What It's Like: To Be A Circus Flora Performer

Photograph by Mike DeFilippo

Sasha Alexandre Nevidonski

The act is the only one of its kind in the world. Nevidonski’s performances, part equestrian and part aerial, resemble more art-in-motion than circus, with the bare-chested athlete swinging and soaring from his trotting saddlebred’s back as a lyrical ballad plays overhead. It’s taken the 39-year-old Kazakhstan native a lifetime of performing around the world—from Paris to New York—to envision and refine the act. Now in his fourth year with Circus Flora, performing “Medrano” June 4 through 21 in Grand Center, Nevidonski says of the feat, “It’s a dream come true.”
 

In His Words...

• I remember my mom bringing me to a circus when I was a child. The shows are really big in Russia. I always dreamed of doing something aerial.
• I did all-around gymnastics from the age of 5 to 15. My gymnastics background prepared me for the Moscow Circus School. I already knew how to use my body in that way.
• You never forget the first time. My circus debut was in South Africa, when I was 21. It was so overwhelming.
• Accidents happen, but we’re taught how to avoid and handle them. I injured my shoulder about a year and a half ago, but I was able to finish the act. Not even my wife could tell during the performance.
• While performing, you still have to be able to smile like it’s really easy. It takes so much concentration and focus.
• You have to work at it. I practice six days per week and go to the gym around three hours per day
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  . It’s not just that practice makes perfect—perfect practice makes perfect.
• My horse’s name is Mammut, derived from “mammoth.” When he arrived, he was the biggest horse in the stable.
• The most difficult part is to make the horse feel comfortable, so that it’s a playground for him and not work.
• You’re always nervous... But you give this happiness to people, and you can feel it back.
• Usually when I tell people that I’m from Kazakhstan, they don’t believe me. They think I’m joking. They ask if I’m upset about Borat. Honestly, I thought it was hilarious.