There are many ways to celebrate Mother's Day. One of the most peculiar is going to be that of Roxane Semiankiv Gilliand: in the air. And in triplicate. The Swiss trapeze artist from Cirque du Soleil, one of the protagonists of the show Alegría. Under a new light, today she will become an angel three times – that is her role – in the sky of the tent installed in l’Hospitalet de Llobregat. “Intense week,” she smiles, “but my daughter will be here with me.” Her daughter is Ksenia, two and a half years old, and her partner, Maksym, a former Ukrainian Olympic gymnast whom she met when she began preparing for the new Alegría in 2018.
“For me, being a mother in a circus is normal, it has always been that way,” she explains. My daughter was five months old when I returned to the tent. She was born during covid and I missed the circus. It's the life I wanted to give him. And I am very happy that she can live this experience.” To make family life easier, the circus allows them to choose apartments instead of hotel rooms. Of course, if in the past the tents carried kindergarten or school - there are around twenty children on the tour - now they take the little ones to schools in the cities they go to or they attend school online.
But it's not yet time for Ksenia and for now one of the basic differences is that, in addition to flying through the sky in the synchronized trapeze duo, Roxane's schedules are unique. “When I have a day off or free time it's all about being there and playing with her. Take her to the beach or the park, enjoy and play all the time before going to work at sunset.”
Does a nomadic life complicate parenting? “For me it is normal. Of course you need more organization. We change cities all the time, house, routine. But my daughter is used to it, she has seen seven countries, countless cities, taken the plane 42 times, and she knows that on certain days we pack a suitcase and she helps us put away all the toys and she is happy. And when we get to her new house it is very exciting for her.”
He is also excited to see the show. “He sings, he loves the Alegría song, so at home I listen to the song a couple of times on my days off,” laughs Roxane. She also fell in love with the circus as a child, “she was five or six years old and was already asking my mother to do the circus,” and when she saw the original Alegría in Switzerland at the age of 11, she knew what she would do. “With my daughter now the normal thing is to see people backstage on the trapeze or walking on the hand. “She sees me perform and says, ‘mama, mama,’ and she tries to imitate me.” And she concludes that circus means “travel, discovering many countries, cities, different cultures, different people. With this life I see that my daughter grows very quickly, she learns many languages and is very open. It is a very beautiful life. And being able to make Alegría is simply magical.”
