Array Variety Show in Pigeon Forge is Always a Big Hit

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Leann Farley and Semyon Gruzdev met about 15 years ago when they were both performing in the Yakow Smirnoff Show in Branson, Mo., and have been performing their aerial silks and quick change act together since 2010.

Currently they are performers at the “Array Variety Show” at the Mountain of Entertainment Theater in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., but before starting here spent eight seasons at the former Smoky Mountain Opry Theater in Pigeon Forge.

“We enjoy working together,” Farley said before a recent performance. “Our act has evolved a lot. We transitioned dancing into aerial arts, and then over the years, we’ve added more acts to our repertoire. We just did aerial first, and then a few years later, we added the Quick Change Act and then more aerial solo pieces.”

Farley, a Missouri native, has been dancing professionally since age 15. Gruzdev was a member of the Russian National Theater Dance Group.

They say it’s not unusual for aerialists to “have more than one act” to entertain audiences.

“We know minds wander easily if we don’t fully entertain you and everybody wants more bang for their buck,” Gruzdev said.

He had worked in Pigeon Forge before meeting Farley, so when the duo got offered a chance to work in Pigeon Forge he was all for it.

“I already was familiar with the area, and I had a few friends still in the area, so it wasn’t too hard for me because it was so familiar to me here,” he said. “I like this area because of the variety of different entertainment here. This is a family friendly town with lots of different types of entertainment and the town has really changed over the years.”

Change is something Farley does often during the quick change act. Her attire can change in a few mere seconds with audience members having no clue how she did it. She has a background in magic but says quick change is “more performance character oriented” as opposed to magic.

While she won’t divulge her secrets, she admits there’s a “lot that goes into it” each show.

“We mess up all the time but you just keep smiling and keep going. You kind of figure out how to cover your tracks. I don’t think we have ever had a huge, huge mistake where we couldn’t continue.”

Gruzdev added a new act — Cyr wheel — this season that he calls challenging but fun. It is an acrobatic apparatus that consists of a single large ring made of aluminum with a diameter just a bit taller than the performer. Gruzdev stands inside the Cyr wheel to make it roll and spin gyroscopically while performing acrobatic moves in and around the rotating wheel.

“Riding this aluminum wheel is totally different from dancing or aerial. But I would say my favorite act in the show right now is riding this big aluminum wheel because it is new,” he said.

He got the urge to try the Cyr wheel watching online videos, took a few classes and kept practicing.

“At first it made no sense even to me because you should get dizzy spinning over and over again. But I finally got good enough that I was able to put the act in the show and people seem to enjoy it as much as I do,” he said.

The duo always seem to be having fun during the show no matter what act they are performing. Farley said even if you are having a bad day that the energy from the audience can change her outlook completely.

“By the time you get on stage, you’re a different person. The show hypes you up and you just can’t stop. You just want to keep going,” Farley said. “When you have really quiet crowds, sometimes it is hard, but then you’ll have those same crowds that are super quiet and don’t hardly clap come up to you at the end of the show and just rave about how awesome it was. All audiences are different, and we perform the same to five people as we would 5,000 people.

“We have learned over the years that a lot of time in our aerial act people won’t clap because they think they might mess you up.”

Gruzdev said a younger, spring break crowd and they are “extremely easy to get going and they are loud sometimes for no reason” but then at times get older, quieter crowds who enjoy the show just as much.

Farley said when they are not performing, they stay busy. They occasionally travel to other places, including Puerto Rico recently.

The two have not thought ahead to how long they might keep performing.

“I guess we’ll do it as long as our bodies allow us to do it. Quick change is something we can probably do quite a long time. Aerial on the other hand probably has an expiration point,” Farley said. “We have never been badly hurt to where we have had to stop working for a month. You can modify things if you need to so you can keep working.”

The two practice at the beginning of every season for a month and a half but Gruzdev says they work out before every show to stay in shape.

“The show keeps us in shape. We will rehearse if we need to change something, or if we’re having trouble with something, we’ll rehearse it,” Farley said. “But throughout the year of a show, we’re not going in five days a week and rehearsing for an hour and a half. We’re not doing that.

“I also teach aerial to children, so that kind of keeps me a little bit in shape too.”

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