Ramazan Cani has spent more than half a century among artists. He didn’t go to art school, but nothing, he is also an artist in his profession. He is the one who made the most difficult step for the generals of the theater stage or the easiest flight for the Circus artists.

He is the master who for years made the shoes of the actors of the National Theater (People’s Theatre), the artists of the National Circus, Estrada, the Puppet Theater…

Ramazan Cani can be found at his workplace, in a narrow alcove, in Cirk. He will retire in a few months, but he is busy with work. “I make shoes, slippers, safety belts… especially with the latter, the responsibility is very big. A person’s life depends on it, so I work very carefully, layer by layer, and I do the sewing by hand with strong threads”.

When Ramadan started working as a shoemaker, he was very young. He followed the path of his brother, who also worked as a shoemaker, even among artists, at the Opera and Ballet Theatre. “My brother is 80 years old today. He worked at “Services”. I started by fixing small things, sewing, and when I was 16 years old, I started working, first at Mjetet Mesimore og Sporting Articles, which was on Rruga e Elbasani, and then at NISH Kêpuca, where I worked from 1970 to 1973. I took three years off to perform military service in Lazarat, Gjirokastër, and when I returned, one of the old shoemakers of the theater was retiring, and I took his place. And in 1977 I started at the People’s Theatre”, he says.

“At that time, the background of the People’s Theater, the Circus, the Puppet Theater, and Estrada, was common. Painters, shoemakers, tailors, carpenters, we were all positioned near the People’s Theater. After the 90s, with the change of systems, I moved to Cirk and since then I have worked here”, he says, while counting the great artists of Cirk, such as Telat Agolli, Gjystina Petrela, Met Selimi and many others.

He misses the years when he worked at the People’s Theatre. “They were massive shows, with many actors and I performed with dozens of pairs of shoes. We did a lot of opings, as the shows were more on national themes. With tassels for the South, from garters for the North, Central Albania had simpler ones… There was an incredible volume of work. We were two shoemakers and we couldn’t make it. It was very difficult to cope with. Yes, we worked hard and to be honest, I didn’t feel tired”. All sorts of shoes have come out of his hands: boots, slippers, one-meter-long shoes for clowns… “Even this job has its own tricks, which I won’t tell you, because it’s like revealing the secrets of a magician.” he says.

He feels lucky to have worked with great artists of the Albanian stage and screen. When he was young, it seemed like a dream to be surrounded by such distinguished figures. “When I saw Marika Kallamata, Violeta Manushin, Kadri Roshin, Margarita Xhepa, Pjetër Gjoka… it seemed strange to me. It was a very rare thing, I couldn’t believe it. I hadn’t even seen them on television, because even televisions were very rare at that time,” says Ramazani. And, at this point, there is no hostage to life.

Those were great times, when artists worked with passion, they even went secretly on stage to rehearse. “Now it seems to me that they don’t like the job very much. Not that there are no good artists, but the conditions are not that good either. Even the ticket prices are ridiculous. You can’t pay 50 lek to see a circus show, which can be done for a lot. The artist’s work must be appreciated”, says Ramazani, who has no complaints about his own work, but that of artists seems to hurt him a lot.