About our creator and founder
Olga Sidorova was born in Siberia and graduated from the Moscow Circus School, where she specialized in solo swinging trapeze, developing tricks with her coach, Genady Totouhov, that had never been performed before. She toured with the Moscow State Circus and Cirque du Soleil and coached at the National Institute of Circus Arts in Melbourne, Australia. Now settled in Sydney, she is the creator and founder of Dancing in the Air®, an advanced training and creation program which seeks to push the boundaries of aerial performance.
Her life and career are profiled in the book Dreams of the Solo Trapeze: Offstage with the Cirque du Soleil, by Mark Schreiber. Follow the performers in Cirque du Soleil’s Saltimbanco in the only behind-the-scenes book ever written about the world famous company.
Philosophy
Dancing in the Air takes place between heaven and earth and reflects the yin and yang of human experience: man and woman, love and hatred, laughter and tears. We evoke a fantasy that is more sophisticated than a child’s dream because we are not just angels flying to heaven but humans coming down to earth again. It is from this attraction and conflict that timeless stories are born, and these are the stories we tell.
Tradition and Evolution
Circuses started as small family businesses. But this model has changed and the future lies not in performing for children in sawdust rings but for corporate clients, festivals and exhibitions. This means a new sophistication, a focus on adult audiences, and most importantly, performances tailored for specific events to create an emotional connection with the market audience.
The approach to coaching at Dancing in the Air combined with graduate qualifications in business, marketing and event management has enabled us to create a series of workshops, programs and tailored consultancy. So we are uniquely positioned to bring the needs of the performer and the corporate sponsor into harmony to create magic in the air. Our aim is to provide each student with the ultimate professional aerial arts experience, to guide them to the point of discovering that their own dreams can come true.
As a young girl in Siberia I always knew I wanted to soar on the trapeze. But for many years I flew alone. Now I want to share my wings to help others fly. I invite you to join us in this adventure to break old boundaries to achieve whatever heights inspire us through creative collaboration, sensous communication and mutual inspiration.
I would like to thank Shana Carroll for being my personal inspiration and creative support to drive me to succeed with Dancing in the Air.