Cirque du Soleil artists, from left, He Xuedi, Nikita Moiseev, Yann Arnaud and Shandien Larance. Photo: Wolter Peeters
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/how-cirque-du-soleils-performers-transform-in-pictures-20141223-1296at.html#ixzz3Mp5WRva7
Four faces transform under sponges and brushes in a swirl of glitter and colour. Performers from Cirque du Soleil’s Totem meticulously apply their make-up before a show to embody different stages of human evolution.
Backstage, Yann Arnaud, a softly spoken Frenchman who is a former competitive gymnast, turns into a macho beach boy – complete with green eyeshadow – to perform a modern mating ritual in the show, which is running under the big top at Fox Studios. “You do it every day just to give the audience some magic to forget their lives for two hours,” he says.
Shandien Larance, a native American from New Mexico, has gone from performing the ancestral hoop dance for her family to performing it globally. Representing indigenous people around the world is an important part of why she performs. “People think we’re a dying tribe or a dying people and that we don’t exist any more, so it’s nice to show that we still do exist,” she says.
Dipping her brush in glitter, Chinese unicyclist He Xuedi says she ran away from her small village in the mountains to see the world. Whenever she returns home, she is the star of the village.
Born into a renowned circus family, Russian-American acrobat Nikita Moiseev is no stranger to the stage. “You have to be a bit crazy to work in the circus,” he says.
{ SOURCE: The Sydney Morning Herald | http://goo.gl/bWzA7h }
