Slava Polunin

Polunin was born in the town of Novosil, Oryol Oblast, Russia, into the family of a shop assistant. He was successful in his school theatre, imitating Charlie Chaplin, but was refused entry to the Leningrad Theater Institute due to poor pronunciation. After a few years' study at an engineering school, he graduated from the Leningrad Institute for Soviet Culture, where he later taught.

In 1967 Polunin joined the Mime Studio at Lensovet Palace of Culture led by Edward Rozinsky, a student of the Leningrad State Institute of Theatre, Music, and Cinema (where he also later taught{{cite web | title=Essential Stage Fencing: Training Manual for Actors, by Rozinsky, Edward [blurb] | website=amazon.com.au | date=16 August 2022 | url=https://www.amazon.com.au/Essential-Stage-Fencing-Training-Manual/dp/B08YQR61VD | access-date=18 August 2022}}) at that time.Irina Terentieva, russiantvguide.com{{better source needed|date=August 2022}} His first success came as a leading performer of pantomime pieces in the show 21 novels about Funny and Serious, created by Rozinsky.Leningradskaia Pravda, April 5, 1972 In 1980 Slava Polunin created his clown character Asisyai that brought him national fame. Soon after, Slava put together a theater group, Licidei (Old Russian for "street actors").{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

In 1981, his first very successful television performance took place on the New Year's Eve program Goluboy Ogonyok (Голубой огонёк). It was a part of his now famous Asisyai-revue.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

In 1982, in Leningrad he organized a mime parade in which more than 800 mime artists from the Soviet Union took part. It was an unheard of event featuring semi-underground artists at a time of strict Communist control of all artistic events.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

In 1985, during the World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow he organized a master class of pantomime, attended by many Western mimes.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

In 1987, Polunin organized the USSR Festival of Street Theatres (Всесоюзный Фестиваль Уличных Театров); more than 200 participants, including critics and children, lived on an uninhabited island in the Gulf of Finland and made short excursions by boat to the nearby city of Leningrad.

File:Slava Polunin at Russian Film Week USA (Quintin Soloviev).jpg

By 1988, Licedei had created five highly successful shows: Dreamers (Фантазёры), Eccentrics on the attic (Чурдаки), From the life of insects, Asisyai-revue and Catastrophe. The members decided to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the theater with its funeral. The events included funeral speeches over multiple coffins labeled with the names of the participants, followed by a funeral procession with the coffins through the streets of Leningrad. Then the coffins were set aflame and floated down the Neva river. Despite the theatrical style of the performance, it was indeed the end of the theater. The participants believed Konstantin Stanislavski, who stated that any theater dies after it has existed for 20 years.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

In 1989, Polunin organized The Caravan of Peace, in which mimes from different parts of the world were on the road for half a year giving street performances in many European cities. Later, he started the Academy of Fools, the center devoted to the "resurrection of the carnival culture in Russia".{{Citation needed|date=August 2008}} The project was started with Polunin's own money, but when the money was spent, the project was frozen. In 1994, Polunin declared that he would make a few commercially successful shows in the West and then return to continue the work of the Academy with the money earned. Among the shows he organized were the highly successful Slava's Snowshow (Снежное шоу) which has been a hit in over 80 countries,{{Cite web|url=https://www.list.co.uk/article/66281-interview-slavas-snow-show-creator-slava-polunin/|title=Interview: Slava's Snow Show creator Slava Polunin|website=The List|date=13 November 2014 |access-date=2016-03-28}} and Diabolo devoted to "comical meditation on life, death, and the beauty of the universe".{{cite news | author=Dan Bacalzo | title=Review: Slava's Snowshow | url=http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/5092 | work=TheaterMania | date=9 Sep 2004 | accessdate=2009-02-19}} Slava partly attributes the widespread appeal of his performances to the method of pantomime: "You have to be without language for people to understand you everywhere."{{Cite web |last=Skibsrud |first=Johanna |date=April 25, 2021 |title=Touching the Impossible: A Conversation with Slava Polunin |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/touching-the-impossible-a-conversation-with-slava-polunin/ |access-date=July 21, 2022 |website=LA Review of Books}}

He has earned many prestigious awards including Gold Angle (Scotland), Gold Nose (Spain), Triumph (Russia) and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment (1998).Сергей Гаврилов [http://www.euxpress.de/archive/artikel_8054.html Театрализация жизни] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130626043537/http://www.euxpress.de/archive/artikel_8054.html |date=2013-06-26 }} // Европа-экспресс, Берлин, № 5 (517), 28 января 2008

Polunin voiced a character in the Russian animated feature film Gofmaniada.{{cite news | author=Zoya Igumnova | script-title=ru:Шемякин экранизирует Гофмана | url=http://www.sobesednik.ru/archive/sb/44_2008/gofman_44_2008 | language=ru | work=Sobesednik | date=11 November 2008 | access-date=2009-02-19 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101124012528/http://www.sobesednik.ru/archive/sb/44_2008/gofman_44_2008 | archive-date=24 November 2010 }}

• Only in Music Hall (1980) — himself
• Believe It or Not (1983) — foreign tsar
• And then Came Bumba... (1984) — clown
• We Are the Clowns (1985) — himself
• Four Clowns Under One Roof (1985) — himself
• How to Become a Star (1986) — himself
• Zero-One (1986) — citizen
• To Kill a Dragon (1988) — aeronaut
• Hello, Fools! (1996) — Jura Kablukov / Auguste Derulen (voice — Andrey Myagkov)
• Clown (2002) — himself; also served as a producer[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOBQYt9Jgbo Slava Polunin / Clown (2002) HD] at Polunin's official YouTube channel
• Hunchback (2006) — himself (the film wasn't completed)
• Snow Show 3D (2012) — himself
• Signature (2013) — himself
• Marussia (2013) — himself
• Hoffmaniada (2018) — fake pastor (voice)

• [https://www.slavasnowshow.com/ Official website]
• {{IBDB name}}
• {{IMDb name|689883}}
• [http://www.academyoffools.com Slava Polunin and the Academy of Fools]
• [http://ru.scribd.com/doc/106971542/Slava-Polunin-A-Monologue-of-the-Clown Slava Polunin: The Monologue of a Clown, a 9-part interview, translated from Russian into English]
• [http://www.forbes.ru/profile/vyacheslav-polunin Slava Polunin at the Forbes]

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Category:1950 births

Category:Living people

Category:Russian clowns

Category:Russian male actors

Category:Russian mimes

Category:Laurence Olivier Award winners

Category:People from Oryol Oblast

Category:Soviet clowns

Category:Cirque du Soleil performers

Category:People's Artists of Russia

Category:Soviet male actors

Category:Recipients of the Lenin Komsomol Prize

Category:Russian theatre directors

Category:Russian Academy of Theatre Arts alumni

Category:Soviet theatre directors