Larible is not traveling alone: his daughter Shirley (26) and, for the first time, David junior (18) are also in the ring. "I've been rehearsing for this performance for eleven years," says David junior. He discovered his talent for juggling at the age of seven and is now part of a major circus tour for the first time. "This is my first big engagement, my first big performance," he says proudly. Like her father, his big sister Shirley was already part of the 2014 Knie tour: "I love circus life. I feel at home in a caravan next to a circus. It's just a different attitude to life." In the program, she can be seen in a daredevil act in a net on the ceiling. "I'm not secured, there's no room for mistakes," she says. Her father David takes his breath away every time he watches: "But we're not crazy in the circus, we're prepared." He was also the one who wanted to get the best out of his children. "You don't want your children to be 'just' good," he says. The two of them also had a special pressure: "People expect a lot from my children, as they already have a well-known artist surname."
From grandfather to granddaughter, everyone is involved
With Fredy junior (69) and his wife Mary-José, daughter Géraldine (46) and her husband Maycol Errani (30) and grandchildren Ivan Frédéric (14) and Chanel Marie (4), there are three generations of the Knie circus dynasty in the ring. The animals take center stage: horses, ponies, zebras, llamas and camels perform tricks and impress not only the children. It is the first tour without the elephant act: Franco Knie will concentrate on the children's zoo in Rapperswil in future, and Franco Knie junior is employed as technical director of the circus and is responsible for greeting and saying goodbye to the audience.
In addition to artists from Ukraine, China and North Korea, the TwinSpin diabolo duo from Germany will also be performing in the ring. The two Berliners met during a performance in Belgium and have been performing together for three years. "We're really excited about circus life, this is our first big tour," says Lukas Stelter (21). "We got our category B driving license especially for this so that we can drive from place to place with our caravans in tow." They got into diabolo through their hobby, says Benno Jacob (30). "We both graduated from the school for artists in Berlin. There we concentrated on diabolo to become really good." And they did: they skillfully let the diabolos fly through the ring, juggle them at each other and play with as many diabolos as possible. They are looking forward to the 41 tour stops: "We've heard that Bern, Lucerne and Lausanne are particularly beautiful."
The 45 artists will get to know Switzerland from many different angles, but they won't have much time to do so, as they will be on the road for 250 days and give 344 performances on 214 days. "The life of an artist is hard work," says David Larible. But the reward is all the better: the laughter of the audience.
CIRCUS KNIE
Tour 2016
TICKETS
