THIEVES!

That's right. The title of this post is entirely in caps. The reason for this is because the subject of this post is not just extremely serious, but downright rage inducing.

If you're not familiar with the workings of the circus community, there is one thing you should know: it's small. I'm not saying that there aren't many people who belong to it, but that the people who are a part of it tend to know everyone else in it. If not personally, through a friend of a friend of an acquaintance's roommate's coach. It's like Six Degrees of Separation, except instead of degrees of separation, it's degrees of connection. And chances are there are more than six.

So when you go and full out steal an act, and I mean copy it move for move, right down to the tiniest of toe points, the person or people you stole it from will find out.

The villains in today's piece are Katarina Zinchenko and Euvgenia Antsiferova. These two utterly classless Ukrainian girls 100% plagiarized the beautiful act of the immensely talented Duo Scarlette. They barely even bothered to change the costume, for crying out loud!

Seriously people, especially those getting into aerial work - Youtube is not an encyclopedia. Whatever moves you see, whether technical or artistic, are the result of a great deal of training and research by the person you see performing them. The moves, acts, etc. you copy from professional artists directly harms their ability to make a living. Plus, it makes you a total douchebag and will do nothing more than earn you the scorn and contempt of the entire circus community.You should have seen the reaction when the ladies of Duo Scarlette posted this act of thievery on Facebook. And it wasn't just other artists venting their disgust, but casting directors from companies like Cavalia and Cirque du Soleil as well.

Like I said, small community.

The original Duo Scarlette version is, without question, far superior. Unfortunately for our copy cats, unlike technique, you can't steal artistic integrity. Or any integrity for that matter.

Here are the ladies of Duo Scarlette:

To be outraged by the goons, go here.