When Daniel Crispin has time off, he spends it in Tugun taking in the sunrise on his longboard. For the most part though, he’s a high-flying circus extraordinaire, with everything from performing at Madonna’s house to a Tim Winton film on his resume. We catch up with the homegrown star of Cirque de Soleil’s new spectacle, Toruk.
Q. Tell us about your upbringing?
I was a pretty spirited teenager and it became quite evident early on that I needed to be involved in a lot of extra-curricular activities to be kept as busy as possible. I was never a naturally gifted athlete, but I was a creative and very, very energetic individual from early on. My weeks as a teenager were split between Brisbane and the Gold Coast, and divided up between school sports (swimming, volleyball, basketball and rugby) and extra-curriculars, particularly taekwondo, in which I spent many years on the Queensland state team. I also found my feet in dance and acrobatics; as a teenager, it was quite a conversation point at an all-boys school. My teachers also recognised that my creative drive was a lot stronger than my academic and supported my vocation in ways that I still find incredible. In my senior years of high school, I was able to spend two days a week on work placement as a television presenter on Bris 31. While my classmates were studying their academics, I was filming on location in southeast Queensland. My weekends were always, always spent in the outdoors. I was club vice-captain at North Kirra SLSC and would proudly rack up my 100 plus hours a season. My family are pretty avid swimmers and excelled in their heyday, but I drew the short straw in terms of height and natural ability in conventional sports.
Q. How did you first get into acrobatics?
I kind of just fell into it (pun intended). Taekwondo is a very acrobatic sport and I loved being on the demonstration team. Breaking wooden boards, screaming and doing flips at the same time — perfect for any overzealous teenager. I knew I wanted to be a performer after a school production. One of my teachers at St Laurence’s College pulled me aside and said, “How about you come put some of this energy and flips into the school gala instead of just annoying everyone with it?” I went to one rehearsal and instantly I knew it was for me. From that point on I chased any performance opportunity and practised non-stop. The beach was a wonderful place to practice that and my patrol team at North Kirra loved watching it too. The Gold Coast has developed quite the budding circus culture and when I do get to come home, I’m always so happy to see how far things have developed, especially with the help of the Gold Coast City Council and the Circus Corridor program, which is helping to develop young people in the performing arts from Brisbane all the way to the Spaghetti Circus in Mullumbimby.
Q. How has your career progressed so far?
I’ve just turned 30-years-old and I still have to pinch myself some days. To have been able to perform at Madonna’s house and with the rock band 30 Seconds to Mars, through to being in Tim Winton’s feature film The Turning and being on a first-name basis with Jim Cameron through the creation of this Cirque du Soleil show, it’s just been an absolute dream. Nothing is more incredible to me than being a principal character and having my face on the poster of a show as huge as Toruk.
As soon as I finished high school, I moved to New York to work in a Circus summer camp. It was during this first overseas trip that I saw my first Cirque du Soleil show, O. That gave me the laser-like focus on where I was going to target my energy and where my career was going to end up … no matter what. I was then accepted into the National Institute of Circus Arts in Melbourne and I spent three years training under the world-renowned coach, Guang Rong Lu. I trained eight to 10 hours a day in varying circus disciplines, dance and drama classes, performances and being totally immersed and saturated in the performing arts world.
I graduated on scholarship in 2010 and the day after graduation, I was on a plane to start work in the professional world. This has included co-founding my own company, Dreamworks/Global Creatures on King Kong, followed by a career-defining three years at Circa Contemporary Circus in Brisbane. Under the creative genius and mentorship of Yaron Lifshitz I was shaped into the performer I am today and we toured like nuts. I mean, really nuts. Nine months with one bag in 25 different countries performing different shows. Then, I went to work in Macau in Franco Dragone’s water show House of Dancing Water as a high diver and straps artist.
I followed with the creation of the live dinner show at Pacha Dubai, and some short festivals with Brisbane’s Company 2 before being signed by Cirque du Soleil. I’ll never forget that phone call. A decade of hard work culminating in a couple of minutes on the phone; it was validating and the pay-off of a lifetime. I’ve always been one of multiple projects. I completed a Bachelor of Circus Arts and a Master of Sports Coaching degree while touring. I also undertook my Graduate Diploma of Teaching and became a schoolteacher, which is an entirely different circus.
Q. What do you see in your future?
I know I want to remain in the creative arts. I love working as a coach and a teacher so I am blessed to have options. Cirque du Soleil has given me a lot of professional development opportunities and study certifications to advance my coaching skills. Eventually, I’d really love to be involved in television presenting as well as performing, but that’s quite a lot to juggle (again, pun intended).
Q. What is Toruk all about?
Toruk is a prequel to James Cameron’s blockbuster film Avatar. It is a stand-alone story in the respect that it has no human interaction as it is set 3000 years prior to the first film. My character is named Entu. He is a 15-year-old orphan who has been adopted by his best friend’s family. Entu is an intrepid adventurer and sometimes a clown-like character in the way things don’t always land on their feet. Together, Entu and his best mate Ralu answer the call to adventure for a quest across Pandora. The preparation for a single show takes me about two hours. The costumes are truly beautiful but to achieve that look takes a lot of moving parts and a lot of accessories. Plus, underneath the costume, the principal characters wear a live microphone as well as three sensors which allow a digital spotlight to follow us on stage. This is very important as the show is filled with projections that guide the journey across unimaginable landscapes. As well as the costume there is the makeup. This varies in pace from artist to artist, but ranges from anywhere between 45 to 90 minutes.
Q. What do you enjoy most about your life in the circus?
This is by far the most physical role I have had in my career. I can honestly say I have never had an easy show as there is just so much happening. The show is also performed in an arena, which is roughly 1500sq m — that’s a lot of ground to cover with 40 artists. The principles spend almost the entire show on stage, which involves a lot of adventurous movement and a lot of running. I love performing my solo act the most. It’s an enormous amount of pressure and a huge honour to perform aerial straps as the only artist on stage in a Cirque du Soleil production in front of audiences that sometimes surpass 10,000 people. However, I do love when the lights come up at the end of the show and you see thousands of smiling faces. That’s a really incredible feeling knowing that you’ve shared something special and made thousands of people happy while doing what you love most.
Q. What do you miss most about the Gold Coast?
Coming home to the lifestyle on the southern Gold Coast is one of the things I enjoy most in life. henever I have time off, I always try to make it back to spend at least a few days in Tugun to remember how amazing and different the life is back home. I must admit that has been pretty rare recently as I’ve found myself spending a lot of time in the northern hemisphere. I’ve been really blessed to travel and experience the far corners and cultures of the world over the past 10 years. I still find the disparity between the Gold Coast and the rest of the world impressive. You have incredible surf along the coastline and breathtaking hinterland a stone’s throw away from the beachfront. I’ve never really been one for night-life, I much prefer to enjoy the sunrise while sitting out the back on my longboard in the morning surf. It’s something I’m really looking forward to sharing with my friends from the tour when we hit the Australian shore. Plus, I couldn’t be more stoked to get to come home and perform as a principal character in a Cirque du Soleil show in my home country.
{ SOURCE: Gold Coast Bulletin | https://goo.gl/MjGGZg }
