THE BIG TENT OF THE CIRCUS Americano-Togni was erected under the blue sky of the Cote d'Azur December 8-12, 1983, for the 9th International Circus Festival of Monte Carlo.

 

Thirty-nine circus artistes from around the world, including five juggling acts, performed for spectators and jury in hopes of winning one of the festival's coveted trophies.

 

Sergei Ignatov of the Soviet Union won top prize among them, receiving one of four second-place Silver Clowns. The single Gold Clown awarded as top prize for the entire festival went to Li Lipping, a female Chinese contortionist and balancing artiste.

 

Anthony Gatto, 1982 UA juniors champion, received the the Prix Louis Merlin from Cary Grant. Named in honor of a former French minister of culture, the Prix Merlin represents the next highest honor following the Clown prizes. Serge Percelly from Switzerland won a prize awarded by the Friends of the Swiss Circus. The Three Dunais, Hungarian equestrian jugglers, won a French Entertainment Press Association Award. Also appearing was the American Martin Lamberti.

 

Following their selection, the winners appeared before more than 4,000 people and festival sponsor Prince Rainier III in a four-hour gala performance.

 

During the competition, Percelly appeared in a tennis outfit, and juggled up to five tennis rackets and five tennis balls, as well as doing a ball and mouthstick routine. Born in Geneva , Percelly made his performing debut in 1981 as a 16-year old with the Boswell-Wilkie circus in South Africa .

 

The Three Dunais, Sandor Donnert and his partners Zsuzsa and Imre, presented the classical and seldom-seen art of jug­gling on horseback. They stood upright on one, two, or three trotting horses and passed torches between themselves.

 

Martin Lamberti juggled with four and five rubber balls, up to eight rings, and with three, four, and five large soccer balls. His finale with three cigar boxes was reminiscent of Kris Kremo's Silver Clown-winning act in the 1981 festival.

 

From Monte Carlo , Ignatov, Gatto, and Gatto's family proceeded to West Berlin to participate in the annual circus show, "Men, Beasts, and Sensations," which ran from December 21-31 in the Deutch-Landhalle. Though it was not so noted in the program or by the press, the appearance in a single show by two such world-class jugglers represented an historical event in German juggling history .

 

Ignatov, a 32-year old Muscovite, is a poet among jugglers. He works in a quiet, reserved manner accompanied by classical music. His artistic sense, enormous skill, and suitable choice of music create an air ballet of quasi-movable objects typical of the high-quality product produced by all artistes of the Soviet school of circus.

 

He brought a revolution to juggling in the 1970's, and has been a standout ever since. His work with five and seven middle-sized balls, three and five clubs, and five, six, seven, and nine rings was the same act he performed during his American tour in 1978.

 

Due to a shoulder operation four years ago, he had to remove from his act his seven ring pirouette and eleven ring cascade. In rehearsal, however, Ignatov showed these tricks with the comment, "I'm putting them back into my repertoire this year."

 

Gatto appeared on the show immediately following Ignatov, his props hanging on a Mickey Mouse statuette. He juggled five and seven small balls, three, four and five clubs, (including behind the back throws with five), four rings, and a ball with a half-pirouette and up to seven rings. In the last five months Gatto has greatly enriched his repertoire, and now performs a 20-minute program with the most difficult juggling combinations imaginable.

 

In each of two daily performances, Gatto amazed more than 6,000 spectators.  Included among them was Rudolf Weins­heimer, first cellist of the Berlin Philharmonic. The musician invited the boy to demonstrate his juggling at a Philharmonic rehearsal for the orchestra and its noted conductor Herbert von Karajan.

 

Following the surprise performance, (he was not told about it beforehand) von Karajan took the boy in his arms and said, "You are a great artiste." Gatto told Karajan that one of his greatest loves outside of juggling is the violin, which he has been studying for three years. Never before in the 100-year history of the Berlin Philharmonic had a circus artiste taken his place on the director's podium.

 

IJA correspondent Karl-Heinz Ziethen, who spent a great deal of time with Ignatov and Gatto during their Berlin stay, commented afterward, "Though I confidently count both Ignatov and Gatto among the greatest jugglers of all time (with Paul Cinquavelli, Enrico Rastelli, and Francis Brunn), they cannot be compared because their approaches to the art are entirely different.

 

"Ignatov works very hard. He woke at 6 a.m. and began his day with a run, then practiced juggling and gymnastics for four or five more hours.

 

"Gatto, on the other hand, has that certain ability that cannot be learned. He practices only an hour a day, and spends the rest of his time playing with other children his age. He is different from all jugglers in that he is learning juggling through his eyes. He needs only think through a trick, practice it a few times and then he can do it, where other people need weeks or months to learn the same skill. "