country formercountry birth_place discipline birth_date residence article_title name headcoach
usa russia -lrb- soviet union -rrb- volgograd , russian sfsr , soviet union handbalancing 11 february 1980 los angeles olga pikhienko
 olga pikhienko sasha pikhienko
olga pikhienko

olga pikhienko -lrb- born february 11 , 1980 -rrb- is a circus performer who specializes in handbalancing and contortion .
pikhienko started in rhythmic gymnastics at the age of five .
when she was eleven , she started performing with her father , sasha pikhienko , at the nikulin circus based in moscow .
olga 's act with her father won them a gold medal in 1992 at the festival mondial du cirque de demain in paris .
in 1993 , they won a silver medal in beijing , china at the world festival .
pikhienko started working with cirque du soleil in 1994 .
in 1996 , she went on tour with cirque du soleil 's production `` quidam '' , and , for more than five years , performed her hand balancing and contortion with canes act throughout europe and north america .
in 2001 , she worked on the creation of `` varekai '' , while being filmed for the bravo network 's documentary series '' '' , which won an emmy award in 2003 .
after touring with `` varekai '' for three years , pikhienko decided to branch out artistically , developing new acts for special events , commercials , print and video .
her new act was choreographed by debra brown , who has choreographed for many cirque du soleil shows .
she returned to `` quidam '' in 2006 , and toured with the show once again until she went back to the cirque du soleil headquarters for the creation of `` iris '' , her third show with the company .
the show premiered in july 2011 .
according to her personal facebook page , she left `` iris '' on september 2 , 2012 .
after that , she performed briefly in a show called `` le noir : the dark side of cirque '' , and also `` empire '' , a show touring in australia .
she has returned to doing private events and resides in los angeles , california with her family .
