Yelena Larkina
From Circopedia
Hula-Hoops
A former rhythmic gymnast of the Soviet Gymnastics Team and Silver Medalist at the 1985 USSR championships, Yelena Larkina joined Moscow’s State College of Circus and Variety Arts (a.k.a. the Moscow Circus School) in 1987, where the famous Russian act director Valentin Gneushev noticed her.
Gneushev teamed Yelena Larkina as the dancer-assistant of the famous juggler on rolling globe, Yury Borzykin, with whom she performed on Broadway at the Gershwin Theater with Steve Leber’s production of Cirk Valentin in 1991. In that show, Ms. Larkina also performed an earlier version of her hula-hoop act. Back to Moscow, Valentin Gneushev helped Ms. Larkina create a unique hula-hoop act, built on a sensuous choreography to a Mid-Eastern music. This act, in which the choreography and presentation have as much importance as a remarkable technique, was a total novelty and an immediate sensation. With it, Ms. Larkina won a Bronze Medal at Paris’ Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain, one of the world’s two major circus festivals, in 1994––quite an exceptional feat considering the extremely high acrobatic level of the competition, which doesn’t favor such specialties as hula-hoop juggling. Ms. Larkina has since been featured to great public and critic acclaim with some of the world’s major circuses and variety shows, including Frankfurt’s TigerPalast, Düsseldorf’s Apollo Varieté, Berlin’s WinterGarten, and Circus Krone in Germany; Circus Knie and Circus Conelli in Switzerland; Circus Benneweiss in Denmark; and Circus Louis Knie in Austria, among many others. Her hula-hoop act is unique, and is regarded by the profession and people interested in circus arts as the world’s best. Yelena Larkina is married to international juggling legend, Kris Kremo.
