Hi Steemit!
Vasily Demenchukov here!
I want to share my life story with you, which was by no means an easy life; and I hope it inspires you to believe in the way Fate and hard work can come together to help you reach your life goals. This first post will be an introduction to my story.
And so I begin:
I was born in 1955 in a small village called Iskra (a name which means the spark of a match coming to life when it’s struck against the box,) in the Kursk Oblast (like a province) of Russia.
Every village has a well (kolodetz). Everyone comes to it to retrieve water to get their daily needs met: water for dishes, water to drink, water to clean the house, etc. You bring your bucket to the well, lower it down with a hook-ended pole until it fills with water and your arms strain to keep the heavy bucket from being lost to the dark depths of the well. Then you heave up your now-heavy buckets home alone, for as far as it takes to walk back home.
The school all the children had to attend was 24 kilometers (roughly 15 miles) away from my home. In Russia, you cannot miss even one day of school—so I had to walk or bike that distance every day, back and forth; in the winter, I had to ski. Yes, really!
The difficulties of my childhood growing up in a remote Russian village prepared me for the challenges of life ahead, and helped me realize my potential in the world. In fact, I strongly believe the daily ritual of gathering water from the well- from what was essentially the spring of life for the all of the villagers- was also the spring of my own life, and the origin of a certain vitality that keeps me going to this day.
I spent my college years in Ukraine, where I earned bachelor degrees in Sports/Fitness and Physical Rehabilitation Therapy, as well as bachelors in Law and Engineering. On top of that, I participated heavily in acrobatics and gymnastics, and began performing in the Russian National Circus troupe.
The first great thrill of my career was when I performed a number I invented myself in front of my teachers and classmates. It was an acrobatic balancing act: I used 8 antique chairs, which I balanced in pyramid form on an antique table, as old as the 1800s (the age of my props lent a certain dangerous element to the act). I would stack the chairs on each other and climb on top of them and their progressing heights, all while carrying a cake with burning candles. I realized it was a really unique performance that everyone could appreciate, whether the audience was young and easily impressed or an older crowd that thought there was nothing new to see. Everyone was excited by it, and the shot of adrenaline I got from their excitement inspired me to continue pushing myself.
Eventually, I became a performer for the world-renowned Cirque de Soleil. I would say my career lasted 33 years as an equilibrium performer. Those 33 years, performing on world-famous stages and on international television, when I met famous theater stars and movie actors, celebrities, politicians, and singers—all of that feels like it happened in the blink of an eye.
In the coming posts, I will share photos featuring many interesting individuals (each with a story behind it), tales of tough times amidst travels across the world, and my current ventures that continue my passion for show business!
With Michael Jackon 1992 Las Vegas
With Donald Trump 2006 New York
