Anecdotes Plus: Tricks in a circus

April 2013

A lot of people were going to the circus, Moscow, 2013

I have seen a circus twice, but this was the first time I have seen one with animals. Unfortunately my seat was next to the entrance, whether the performers and the animals come on the stage, so it blocked my view and I could only see half of the stage.

The stage, Moscow, 2013

In the first act we saw tight-rope walkers, trapeze artistes and people jumping up and down through ladders. Two clowns amused the audience with their tricks while they were setting up the next acts.

This consisted the five or six dogs jumping on to the back of a horse one by one. I was worried the horse would kick the dogs into the air.

In the final part there were four elephants - three large and one small. They stood on one leg for around a minute, and then rolled onto their backs. They also walked on their hind legs, and put their fore legs on the shoulders the ones in front. I could see these were very difficult for them. When I saw the small one crowing in between the legs of the others, I felt sorry for it. It was difficult for it to bend its legs and it had to bear its body weight. It did not have to crawl very far compared with its body length, but I was sure it would have been happier if the path had been shorter.

On the other hand, they were running their daily bread and proving that they were not white elephants. The elephants are one of the animals that can do tricks.