Nationality Russian Name Ekaterina Pirogovskaya Movies La Mime | Occupation Clown, mime, actress Role Actress | |
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Pantomime on Pier 39
Ekaterina Pirogovskaya is a Russian clown, mime and actress.
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Life and career
Pirogovskaya was born in Mariupol, Ukraine. She participated in student theatre where she was told she would need to travel to the big city to work in professional theatre. After a year of discussion with her mother, Pirogovskaya flew to Saint Petersburg to study acting.
In 2009, Pirogovskaya had her first audition for Cirque du Soleil in Saint Petersburg. She had no idea what to show in her audition so she brought herself along with a couple of mimes. She passed the first audition and after a wait of eight months was invited to a second audition in Montreal, Canada. Even though she did not yet speak English, she passed the second audition and after nine additional months of waiting began rehearsals for the cinema themed show Iris which ran at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California from 2011 to 2013. Pirogovskaya's Iris character, named Violette, wore a spinning praxinoscope-zoetrope skirt that showed two boxers fighting as the skirt twirled, the costume, designed by award-winning French costume designer Philippe Guillotel, mimicked early animation devices. Pirogovskaya performed in Iris alongside fellow Cirque du Soleil clowns John Gilkey and Eric Davis.
Kurios
In 2014, Pirogovskaya began touring with the Cirque du Soleil show Kurios.
When asked by the Daily Mail in 2014 while touring with Kurios if she gets nervous before a show, Pirogovskaya responded "If I feel nervous, then the audience will feel nervous. Perhaps, sometimes, when we have famous people in the audience, like Justin Timberlake. We help each other, learn from each other. Before joining Cirque, I didn’t speak English. We teach each other languages. Every new city is, “Hello, hello!”"