Rogana, Born 1933
Dates
- Existence: Born October 1933
Biography
Dora Rogge aka Rogana was born in October 1933 in Germany into a well established circus family. Dora made her debut in the ring at six years old and soon started to perform with her sisters, Gerda and Vera developing their own signature act on the rolling globe as the Rogge Sisters.
After achieving fame in Germany the Rogge Sisters made their first appearance in England with Tom Arnold’s Circus at Harringay in 1950.
During the early 1950s they continued appearing with international circuses including Knie, Krone, Althoff, Blackpool Tower, Kelving Hall and Bertram Mills with whom they worked between 1953 and 1957.
Dora left the Rogge Sisters act in 1957 after marrying ringmaster Frank Foster Jnr. and develop her own individual act as Rogana. Rogana’s act consisted of a combination of various juggling and balancing acts, including sword balancing, rolling globes and ladders. Although the act wasn’t new, Rogana was the first woman to ever perform it and made it very popular.
Rogana remained with Bertam Mills until 1963 when she started to travel her act around the leading European and American circuses and theatres of variety, and appeared in numerous television programmes. Rogana continued performing until the late 1990s and eventually retired in Florida.
Found in 2 Collections and/or Records:
Christopher Palmer Collection
Circus programmes and VHS tapes from Billy Smart’s Circus and Chipperfields’s Circus collected during the 1970s and early 1980s by the TV producer, Christopher John Palmer. There are also a number of promotional photographs of artistes and other ephemera related to the circus.
Programmes, 1970 - 1981
Programmes for various British and international circuses including Billy Russell's, Blackpool Tower, Fossett's, Chipperfield's and the Toni Boltini's Circus.