Aleksey Smolov
Health sports specialist, Cyr wheel artist, fire juggler
Aleksey is a contemporary circus artist from Latvia. He was a martial arts practitioner and a fire artist before being introduced to the performing arts – circus and dance – where a Cyr wheel became an apparatus of his passion and a medium to explore the outer and inner worlds. Aleksey has been acquiring knowledge mostly in an autodidactic way and through the independent studies in the Department of Circus of Stockholm University of the Arts.
In his artistic career Aleksey participates in various transdisciplinary creations and performances mostly in Baltics, is a co-creator of the first Latvian contemporary circus and dance performance “Faux Pas” and is a first prize winner of the contemporary circus acts contest Cyrkulacija 2021 in Poland. Currently Aleksey as a member of a Lithuania based contemporary circus company Taigi Cirkas performs a piece “Up to this Point”, begins the new creation in a collaboration with an Estonian aerial artist Lizeth Wolk and continues work on research of interplay and exchange in improvisational music and circus with a Netherlands based Swedish reed player Marcus Wärnheim. Aleksey can be met on the streets of Riga within an interactive performance in the urban environment “Circus in the City” and as a participant of an international educational project “Circus for Climate” starting this year.
In his performances Aleksey combines a highly technical, expressive and authentic interaction with a circus apparatus called Cyr Wheel, which is a human height big and roughly 15 kg heavy metal ring, together with surprising movements of dance acrobatics finding the perfect balance of this two disciplines.
Apart from performing Aleksey is a circus teacher in Riga Circus school teaching floor and dance acrobatics and performing classes and a member of the board of a Latvian non-profit organization “Next Door Circus” which among other activities conduct inclusive circus events for people with disabilities and their relatives.
