Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Butterflies are parents, too, at least at Cirque

For the Ukrainian couple who perform the butterfly love duet in "Ovo," Cirque life is the only work life they know.


Svetlana Kashevarova, Dmitry Orel, and their children, Andrey, 15, and Anna, 4, Wednesday afternoon at Cirque du Soleil's encampment in Bloomington

Article by: ROHAN PRESTON , Minneapolis Star Tribune

June 6, 2011

The motto for Dmitry Orel and Svetlana Kashevarova might as well be "the family that Cirques together stays together."
The two aerial acrobats, who perform the butterfly love duet in Cirque du Soleil's "Ovo" at the Mall of America through June 19, mark their lives through the circus. They have spent much of their 16 years of marriage in the air -- both performing onstage and traveling to circuses in Europe, Asia and, since last year, the United States.
The Ukrainian natives bring their two children -- Andrey, 15, and Anna, 4 -- along for the ride, instilling in them the same values and preparing them, if they should choose, for a life under big tents. Cool teen Andrey, who trains with his father, hopes to join the circus in two years. Anna is teething.
The kids keep up with their studies in English and their native Ukrainian via onsite and online tutoring, the parents explained last week in an interview in the tent city behind Cirque's grand chapiteau in Bloomington.
If it were up to Kashevarova, who grew up in the circus, she would never settle down in any one spot. The apartment they keep in Kiev is a touchstone that they return to during longer layoffs from the circus. But the two-week break they have from "Ovo" -- the show goes to Chicago in 50 trailers after it closes at the Mall of America -- is not enough time to make the long trip home, so they explore wherever they are.
This is the most exciting life she knows, Kashevarova said through an interpreter. Things are constantly changing. They get to have new experiences and encounters everywhere they go, including Switzerland, which they described as a fairy tale with cute houses and kind people. Why would she want to do anything else?read more at: http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/stageandarts/123255908.html

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