(This is the only article I found in English that featured Bello Nock via Google)  Not sure if the English speaking world doesn’t care about Monaco, or Google is not finding it. )  Anyway, Congrats Bello!

Bello in the ring at Monte Carlo. In the foreground wearing a Bello Wig is Prince George II.

http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/01/24/41046470.html

At circus festival in Monaco, Russians win 3 awards

The festival will be over on Tuesday, but the winners have already been named. Out of 10 awards, 3 were won by Russians.

This is the 35th time that this festival is being held. This time, Russia sent quite a big team to this feast of circus art. Though Russians showed an impressive program featuring eight performances, it still was rather hard to compete with other participants – in total, there were over 200 circus performers from 18 countries at this festival.

“We have invited so many Russian performers because they always show a high class,” says the festival’s vice president Urs Pilz. “Another country which is also widely represented is China, which also has a strong circus school.”

Circus performer at Monte Carlo

Russia was represented not only by two Moscow circuses, known as the Old and the New circuses, but also by artists from other regions – like a children’s company from the city of Izhevsk. For the young artists, taking part in this festival, which is considered to be the world’s most prestigious, is already a big victory. As for the Moscow’s Old Circus, which, by the way, turns 130 this year, it has been a part of this festival a number of times already.

In an interview for the Voice of Russia, one of Moscow’s Old Circus’s managers Alexander Ogurtsov said:

“Perhaps, one of our most impressive shows is a group of acrobats headed by Alikhan Alikhanov, with most complicated tricks. Another star is juggler Pavel Ryzhov with a very beautiful program for which he got the bronze at the Paris festival “The Circus of Tomorrow”. I’d also like to mention Roman Khapyorskiy, our very artistic tightrope walker.”

At the Monaco festival, Roman Khapyorskiy took out the bronze clown. He impressed spectators with how masterfully he uses his body. The group of trapeze artists, lead by Alisher Aliev, got the silver for their program “White Birds”. What ultimately swayed judges’ decision was that the program included a most complicated trick that has largely been forgotten in today’s circus for its complexity – a somersault where the performer rotates around his axis. Another bronze was won by acrobats headed by Vipkhiy Khubaev from Moscow’s New Circus. The gold went to Italian elephant trainer Flavio Togni and American clown Bello Nock.

The awards ceremony will take place on Tuesday, at a gala concert overseen by Russian stage director Oxana Druzninina.

“This is more recognition of Russian talents,” says Alexander Ogurtsov.

“Oxana Druzhinina was invited to Monte Carlo to stage the opening and the closing ceremony of this festival. Her idea for the closing is really grandiose – all 200 participants of the festival enter the arena, simultaneously performing their programs! The artistic director of the festival Alan Frere told me that something like this has never been done before in the whole history of circus art.”