There are several moments during Cirque du Soleil’s latest show, “Kurios: Cabinet of Curiosities,’’ when the audience thinks to itself: No way!
One, surely, is when Mini Lili makes her first appearance, popping unexpectedly from the prodigious belly of the character Mr. Microcosmos. How is that possible, you say? Easy: Mini Lili is small, very small.
The character, a diminutive dame whose furnished apartment inside Mr. Microcosmos’s stomach is the picture of Victorian elegance, is played by Antanina Satsura, who at 3-foot-2 and barely 40 pounds, is one of the world’s smallest people. Unlike the show’s aerialists, acrobats, and contortionists, Mini Lili doesn’t do much except swan around. Still, when she’s onstage, you can’t take your eyes off her.
“To me, it was important that it be not only about her height, but about this sparkle that she has, this spirit that she has,” says the show’s Quebecois writer-director, Michel Laprise. “Mini Lili has got that Hollywood timeless presence.”
Last week, we sat down with Satsura as she got ready — “Kurios” is under the big top at Suffolk Downs through July 10 — and talked (with the aid of a translator) about growing up in Russia and her life as a circus performer.
Born in Belarus, Satsura, 62, had worked as an accountant for seven years before being offered a job with the Moscow State Circus. It never occurred to her to say no.
“I would get onstage with another small person and we would disappear,” she says, describing one of her early acts. “Then two bigger performers would appear.”
It made her happy to hear the audience laugh and she didn’t feel at all exploited. Satsura, who worked for the Moscow circus for 25 years, is also a talented seamstress and enjoyed making costumes for the performers.
“I always wanted to be onstage and I loved the audience,” she says. “Being onstage gives me energy and interest in life. You should live your life the way you are.”
Satsura has done that. She said she’s glad to be small and doesn’t want to “hide.” Indeed, when she’s not working, Satsura likes to go walking.
“People here are very friendly. I never have any communication problems,” she says. “When I go to a store and I can’t reach for something — if, for instance, the milk is too high for me to reach — I ask someone for help and they always help me. No one has ever refused to help. I never feel like people are surprised to see me.”
And it’s OK if directors call because they need someone small.
“I am always happy when I get invited to be in videos, in commercials, in movies,” says Satsura, who played an elf in the 2007 film “Fred Claus,” starring Vince Vaughn. “Most of the small people are happy for those opportunities, too. It is your choice. You get offered, but you can refuse if you don’t like something.”
When the folks from Cirque du Soleil contacted her — they’d seen her in a video on YouTube — Satsura was retired, living with her dog in Minsk and tending her flower garden. But the opportunity to travel the world — “Kurios” will be in the US for two more years before it heads to Europe — was irresistible.
How long will she perform?
“We’ll see,” she says, winking.
{ SOURCE: Boston Globe | https://goo.gl/oLFJIc }
