Cirk La Putyka - BOOM vol. 2

Petra Němcová

Cirk La Putyka - BOOM vol. 2 is a sequel to BOOM vol. 1. 17 actors/acrobats from Cirk La Putyka and from the Kyiv Municipal Academy of Variety and Circus Arts met for the first time on the stage in March 2022. But how did they get together? ,,We wanted to help people in Ukraine, so we decided to ask people Kyiv Municipal Academy of Variety and Circus Arts, if they wanted help and they said yes. So a few artists came to us."

Their performance BOOM vol. 2 is based on real events. It starts with the description of nowadays generation with their phones, social media, and how easy can some stupid trend affect so many people.

It continues with the Ukrainian artists telling their personal stories. With the help of their photos and videos they showed us, what it looked like, when the war started. They weren't telling us their story using just words, but also their body language. How scared and worried they were and how safe and eventually happy they felt when they got here. Even though it took some time. Some of them didn't even believed there was a war happening right outside.

Of course, it wouldn't be a great show without some funny jokes. They didn't only shared with us the story of the Ukrainian artists, but also the story, of when they were getting to know with artists from Cirk La Putyka. They shared not only their traditional dances, but also food. For a little while the performance took place also on a live stream on their account on Instagram. They took us to the background, where they prepared a little snack, which people sitting in the first row were even able to taste. For the people who didn't, don't be sad. You haven't missed much. It was a regular cake, which tasted almost like bread.

After that, the performers prepared a video, in which they were answering one not-so-simple question. What does freedom mean and how do they imagine it?

At the very end, we got the possibility to ask some questions.

One of the first questions was, how they came up with the name Cirk La Putyka? ,,It was at a festival 12-13 years ago. It was a performance about taverna Putyka, so someone got inspired by that and came up with it.''

Another student asked: ,,Are you scared while trying some new tricks?'' ,,Yes. We're scared. But it's a healthy fear.''

,,How often do you get injured?'' ,,That's very individual. Someone's almost permanently injured.''

Just when I wanted to ask a question as well, the microphone got to me. ,,How do you choose your costumes for each performance?'' ,,We don't know. It's only our costume designer, who knows.'' Another artist took the microphone and added: ,,The only one, who knows, is herself. We always come and she puts something on us.''

,,How often and how long do you train?'' ,,Almost every day around like 4 hours.''

,,Who's making choreography for each performance?'' ,,We do it ourselves. We're free to do whatever we want, so we get together and share our ideas.''