serguei Panov in 1983. They divorced in 1990. Although she had settled in the United States in 1993, Elena continued to perform around the world, mostly in Europe. Her career lasted nineteen years: She retired from performing in 2003, after a last tour in China. She has since become a very successful aerial teacher at Circus Center, in San Francisco, California.
+
When it was all done, Elena Panova’s act didn't look like anything that had been seen before. Performed entirely in full swing, it included pirouettes between the ropes caught by the ankles, and half-pirouettes caught by the heels, all done without interrupting the swing or having it re-energized by an assistant. Furthermore, Elena's act was not conceived around the notion of danger, but around the aestheticism of movement. It was a seductive ballet, danced in space (eventually, in 1987, to the accents of Vivaldi’s ''Four Seasons''—this at a time when classical music was still a rarity in the circus).
 +
 
 +
=== Award Winning Aerialist ===
 +
 
 +
The act was first performed in 1985, in a show presented by the [[Moscow Circus]] in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, which marked Elena's professional debut. Two years later, her act emerged as the great revelation of the [[Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain]] in Paris: In that landmark edition of the Paris's Festival, the sea-change underway in the contemporary circus became apparent for the first time.
 +
 
 +
[[File:Elena_Panova_(1991).jpg|thumb|300px|left|Elena Panova (1991)]]Elena won the Gold Medal and ignited the imagination of [[André Simard]], who saw her performance. Simard was then teaching acrobatics at the [[Ecole Nationale de Cirque]] in Montreal. After returning to Canada, he decided to develop trapeze acts in the new style suggested by Elena's act. Adding his own ideas, he would in time develop a "Canadian school" of swinging trapeze. (After the fall of the Soviet regime, Viktor Fomin—now Victor Fomine—eventually settled in Montreal, where he taught at the Ecole Nationale de Cirque and opened his own very successful trapeze studio.)
 +
 
 +
In 1988, Elena won the All-Union Circus Competition of the USSR, which was arguably, at the time, the world’s most difficult circus competition. From 1985-90, she performed in the Soviet Union and toured with various units of the [[Moscow Circus]] in Mongolia, Cambodia, Vietnam, France, Belgium, Austria, Germany, and Israel, before becoming an independent contractor in 1991, after the fall of the Soviet Union.
 +
 
 +
Elena's first independent engagement came in 1991, with the [[Big Apple Circus]] in the United States. She subsequently appeared in some of the world’s leading circuses on four continents, including [[Circus Knie]] in Switzerland and the [[Cirque d’Hiver]]-Bouglione in Paris. She has performed her act under the nave of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York and at the Victorian Arts Festival in Melbourne, Australia, where she has also been featured in a musical, ''Amore''.
 +
 
 +
In 1983, while still at Moscow's Circus College, Elena had married the clown Sergei Panov. Their respective careers quickly pulled them apart and they divorced in 1990. Although she settled in the United States in 1993, Elena continued to perform around the world, mostly in Europe. Her performing career lasted nineteen years: She retired from performing in 2004, after a last tour in the People's Republic of China. She has since become an aerial teacher in San Francisco, California, where she has coached several professional aerialists, as well as many recreational students. She is married to circus historian Dominique Jando.
 +
 
 +
Elena has sat on the Jury of the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain twice, in 1997 and 2014, for the Festival's 20th and 35th anniversaries respectively. She is featured in ''Le Dictionnaire universel des créatrices'' (Paris, Editions des femmes, 2013), a project supported by the UNESCO, as the creator of a new trapeze style.
 +
 
 +
==Suggested Reading==
 +
 
 +
* Antoinette Fouque, Béatrice Didier, Mireille Calle-Gruber and Collective, ''Dictionnaire universel des créatrices'' [3 volumes] (Paris, Editions des femmes, 2013) — ISBN 9782721006318
 +
 
 +
==See Also==
 +
 
 +
* Video: [[Elena_Panova_Video_(1987)|Elena Panova, swinging trapeze]] at the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain (1987)
 +
* Video: [[Elena_Panova_Video_(1997)|Elena Panova, swinging trapeze (excerpts)]] at the Jubilee Gala of the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain (1997)
 +
* Video: [[Panova_Video_(1997)|Elena Panova, swinging trapeze]], at Circus Knie (1997)
  
 
==Image Gallery==
 
==Image Gallery==
  
 
<Gallery>
 
<Gallery>
−
Image:Elena_Panova_(2000).jpg|Elena Panova, Cirque d'Hiver-Bouglione (2000) - ''Phot:Bertrand Guay''
+
File:Elena_Panova_Bambou.jpg|Elena Panova at Murom's Amateur Circus (c.1977)
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Image:Elena_Panova.jpg|Elena Panova, Cirque d'Hiver-Bouglione (2000) - ''Photo: Bertrand Guay''
+
File:Elena_Panova_-_Murom.jpg|Elena Panova in Murom (1978)
 +
File:Panova_Gorky_Park.jpeg|Elena Panova in Rehearsal (1986)
 +
File:Panova_%2B_Chelnokov_1987.jpg|Nikolai Chelnokov and Elena Panova in Moscow (1987)
 +
Image:Elena_Panova_1987.jpg|Elena Panova at the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain (1987)
 +
File:Panova_one-heel_swing.jpeg|Elena Panova, one-heel swing, at the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain (1987)
 +
File:Panova_CDU.jpeg|Magazine cover featuring Elena Panova (1987)
 +
File:Elena_Panova_Paris_(1987).jpg|Elena Panova (1987)
 +
File:Panova,_Kil_and_Chelnokov_-_Paris_1987.jpg|Guennadi Kil, Elena Panova, Nikolai Chelnokov at the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain (1987)
 +
File:Elena_Panova_Portrait.jpg|Elena Panova (1991)
 +
File:Elena_Panova_-_Lanza.jpg|Elena Panova (1991)
 +
File:Panova_%2B_Gordoon_(1991).jpg|Elena Panova and Jeff Gordon at the Big Apple Circus (1991)
 +
File:Elenapanova_BAC_1991.jpg|Elena Panova at the Big Apple Circus (1991)
 +
File:Elena_Panova_Ankle_Catch_(1991).jpg|Elena Panova at the Big Apple Circus (1991)
 +
File:Elena_Panova_(1991).jpg|Elena Panova at the Big Apple Circus (1991)
 +
File:Elena_Paniva_Heel_Catch_(1994).jpg|Elena Panova at the Big Apple Circus (1994)
 +
File:Panova_1997.jpg|Elena Panova, Cirque d'Hiver-Bouglione (1997)
 +
File:Elena_Panova_-_Heel_Catch.jpg|Elena Panova at the Cirque d'Hiver (1997)
 +
File:Elena_Panova_-_Festival_Cirque_de_Demain_(1997).jpg|Elena Panova at the Cirque d'Hiver-Bouglione (1997)
 +
File:Elena_Panova_1997.jpeg|Elena Panova at the Cirque d'Hiver (1997)
 +
File:Elena_Panova_-_Cirque_d%27Hiver.jpeg|Elena Panova at the Cirque d'Hiver (1997)
 +
File:Elena_Panova_-_Victor_Fomine_(2001).jpg|Elena Panova & Victor Fomine (2000)
 +
File:Elena_Panova_Panova_Big_E_(2000).jpg|Elena Panova (2000)
 +
File:Elena_Panova_-_Cirque_d%27Hiver_(2000).jpg|Elena Panova (2000)
 +
File:Elena_Panova_at_the_Cirque_d%27Hiver_(2000).jpg|Elena Panova, Cirque d'Hiver-Bouglione (2000)  
 +
File:Elena_Panova_-_Piste.jpg|Promotional Postcard for ''Piste'' at the Cirque d'Hiver (2000)
 +
Image:Elena_Panova_(2000).jpg|Elena Panova, Cirque d'Hiver-Bouglione (2000)
 +
Image:Elena_Panova.jpg|Elena Panova, Cirque d'Hiver-Bouglione (2000)
 +
File:Elena_Panova_2001.jpg|Elena Panova at the Cirque d'Hiver (2001)
 +
File:Elena_Panova_-_De_Piste.jpeg|Magazine cover featuring Elena Panova (2002)
 +
File:Elena_Panova_-_Circus_Zeitung.jpeg|Magazine cover featuring Elena Panova (2002)
 +
File:Fomine_and_Panova_(2014).jpg|Victor Fomine and Elena Panova (2014)
 +
File:Jansson,_Vintilova,_Panova_(2014).jpg|Elena Panova (r.) with Uuve Jansson (l.) and Darya Vintilova (2014)
 +
File:Jansson,_Cats,_Vintilova,_Panova_(2014).JPG|Elena Panova (r.) with Uuve jansson, Aurelia Cats and Darya Vintilova (2014)
 
</Gallery>
 
</Gallery>
  
  
 
[[Category:Artists and Acts|Panova, Elena]][[Category:Aerialists|Panova, Elena]][[Category:Swinging Trapeze|Panova, Elena]]
 
[[Category:Artists and Acts|Panova, Elena]][[Category:Aerialists|Panova, Elena]][[Category:Swinging Trapeze|Panova, Elena]]

Latest revision as of 04:19, 3 June 2023

Elena Paniva Heel Catch (1994).jpg

Swinging Trapeze

By Guy-Marie Achille


Elena Panova is credited with having originated a new swinging trapeze style and technique, which she developed quite by accident at the State College for Circus and Variety Arts in Moscow along with her teachers, Tereza Durova and Victor Fomine. When it was presented for the first time in the West in 1987 (it was at a time when communist Eastern Europe was still secluded), her act was a sensation that triggered the creation of a string of new swinging trapeze acts in a similar style, notably in Canada.

Early Apprenticeship

Elena Panova was born Elena Nikolaevna Borisova on July 18, 1964 in Murom, four hundred kilometers from Moscow, the third daughter of Nikolai Borisov and his wife, Klavdia, née Kazanskaya. Her parents had nothing to do with the circus: they came from peasant stock and both worked in a local factory.

Elena Panova's debut in Murom (1978)

Murom is one of Russia's oldest cities, dating back to the 9th century, and "home" to the Kievan Rus folk hero of yore, Ilya Muromets. It is also a Holy City that managed to keep some of its monasteries and convents open during the communist era. Yet, it is a small town, and although the Soviet government gave it a theater building, it didn't have a circus, neither was it important enough to receive the summer visit of a shapito (or chapiteau(French, Russian) A circus tent, or Big Top. in French—a traveling circus). In fact, Elena never saw a live circus performance while growing up.

She did see circus shows on television, however, as well as ballet performances, and in her early teens, she enrolled herself in her school's amateur dance company. Meanwhile, a friend of hers had joined the local "Circus Club" and suggested that Elena, who was then fourteen, came with her. "Circus Clubs" were the Soviet equivalent of European or American youth circuses, though generally at a much higher level in terms of the training they provided. They flourished in the Soviet Union, where circus arts were held in high esteem.

During these years, Elena trained in basic acrobatics, but her tastes drew her to aerial apparatuses; while still at the Circus Club, she and a fellow student developed a "bambou(French - Russian: Bambuk) Aerial apparatus, generally a hanging perch, from where the performers hang with the help of hand or ankle loops. See also: Aerial perch." (aerial perchA hanging perch, from where the performers hang with the help of hand or ankle loops. (French: Bambou - Russian: Bambuk)) act. Her performance debut came in April 1978, when she presented a static trapeze act in the Easter show the Circus Club staged in Murom’s Grand Theatre.

Since she was bent on becoming a circus artist—and had the ability to succeed—Elena's coach suggested she applied to the entrance exam for Moscow’s famous State College for Circus and Variety Arts. She submitted the proper forms and documents and, to her surprise, was invited to audition in Moscow. She was seventeen and had never left Murom.

Following a strenuous physical exam, Elena was accepted to the College—one of the few among hundreds of applicants from all over the Soviet Union. Over the next three years, she trained in acting, ballet, and all circus disciplines, eventually specializing in swinging trapeze. Even so, the creation of her act—an act that would redefine the swinging trapeze specialty—was the result of a fortunate stroke of serendipity.

The Birth of a New Act

Although Elena wanted to do a solo trapeze act, the five-year plan then in effect did not call for new trapeze acts. In the Soviet Union, five-year plans were centralized methods of promoting economic growth through the use of quotas. The first Soviet five-year plan (1928) had called for the rapid collectivization of agriculture, a policy that was not revised even though it led to millions of deaths from starvation. In the light of this, there seemed to be little hope that Elena would get her trapeze act since it deviated from the five-year plan then in place.

Elena Panova and Victor Fomine (2000)
Nonetheless, she insisted on building a trapeze act. Perhaps tired of her recriminations, her teachers eventually caved in, and Elena was assigned a trapeze coach. The coach's husband then was offered a job in Paris with the Soviet Television, and his wife would not miss the opportunity to live for a time in France. Before leaving Russia, the would-be coach asked a friend, Tereza Durova—an act director who had recently joined the College's faculty—to take her place and create a swinging-trapeze act for Elena.

Tereza Durova came from a famous dynasty of clowns and animal trainers and had never worked on an aerial act before. She asked another newcomer to the College's staff, Viktor Fomin (known today as Victor Fomine, the French spelling of his Russian name)—a former competition gymnast who had performed in a horizontal bar act—to take on the technical aspects of the act. To Fomin, who complained that he had never worked on an aerial act before, Durova is famously remembered to have said, "A trapeze is a bar hanging from two ropes. Go to the school library and read every book you can find on the subject!"

Durova, Fomin, and Panova spent three years developing Elena's act at the College. Fomin and Elena struggled to realize Durova’s often far-fetched ideas. They experimented with various techniques to try to achieve them, and in doing so, eventually came up with new tricks; some were found by sheer luck, others by trial-and-error.

When it was all done, Elena Panova’s act didn't look like anything that had been seen before. Performed entirely in full swing, it included pirouettes between the ropes caught by the ankles, and half-pirouettes caught by the heels, all done without interrupting the swing or having it re-energized by an assistant. Furthermore, Elena's act was not conceived around the notion of danger, but around the aestheticism of movement. It was a seductive ballet, danced in space (eventually, in 1987, to the accents of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons—this at a time when classical music was still a rarity in the circus).

Award Winning Aerialist

The act was first performed in 1985, in a show presented by the Moscow Circus in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, which marked Elena's professional debut. Two years later, her act emerged as the great revelation of the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain in Paris: In that landmark edition of the Paris's Festival, the sea-change underway in the contemporary circus became apparent for the first time.

Elena Panova (1991)
Elena won the Gold Medal and ignited the imagination of André Simard, who saw her performance. Simard was then teaching acrobatics at the Ecole Nationale de Cirque in Montreal. After returning to Canada, he decided to develop trapeze acts in the new style suggested by Elena's act. Adding his own ideas, he would in time develop a "Canadian school" of swinging trapeze. (After the fall of the Soviet regime, Viktor Fomin—now Victor Fomine—eventually settled in Montreal, where he taught at the Ecole Nationale de Cirque and opened his own very successful trapeze studio.)

In 1988, Elena won the All-Union Circus Competition of the USSR, which was arguably, at the time, the world’s most difficult circus competition. From 1985-90, she performed in the Soviet Union and toured with various units of the Moscow Circus in Mongolia, Cambodia, Vietnam, France, Belgium, Austria, Germany, and Israel, before becoming an independent contractor in 1991, after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Elena's first independent engagement came in 1991, with the Big Apple Circus in the United States. She subsequently appeared in some of the world’s leading circuses on four continents, including Circus Knie in Switzerland and the Cirque d’Hiver-Bouglione in Paris. She has performed her act under the nave of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York and at the Victorian Arts Festival in Melbourne, Australia, where she has also been featured in a musical, Amore.

In 1983, while still at Moscow's Circus College, Elena had married the clown Sergei Panov. Their respective careers quickly pulled them apart and they divorced in 1990. Although she settled in the United States in 1993, Elena continued to perform around the world, mostly in Europe. Her performing career lasted nineteen years: She retired from performing in 2004, after a last tour in the People's Republic of China. She has since become an aerial teacher in San Francisco, California, where she has coached several professional aerialists, as well as many recreational students. She is married to circus historian Dominique Jando.

Elena has sat on the Jury of the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain twice, in 1997 and 2014, for the Festival's 20th and 35th anniversaries respectively. She is featured in Le Dictionnaire universel des créatrices (Paris, Editions des femmes, 2013), a project supported by the UNESCO, as the creator of a new trapeze style.

Suggested Reading

  • Antoinette Fouque, Béatrice Didier, Mireille Calle-Gruber and Collective, Dictionnaire universel des créatrices [3 volumes] (Paris, Editions des femmes, 2013) — ISBN 9782721006318

See Also

Image Gallery

  • Elena Panova at Murom's Amateur Circus (c.1977)

  • Elena Panova in Murom (1978)

  • Elena Panova in Rehearsal (1986)

  • Nikolai Chelnokov and Elena Panova in Moscow (1987)

  • Elena Panova at the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain (1987)

  • Elena Panova, one-heel swing, at the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain (1987)

  • Magazine cover featuring Elena Panova (1987)

  • Elena Panova (1987)

  • Guennadi Kil, Elena Panova, Nikolai Chelnokov at the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain (1987)

  • Elena Panova (1991)

  • Elena Panova (1991)

  • Elena Panova and Jeff Gordon at the Big Apple Circus (1991)

  • Elena Panova at the Big Apple Circus (1991)

  • Elena Panova at the Big Apple Circus (1991)

  • Elena Panova at the Big Apple Circus (1991)

  • Elena Panova at the Big Apple Circus (1994)

  • Elena Panova, Cirque d'Hiver-Bouglione (1997)

  • Elena Panova at the Cirque d'Hiver (1997)

  • Elena Panova at the Cirque d'Hiver-Bouglione (1997)

  • Elena Panova at the Cirque d'Hiver (1997)

  • Elena Panova at the Cirque d'Hiver (1997)

  • Elena Panova & Victor Fomine (2000)

  • Elena Panova (2000)

  • Elena Panova (2000)

  • Elena Panova, Cirque d'Hiver-Bouglione (2000)

  • Promotional Postcard for Piste at the Cirque d'Hiver (2000)

  • Elena Panova, Cirque d'Hiver-Bouglione (2000)

  • Elena Panova, Cirque d'Hiver-Bouglione (2000)

  • Elena Panova at the Cirque d'Hiver (2001)

  • Magazine cover featuring Elena Panova (2002)

  • Magazine cover featuring Elena Panova (2002)

  • Victor Fomine and Elena Panova (2014)

  • Elena Panova (r.) with Uuve Jansson (l.) and Darya Vintilova (2014)

  • Elena Panova (r.) with Uuve jansson, Aurelia Cats and Darya Vintilova (2014)

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