Aerialist Milena Oksanen

Milena's story

Milena Oksanen grew up in a small, picturesque town surrounded with different kinds of arts, such as music, ballet, theatre, gymnastics and circus.

Her circus career began at the age of 6, when she saw a circus performance on television. Milena instantly fell in love with the art and convinced her mother to start in a youth circus school called Linnanmäen Sirkuskoulu.

For many years Milena dedicated her life to both circus and artistic gymnastics and she was constantly torn between the two worlds. In the fall of 2007 she made the difficult choice to concentrate solely on circus and headed towards Moscow State Circus School.

She enjoyed a lot training in Moscow since the serious training methods reminded her from the gymnastics training she was used to.

In Moscow Milena concentrated in swinging trapeze, silks and classical ballet. Her minors were handstands and acrobatics. She graduated from Moscow on June 2009 as the second international student throughout Moscow State Circus Schools history.

After graduation Milena traveled to Paris for work. On her trip she met her future teacher Alexander Doubrovsky who convinced her to apply to Academie Fratellini to be his student for three more years. She started her studies in Académie Fratellini fall 2009 and graduated in 2012 as the bachelor of circus arts (Diplôme des métiers des arts).

Her main disciplines in Fratellini were swinging trapeze and aerial silks although the formation was much more diverse than that including contemporary dance, clown workshops, percussion, critical analysis and of course a lot of performing.

Since her graduation from Paris she has strengthened her skills by taking private lessons from both Alexander Doubrovsky in Paris and Victor Fomine the famous trapèze coach in Montreal,Ni o Canada. She has gained a lot of performing experience all through out her career performing in more than 16 countries and at every single continent. Her most notable rôles include playing the main characer at Cirque du soleil show Le Joyeux Calvaire and playing a Lola Flores tribute trapeze act touring all over Spain with the show The Hole 2 in 2015-2016.

She has also participated in international circus festivals in Russia, Germany and China where she was awarded a Silver Swan. She has performed in places like Le Plus Grand Cabaret du Monde in Paris, Teatro Circo Price in Madrid and Feria Estatal de Leon in Mexico and for companies like Lòreal, Louis Vuitton, Nokia and Ricard.

Currently she is based in Finland but available for contracts worldwide.