Interview with Acrobats Natalia and Alexander Pestov about the behind-the-scenes life of a circus artist
Today we tell you about Alexander and Natalya Pestovs the famous circus artists.
Guys, tell us about the beginning of your circus career.
– Since early childhood we have been
involved in sports, sports acrobatics. We are very grateful to our coaches for their professional, physical and moral trainings.
This helped us in the future, since we connected our life with the stage and not just a stage, but with a circus stage!
In 1994, Alexander began his circus career at the Moscow Circus on Vernadsky Avenue.
And already in 1995 he was summoned to Montreal to stage the Quidam show.
This happened after his watching in Moscow. Then the official representatives of the Cirque du Soleil specially came to select acrobats for the new show. Thus, my husband’s career in the famous Cirque du Soleil began.
And what about your career, Natalya?
– Three years later, when our son Vladimir grew up, I also received a contract. We worked in the same show but in different acts.
Tell us about your performances, please.
– During our work, we visited many countries and cities (60 countries on five continents). Now it is easier to name the places where we have not been.
The act in which Alexander worked, in 1998 won the most prestigious competition in Monte Carlo.
It was the 23rd festival where they received the golden clown – the most prestigious and highest award in the circus world.
Then there were performances at the Oscar in 2002 and performances in front of the Queen of England, and how many stars came to see our show this cannot be counted.
Has your son always been with you? – During our tour, our son was with us, I think it was the circus atmosphere that played a role and our son became a juggler
His career began in the Dralion show, then in the Varekai show. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, our son was the main character and juggler in the Amaluna show. It is very sad that many artists just started their careers found themselves in a difficult situation.
Nevertheless, we always hope for the best, and I think everything will get better over time.
And what are you doing now?
– For the last six years of our career, we worked together with Alexander in the sculpture performance. Physically, it was not difficult to make this act; the whole difficulty was in the slow performance of tricks.
Once we were interviewed in France and the journalist was amazed when she found out that we were already over forty. But we are completely ordinary people and even go to
McDonald’s. We just do things that not everyone can.
During our career, we conquered emotional Brazilians, prim British and forced applaud the restrained Japanese.
We marked all the countries in which we were on the world map.
This impresses our friends and acquaintances of course when they begin to look at the map. We came
to a difficult decision to end our career not because we were tired of endless travel and physical exertion, but simply realized that it was time to devote yourself not to the stage but to the family.
We have a daughter Valeria. When she was born with a weight of eight hundred grams, the doctors did not make comforting predictions. But the doctors did not know us.
This year our daughter is sixteen years old, and we decided that we should be with her all the time.
Now we have our own house in Astrakhan, always full of guests. We are happy that our daughter should be in society and do not limit her in communicating with children. A teacher comes to our daughter for home schooling, and she makes great progress.
Many years ago, Alexander took a great interest in photography, took pictures of rehearsals during the day and studied Photoshop on the Internet and books at nights. His works were exhibited even in London Royal Albert Hall. And once Alexander brought his equipment to Australia, as it was the last chance for the artists to be in the lens of his camera.
The RAH owners liked the photo of the Royal Albert Hall, where the Quidam show was held, so much that they left it in their private collection, which they usually never did. Now we are at home, live, enjoy life, do our favorite things.
Page of photo-works by Alexander Pestov