Finally you can feel the circus air again – “finally there are real light tests again instead of just ‘office light'”, says Martin Lacey when visiting Circus Krone. His wife Jana Lacey-Krone carries 14-month-old Charles, the second son of the director couple, in her arms. “I’m incredibly happy that we’re starting again after a break of almost two years,” says the director happily. But what does a break mean for artists and animal teachers, who of course kept rehearsing and working, albeit without an audience. But now, with a February 17 launch date in mind, it feels different. Artists and props from all over the world arrive at the circus every day. At the premiere there are 60 international acrobats, clowns and musicians presenting their skills.
This morning, the Italian-Czech couple Eliane Stipka-Biasini and Daniel Stipka are rehearsing with two horses in the ring. Eliane is just climbing onto her husband’s shoulders, balancing herself elegantly in the air. Their daughter, 16-year-old Nelly, watches attentively from the edge of the arena. Her acrobatic “pas de deux” seems perfectly rehearsed on horseback, but this “cold start” is a special challenge for everyone, explains Lacey. Because the processes had been idle for two years not only for the artists, but for all employees “from the toilet attendant to the lighting technicians” and now have to be rehearsed in a concentrated manner.
The Italian-Czech couple Eliane Stipka-Biasini and Daniel Stipka rehearse their acrobatic “Pax de deux” on horseback.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
“Traditionally, the winter season begins on December 25, a date that our Munich audience has been preparing for for decades,” says Lacey. Viewers who want to buy tickets for very specific days, even for very specific places where their family has “always” sat, come to the checkout. “Now we have to find out whether the audience will change, whether they will accept other dates and places.” And whether it is open to “New Memories”, as the title of the new program promises. During the winter season, the circus usually plays three changing programs from December to the end of March in front of around 450,000 visitors. But what is normal after a two-year break and a start in the middle of February, even if now with a permitted 75 percent capacity? “We simply don’t yet know what we can charge for advertisements and the rental of advertising space,” points out Jana Lacey-Krone.
But the signs are good, even before the Krone had even opened its ticket office, the visitors came. “These were loyal spectators who only found out from our website that we had decided to start; the sale was still only through Munich Ticket, but they still came by,” says Lacey. In the meantime, however, visitors are again being greeted personally, for example by Tania Munoz, who is happy to finally be able to remove the “closed” sign from her counter. She has been working at “her” cash desk for twenty years, before that she performed in the Krone Manege for many years, “as a trapeze artist,” she says with a proud smile.
Happy that she can open her counter again: Tania Munoz has been welcoming visitors at the checkout for twenty years.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
Not only the visitors, but also artists from all over the world called the Krones as soon as the reopening became public. They offered themselves as a spontaneous replacement if a performance should be cancelled, sometimes even for very small fees. “They all really want to work, but we’ve already completed our program,” says Lacey. And of course they paid their artists the originally agreed fees, everything else was out of the question for him and Jana, and it also didn’t correspond to the style of the traditional company, says Lacey. It’s no coincidence that the 130 employees of the circus, from the craftsmen to the animal keepers to the kitchen staff, hung a large billboard on the street fence diagonally opposite the entrance: on it the employees thank you for the fact that not a single one of them has been laid off since the closure in March 2020
One of them is the saddler Eugeniusz Niescior, who has been doing the leather work for the Krones and taking care of the bridle for 37 years. With a broad smile, he presents the huge sewing machines in the spacious workshop above the cloakroom. It’s anyone’s guess who will take on this job one day. It’s a profession that hardly anyone learns anymore. “In any case, my son does something completely different, he is being trained in IT,” says Niescior. With a little regret, but also with pride in his voice.
37 years for the crown: The saddler Eugeniusz Niescior is responsible for the leather work in the circus.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
Meanwhile, Judita Dimoiu, who has been sewing the costumes for Krones with her husband for nine years, has the red uniforms of the prop masters in front of her. She examines the gold trimmings of the jackets, everything is “perfect”, she nods contentedly. Even the blue jacket that the circus director slips on fits like a glove. The costume for the boss is ready on a tailor’s dummy, which corresponds exactly to the dimensions of the boss. At least on the outside, the pandemic has left no traces.
Nelly Stipka, daughter of the Stipka duo, visits the zebras Massai and Pongo.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
The machinery is rolling again. In the case of the Mustafa Danguir group from Morocco, there are even two interlocking Ferris wheels turning in the ring. A performance with which the artists were actually invited to the Circus Festival in Monte Carlo in January. But that was cancelled, for the second time in a row. The joy of the artists is all the greater to finally be able to perform again. Nelly Stipka also longs for a fresh start. When she stops by the zebras Massai and Pongo, she reports on her own horse act, which she has since built up. Yes, the animals. “We can’t say exactly how our horses and lions will react,” reflects Lacey. Like everyone else, they lack experience with light, music and audience. So it will be exciting when it says: Clear the manege!
New Memories, February 17th to April 3rd, Circus Krone