A Bird of High Standing

"The circus is the only dream that can become true before our eyes."

Ernest Hemingway

Having cold blood with the head burning of helplessness. Looking to yours giving their hands to up to the edge, where the women who has already experienced that adrenaline awaits. Feeling in the skin the muted Coliseum for the forehand into the net, because you have again fallen precipitously from several meters high, despite the harrowing leap  all the energy of your mind and your muscles bet, thrown forward, trying to grab of the arms until the last second, hands closing at least from the catcher fingers... the same who is up now, swinging to share the blame.

And knowing that the respectable knows. Because many saw The Montalvo, the ones that were capable to do the most dangerous bird flights in the eighties, and which earned them the gold medal from overseas. And starts again the litany of the same music: Kimbara, Kimbara, kiraKím-Bamba. Kimbara, Kimbara ... And ask for the palms, as rhythmic as the oscillation of the trapezoids, because it is a world that needs heroes on the track like gladiators. Although it is a triple back somersault, and the network is very short and a very unique life.

The results of a school of circus

"This has not gone well today" - softly tells me Marlene Gutierrez Nuñez, the new director of the National Circus of Cuba who, minutes before, had cried as a spectator: Grab her! And her face looks almost as sore as the girl who has bounced before in the net, and had been taking  in a stretcher to the hospital with a fractured finger. Since Marlene was named director of the institution, she has had to fight against all kinds of obstacles, even over her own health, but it seems she was born to promote the tradition of the show.

Seven beautiful gymnasts from Havana Company work in the circus. The one who needs to keep the smile of success for the next night is Monjuit, a very courageous person. The catcher makes his PHD in Physical Culture and ... There are three other casts like this rotating, but they are not enough to cope with the requests from entrepreneurs of various circuses that come to contest nights in CIRCUBA to select numbers from their upcoming season.

CIRCUBA is associated with a broad international prestige school, which has more than 250 pupils who can use their strength and technical skills for very complex movements and for theater and dance. The National Circus School in Cuba was founded in 1977 as part of the art education system in the country, and welcomes students between fourteen and seventeen, they must have overcome their normal academic preparation, and exceed rigorous aptitude tests because they will receive four years of rigorous training. They are indispensable conditions for belonging to the company.

The great leap forward is not longer a metaphor of Chinese heritage ...

CIRCUBA: Circus festival in the Americas

The Festival is now the most important of its kind in America, after its foundation in 1981, which ranks as the third oldest guy in the circus world. Hundreds of stars in Circus had visited Havana and other major cities of the island through the INTERCIRCO tours, alternately created in 1982.

It was interrupted during the worst economic crisis remembered under the name of the Special Period, and then was reborn with greater force than ever since 2007, while the following two years it was back doing its national tour thanks to the National Council of Performing Arts, adscripted to the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Cuba.

In truly challenging words, today’s Minister of Culture, Julian Gonzalez had called during the opening of the previous year: "Let them come and see us. They always accuse us of everything,that is why  is essential they come to see Cuba with their own eyes. We can nurture the development of a new human being from art and culture. "

"The most notorious of this (twelve) edition -affirms critical Yimel Diaz Malmierca in the third national daily- was the decision to grow in terms of spectacle. Time has come to overcome the succession of better or worse attained numbers??, to baste stories that integrate diverse scenic, musical manifestations, where the circus arts have the prominence it deserves and to play up to with the visual aesthetic of the present times. "

Now is the thirteenth time that Havana becomes in "the circus Mainland Bridge". It covers major events of competition in the evenings and nights; and the delivering of prizes for Gold, Silver and Bronze Star and the Popularity Star. There are photo exhibitions, paintings with circus theme from over ten artists, and a film series with circus theme. Each night the shows have been devoted to the circus world personalities such as Atayde brothers, from Mexico, and  legendary figures of our country to honor the two centuries of existence of the circus in Cuba.

More than 50 artists and personalities from the world of the circus from fourteen countries attend. Among the latter, the Russian Vadim Chermenovich Gagloev, president of the Moscow company "Rosgocirk"; the English Laci Endresz, artistic director of Blackpool Tower Circus; the French Pascal Jacob, artistic director of the Phoenix Circus and Circus Festival of Tomorrow in Paris; the Mexican Julio Revolledo, professor of Mesoamerican University of Puebla and casting assistant of Cirque du Soleil; the Spanish Antonio Alvarez, Director of the Albacete Circus Festival and National Circus Award in Spain; the Mexican Armando Rangel, Director of Solary Circus; the German Ronald Wendorf, Director and Professor of the Academy of acrobatic arts in Berlin; and the Chilean Jaime Lizana, the former manager of the famous Tihany Spectacular Circus.

After this tour to the main Cuban cities, Flight of the Bird will tour for long periods several European capitals. Today nearly two hundred Cuban circus artists work for various conventions in Istanbul, Rome and Madrid. Graduated from the National Circus School, they travel from where they work in Holguin, Matanzas, Ciego de Ávila or Havana.

Meanwhile, the National Circus School in Cuba continues its productive job of enabling new dreams.