Sergey Akimov

Aerialist

By Dominique Jando

Sergey Akimov was born in Moscow in 1987, to a circus family. His father, Yury Egorov, began teaching Sergey acrobatics when he was six years old. Four years later, he was doing a hand-to-handAn acrobatic act in which one or more acrobats do hand-balancing in the hands of an under-stander. balancing act with his father. Then, while rehearsing at Circus Nikulin’s training studio, Yury discovered that Sergey had a natural ability for aerial strapsPair of fabric or leather straps used as an apparatus for an aerial strap act..

Under the guidance of his father, Sergey began to develop his remarkable strap actAerial act performed hanging from a pair of fabric or leather straps. (See Aerial Straps.). When it was ready, in 2003, he participated in the Festival Première Rampe in Monte-Carlo, where he won a Bronze Medal. He continued participating and winning prizes in various youth circus festivals, culminating with a Silver Elephant at Moscow’s International Youth Circus Festival in 2004.

The following year, he won a Silver Medal at the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain in Paris, which resulted in a contract with the Big Apple Circus in New York—where his father had worked for several years in the 1990s, and Sergey had spent part of his childood&mdashwhich launched Sergey’s international Career. On television, Sergey was featured on the French hit variety show, Le Plus Grand Cabaret du Monde.

See Also

• Video: Sergey Akimov, Aerial Straps, in the Big Apple Circus production of Grandma Goes To Hollywood (2005)