"Today and every day on the arena ..." - from the history of the Ashgabat circus
The Ashgabat circus has prepared a new show program for the New Year and winter holidays.
Its cardinally reconstructed building opened in 2009, and in general it was built in 1985. But the history of the Turkmen arena is more than a hundred years old.
Circus performances in Turkmenistan were staged at the beginning of the 20th century. Beginning in 1905, the pages of the newspaper "Askhabad" periodically published notices about the tours of circus artists "from different countries and cities." The performances took place in a capital building built at the corner of Mervsky Avenue and Stavropolskaya Street (now Makhtumkuli Avenue and B.Kerbabaev Street), in the area of the present-day Parahat Cinema and Concert Hall (Mir cinema).
The building belonged to Regina Dobrzhanskaya, and was named after the owner - Dobrzhanskaya circus theater. Why theater? Because along with circus performances in this "entertainment building", as it appears in the documents of the Head of the Trans-Caspian region, performances were also given. In 1901, the outstanding Russian actress V.F. Komissarzhevskaya performed here.
In Ashgabat at that time, there were other "entertainment buildings" - theaters "Modern Cinematograph" and "Express Cinematograph", the theater "Black Magic", but the Dobrzhanskaya circus was perhaps the most popular entertainment center in the city.
Thanks to the owner's connections with the then famous attractions Scipion Ciniselli, Albert Salomonsky, the Nikitin brothers and other private circuses, many famous artists came to Ashgabat on tour, such as the clowns brothers Anatoly and Vladimir Durov.
The circus program for that time was quite intense. The posters were full of messages that "Today and every day they perform in the circus arena ..." and then a list of numbers followed, from which the Ashgabat people were breathtaking - trapeze artists, jugglers, equilibrists, rope walkers, fakirs, acrobats, trained animals, lilliputians and etc. etc.
But the greatest excitement was caused by the wrestling championships, which were held in the circus arena. The struggle, as the posters said, was "of all kinds and different nationalities: French, Free American, Russian-Swiss, Bavarian, Tyrolean, Tatar, Caucasian, Gypsy, Mongolian, Uzbek, Chinese and others."
Matches of professional wrestlers gathered not just a full hall - people crowded in the aisles, climbed almost under the dome of the circus to watch "indefinite fights until the final result," as the posters said. Each of the spectators had their own favorite athletes.
The wrestler William Lapiado was very popular with the public. Alexander Vasilyevich Korolev acted under this resounding foreign name. For many years he lived in Ashgabat and gave lessons in athletics and physical development. By the way, he served as a prototype for one of the heroes of A. Kuprin's story "Lighter than Air".
Boys and men from among the local residents came to watch the wrestling competitions. And not only to see. When the official bouts were over, the referee invited everyone who wanted to compete against the famous wrestlers. The local strongmen were waiting for this moment. They took off their telpeks, dressing gowns and, bringing the degree of the fans' emotions to the limit, welcomed visiting experts in the "Bavarian-Mongolian" wrestling into their strong arms.
Sometimes, such fights ended in complete victory of the Turkmen strongmen. The legend about one of such heroes - Mottyk-palvan from Bagir is still alive among the people.
The national circus art in Turkmenistan began to form in 1924, and was represented mainly by horsemen. Then the first ensemble "Dzhigits Alibek" was created, led by Alibek Kantemirov, who developed a school of horse riding. Horse riding at that time was not a truly circus genre number. For the first time, she was introduced to the circus by Turkmen artists who took all the best from the national equestrian art.
In 1928, an equestrian ensemble "Attraction in the Caucasus Mountains" of eight people was formed under the leadership of M. Tuganov. In 1940, in preparation for the decade of arts of Turkmenistan in Moscow, Turkmen girls entered the troupe of the theater for the first time.
The Ashgabat circus did not stop its activities during the Great Patriotic War. The team developed programs of an anti-fascist propaganda orientation, which included scenes, reprises, couplets filled with humor, optimism and unshakable faith in our victory. These performances raised the spirits and morale of the soldiers who were undergoing treatment in Ashgabat hospitals and the townspeople, home front workers.
In February 1942, the tour of the animal trainer Yuri Durov from the famous dynasty of circus artists took place in Ashgabat with great success.
In 1944, at the Ashgabat circus, a studio of Turkmen riders was opened under the leadership of V. Galkanov, who created the ensemble "Dzhigits of Sunny Turkmenistan". The ensemble toured the cities of the Soviet Union with invariable success.
The building of the first Ashgabat circus was destroyed by the 1948 earthquake. But the circus life in the country did not stop. Traveling circus-tent regularly came to Ashgabat on tour, and in the country itself, work continued on improving the amusement ride.
At the beginning of 1960, the Turkmen traveling circus ensemble of equestrians was headed by the People's Artist of Turkmenistan Dovlet Khodzhabaev, and at the end of the year another group was formed on the basis of this collective - "The Ensemble of Dzhigits Annayev", under the leadership of People's Artist of Turkmenistan A. Annayev. In 1982 it was supplemented by the B. Annaev’s ensemble of dzhigits.
Turkmen circus art was also presented by the attraction of trained animals, Honored Artist of Turkmenistan N. Kochakov.
For many years, Turkmen horsemen conquered the hearts of spectators in different parts of the world with their skill. And although they performed as part of the Soviet circus, they always under the flag of Turkmenistan. Often, after performances, famous politicians, world pop and film stars came to our riders behind the scenes to express their admiration for the art of Turkmen horsemen.
