The production offices of the Festival, in line with our tradition of releasing the names of the cast of the upcoming 24th edition of the Festival a few at a time, can today announce our first four acts, with performers coming from Colombia, Brazil, the USA, Bulgaria, and Ireland to represent their respective countries in Latina.
1. DUO ACERO 🇨🇴 🇧🇷
COLOMBIA, BRAZIL – CHINESE POLE
HUMAN FLAG SUPPORTING HAND-BALANCE PARTNER: THE OUTSTANDING CHINESE POLE TRICK OF DUO ACERO
Duo Acero is the artistic partnership of Colombian Edison Felipe Acero and Brazilian Giselle Souza Santos. Edison comes from a renowned Circus family, from which he learnt his skills; Giselle went to the di Águia de Haia e di Picadeiro Circus schools in Brazil; they both started their Circus careers over twenty years ago, and in recent years performed at Cirque Arlette Gruss (2019) and Cirque Imagine (2022). In their seven-minute number, performed to Never Tear Us Apart by INXS (1988), they demonstrate that there’s no difference between the artistic and technical abilities of a man and a woman. The culmination of their number sees a human flag, with the partner hand balancing on him, a trick that is performed by only 4 artists in the world.
2. FLYING TABARES 🇺🇸
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA – FLYING TRAPEZE
FLYING TRAPEZE: A CLASSIC TRADITIONAL CIRCUS ACT REINTERPRETED BY AN ALL-FEMALE TROUPE CALLED THE FLYING TABARES Allison, Izzy, Katelyn, Lysette, Mariella and Thomas are six young American performers, appearing as the Flying Tabares in a number that reinterprets the flying trapeze, one of the most traditional of Circus disciplines, which has featured in numerous books and movies about the Circus world. The Flying Tabares have already performed and thrilled audiences in, amongst others, Circus Vargas, Cirque du Soleil, and Circus Krone. They have also appeared at the Festival National du Cirque de Monte-Carlo in 2016. Their number is unusual in that all five flyers are females, with just one male, who is the catcher, in a ten-minute performance of pure adrenalin.
3. KRASIMIR VASOV 🇧🇬
BULGARIA – HAND BALANCE
KRASIMIR VASOV: A YOUNG BULGARIAN ACROBAT WHO PERFORMS WHILE BALANCING ON HIS HANDS, LOOKING AT THE WORLD FROM A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE
Krasimir Vasov, who turned 24 last February, is a young Bulgarian performer. He started very young, as a gymnast taking part in competitions. He later honed his skills in the Varna dance company, and went on to become a street performer, where he was noticed by a Circus trainer. Since then, Krasimir’s world has been somersaults and balances, and this successful artist has performed in Bulgaria, Germany, Spain, UAE, Oman, Thailand, Israel, the Seychelles, and Switzerland. At Latina he is performing a hand balance number entitled Earth – Sky, a number that symbolises the connection between the Earth and the sky, and the hopes of humanity.
4. NIAMH O’REILLY 🇮🇪
IRELAND – HAND BALANCE AND SONG
NIAMH O’REILLY’S NUMBER IS A HAPPY FUSION OF TWO ARTS: SINGING AND ACROBATICS
Born in Dublin in December 1990, Niamh trained as a gymnast for 11 years before relocating to the United Kingdom, where she completed her artistic preparation at the National Centre for Circus Arts in London. Following her graduation, she created a troupe with some of her college friends, and they performed together for some years before they all decided to take up solo careers. Her speciality, hand balancing, is enhanced by the vocal skills of Niamh: performing for the colossal German entertainment company Palazzo since 2017, here she presents a number entitled Amhrán na Spéire, in which she takes the audience to a dimension where the unusual becomes reality.