Andrey Mantchev

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 teeterboardA seesaw made of wood, or fiberglass poles tied together, which is used to propel acrobats in the air. acrobats, who were looking for a lightweight flyerAn acrobat that is propelled in the air, either in a flying act, or in an acrobatic act (i.e. teeterboard). 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-handAn acrobatic act in which one or more acrobats do hand-balancing in the hands of an under-stander. balancing acts with Virgile Peyramaure.

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: Andrey Mantchev, Virgile Peyramaure & Valdis Yanovskis (Acrobatic Act) in the Big Apple Circus production of Picturesque (2004)