Offspring of a famous Italian circus family, professor of circus and street art at the University of Milan and successful producer of internationally touring circus stage shows - Alessandro Serena is all of these, and also an extremely pleasant conversation partner. It is this rare combination of connection to the roots of the circus and openness to its new developments that makes every conversation with him an enriching experience.
The roots of the circus, the classical circus, are also Alessandro's roots. His aunt is the legendary Italian circus queen Moira Orfei. Her husband Walter Nones once performed in an acrobatic trio with Alessandro's mother. They had worked in revues and nightclubs before Walter Nones and Moira Orfei founded their own circus. Moira achieved fame and success as an actress at an early age and from then on invested every film fee into setting up and expanding the circus.
This is where Alessandro grew up; the circus was the best place for him as a child and teenager. Thus, he was quite unhappy when his parents wanted to send him to high school. The circus already had enough good artists and riders, and they could use an accountant. Young Alessandro did not want to become an artist; it was less the appeal of art than the way of life that he appreciated about the circus. But he followed his parents' wishes and went to school near Venice, where the circus had its winter quarters. He still lives there today.
School was not easy for him, as he had always been on the road. On the other hand, he enjoyed his time at university very much. He studied performing arts at the University of Bologna. So, accounting was not his thing after all; he was more inspired in the artistic field by professors such as Umberto Eco. At the same time, the Moira Orfei circus was expanding. These were successful times; the tent, which held 4,000 people, was regularly full twice a day. When Giuseppe Nones became the first Italian to win the prestigious Golden Clown in Monte Carlo with his tiger troupe in 1987, Alessandro assisted outside the cage with his cousin.
At the end of the 1980s, the circus began producing television shows about the circus. Alessando was in his mid-twenties when his uncle Walter Nones offered him the job of producing these shows. In the first year, all the acts came from the programs of the major Italian circuses. Then Alessandro began traveling all over the world to cast acts, from China to Canada, from North Korea to Mongolia. He brought top artists from all over the world to Milan, where the TV shows were produced.
Later he decided to turn to smaller productions and start his own company. Today, his show productions are run within the company "Mosaico Errante". An important step was working with the Venice Biennale. They realised that Cirque Nouveau was becoming increasingly popular in France and contacted Alessandro. Starting in 2000, he was to bring Cirque Nouveau to the Biennale for four years. This brought him into contact with many theatre directors, choreographers and artists. As artistic director, he staged the show "Ombre di Luna" (Shadow of the Moon) in 2001, one of Italy's pioneering Cirque Nouveau productions. The lines from an interview with “Juggling Magazine” at the time testify to the pioneering work: “‘Directed Circus’, ‘New Circus’, ‘Avant-garde Circus’, ‘Experimental Circus’ – this etymology gives an idea of how comprehensive and fragmented the phenomenon is. This means that one day, in Italy, too, the public will be able to choose between different types of circus and not just go to the circus because a tent arrives.”
In his own productions, Alessandro avoids calling it contemporary circus. “I have always been involved in popular shows; I speak of theater circus, because contemporary circus as a language means something different,” he explains. From a production point of view, however, it is comparable; he tours theaters with shows and works with relatively small casts. This is not the only reason why Alessandro sees himself as a bridge between the types of circus. But this also means risks. "In war, a bridge is the first thing to be disrupted," he says, referring to the divide that exists between the different forms of circus: "My relatives from the classical circus don't like the contemporary circus, and the contemporary circus doesn't care about the classical one." He himself is committed to lobbying for the circus. He is active in the "Ente Nazionale Circhi", the association for classical circus in Italy, and is also a co-founder of the Italian Association for Contemporary Circus. Based on is activities at the university of Milan, the project "Open Circus" has been created to foster the diffusion of circus culture, supported by the ministry of culture.
Perhaps Alessandro's openness also stems from his in-depth studies of circus history. Because, Alessandro is convinced, circus was much broader in the past than it sometimes seems today. A few years ago, he and Antonio Giarola published a book about circus in Verona in the 18th and 19th centuries. They collected posters, contracts with the city, and newspaper reports to get an idea of the circus culture of that time. “Back then, circus was everywhere, only very rarely in a tent,” he says, speaking for instance of guest performances by international artist groups, “throughout history, circus techniques were independent.”
Alessandro is keen to have a deep understanding of the origins and history of circus arts. He regularly publishes books and magazines on historical topics. But he immediately puts things into perspective: "I love the history of the circus, but I'm not sure if it's important. Because 80% of those who work in contemporary circus today know nothing about circus history and still put on good shows."
Putting on good shows is something Alessandro can do, then and now. And he manages to build bridges here too: his "Black Blues Brothers" have performed at both the Monte Carlo Circus Festival and - with great success - several times at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Where does the success come from? He never pursued a strategy, the strategy is to strive for the best and bring circus to the stage. The "Black Blues Brothers" emerged from a collaboration with a circus school in Nairobi that is active in the social circus sector. At that time, all artists performed in the African style, so he wanted to try something new, suggested the style of the "Blues Brothers" and they created the show together.
"The show was OK, we were lucky to get a performance in a beautiful theater in Rome," says Alessandro modestly. There, completely unexpectedly, Italy's most renowned theater critic wrote an enthusiastic review, paving the way for success. This is inseparably linked to Edinburgh, and the show was a hit at the Fringe. It had a certain "momentum," as it is often called. "Edinburgh is unpredictable. We worked very hard on the show, but ultimately I can't say why it was so successful," says Alessandro. "If someone tries to explain to you how it works in Edinburgh, don't believe them."
If all the success is luck, then Alessandro has a lot of it. Because he is doing well as a producer. The "Black Blues Brothers" are touring with two shows, as are star clown David Larible and the Ukrainian pantomime ensemble DEKRU. With his friend Raffaele de Ritis, he produces high-quality number programs with some of the best artists in the world with the “Gran Gala du Cirque”. Further projects are in the planning stages. With the “Black Blues Brothers”, he would like to explore the African roots of the artists in another production. With South American artists, he is working on a show project inspired by the Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez. And together with his cousins, he is developing ideas for a production about Moira Orfei using the means of modern circus.
This not only closes the circle between the circus forms, but also between the different worlds in which Alessandro Serena moves in his life. When asked about what connects all the different types of circus, he answers with a wonderful closing statement: “Circus is so rich and beautiful. When you do circus, it needs all your energy, it is the reason for living.”
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