======================================================================= ______ _ __ _ __ / ____/___ ___________(_)___ ____ _/ /_(_)___ ____ / / / /_ / __ `/ ___/ ___/ / __ \/ __ `/ __/ / __ \/ __ \/ / / __/ / /_/ (__ ) /__ / / / / /_/ / /_/ / /_/ / / / /_/ /_/ \__,_/____/\___/_/_/ /_/\__,_/\__/_/\____/_/ /_(_) T h e U n o f f i c i a l C i r q u e d u S o l e i l N e w s l e t t e r ------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.CirqueFascination.com ------------------------------------------------------------ ======================================================================= VOLUME 16, NUMBER 12 December 2016 ISSUE #155 ======================================================================= Welcome to the latest edition of Fascination, the Unofficial Cirque du Soleil Newsletter. It's been a hell of a month... * * * CIRQUE DU SOLEIL IN MOURNING * * * « The entire Cirque du Soleil family is deeply saddened by the accidental death of Oliver Rochette, a LUZIA technician from Quebec, that happened on November 29th in San Francisco. His immediate family, including his father Gilles Ste-Croix, one of the founders of Cirque du Soleil, has been informed of the accident. Our thoughts are with Gilles, his family, and all Cirque du Soleil employees. » "I am heartbroken," said Cirque du Soleil CEO, Daniel Lamarre. "I wish to extend in my name and in the name of all Cirque du Soleil employees my sincerest sympathies and offer my full support to Gilles and his family. Oliver has always been a member of our tight family and a truly beloved colleague." Mr. Rochette died Tuesday night following injuries sustained in a lift accident during the set-up for LUZIA at AT&T Park in San Francisco. Cirque has been working with the appropriate authorities and have offered their full cooperation. Cal-OSHA, the Division of Occupational Safety and Health in California, will be investigating the incident. All performances of LUZIA were canceled from Tuesday, November 29th through Monday, December 5th. The cast of LUZIA held a wonderful memorial performance to Rochette on Sunday, December 4th. Regular performances resumed Tuesday, December 6th at 8:00pm. But Mr. Rochette's death was one of three accidents involving Cirque du Soleil personnel in one week. Acrobat Lisa Skinner fractured a vertebra after falling while performing in the Kooza show in Brisbane, Australia, on Sunday. On Wednesday, Weiliang Sky Wu, a Cirque artist in the Ovo show, fell during what is called the trampo-wall act, in which the performers climb up a wall at the back of the stage. He fell on to a trampoline. Though he appeared not to be badly hurt, the show was stopped and he was taken to a hospital. He was released from the hospital a half hour after his arrival and had only minor injuries. And, of course, let us not forget about Karina Silva Poirier, who plunged almost 40 feet to the stage, while rehearsing at La Nouba. (Karina is doing a bit better we hear, thank goodness!) Is this a trend? Is Cirque getting soft on safety? Lamarre said his company does everything it can to make the performers and technicians as safe as possible, but accidents still happen. “It’s like asking the police to prevent a car accident,” Lamarre said. “It’s happened three time in 32 years of Cirque history. We have a long list of protocols of what we should be doing." But the bottom line is that there are risks associated with performing in a circus. And that's true. We here at Fascination mourn along with Cirque du Soleil, and wish a speedy and complete recovery for Lisa Skinner, Weiliang Sky Wu, and Karina Silva Poirier. * * * VOLTA GETS A CREATIVE TEAM * * * Last month Cirque du Soleil introduced us to their newest big top show for 2017 - VOTLA - which was announced to the world via social media on Friday, November 4th. In addition to the name, we were also enlightened to the show's story and theme: "WAZ, a popular gameshow host, has lost touch with his inner self in the pursuit of fame, pulling others in the trap of instant glory. But as doubt sets in, WAZ is enlightened by childhood memories as he encounters 'free spirits' who open doors to his inner soul he has long kept shut. On his high- voltage search for meaning, will WAZ find the courage to relinquish his fame, reconnect with his true self, and shine bright? VOLTA tells a spellbinding story about the freedom to choose and the thrill of blazing your own trail. Inspired in part by the adventurous spirit that fuels the culture of action sports, the show weaves the adrenaline rush of acrobatics into a visually striking world driven by a stirring melodic score. VOLTA is a story of transformation. It is about being true to oneself, fulfilling one’s true potential, and the power of the group to make that possible. It celebrates freedom as a movement." And while they also told us the show came under the direction of Bastien Alexandre (Director) and Jean Guibert (Director of Creation), two Quebec designers who worked together on the Toronto Pan American Games' opening ceremony, little else about the show's creative team was released... until now. VOLTA’s creative team comprises 13 creators under the artistic guidance of Jean-François Bouchard: o) Bastien Alexandre – Writer and Director o) Jean Guibert – Director of Creation o) Bruce Rodgers – Set Designer o) Zaldy Goco – Costume Designer o) Julie Perron – Choreographer o) Martin Labrecque – Lighting Designer o) Thibaut Duverneix – Video Content Designer o) Jean-Michel Caron – Sound Designer o) Anne Séguin Poirier – Props Designer o) Philippe Aubertin – Acrobatic Performance Designer o) Rob Bollinger – Acrobatic Performance Designer o) Jaque Paquin – Acrobatic Equipment and Rigging Designer o) Eleni Uranis – Make up Designer o) Manon Beaudoin – Character’s guide But perhaps the most exciting 'creator' of all is the show's composer, which Cirque du Soleil announced on December 5th: "We’re pleased to announce M83 (Anthony Gonzalez) as the Composer and Musical director for VOLTA bringing both epic and poetic sound to our newest Touring show, opening at Vieux-Port de Montréal April 20th!" This is exciting news! As Jose Perez pointed out: Anthony composed the soundtrack for the 2013 movie Oblivion, and the band’s music has been featured on films such as Divergent, Insurgent, and The Fault in our Stars. But perhaps M83’s most popular work is the 2011 single Midnight City from their Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming album. The track has appeared in several commercials, TV shows, and movies. “Volta is a contemporary show brimming with energy, but it is also deeply human and theatrical,” explains writer and director Bastien Alexandre. “We were seduced by Anthony’s ability to create melodies that are both epic and poetic and transcend the heart and soul.” “The story of VOLTA is ours,” Gonzalez said. “It is a tale of a generation who is calling for change and I was very keen to contribute to telling this story. I'm deeply honored to be part of the Cirque team and it’s a wonderful new challenge in unknown territory for me. Ultimately, it’s challenges like this that I find so inspiring and drive me to make the music that I do." Welcome to Cirque, Anthony! Interested in learning more about VOLTA? Check out the first TV spot! < https://www.facebook.com/VOLTA/videos/232417427190091/ >. And, you can follow VOLTA on... o) Facebook: facebook.com/VOLTA o) Twitter: @Cirque #VOLTA o) Instagram: cirquedusoleil #VOLTA VOLTA will be presented under the Big Top in Montreal’s Old Port starting April 20th, 2017. Cirque Club members can purchase tickets for these performances online at: < http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/volta >. * * * PARAMOUR CLOSING APRIL 16, 2017! * * * Broadway is making way for Harry Potter, literally. According to the Montreal Gazette, the cavernous Lyric Theater will be dramatically reconfigured — shedding one-fifth of its seats — to create a home for the most-coveted theatrical tenant of the moment: the two-part play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” which is expected to open there in spring 2018. Buuuuuut, the theater is currently occupied by Cirque du Soleil, which spent millions creating Paramour, its first Broadway production, and who was hoping to keep running it there. But the Ambassador Theater Group, the British company that owns the Lyric, was so eager to lure "Cursed Child" that it is making it financially worthwhile for Cirque to move out. “We’re not closing because business is bad,” said Scott Zeiger, the chief executive of Cirque’s theatrical division, in an interview with Deadline. “They have a timeline for the work they want to do, and made the request. We had a friendly negotiation, and they made us an offer we couldn’t refuse – they incentivized us to go.” Asked if the offer included relocation to another ATG house in the U.S. or abroad, Zeiger said no, but did add he is “in discussions with several theater owners in New York and abroad who are interested in welcoming this unique production, including Stage Entertainment for a production in Germany in 2018.” Reportedly developed at a cost of $25 million, Paramour has been underperforming at the Lyric, one of Broadway’s two biggest houses. Last summer, it shut down for several days to incorporate changes to improve the story. But last week, when many shows benefited from the beginning of the Thanksgiving-through-New Year’s holiday season, Paramour grossed just over $1 million, barely reaching 60 percent of its potential. “This is the first time in my career that I’ve been asked to move a successful production,” Zeiger told Deadline. “We believe in this property and will continue to nurture it.” Close watchers of the Lyric box office could see that the show, with a large cast and orchestra and significant backstage expenses, was showing no signs of building an audience or gaining on its weekly running costs. Most weeks, it took in between $800K and $900k, or half its gross potential of $1.8 million. We at Fascination have been looking at Paramour's grosses since its debut, and while we feel the show is doing okay, it true it isn't living up to its potential. Maybe relocating the show to another theater in New York, or taking it on a world-wide tour would be a better option. Week This Week Potential Difference Seats % Cap Ending Gross Grosses in Dollars Sold ------------------------------------------------------------------ 04-Sep $890,754.60 $1,592,392.00 $337,331.90 10,218 76.99% 11-Sep $892,797.05 $1,805,456.00 $2,042.45 11,122 73.33% 18-Sep $999,384.45 $1,805,456.00 $106,587.50 12,739 83.99% 25-Sep $800,590.15 $1,805,456.00 -$198,794.30 9,744 64.24% 02-Oct $796,008.80 $1,805,456.00 -$4,581.35 9,903 65.29% 09-Oct $929,646.25 $1,805,456.00 $133,637.45 11,024 72.68% 16-Oct $942,631.85 $1,805,456.00 $12,985.60 11,261 74.24% 23-Oct $1,060,597.10 $1,805,456.00 $117,965.25 12,650 83.40% 30-Oct $1,005,388.40 $1,805,456.00 -$55,208.70 12,437 81.99% 06-Nov $884,873.95 $1,805,456.00 -$120,514.45 10,981 72.40% 13-Nov $917,418.25 $1,805,456.00 $32,544.30 11,378 75.01% 20-Nov $883,963.20 $1,805,456.00 -$33,455.05 10,527 69.40% 27-Nov $1,078,535.00 $1,805,456.00 $194,571.80 10,412 68.64% 04-Dec $927,404.50 $1,805,456.00 -$151,130.50 10,356 68.28% Zeiger said that most of the business for Paramour followed an industry-wide trend that sees ticket lower advance sales for all but the biggest blockbusters. The advance for Paramour is $4 million, he said, all but $100K of it between now and mid-April. “We will be sad to part with Cirque du Soleil, by which time they will have completed a very successful year on Broadway,” said Mark Cornell, CEO of Ambassador Theatre Group. “The fact that Cirque du Soleil chose to debut its first Broadway show – a great achievement – at The Lyric, was an honor for us at ATG.” “Paramour” will leave the Lyric on April 16, 2017, a year after it began performances. The Lyric will then close for renovations, starting in May. “By the time we leave New York, based on our level of business and our deal structure with Ambassador, it’s going to be a good deal for Cirque,” he said. Well, that's all I have time for this month. Let's get to the rest! /----------------------------------------------------\ | | | Join us on the web at: | | < www.cirquefascination.com > | | | | At CirqueCast: | | < http://www.cirquecast.com/ > | | | | Realy Simple Syndication (RSS) Feed (News Only): | | < http://www.cirquefascination.com/?feed=rss2 > | | | \----------------------------------------------------/ - Ricky "Richasi" Russo =========== CONTENTS =========== o) Cirque Buzz -- News, Rumours & Sightings * La Presse -- General News & Highlights * Q&A –- Quick Chats & Press Interviews * CirqueTech –- The Technical Side of Cirque o) Itinéraire -- Tour/Show Information * BigTop Shows -- Under the Grand Chapiteau * Arena Shows -- In Stadium-like venues * Resident Shows -- Performed en Le Théâtre o) Outreach -- Updates from Cirque's Social Widgets * Webseries -- Official Online Featurettes * Videos -- Official Peeks & Noted Fan Finds o) Fascination! Features * "Casting Q&A's - Meet an Artist, Part 4 of 6" Edited By: Ricky Russo - Atlanta, Georgia (USA) * INTERVIEW /// "JOHN GILKEY - CLOWN, ACTOR, CHARACTER" By: The Chapiteau, a Cirque du Soleil Fan Club o) Copyright & Disclaimer ======================================================================= CIRQUE BUZZ -- NEWS, RUMOURS & SIGHTINGS ======================================================================= --------------------------------------------------- LA PRESSE -- General News & Highlights --------------------------------------------------- CNBC: Cirque offers a new twist for job seekers {Nov.04.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- “I remember walking out just in awe and wondering how something like that was made,” Skivington recalled. “I was thinking, ‘I want to do that someday,’ and here I am.” The schedule is rigorous — Skivington performs in up to 10 shows a week, or 470 shows per year on bungees and Chinese poles. But each performance still has an element of fun. “Cirque allows us to do what we are basically born to do,” Skivington said of herself and her fellow performers. “It provides a great environment to really be yourself, and the response you get from the audience every night is just unbelievable.” Those like Skivington who want to join the ranks of the entertainment industry will see increased opportunities in the next decade, as it’s poised to grow by about 6 percent, creating 46,000 new jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Cirque du Soleil will be part of that expansion, looking to expand its ranks for new and existing shows. The Montreal-based circus currently employs more than 1,300 artists in 19 shows, and two to eight projects in development at any given time. Annually, the circus will bring on 450 new artists —100 will participate in new creations, and the remaining come on board to replace other artists in existing shows, according to casting director Pavel Kotov. “Generally, we are looking for extraordinary talent,” Kotov said. “We are looking for people who can do something that you do not see in the real life. Many roles now are going into more of what we call a generalist profile — multitalented, multidisciplinary. On Broadway, they call it a ‘triple-threat.'” Social networks have made it easier than ever to market one’s talents online, Kotov said. But that also makes it harder to stand out and catch the attention of one of Cirque’s casting directors, who scour the world looking for the right fit. Yves Sheriff, Cirque’s senior artistic scout, said that out of every 100 applications, only about 2 to 4 performers will make it into the company’s talent database to one day receive a coveted contract. “It’s projection, precision and presence,” Sheriff told CNBC at a New York City audition. “Presence is very subjective — some have presence, some don’t. Precision and projection is something they learn in school. Casting is based on their capacity to project in front of 2,000 people.” While Cirque du Soleil declined to offer specifics on salaries, pay can vary widely in the industry. The company said performers do receive benefits, but they are dependent on the “nature and length of their contracts.” Serenity Smith Forchion, executive director of the New England Center for Circus Arts, said she has seen wide ranging compensation. She said she has seen an “offer of $50 per night for long hours of aerial dancing at a nightclub, under an independent contractor status without health insurance or unemployment benefits, to $3,000 for a single appearance at a birthday party for a princess in Dubai, with a bonus at the end of the show and all expenses paid.” “An award-winning artist with multiple acts they can perform in a variety of settings with a long-range tour contract might earn in the low six-figures with benefits,” said Smith Forchion, who toured internationally for many years as a performer. The circus school is based in Vermont, and Smith Forchion’s students are employed across the industry. Skivington, who has a young son, said adjusting to the hours and the physical stamina needed for performing were among the initial biggest challenges. She runs often and trains with a strength coach several times a week — the stronger she feels, the easier each performance is. Like many physical performers, Skivington also knows her career likely won’t last as long as most do into traditional retirement. She’s still figuring out what life after Cirque might look like. “I love it, and I would like to do it for as long as I can,” she said. “The hard part once you are in is taking care of yourself — you have to make sure you stay in shape to avoid stuff that can possibly happen. And then once you’re in, it’s finding something else, too. Not many people have to find two passions or careers in life — the hardest part is finding out what is next.” { SOURCE: Kate Rogers, CNBC | https://goo.gl/qjhxGx } Cirque leaps into new era, aims to land in China {Nov.07.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- In the climax of “Toruk,” the new Cirque du Soleil show inspired by the 2009 James Cameron blockbuster “Avatar,” a Na’vi adolescent with blue skin and a thrashing tail learns to conquer his failures as a warrior to become the first of his clan to tame a flying toruk — a giant winged predator — and save his people from catastrophe. Can Cirque pull off a similar comeback story? As it seeks to catapult out of a financially difficult period, the 32-year-old Montreal company finds itself at a strategic crossroads as it transitions beyond its signature big-top spectacles and Las Vegas extravaganzas and into new growth opportunities — namely, partnering more with established entertainment properties like “Avatar” and expanding into China. It’s a far cry from the quirky troupe of street performers founded in 1984 in the small Quebec town of Baie-Saint-Paul. One member, a fire-breather and stilt-walker named Guy Laliberté, saw broader potential and dubbed the company Cirque du Soleil, taking it to the U.S. for the first time in 1987 for the Los Angeles Festival. He grew the company into a global brand and, in the process, became a billionaire. The latest changes at Cirque come in the wake of new ownership. TPG Capital, the San Francisco and Forth Worth-based private equity firm, acquired a 55% stake in Cirque last year, along with the Chinese conglomerate Fosun International, which holds 25%. The $1.4-billion leveraged buyout ended the reign of Laliberté, who retains a 10% share. Corporate ownership has shifted priorities at the once- idiosyncratic company known for its colorful acrobatics and gravity-defying stunts. “We are more analytical than we were, which I think is positive,” said Daniel Lamarre, president and chief executive of Cirque, during a recent stop in Los Angeles. “I don’t see making more money as a problem.” After the buyout, “people thought TPG would come in and say ‘cut, cut, cut,’” he added. “To be totally candid, when I went through this transaction, I was concerned about that.” But Lamarre said that hasn’t happened, noting that Cirque already went through downsizing in 2013 when it laid off 400 employees, or 8% of its workforce, following a number of high- profile flops, including the early closure of “Iris” in L.A. In the same year, the company experienced a major setback when an aerialist in the Las Vegas show KA fell to her death during a performance. Cirque has seen major shake-ups in its executive corridors since the buyout. Several longtime veterans — including the company’s chief operating officer, chief financial officer and head of publicity — have left Cirque in the last year. Its new COO, Jonathan Tétrault, comes from consulting giant McKinsey & Co. and oversees all of Cirque’s shows. “To enhance growth you need to bring new people to the table,” said David Trujillo, a partner at TPG. At the same time, he said, TPG beefed up Cirque’s marketing department, adding a new executive position that didn’t exist before. “We have supercharged marketing on social media channels -- something that Cirque hasn't really done,” he said. Under TPG, Cirque recently introduced demand-based ticket pricing to its Vegas shows. “It is working. We're certainly seeing an uplift,” Trujillo said. TPG also owns a controlling interest in Creative Artists Agency, the Hollywood talent behemoth, and Trujillo sits on the boards of Cirque and CAA. He would like to see the companies work on “licensing the Cirque brand so it's more well-known out there.” Cirque remains privately held and doesn’t make its financial results public. A recent Moody’s report stated that Cirque saw weaker-than-expected global revenue of $756 million in 2015, down more than 10% from the previous year. The company derives about half of its annual revenue from touring shows like “Toruk,” according to Moody’s. The company took on about $885 million in debt and credit commitments as part of the buyout last year. Cirque is projecting 2016 revenue of $800 million to $1 billion worldwide, Lamarre said. Some analysts are skeptical. “I’m more bearish,” said Alina Khavulya, senior analyst at Moody’s. “It's a company that doesn't have a history of operating with so much debt. They will have to run a leaner operation. And they have a larger stakeholder base to answer to.” What’s more, she added: “Private equity doesn't have much patience for underperformance.” Lamarre said that Cirque has “always been profitable,” even during its recent downturn. “We never lost money,” he said. Teaming up with well-known entertainment properties has become a key strategy for Cirque at a time when it faces brand fatigue and saturation of its core Vegas market. It has seven shows there, the oldest being 1993’s “Mystere.” In many ways, “Toruk” embodies that ambition. The arena show, developed in collaboration with Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment, is its first to be based on a movie. It will also be Cirque’s first show in mainland China, when a tour kicks off in 2018. The show cost more than $30 million to create, Lamarre said. “That’s more than the average touring show. It’s closer to the cost of our permanent shows.” “We all knew the fit was perfect,” Cameron said in an interview, describing himself as a longtime fan of the company. When creating the Na’vi for the original movie, “I was inspired by the dreamlike indigenous motifs and new languages they make up — the otherworldly exoticism of their shows.” The filmmaker didn’t direct “Toruk” but served as a consultant. Cirque came up with the idea of creating a prequel to “Avatar,” taking place thousands of years before humans set foot on the moon Pandora. Lightstorm participated in the development by providing input on the story arc, visual effects, costumes and more, said “Avatar” producer Jon Landau, speaking at at Lightstorm’s offices in Manhattan Beach. Mostly, “we were there as the stewards of the franchise – the world of ‘Avatar’ and world of Pandora,” Landau said. That meant ensuring continuity between the Cirque show and various “Avatar” properties, which include video games, a coming Disney World attraction and the four big-screen sequels that Cameron is set to direct starting next year. While the marriage of “Avatar” and Cirque felt natural, other partnerships seem less intuitive at first glance: Cirque is teaming up with the NFL to create a four-story tourist attraction in Times Square that will feature immersive digital exhibits designed to draw visitors into the world of professional football. “There's a little misperception that Cirque only does acrobatic shows,” Trujillo of TPG said. Cirque worked on the 2012 Super Bowl halftime show and was featured prominently in this season’s “Dancing With the Stars” on ABC. “If you're an intellectual property holder, Cirque is the place to go to put it in live form.” But partnering with famous properties doesn’t guarantee box- office success. While Cirque scored with its shows based on the music of Michael Jackson and the Beatles, its “Viva Elvis” show in Las Vegas closed in 2012 because of weak ticket sales. Lamarre said Cirque has been working with Disney for two years on a workshop, but didn’t specify the nature of the project. “We’ve had quite a bit of experience together, which I hope will create a breakthrough,” he said. Cirque’s “La Nouba” has been running at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., since 1998. Cirque hopes that “Toruk” will serve as a beachhead into the vast Chinese market thanks to the popularity of “Avatar,” which grossed more than $200 million in the country. “China will change the face of Cirque,” Lamarre said. The company is working on a new permanent show in the eastern city of Hangzhou for 2018, and Lamarre said there is “great potential to have a permanent show in Shanghai and one in Beijing.” He added that Fosun, the Chinese conglomerate that holds a 25% stake in Cirque, is “bringing an intelligence about the market that I didn’t have.” In recent years, Fosun has embarked on a buying spree of foreign companies in sectors as varied as real estate, insurance and entertainment. It is a major backer of Studio 8, the film company founded by Jeff Robinov, the former Warner Bros. Pictures Group president. Fosun executives didn’t reply to a request for comment. “Fosun's investment strategy is to look at overseas assets that can have a domestic play and synergy with their domestic position,” said Thilo Hanemann, an economist at Rhodium Group, where he researches Chinese investment. “They want to find an asset that they can leverage in China.” Cirque recently opened its first permanent office in Shanghai. It is also expanding elsewhere in the world. In May, Cirque launched its first Broadway production, “Paramour,” but the show had a bumpy start when critics gave it negative reviews. It is also entering the theme-park business with a new attraction in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico, set to open in 2018. The new ventures expose the company to a lot of risk, but “we cannot be afraid,” Lamarre said. “There’s a distinction between danger and fear. You have to recognize the danger and be humble about that and that’s our attitude.” { SOURCE: LA Times | https://goo.gl/4hr6o2 } Injury Highlights Risk of Acrobatics {Nov.14.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- Karina Silva Poirier has spent years dazzling audiences with acrobatic feats, swinging and spinning high above the ground supported by long, thick ribbons of fabric. Poirier, 39, put her aerial performances for Cirque du Soleil’s La Nouba on hiatus last year during her pregnancy and after the birth of her 7-month-old son Kyle. Just a couple months after returning to the avant-garde circus at Disney Springs, something went horribly wrong. Poirier somehow came loose from the fabric while rehearsing Oct. 20 for a special event. She plunged head first, almost 40 feet, to the stage. She was still in the hospital last week after suffering fractures to her skull and face and swelling in her brain. A video posted on Facebook from her brother last week said she was in a coma. “Thankfully, every day what we’re hearing is, it’s slight improvements on a daily basis,” said Calum Pearson, vice president of Cirque’s resident shows division. “It’s going to be a long road.” Her family would not comment. Her husband David, a Cirque employee, said he’s “not really allowed” to share details. Profiles show that Karina Silva Poirier, a Brazilian native, was a sixth-generation circus performer who started appearing in shows at 4 years old. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the accident, one of the more serious ones related to Cirque du Soleil shows around North America. Cirque du Soleil is known for its fantastical performances blending traditional circus acts, such as the flying trapeze, with theatrical music and artistry. It has done both traveling shows and permanent ones, such La Nouba, which opened at Disney in 1998. Circus stunts are inherently risky. “What we do is, we put our life at risk for your entertainment,” Poirier’s brother Alfredo Silva, also a performer who has appeared on America’s Got Talent, said on a Facebook Live video trying to raise money for his sister. Cirque’s Pearson said his company takes many steps to mitigate that danger. “I think we’re incredibly strong on our safety record and our protocols,” he said. Others in the industry agree. Still, there have been injuries, and records show Cirque has been fined several times for serious safety violations over the past decade. In 2007, two aerial silk performers in Cirque’s “Zumanity” Las Vegas show were injured in falls. Pearson described the incident as the result of artist error. OSHA records do not indicate any fines stemming from that incident. OSHA fined Cirque $7,000 after another aerialist, Sarah Guyard- Guillot, plunged almost 100 feet to her death during a 2013 performance of the “Ka” show in Vegas. A wire rope attached to her harness came off its pulley, then scraped against a sharp edge until it broke, after she had risen faster than usual. Pearson said the system was redesigned afterward, and it now stops a performer who is lifting too quickly. In 2009, a performer died of head injuries after falling off a trampoline during training in Montreal, where OSHA does not have jurisdiction. In Orlando, a Cirque subcontractor died after lighting trusses being loaded onto a forklift fell on her at the Amway Center in 2011. Records show OSHA cited Cirque in that death and issued a $10,000 fine for not providing required forklift-operator training and because the trusses were not stable or safely arranged. Cirque said its policies required adequate training and that the company made sure those were reinforced after the accident. In Las Vegas, Cirque has also been fined by OSHA for improperly storing pyrotechnics and for an accident involving a third-party contractor who fell into an open area. For its aerialists, Cirque requires lengthy strength training and conditioning. Some employees are trained as emergency responders. Rescue plans are devised for each act. Cirque also builds in layers of safety to its equipment, which undergoes tests of various dangerous scenarios before artists can use it. Aerial silk artists such as Poirier, though, don’t generally have backups, such as safety harnesses, because it would become tangled in the fabrics. “A normal aerial silk, there’s no safety wire,” said Bill Sapsis, whose rigging company has worked with Cirque shows. “You really can’t do that and perform.” Instead, the aerialists wrap the fabrics around their legs and backs as they ascend and descend them. The maneuvers — known as locks — help keep them aloft. “You’re relying on the artist’s expertise in creating those locks,” Pearson said. Poirier had plenty of that expertise, Pearson said. He described her as “one of the best in the world.” She had been on leave almost a year, returning in August, Pearson said. Acrobats who take a leave from Cirque must be reintroduced to performing over a period of weeks or months, he said. They gradually edge higher, with coaches signing off to make sure they’ve mastered different levels. They work first in a training room with foam matting underneath. Then they graduate to the stage, where there is no matting because it would hinder them from performing other moves. Poirier had recently completed the process, called “integration,” during a two-month span. Pearson said Cirque still doesn’t know why Poirier fell. “We really need to be able to talk to her” to be able to understand what happened, he said. A fundraising page online has described her injuries: swelling in her brain and fractures in her head. Last week, she underwent unplanned surgery to drain fluid that had built up around her heart and lungs. { SOURCE: Orlando Sentinel | https://goo.gl/UYPdQj } Luna Petunia Gets Her Debut - Friday, December 9th! {Nov.28.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- Back on October 11, 2014, Saban Brands and Cirque du Soleil unveiled their first TV co-production, Luna Petunia, a pre-school series inspired by the Quebec-based circus troupe. And we've been waiting to see what Luna Petunia was all about ever since then. Netflix acquired the series in 2015 and it's now set to air! Luna Petunia follows the adventures of a girl who lives in our world and plays in a dreamland where she learns how to make the impossible possible. A brand new Netflix Original Series in collaboration with Cirque du Soleil Junior! In the run-up to its debut, the show's Facebook page has come to life with pictures and descriptions of all the main characters... o) LUNA -- With her adventurous spirit, Luna will try anything at least once. She is a curious, optimistic girl who always encourages her friends to see their own potential. o) BIBI BUBBLES -- Bibi is the friendly tour guide of Amazia who keeps a detailed account of all the happenings in her scrapbook. She knows a million and one facts about Amazia, but often forgets some important details! o) KAROO -- is a curious little koala who likes to touch, feel, taste, investigate, and put his paws over everything he comes into contact with.Karoo is playful and curious, with tons of bouncy energy! He can sometimes be a bit impulsive, but is always a sweet friend with lots of “huggles” to share. He’s affectionate and he just loves Luna. He likes to hang on her back, which is his favorite place to be. o) SAMMY STRETCH -- is Amazia’s resident troubadour, a playful fellow who enjoys riddles, challenges, and games. Thanks to his accordion arms and legs, Sammy is always making music and making up fun songs! Sammy is a musician, magician and an electrician who speaks his own fun, and certainly silly, language! He loves playing with his friends and being the center of attention as much as possible. Learn more about the world of Amazia at Luna Petunia's website at: < http://http://www.lunapetunia.com/ >, and via the show's Facebook page: < https://www.facebook.com/LunaPetunia/ >. All episodes begin streaming Friday, December 9, 2016, only on NETFLIX in North America. Brisbane Gymnast Lisa Skinner Falls, Sustains Injuries {Nov.28.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- Three-time Australian Olympian Lisa Skinner suffered a frightening fall Sunday afternoon while performing with Cirque du Soleil in Brisbane, crashing 6 meters (20 feet) to the stage. Skinner, 35, was performing an aerial hoop act in the show Koozå at Skygate when she slipped and plummeted to the stage floor below, just before 2pm. Shocked audience members watched as crew rushed to the stage to treat the Albany Creek woman. Paramedics rushed Ms Skinner, who was stable and conscious, to Royal Brisbane Hospital where she remained in the emergency ward. Within a few hours, Skinner posted on social media that despite some injuries, she was expecting to make a full recovery. Her mother, Anne Skinner, told River 94.9 on Monday her daughter was “doing well” and had suffered a C1 fracture in her neck and a broken arm. “Today she is going to be fitted with what they call a halo brace to keep her head still … it will take about 6- 12 weeks to heal,” she said. “Her arms and legs work which is the main thing and she survived. She should recover but it will just be a long, hard road at this point.” Skinner’s mother, Anne, told a Queensland radio station on Monday that her daughter was lucky after landing on her head. Cirque du Soleil said the cast and crew’s “thoughts and love” were with Ms Skinner following her fall, adding she was expected to leave hospital “within a few days.” “We are happy to report that Lisa is currently stable and in good condition,” Cirque said in a statement on Monday. “At this time, our priority is on supporting Lisa and her family so they can focus on her recovery.” Ms Skinner said she hadn’t seen what happened but understood her daughter had attempted to catch the hoop around the hip area but it had landed lower than expected and she couldn’t grab it. “There was nothing except air after that,” she told radio host Paul Campion. Audience member Teagan Barratt, who had front row seats, posted on Facebook about the incident, which she said was “one of the scariest things” she had ever witnessed. “She was still and face down and her head was the first thing that made the impact on falling which was terrifying,” she wrote. “When they supported her and moved her, you could see that she was breathing. That was I think the most relieving part of the whole ordeal.” The show resumed after Skinner’s fall, though all audience members were required to remain seated until paramedics had taken the injured acrobat from the stage, per Cirque rules. Jessica Levoeuf from Cirque du Soleil said the circus prepares for accidents. “It’s something that we actually rehearse for different scenarios every single week at Cirque du Soleil,” Levoef said. “The safety and security of our artists and our patrons as well is always the number one concern. Our first response team reacted very quickly and the performer is responsive, is safe and is under great medical care at the moment.” Skinner began her gymnastics career at the age of six and kicked off her international career in 1995. Lauded for her beautiful lines and artistry, she competed at the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games. At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Skinner placed eighth in the all-around and on floor exercise, the first Australian gymnast to ever reach an Olympic apparatus final. After a brief retirement, she returned to gymnastics in 2002. In 2003, she was a member of the Australian women’s squad that won a historic bronze medal at the world championships in Anaheim, the first and only world team medal for Australia to date. Additionally, Skinner was a two-time Commonwealth Games champion, winning gold with the Australian team and on uneven bars at the 1998 Games in Kuala Lumpur. Skinner joined Cirque du Soleil in 2006, and performed in Alegría and Quidam. She only recently joined Koozå as it toured her native Queensland – having been on a break in the United States when she was asked to join Kooza for a few months while the aerial hoops performer took a few months off. Koozå’s aerial hoops act was her first solo performance with Cirque du Soleil and was also the first time she had performed for her hometown. { Brisbane Times & International Gymnast Magazine | https://goo.gl/RRwQFx; https://goo.gl/Su5ymL } IATSE Cancels Cirque Protest After Fatal Accident {Dec.01.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- IATSE has canceled today’s planned protest against the non-union performance of Cirque du Soleil’s OVO show in Montreal, following Tuesday’s freak accident that took the life of Olivier Rochette, the son of Cirque founder Gilles Ste-Croix. Rochette, a 42-year-old technician with the acrobat troupe’s Luzia show in San Francisco, was killed during rehearsals after being hit in the head with a piece of equipment. The union, which has been trying to get a contract with OVO in Montreal, had planned to hand out leaflets at today’s performance but said it canceled the leafletting “out of respect” and extends its “sincere condolences to all who were touched by the life of Olivier Rochette. Our collective thoughts and prayers are with you.” { SOURCE: CBC } Cirque makes every effort to keep its staff safe {Dec.02.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- It’s not the kind of phone call anyone wants to have to make. In his car on the way home from the premiere of the Cirque du Soleil touring show Ovo at the Bell Centre Tuesday night, Cirque chief executive officer Daniel Lamarre learned that Olivier Rochette, a technician working on the show Luzia in San Francisco, had been killed that night. He was struck by a telescopic lift as it was being taken off stage before the show. Rochette’s father is Gilles Ste-Croix, one of the founders of the Quebec circus and someone Lamarre has worked closely with for more than a decade. Lamarre’s next call that night was to Ste-Croix, who was at his winter home in Mexico. “That was me calling my friend in Mexico and saying, ‘Have you heard anything?’, because I wasn’t sure if someone had got to him before,” said Lamarre, in a phone interview Thursday afternoon from San Francisco. “He said: ‘You sound bizarre. What are you talking about?’ I said: ‘Please, are you seated?’ And I told him. ‘Your son just died. There was a big accident and it was horrible.’ And we both (began) crying.” The death was one of three accidents involving Cirque du Soleil personnel this week. Acrobat Lisa Skinner fractured a vertebra after falling while performing in the Kooza show in Brisbane, Australia, on Sunday. On Wednesday, Weiliang Sky Wu, a Cirque artist in the Ovo show, fell during what is called the trampo- wall act, in which the performers climb up a wall at the back of the stage. He fell on to a trampoline. Though he appeared not to be badly hurt, the show was stopped and he was taken to a hospital. He was released from the hospital a half hour after his arrival and had only minor injuries. “If you look at what happened at Ovo (Wednesday) night, that was a great illustration of how well our (health and safety) protocol works,” Lamarre said. “This guy fell, he was not that injured, but the protocol says if an artist falls, automatically you immobilize the artist and that’s what we did. When something like that happens, it’s not the commercial angle of Cirque that takes priority. It’s the human values. So yesterday it would’ve been easy for us to pull the guy off the stage and just finish the show, but the protocol says if something like this happens, you shut down the show, and that’s what we did. As the employer of that employee, I feel good that we did the right thing.” Rochette’s is the third death of a Cirque du Soleil staffer working on a show in the company’s 32-year history. Cirque performer Oleksandr Zhurov died in 2010 after falling off a device called the Russian swing during a training session in Montreal. In 2013, acrobat Sarah Guillot-Guyard died when she fell 30 metres to the floor during the show Ka in Las Vegas. Lamarre said his company does everything it can to make the performers and technicians as safe as possible, but accidents still happen. “It’s like asking the police to prevent a car accident,” Lamarre said. “It’s happened three time in 32 years of Cirque history. We have a long list of protocols of what we should be doing. In this situation (in San Francisco this week), we had two very experienced technicians (operating the telescopic lift) and Olivier himself who has been with us for 20 years. So you have probably the best technicians and they were doing what they do every day.” The Cirque du Soleil has 11 touring shows and nine permanent shows, with approximately 1,500 artists performing in these shows, but Lamarre insisted that the performers aren’t more at risk just because the Cirque is so much busier. He also denied there have been any reductions in security measures since the company was sold to an American equity firm and its Chinese partners last year. But the bottom line is that there are risks associated with performing in a circus. “For sure, there’s always a risk factor,” said Éric Langlois, director general of Montreal’s École nationale de cirque. “The circus performer’s craft is second nature to him or her and the artist has to make sure they’re in physical shape to do the act. But you also have to be psychologically prepared.” Still even the best-prepared performer can have an accident. “There are incidents that happen due to people not paying attention,” Langlois said. “You’ve done something 100 times, but it’s like crossing the street. You suddenly realize you didn’t even check if the traffic light was green or red. So you have a mistake in the routine. There is no recipe. It’s a matter of being a professional. But it could also be the people around you. Maybe the person beside doesn’t put his or her foot in the right place and it destabilizes you. All we can do, and we do that in our training and teaching here, we try to make the artist conscious of the whole process.” But in a high-wire act or even preparing a circus show, one wrong move can cause an accident. “For sure there can be a human error,” said Maxime Charbonneau, director of business affairs at the Montreal circus Cirque Éloize. “A trapeze artist can miss one move and they need to be able to react.” { SOURCE: Montreal Gazette | https://goo.gl/HYqsEm } --------------------------------------------------- Q&A –- Quick Chats & Press Interviews --------------------------------------------------- TORUK Producer: “We Make Our Content for Audiences” {Nov.01.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- Landau says the arena show will please die-hard fans: “What the Cirque show does for fans of the film is a great reminder of why they responded the way that they did. There is a story here in Toruk of the unlikeliest of heroes rising to occasion and saving, effectively, an entire planet.” Cirque du Soleil’s latest touring spectacle, Toruk – The First Flight — a massive arena show inspired by James Cameron’s epic 2009 sci-fi fantasy epic Avatar. Ahead of its L.A. run, The Hollywood Reporter caught up with one of the key creative talents — producer and Lightstorm Entertainment partner Jon Landau — to talk about the challenges of blending the highest- grossing film of all time with the well-defined Cirque universe. Toruk arrives years ahead of the planned Avatar sequels, dated for release from 2018 to 2023, and it’s safe to say that anything associated with the name must aim to cross a pretty high bar of success. As Toruk artistic director Fabrice Lemire puts it, “People have high expectations because of the brands associated to the project.” Toruk is described by Cirque as “a mythical tale set thousands of years before the events depicted in the film Avatar, and before any humans ever set foot on Pandora.” It’s narrated by a “Na’vi Storyteller” and centers on two Omaticaya boys (Ralu and Entu) who attempt to save the sacred Tree of Souls when a natural catastrophe threatens to destroy it. Q. How did your Cirque relationship first come about, and when did conversations begin to turn Avatar into a Cirque show? Jim was up front about Cirque being an inspiration for the world of Avatar, both in movement and the colors. After the release of Avatar, they approached us and said, “We would like to talk to you about an Avatar-themed Cirque show.” It wasn’t yet defined as to what that would be (yet). Out of those conversations we made the trip to Montreal, Jim and I. They presented the idea of doing the show on an unprecedented scale of what they had previously done — doing it as an arena show. Telling a story that would not conflict with the story worlds of the movies, or the sequels that we are doing now, but that still holds true to ethos and theme of the universe. It turned out to be the perfect fit. Q. This show follows your previous collaboration on the Cirque du Soleil film Worlds Away. How pleased were you with that experience and the performance of the film? I was only a part of that film tangentially. Jim was more involved as consultant. The experience of working with Cirque creatively was great. In respect to how the show performed…on any of our movies, we can only speak about we pleased we are with the product that we deliver. How it does at movie theater is up to so many other people. Q. Avatar is an epic, and Cirque shows are equally epic. What’s the first step in attempting to translate a film of this scale to the stage? Is it the story? What we’ve been doing with 20th Century Fox is that we’ve taken control of franchise development. What happens inside a studio’s umbrella — specifically people who deal with franchise-type stuff — they have to worry about 20 movies in one year. We want to worry about one franchise for 20 years. We work in great collaboration with them and keep them apprised with what we are doing. One of the things we challenge our partners to do — whether it’s Cirque or Disney with Pandora — is not to tell the stories of the movie. We do that. But we challenge them to come up with unique stories that are consistent with work we have established in our films. Q. Do you think this Toruk show will help whet the appetite for Avatar fans who are itching for the new installments? What the Cirque show does for fans of the film is a great reminder of why they responded the way that they did. There is a story here in Toruk of the unlikeliest of heroes rising to occasion and saving, effectively, an entire planet. It draws people into the diverse and beautiful world of Pandora, and that not only satiates a yearning for people who are fans of the film, but for people who are not fans of the film. It introduces them to the world. Q. The reviews have ranged from absolute raves to the not-so- raves in The New York Times. How closely do you pay attention to reviews? Not at all. I would like you to go back and read the first review that was ever published about Titanic, which slammed Titanic. We make our content for audiences. Of course we want to reviewers to like it because they, too, are audience members. But the voice of people en masse is more important than any single critic who might or might not comment on something. What Cirque set out to do (with Toruk) is not to present a traditional Cirque show. The goal was the antithesis of that. This is a new paradigm of what Cirque is presenting in arena show. It still has all of waking-dream qualities that any Cirque show has, but presented in very different format. Q. The story of the summer at the box office really has been under-performing sequels, possibly in part due to the length of time between installments. What’s your take on that, heading into delivering new Avatar installments? Anytime someone looks at something like these under-performing sequels, they are missing the bigger issue. Whatever was new wasn’t working for audience they went after. If you look at the number of years between first Terminator and the second, that was quite a large window that didn’t impact people’s enjoyment. Jim Cameron has done two sequels, and I would argue that both times the sequels lived up to, if not exceeded, the originals. We are setting out to make standalone cinematic experiences so that people feel the movies fulfill expectations or exceed expectations no matter how long the gap was. People get into a trap when they say that just because this movie was successful we should make a sequel, without asking, “Is there a story here to tell? Is there a sequel is worth making?” As we got into our own development, we realized there was enough of a story not only for three but for four movies. { SOURCE: The Hollywood Reporter | https://goo.gl/v6TeFK } Dominic Cruz Loves Life on Road with Cirque du Soleil {Nov.11.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- Dominic Cruz didn’t have to run away to join the circus. He was encouraged to pursue a life under the big top. Cruz, 23, a former Vallejo and Benicia resident, has a featured role in Cirque du Soleil’s “Luzia,” which stops in San Francisco beginning Thursday and continuing through Jan. 8. “Luzia” will be in San Jose in February for a run through March 3. The performances will mark the first time some family and friends will see Cruz perform with Cirque du Soleil. For others, it will be the first time in several years seeing Cruz perform. Born in Vallejo, he moved to Benicia in middle school. He left there at 17 to attend the National Circus School in Montreal. Cruz expects a group of 35 in the stands Nov. 21. “There’s no pressure there,” he said, with a chuckle. During his first year of studies, he and childhood friend Marta Henderson created a duo hoop diving act. Cruz graduated with a double major in hoop diving and Chinese pole in 2014. Cruz and Henderson started their careers performing with Montreal-based company Cirque Eloize, the Chicago Midnight Circus and by doing special events with 45 degrees, a division of Cirque du Soleil. The pair, and five other hoop divers, joined forces in 2015 to create their own circus troupe called Back Pocket. The name came from the group’s desire to take something ordinary and make it extraordinary, Cruz said. “It could be something as normal as finding a movie ticket in a back pocket,” Cruz said. “It could mean so much to one person and nothing to someone else.” Before Back Pocket launched its first project, the call came from Cirque du Soleil. “Luzia” premiered in April in Canada. Since then, he’s done more than 200 performances. And, he’s loved every minute. “We’re treated super well,” Cruz said. “We have so many amenities.” During shows in Toronto, the performers were provided with apartments as well as public transportation. “They really take care of us,” he said, noting that there is food provided by an on-site kitchen daily as well as physiotherapists around the clock. While in the Bay Area, Cruz will stay in housing provided by Cirque du Soleil. The show wraps up about 10 p.m., he gets out about 10:30 p.m. and can walk to the provided lodging in San Francisco in about 15 minutes. Doing as many as 10 shows a week, not having to commute is best, he said. Cruz is the son of Annabelle Cruz, director of VOENA Children’s Choir (the name is an acronym for Voices of Eve ‘N Angels). That love of performing was passed on to Cruz and his brothers, who are also involved in the circus world. He’s committed to Cirque du Soleil through the end of 2017. What happens after that remains to be seen, he said. There’s also the possibility of continuing with Cirque du Soleil. “They are very organized with negotiations,” Cruz said. Back Pocket performers use treadmills in “Luzia” to launch themselves through hoops. Continuous movement with flying, is how Cruz describes it. It takes Cruz about 40 minutes to get into makeup and costume. For “Luzia,” he wears a bird costume that was a “puzzle” in the beginning. “They are ingeniously made,” he said of the costumes. The show takes the audience to an imaginary Mexico. It features a cast of 44. Cruz calls Canada home, but he misses the tranquility of Benicia as he travels around the world. He loves exploring new towns. On his days off, he explores the performance city and sits down with his fellow “Luzia” performers at a coffee shop or bookstore. “We make the city our own,” he said. { SOURCE: Daily Republic | https://goo.gl/49nblt } Q&A w/Maya Kesselman – Luzia Hoops Diver! {Nov.18.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- Q. You went to Brandeis School of San Francisco for eight years and now you are a cast member in Luzia, the newest show from the famous avant-garde Cirque du Soleil. How did you get started in the circus world? I studied at the Circus Center in San Francisco. My mom says that it was a Hanukkah present of my first trapeze lesson when I was 10. I went to my first one, and that was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Q. Do you have a specialty or a favorite apparatus? What do you do in Luzia? Now I do hoop diving and Chinese pole — there are two separate poles, they’re about two meters apart, and they’re covered in a thin rubber and so basically what you do is you climb the pole and do tricks. There’s a lot of different roles that I play in Luzia. They hired me and my European partners as a group because we’re all hoop divers, and we can do pole also. Then we arrived for the creation and they put us on giant treadmills. So we do hoop diving on treadmills. That and the Chinese pole number are our main parts. Throughout the rest of the show I make appearances in various costumes. I’m a bird, I’m a girl in a dress, I’m a lizard creature; I’m versatile in this show. I’m a child on a soccer field. I also wear a disco ball dress swimming suit. Q. Was Cirque du Soleil an ambition of yours? For a long time, the epitome of success for circus artists is Cirque du Soleil. I didn’t know that there was anything else to aspire to. And then I moved to Europe and saw that there’s a bunch of other things to do and ways to do circus, so it kind of opened my eyes. I performed for four years around Europe with my two European partners. And then we were called to do Cirque du Soleil. Q. Is there a story to this show? What are the themes and inspirations? The whole show is inspired by Mexican culture. What I can take away from the story is there’s a main character, a clown. He jumps out of a plane over this mystical, magical place and just gets plopped down and then he gets taken through all of the different numbers. At the end he has the choice to leave or stay. Q. You do things that look impossible to us mere mortals. Are there acts in the show that look impossible to you? A thousand times yes. We have amazingly talented people doing insane things that I would never attempt to do. There’s people who are doing soccer freestyling. There’s a contortionist; I can’t do that. There’s people flying from one swing to another in the air, and I can’t do that. There’s a lot of respect between all of us for the different disciplines. Q. Cirque du Soleil was founded in Quebec, and it’s a pretty international operation. I understand you’re multi-lingual. Is that a big help? Circus makes the world feel so small. You know this person here, this person there. I learned French because I came to Montreal for a year. I learned Spanish in high school, and I have a Spanish partner who spoke no English or French when we started together. I can go anywhere and kind of get by. There’s a lot of Latinos in our show. I can’t imagine not being able to speak with them in their mother tongue. It helps me to know them as people. Q. Growing up, how did you balance the intense worlds of Jewish life and circus life? I used to say that I lived in two worlds: my circus world and my Jewish world. I went to Sunday school and did performances on the weekends and had to do a bat mitzvah in the middle of that. I loved both worlds equally. I went to Israel when I was 16. And I went to Camp Tawonga. My Jewish world has definitely taken a backseat. But the nice thing about being Jewish is you’ll always be Jewish. I’d go home for Passover with my family and bring the two European guys I was working with and teach them all about the seder. Q. How does it feel to have been away for years and to come home performing with such a famous group? All these people of these two worlds that I grew up in, they know it’s my passion but they don’t know what I’ve been up to. Being able to come back and show them what I do and share it with them is big for me. { SOURCE: J-Weekly | https://goo.gl/NFyhuR } BWW | Q&A w/ Toruk’s Laura Silverman {Nov.23.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- BroadwayWorld Sacramento spoke with Cirque du Soleil spokesperson Laura Silverman about the innovative technology and puppetry of Cirque’s latest arena show, TORUK – The First Flight, a story-driven prequel to James Cameron’s Avatar. Q. How did Toruk come about? Cirque du Soleil and James Cameron worked together before in 2012 on the film Worlds Away. It was around this time that Cirque approached James Cameron with the idea to create a live production inspired by his movie. And James Cameron has been quoted as saying how some of the movements of the Na’vi in the film were inspired by Cirque du Soleil artists. So, right from there, it seemed like a really great collaboration. From there, they spent a lot of time trying to figure out what exactly the show would look like, if it would take place after Avatar, if it would be a recreation of the film, and ultimately they decided to go with a prequel. The story takes place 3,000 years before the events happened in Avatar. They decided to go that way for a couple of reasons, one being from an actual production standpoint, we only have Na’vi in our show. There’s no actual avatars. There’s no humans. The Na’vi are 10 feet tall, and if we were having both, we would need to be able to show the difference in size. But also, they were really excited to be able to go back and elaborate on a mythical tale that’s slightly mentioned in the film. At the end of the film, Jake Sully’s character rides the Toruk, the giant flying creature, and our story follows a journey of three Na’vi teenagers and culminates with the very first Na’vi to ride the Toruk. Q. Were there other people from the film involved in the creative process? James Cameron and John Landau, who was a producer for the film, were creative guides. There was a woman named Julene Renee who was the motion capturer for most of the actors in the film, and she worked with all of the artists in our show during the creation, teaching them the Na’vi movements. They had classes almost every day for about a month or so. They also worked with Paul Frommer, who is the linguist that created the Na’vi language, to have lessons from him on the language. Everything that was created for the show – James Cameron and John Landau weren’t necessarily involved with the day to day of the creation process, but everything that you’ll see in the show was approved by them. Q. There must have been several details to fill in for the history and background of this world. Hey first got together to bring this idea about in March 2011. From then until July 2015, so about four years is when they narrowed down what the show would look like, whether it would be in an arena, a residential, a touring show under the big top. The creators, Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon, they were really at the helm of it. And their background, as well, was in multimedia production. So, one of the big highlights of our show is the projection use and the stage setup, and how we’re able to use projections to bring to life Pandora. So, a lot of that inspiration came from them, as well. Like any Cirque show, it’s a long process to get it to where it is before the first performance. And once the artists arrived in July of last year, they started having the classes. Q. Cirque has always been creative in the technology it uses. They’re very innovative, always trying to push the boundaries. One of the things that really sets Toruk apart is that we’re doing that really with the technology being used. We’re using the entire arena floor, about 50,000 square feet. When you see it during the day, all of the set is this gray color, but when the audience is at the show, it all comes to life with the use of projections. We have 40 projectors that hang in the grid. Three projectors overlap the same image to create a clear, crisp image. With that, we’re using another technology called Black Track, and that technology basically uses sensors that are put on the main characters’ costumes, as well as some of the puppets used in the show, and it creates a pre-programmed spotlight. We have no live spot operators. It allows us to follow their movements more swiftly and also spot more artists at one time. But they’re using that technology on some of the set pieces. At the very back of the set, we have two large inflatable tree-like structures, and on those trees are also those black track sensors, and that allows the video projection to move with the trees. It creates this really immersive experience, especially in an arena setting. We’re recreating all of these different landscapes across Pandora, so it’s also helping to tell the story. You’ll see a rainforest landscape, and then a desert, and then a river, and waterfall. At different moments we’ve had people question how we were getting the water in and out so fast because it’s so lifelike. Q. How does the puppetry work? We’ve had large puppets in other shows, but this is the first time that we hired puppeteers. That’s because they are such an integral part of the show. We have six puppeteers, and they bring out all of the creatures that live on Pandora. The Toruk actually requires all six puppeteers working together. That puppet is probably the most unique because it’s operated like a reverse marionette. The puppeteers are below bringing life to it, and then the puppet is hooked in by an automation team and a 3D flight system, it’s able to fly through the arena. Q. How long does it take to load all these piece into each city? Our load in is about 12 hours, and that’s just to build everything. On top of that, our video team will come in and focus all of the video, which takes about three hours, and then our lighting team will come in and focus all of the lights as the day goes on. Q. What can audiences expect from the production in how it tells the story? With our other shows, the language is usually a gibberish language. In this one, the artists are speaking Na’vi, but then we also have an English speaking storyteller, which is another first for this show. And because this show is so story driven, that was really important for us to be able to bridge the gap with the audience and have the storyteller bring the audience into the action and help translate the Na’vi language. The show really stands out from other Cirque shows because of the very specific story we are telling. In other shows, the acrobatic acts are the focus and the story is usually there to support the acrobatics, but here’s it’s kind of the opposite. Q. What are some of the acts that are specific to this production? This show is very theatrical. It’s the journey of these three Na’vi teenagers. They learn that Pandora is in danger and they go on this quest to prevent that from happening. On the way they meet all these different clans. We created several different acrobatic apparatuses specifically for this show, because they had to be integrated into the story. In the first act you’ll see an apparatus similar to a high bar, and you’ll see several different artists swinging and jumping off of it. We also have quite a bit of aerial in this show. We have aerial ropes, which we call vines, that represent the Na’vi swinging and hanging from the tree vines. We have a really beautiful number called the bone structure, which was a balancing act. It also features a contortionist. Other artists are doing acrobatics on the structures. And we have another apparatus called motorized poles. They bend and they swing and they twist. We also feature a boomerang artist and indoor kites, which is quite unique. The show is really family friendly. The colors really keep young children engaged, and the story is simple enough that they can follow along. { SOURCE: Broadway World | https://goo.gl/ONzxQs } --------------------------------------------------- CirqueTech -- The Technical Side of Cirque --------------------------------------------------- How Cirque Created Its First-Ever Touring Water Show {Nov.19.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- If you’ve ever seen Cirque du Soleil’s fantastic Las Vegas show O, you no doubt marveled at the complexity of performances taking place in and out of water, and the way the show’s creators managed to make a large tank appear and disappear as needed. Now imagine incorporating that complexity in one of the famous Montreal circus company’s traveling acts, and you’re ready to take in Luzia, its newest, and perhaps most ambitious road show ever. Debuting in the United States this week in San Francisco—like many traveling Cirque shows, it opened initially in Montreal and Toronto—Luzia is described as a “waking dream” of Mexico, “a wondrous world that inspires you to explore your senses, enveloped in light and nurtured by rain.” Founded in 1984, Cirque du Soleil is now a global powerhouse with 21 different shows worldwide, including nine on tour and eight in Las Vegas alone. There’s no doubt that descriptions of its shows are often difficult for the average person to parse—in truth, many people enjoy Cirque performances simply for the terrific acrobatics, soulful music, and even the clowns, and not because of its charming, but often inscrutable backstories. Although the Cirque’s touring effort, Amaluna, incorporates what is essentially a human-sized bowl of water, Luzia’s creators decided early on that the new production would become Cirque’s largest-ever traveling water show, Marshall Spratt, the show’s assistant technical director, told Fast Company. Of Luzia’s 12 acts, four—or fully one third—utilize water in one way or another. There’s a 3,000-liter pool built under its stage, and a system that effectively rains on the performers, with images appearing in that water curtain thanks to a computer-controlled system. Benjamin Courtenay, a 23-year-old Canadian solo artist who performs above and in the water in Luzia, said the show is the first time he’d worked with water, and that learning to do so presented a challenge. Courtenay explained that the water made the stage a bit slippery and that he’d had to be very conscious of how he moved. He’d initially been worried that his hands might slip from the loops at the end of the straps he swings from. But in the months since Luzia was conceived, he’s overcome those fears. “This is some of the most fun I’ve had,” he said. “I like working with something that’s a challenge, or that’s different. I don’t like getting too comfortable. I like something that makes me be there, [makes me] be present.” It’s one thing to maintain a water tank like the one used in the Cirque’s O, permanently installed at the Bellagio. It’s quite another to make sure that a traveling system is kept in working order and safe for everyone involved. According to Spratt, Cirque’s leadership has learned a number of things from O and Amaluna over the years that were critical to making sure it was possible to incorporate water as tantamount to a central character in Luzia. It begins with a check first thing every morning, and last thing at night, to make sure the water system is working properly—that the temperature is holding steady, that the chemical balance is correct, that pressure is right, and that UV filters are doing their job. There’s also a full system check once a week, Spratt said. At any given moment, the pool under the stage holds about 3,000 liters, while a tank in a shipping container behind Luzia’s big top holds another 3,000. All that water comes from city resources, and as water is used and discarded, it is diverted into the show’s grey water systems for things like its public toilets to minimize waste. All told, Spratt said, Luzia adds a few hundred liters a day. What’s most important, Spratt emphasized, is that the system is safe for everyone involved—from the performers who work in and around the water to the audience members who sometimes get a little bit wet. No one wants anyone to get sick from exposure to unclean water—and to date, no one has, he said. Still, if there were numerous simultaneous system failures, it’s possible to imagine that the show’s directors would conclude they have to yank the water element and continue without them. In that sense, Spratt pointed out, it would be much like if Luzia’s jugglers were unavailable—there’s always a contingency plan for continuing without a character if necessary. After all, with tens of thousands of tickets sold and nine performances a week, the show very much does have to go on. So far, though, everything’s been fine, and that means there’s room for a little humor. Inside the shipping container where the show’s 3,000-liter tank sits, it’s a tight fit. The large pipes that go in and out of the tank are very warm, and alongside a couple of gallon jugs of chlorine there’s boxes of used filters that would look familiar to anyone with a jacuzzi. In fact, Spratt notes that on more than one occasion, he’s dipped his feet in the warm water inside the tank. If you picture some chill music playing in the background, you can almost imagine the crew hanging out here as if it was a hot tub. So, Spratt joked, “I have to keep the techs from drinking beer in here.” { SOURCE: FastCompany | https://goo.gl/qDwkko } Go Behind the Scenes of Luzia with TechCrunch! {Nov.21.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- When the folks at Cirque Du Soleil invited TechCrunch to check out some of the technology behind its latest show, Luzia, they just couldn’t say no. "We try to get to every Cirque show that comes to the Bay Area, so this was like getting a glimpse into Santa’s workshop." "They’ve built all kinds of incredible stuff for this show, from a monstrous treadmill that runs the length of the stage, to a dynamic waterfall wherein each drop is independently controlled to rain images of flowers and birds down from the bigtop, to a dress covered in flowers that subtly bloom to life. It all comes together to help elevate the show without overpowering its human element; it compliments the performers, but doesn’t distract from the absurd, superhuman-level stuff they’re pulling off night after night." "We asked if we could bring a camera along, and they were open to it — so join us for this rare behind the scenes look!" < https://techcrunch.com/d8a046cc-412e-473a-9ef7-cf04f0314295 > { SOURCE: TechCrunch } ======================================================================= ITINÉRAIRE -- TOUR/SHOW INFORMATION ======================================================================= o) BIGTOP - Under the Grand Chapiteau {Amaluna, Koozå, Kurios, Luzia & Totem} o) ARENA - In Stadium-like venues {Varekai, TORUK, OVO & Séptimo Día} o) RESIDENT - Performed en Le Théâtre {Mystère, "O", La Nouba, Zumanity, KÀ, LOVE, MJ ONE, JOYÀ & Paramour} NOTE: .) While we make every effort to provide complete and accurate touring dates and locations available, the information in this section is subject to change without notice. As such, the Fascination! Newsletter does not accept responsibility for the accuracy of these listings. For current, up-to-the-moment information on Cirque's whereabouts, please visit Cirque's website: < http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/ >, or for a more comprehensive tour listing, visit our Itinéraire section online at: < http://www.cirquefascination.com/?page_id=6898 >. ------------------------------------ BIGTOP - Under the Grand Chapiteau ------------------------------------ Amaluna: Dusseldorf, DE -- Nov 11, 2016 to Dec 29, 2016 London, UK -- Jan 12, 2017 to Feb 26, 2017 Vienna, AT -- Mar 9, 2017 to Apr 17, 2017 Rome, IT -- Apr 30, 2017 to May 7, 2017 Koozå: Brisbane, AU -- Nov 24, 2016 to Jan 8, 2017 Melbourne, AU -- Jan 20, 2017 to Mar 26, 2017 Perth, AU -- Apr 13, 2017 to May 7, 2017 Manila, PH -- Jun 25, 2017 to Jul 30, 2017 Kurios: Miami, FL -- Dec 10, 2016 to Jan 29, 2017 Dallas, TX -- Feb 17, 2017 to Mar 26, 2017 Houston, TX -- Apr 6, 2017 to May 21, 2017 Winnipeg, MB — Jun 2, 2017 to Jun 25, 2017 Portland, OR — Aug 28, 2017 to Oct 8, 2017 Vancouver, BC — Oct 19, 2017 to Dec 31, 2017 Luzia: San Francisco, CA -- Nov 17, 2016 to Jan 29, 2017 San Jose, CA -- Feb 9, 2017 to Mar 19, 2017 Seattle, WA -- Mar 30, 2017 to May 21, 2017 Denver, CO -- Jun 1, 2017 to Jul 9, 2017 Chicago, IL -- Jul 21, 2017 to Aug 20, 2017 Phoenix, AZ -- Sep 22, 2017 to Oct 22, 2017 Totem: Nagoya, JP –- Nov 10, 2016 to Jan 15, 2017 Fukuoka, JP –- Feb 3, 2017 to Mar 19, 2017 Sendai, JP -– Apr 6, 2017 to May 21, 2017 Brussels, BE -- Aug 31, 2017 to Oct 29, 2017 Paris, FR -- Nov 2017 VOLTA: Montreal, QC -- Apr 20, 2017 to Jun 11, 2017 Gatineau, QC (Ottawa, ON) -- Aug 3, 2017 to Aug 27, 2017 ------------------------------------ ARENA - In Stadium-Like Venues ------------------------------------ Varekai: Strasbourg, FR -- Nov 30, 2016 to Dec 4, 2016 Paris, FR -- Dec 7, 2016 to Dec 11, 2016 Lille, FR -- Dec 14, 2016 to Dec 18, 2016 Lisbon, PT --Jan 5, 2017 to Jan 15, 2017 Seville, ES -- Jan 18, 2017 to Jan 21, 2017 Gijon, ES -- Jan 25, 2017 to Jan 29, 2017 Sheffield, UK -- Feb 2, 2017 to Feb 5, 2017 Dublin, IR -- Feb 8, 2017 to Feb 12, 2017 Newcastle, UK -- Feb 15, 2017 to Feb 19, 2017 Leeds, UK -- Feb 22, 2017 to Feb 26, 2017 Birmingham, UK -- Mar 1, 2017 to Mar 5, 2017 Nottingham, UK -- Mar 8, 2017 to Mar 12, 2017 Glasgow, UK -- Mar 15, 2017 to Mar 19, 2017 Copenhagen, DK -- Mar 23, 2017 to Mar 26, 2017 Lyon, FR -- Apr 13, 2017 to Apr 16, 2017 Amsterdam, NL -- Apr 20, 2017 to Apr 23, 2017 Bratislava, SK -- Apr 27, 2017 to Apr 30, 2017 Bucharest, RO -- May 3, 2017 to May 7, 2017 Budapest, HU -- May 12, 2017 to May 14, 2017 Prague, CZ -- May 19, 2017 to May 21, 2017 Sofia, BG -- May 26, 2017 to May 28, 2017 Ljubljana, SL -- Jun 2, 2017 to Jun 4, 2017 Vilnius, LT -- Jun 8, 2017 to Jun 10, 2017 TORUK - The First Flight: Sacramento, CA -- Nov 30, 2016 to Dec 4, 2016 Portland, OR -- Dec 7, 2016 to Dec 11, 2016 Vancouver, BC -- Dec 14, 2016 to Dec 18, 2016 Edmonton, AB -- Dec 22, 2016 to Dec 26, 2016 Inglewood, CA -- Jan 12, 2017 to Jan 15, 2017 Las Vegas, NV -- Jan 18, 2017 to Jan 22, 2017 Wichita, KS -- Jan 26, 2017 to Jan 29, 2017 New Orleans, LA -- Feb 1, 2017 to Feb 5, 2017 Guadalajara, MX -- Feb 10, 2017 to Feb 12, 2017 Mexico City, MX -- Feb 16, 2017 to Feb 19, 2017 Monterrey, MX -- Feb 23, 2017 to Feb 25, 2017 Cleveland, OH -- Mar 3, 2017 to Mar 5, 2017 Philadelphia, PA -- Mar 8, 2017 to Mar 12, 2017 Hartford, CT -- Mar 15, 2017 to Mar 19, 2017 OVO: Montreal, QC -- Nov 29, 2016 to Dec 4, 2016 Kingston, ON -- Dec 7, 2016 to Dec 11, 2016 Grand Rapids, MI -- Dec 14, 2016 to Dec 18, 2016 Detroit, MI -- Dec 22, 2016 to Dec 25, 2016 Kansas City, MO -- Dec 28, 2016 to Jan 1, 2017 Sioux Falls, SD -- Jan 4, 2017 to Jan 8, 2017 Loveland, CO -- Jan 11, 2017 to Jan 15, 2017 Colorado Springs, CO -- Jan 18, 2017 to Jan 22, 2017 Tulsa, OK -- Jan 25, 2017 to Jan 29, 2017 Spokane, WA -- Feb 16, 2017 to Feb 19, 2017 West Valley City, UT -- Feb 22, 2017 to Feb 26, 2017 Rio Rancho, NM -- Mar 1, 2017 to Mar 5, 2017 Lubbock, TX -- Mar 8, 2017 to Mar 12, 2017 Cedar Park, TX -- Mar 15, 2017 to Mar 19, 2017 Laredo, TX -- Mar 22, 2017 to Mar 26, 2017 Corpus Christi, TX -- Mar 29, 2017 to Apr 2, 2017 Oklahoma City, OK -- Apr 6, 2017 to Apr 9, 2017 El Paso, TX -- Apr 12, 2017 to Apr 16, 2017 Jacksonville, FL -- Aug 2, 2017 to Aug 6, 2017 Salzburg, AU -- Oct 18, 2017 to Oct 22, 2017 Leipzig, DE -- Oct 25, 2017 to Oct 29, 2017 Hamburg, DE -- Nov 1, 2017 to Nov 5, 2017 Berlin, DE -- Nov 8, 2017 to Nov 12, 2017 Mannheim, DE -- Nov 15, 2017 to Nov 19, 2017 Cologne, DE -- Nov 22, 2017 to Nov 26, 2017 Stuttgart, DE -- Nov 29, 2017 to Dec 3, 2017 Nuremberg, DE -- Dec 6, 2017 to Dec 10, 2017 Munich, DE -- Dec 13, 2017 to Dec 17, 2017 SÉPTIMO DÍA – NO DESCANSARÉ: Buenos Aires, AR -- Mar 9, 2017 to May 14, 2017 Cordoba, AR -- May 25, 2017 to May 31, 2017 Lima, PE -- Jun 17, 2017 to Jun 21, 2017 Santiago, CL -- Jul 19, 2017 to Jul 27, 2017 Bogota, CO -- Sep 3, 2017 to Sep 23, 2017 Mexico City, MX -- October 2017 Guadalajara, MX -- November 2017 Monterrey, MX -- December 2017 Select US Cities -- 2018 --------------------------------- RESIDENT - en Le Théâtre --------------------------------- Mystère: Location: Treasure Island, Las Vegas (USA) Performs: Saturday through Wednesday, Dark: Thursday/Friday Two shows Nightly - 7:00pm & 9:30pm 2017 Dark Dates: o January 7 - 19 o February 5 o March 8 o May 6 - 10 o July 12 o September 9 - 13 o November 8 Special Performance Dates: o Fri, Dec 30, 2016 o Fri, Jan 20, 2017 | Dress Rehearsal 7:00 pm o Thu, Apr 6, 2017 o Thu, Aug 17, 2017 o Fri, Nov 24, 2017 o Fri, Dec 29, 2017 o Sun, Dec 31, 2017 | 4:30pm & 7:00pm 2017 Single Performance Dates: o Fri, Jan 20 | 9:30 pm o Sun, Jan 29 | 7:00 pm o Fri, Mar 03 | 9:30 pm o Sat, Mar 11 | 7:00 pm o Sun, Mar 26 | 7:00 pm o Sun, Apr 02 | 7:00 pm o Sun, Apr 09 | 7:00 pm o Sun, Apr 16 | 7:00 pm o Sat, Jun 17 | 7:00 pm o Sun, Aug 13 | 7:00 pm o Sun, Oct 01 | 7:00 pm o Fri, Oct 20 | 7:00 pm o Sun, Oct 22 | 7:00 pm o Fri, Dec 08 | 7:00 pm "O": Location: Bellagio, Las Vegas (USA) Performs: Wednesday through Sunday, Dark: Monday/Tuesday Two shows Nightly - 7:30pm and 9:30pm (as of Aug 12, 2015) 2016 Dark Dates: o November 28-December 13 La Nouba: Location: Walt Disney World, Orlando (USA) Performs: Tuesday through Saturday, Dark: Sunday/Monday Two shows Nightly - 6:00pm and 9:00pm Zumanity: Location: New York-New York, Las Vegas (USA) Performs: Tuesday through Saturday, Dark Sunday/Monday Two Shows Nightly - 7:00pm and 9:30pm KÀ: Location: MGM Grand, Las Vegas (USA) Performs: Saturday through Wednesday, Dark Thursday/Friday Two Shows Nightly - 7:00pm and 9:30pm 2016 Dark Dates: o November 23 LOVE: Location: Mirage, Las Vegas (USA) Performs: Thursday through Monday, Dark: Tuesday/Wednesday Two Shows Nightly - 7:00pm and 9:30pm MICHAEL JACKSON ONE: Location: Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas (USA) Performs: Two Shows Nightly - Dark: Wednesday/Thursday Schedule: 7:00pm & 9:30pm on Friday, Saturday, Monday & Tuesday 4:30pm & 7:00pm on Sunday JOYÀ: Location: Riviera Maya, Mexico Performs: Tuesday through Saturday, Dark: Sunday/Monday One/Two Shows Nightly: 9:00pm (Weekdays) 7:00pm & 10:15pm (Fri, Sat & Holidays) PARAMOUR: Location: Lyric Theater, Broadway, New York City Performs: Wednesday through Monday, Dark: Tuesday *** CLOSING APRIL 17, 2017 *** One/Two Shows Daily: 2:00pm (Wednesday) 7:30pm (Thursday & Monday) 8:00pm (Friday) 2:00pm & 8:00pm (Saturday) 2:00pm & 7:00pm (Sunday) ======================================================================= OUTREACH - UPDATES FROM CIRQUE's SOCIAL WIDGETS ======================================================================= o) WEBSERIES -- Official Online Featurettes o) VIDEOS -- Official Peeks & Noted Fan Finds --------------------------------------------------- WEBSERIES: Official Online Featurettes --------------------------------------------------- *) LUZIASELF - THE WEBSERIES o) EPISODE 0: THE TEASER November 9, 2016 LUZIAself is a collection of portraits highlighting the unique stories, passion and dedication of some LUZIA artists. LINK /// < https://youtu.be/hBJyt-0nq5s > o) EPISODE 1: HOOP DIVING November 16, 2016 In episode 1, LUZIAself with our Hoop Diving acrobats from San Francisco! Get to know the personalities lying under the feathered costumes and wings! LINK /// < https://youtu.be/lVn6P8ryHvk > *) C:LAB WORKSHOP SERIES o) EPISODE 13: ICE SKATING November 21, 2016 In the Workshops series, Cirque du Soleil explores a new acrobatic repertoire by reaching out to athletes from other disciplines. In this video, a professional off-ice skater is brought in to work with coaches and a strap artist – a first at Cirque du Soleil. Together they explore ways to fuse Off-Ice Skating and the Strap act. LINK /// < https://youtu.be/ny_nRS1I_vU > *) "O" BY CIRQUE DU SOLEIL o) EPISODE 1: SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING November 9, 2016 Swim 17 feet under water with "O" by Cirque du Soleil's synchronized swimmer, Christina Jones, as she talks about her passion for synchronized swimming and her experiences in performing at the "O" theater in Las Vegas, Nevada. LINK /// < https://youtu.be/hzG2_vQFuMI > o) EPISODE 2: HOOP ACROBATICS November 16, 2016 Take it from "O" by Cirque du Soleil's hoop captain Pierre Cottin. The beauty of being above water is the ability to fly. See how the beauty of acrobatics and gymnastics are combined to create the the visualizing stunning hoop act. LINK /// < https://youtu.be/q-XPSl_xFnY > o) EPISODE 3: THE WATER STAGE The artistry of the show doesn’t just happen on stage. The real magic happens underwater. Discover what (and who) lie beneath the surface of the 1.5 million gallon pool featured in "O" by Cirque du Soleil. LINK /// < https://youtu.be/xMCJAqR4XUk > o) EPISODE 4: THE PRODUCTION December 7, 2016 Discover your personal emotional journey with "O". This isn’t just our story. It is also your own unique story. A story that touches on your emotions, as expressed through the element of water. A story about your journey of self- expression, feeling, and escaping. LINK /// < https://youtu.be/uE9KxvgG5oI > --------------------------------------------------- VIDEOS: Official Peeks & Noted Fan Finds --------------------------------------------------- *) CIRQUE TAKES ON THE MANNEQUIN CHALLENGE What is the Mannequin Challenge you may be asking yourselves? The Mannequin Challenge is a viral Internet video trend where people remain frozen in action like mannequins while a video is recorded, usually with the song "Black Beatles" by Rae Sremmurd playing in the background. The hashtag #MannequinChallenge was used for popular social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram. News outlets have compared the videos to bullet time scenes from science fiction films such as The Matrix. Like many other memes it caught fire throughout the social realms of the Internet, spreading far and wide. And Cirque du Soleil naturally picked up the mantle. Check out their amazing Mannequin Challenge videos! o) JOYA -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lzFY5t0Roo o) KA -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83x_Q04WUD8 o) KURIOS -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFSq8xrsjl0 o) LA NOUBA -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2iuck2Jn9Q o) LOVE -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUQFC3KTYWA o) LUZIA -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_iqOOZqC3c o) KOOZA -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjF8glhazME o) MJ ONE -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaG7vNs9I7w o) MYSTERE -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDyE-vX2dRE o) OVO -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhvIdk3CDsg o) TOTEM -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTSbxbYVhQM o) VAREKAI -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqrG7jjxQ9Y o) VOLTA -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZKCQQr4DZU o) ZUMANITY -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJdRV40vgnA ======================================================================= FASCINATION! FEATURES ======================================================================= o) "Casting Q&A's - Meet an Artist, Part 4 of 6" Edited By: Ricky Russo - Atlanta, Georgia (USA) o) INTERVIEW /// "JOHN GILKEY - CLOWN, ACTOR, CHARACTER" By: The Chapiteau, a Cirque du Soleil Fan Club ------------------------------------------------------------ "Casting Q&A's - Meet an Artist, Part 4 of 6" Edited By: Ricky Russo - Atlanta, Georgia (USA) ------------------------------------------------------------ Ever wonder what it would be like to become a Cirque du Soleil artist? Of course you have! Who hasn’t? Wonder no longer! Through a series of interviews on their casting website, Cirque du Soleil invites us to get to know some of their performers (past and present), and discover how each of them went from a career as an athlete, circus performer, instrumentalist, singer, dancer, actor, clown, or in another specialty to becoming a Cirque performer. They’re fantastic reads if you’ve had the pleasure, and if you haven’t, well, don’t despair. We’ve collected all 30 artist interviews for you to peruse in this series, which, due to the page count, we’ll publish in six parts. In September, we began with Q&A's from Anthony Gatto, Claudel Doucet, Denise Stefanie Gonzalez, Eric Scribner, and Eve Castelo Branco. Then Hassan El Hajjami (Hip-hop & Breakdance), Jean-François Houle (Bandleaders), Jeanne Dioman Gbou (Ethnic & Traditional dance), Julia Lopatkina (Acrobatic gymnastics), and Kristin Allen (Gymnastics) in October. We continued last month with: Lionel Hamel (Stringed instruments), Lisa Skinner (Artistic gymnastics), Marco De Santi (Extreme sports), Melissa Urbano (Martial arts), and Michael Joseph Hachey (Stringed instruments). And now here in Part Four: Miho Kono (Synchronized swimming), Miro Lacasse (Physical Actors), Noriko Takahashi (Diverse abilities), Odmaa Bayartsogt (Other disciplines), and Oleksandr Pylypenko (Athletes). # # # MIHO KONO Japan | Synchronized Swimming Q. WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST ATHLETIC ACHIEVEMENT PRIOR TO JOINING? 1997, 1999 Fina Cup - silver medal 1998 World Championship - silver medal 1996 Olympics - bronze medal (Team Japan) Q. PLEASE TELL US ABOUT YOUR BACKGROUND PREVIOUS TO JOINING CIRQUE? I was synchronized swimming for 13 years and a member of the Japanese National Team for 5 years. Q. WHEN DID YOU JOIN CIRQUE DU SOLEIL? Summer 2000. Q. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CONTACT WITH THE ORGANIZATION? My coach knew a performer at Cirque du Soleil and advised me to send my resumé. Q. WHAT KIND OF AN EXPERIENCE WAS YOUR AUDITION? It was totally different from what I had been doing in synchronized swimming. It was a new experience that was both fun and enjoyable for me. Q. HOW DID YOUR INTEGRATION GO IN THE SHOW? Integration was difficult at first because of the different cultures and languages, but with time it got easier. Q. HOW DOES BEING PART OF A CIRQUE DU SOLEILSHOW ALLOW YOU TO EXPRESS YOURSELF IN YOUR DISCIPLINE? Because we are no longer in “competition mode" we get to explore different ways of expressing ourselves in the water. Q. WHAT DO YOU LIKE THE MOST ABOUT BEING PART OF CIRQUE DU SOLEIL? I like that we get to create emotions and sensations in the audience. Q. HOW DID THE TRANSITION GO BETWEEN YOUR FORMER CAREER TO YOUR CURRENT CIRQUE CAREER? That was easy because I was synchronized swimming before I joined “O". Q. WHY WOULD YOU RECOMMEND AN ARTIST TO JOIN CIRQUE? I believe Cirque du Soleil is the best of the best and allows us to make the most of our talent in doing our jobs. Q. HOW IS LIFE IN LAS VEGAS? It’s great. I find it motivating here because I can always see an event. Q. ANYTHING ELSE YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE WITH US? Join us! * * * MIRO LACASSE Canada | Actor Q. WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT PRIOR TO JOINING? I spent 11 years acting and creating in both live theatre and film. Q. PLEASE TELL US ABOUT YOUR ARTISTIC BACKGROUND PREVIOUS TO JOINING? I have been an actor and creator since 1996. Q. WHEN DID YOU JOIN CIRQUE DU SOLEIL? I joined KÀ during its creation in December 2003. Q. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CONTACT WITH THE ORGANIZATION? I first got to know Cirque du Soleil 20 years ago at a festival in Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec. Q. WHAT KIND OF AN EXPERIENCE WAS YOUR AUDITION? I was part of a closed laboratory to explore and propose variations for the role of “Counselor". It was very powerful to work on the writing for this kind of character and very physically taxing. Q. HOW DID YOUR INTEGRATION GO IN MONTREAL AND IN THE SHOW? It was very interesting to see the theatrical universe meet the Cirque universe, and incredible to watch the worlds of acrobatic performance and storytelling come together. Q. HOW DOES BEING PART OF A CIRQUE DU SOLEIL SHOW ALLOW YOU TO EXPRESS YOURSELF IN YOUR DISCIPLINE? Robert Lepage gave me creative carte blanche so I had a wonderful and very stimulating opportunity to be a part of the creative team… lots of ideas, lots of effort, lots of patience, but mostly lots and lots of love! Q. WHAT DO YOU LIKE THE MOST ABOUT BEING PART OF CIRQUE DU SOLEIL? I love the exchange between individuals from different nationalities and backgrounds that bring a great variety of experience and artistic skill along with their rich personalities. Q. HOW DID THE TRANSITION GO BETWEEN YOUR FORMER CAREER TO YOUR CURRENT CIRQUE CAREER? One day at a time… In particular I had to learn to deal with my fear of heights because I was to be part of an acrobatic act happening 100 feet in the air. But I managed to conquer my fear with patience, perseverance and a lot of support. Q. HOW IS LIFE IN LAS VEGAS? 7 AM: Make breakfast, 8:45 AM: Take my kid to school, Between 9 AM and 2:30 PM: Take care of some household duties, and if possible a short nap, 2:45 PM: Pick up my child, 4:15: Time to go to work, 5 to 11:20 PM: KÀ 12:15 AM: Go back home 2:00 AM: Go to bed. * * * NORIKO TAKAHASHI Japan | Baton Twirling Q. WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT PRIOR TO JOINING? I performed 15 times at the Baton Twirling World Championships where I won 6 gold medals in the Individual Senior Women’s division and 1 gold medal in the Senior Pairs division. Q. PLEASE TELL US ABOUT YOUR BACKGROUND PREVIOUS TO JOINING CIRQUE: I began baton twirling in 1976 and performed for the first time in an international competition in 1982. Q. WHEN DID YOU JOIN CIRQUE DU SOLEIL? I started in Montreal in February 2004. Q. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CONTACT WITH THE ORGANIZATION? My first encounter with Cirque du Soleil was when I went to see their first show to tour Japan called “Fascination". Q. WHAT KIND OF AN EXPERIENCE WAS YOUR AUDITION? I started my role in KÀ as the show was being created and did not end up having to go through any auditions or workshops. I was truly happy to be a part of the creation of a new show under the guidance of its wonderful creator. Q. HOW DID YOUR INTEGRATION GO IN MONTREAL AND IN THE SHOW? Everyone involved was so amiable; it made it easy right from the beginning. Q. HOW DOES BEING PART OF A CIRQUE DU SOLEIL SHOW ALLOW YOU TO EXPRESS YOURSELF IN YOUR DISCIPLINE? I feel I am able to open up more than before. Q. WHAT DO YOU LIKE THE MOST ABOUT BEING PART OF CIRQUE DU SOLEIL? I get to meet many wonderful people and have a chance to share my passion with others. Q. HOW DID THE TRANSITION GO BETWEEN YOUR FORMER CAREER TO YOUR CURRENT CIRQUE CAREER? Because I love learning new things, I didn’t find it difficult at all. What’s more, the training I received taught me to believe that nothing is ever too difficult to handle. Q. WHY WOULD YOU RECOMMEND AN ARTIST TO JOIN CIRQUE? I feel Cirque has helped me improve myself and fulfill my potential. Also, I have found encouragement in the friendships I have forged here. Q. HOW IS LIFE IN LAS VEGAS? Las Vegas is one of America’s most amazing cities. There are impressive natural wonders nearby, and there are so many ways to have a good time! * * * ODMAA BAYARTSOGT Mongolia | Contortion Q. WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST ACROBATIC ACHIEVEMENT PRIOR TO JOINING? 2001-2002 Golden Circus Festival in Italy – 2nd place Performed at the 2000 Expo in Germany Sweden circus festival in 1998 – 1st place “Bravo Bravisimo" festival in 1997 in Italy – 2nd place Q. PLEASE TELL US ABOUT YOUR BACKGROUND PREVIOUS TO JOINING CIRQUE: I started contortion when I was 8 years old and practiced for 2 years. After that I became a professional artist and went on to perform in Asia and Europe for 7 years. Q. WHEN DID YOU JOIN CIRQUE DU SOLEIL? May 2005 Q. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CONTACT WITH THE ORGANIZATION? In Mongolia in 2003, I did an audition for Cirque du Soleil’s casting department. Q. WHAT KIND OF AN EXPERIENCE WAS YOUR AUDITION? I had never experienced anything like it before and had so much fun! Q. HOW DID YOUR INTEGRATION GO IN THE SHOW? My integration into the show went very smoothly and didn’t take very long. I started at “O" in May and was performing in the show by July. Q. HOW DOES BEING PART OF A CIRQUE DU SOLEIL SHOW ALLOW YOU TO EXPRESS YOURSELF IN YOUR DISCIPLINE? Being a part of “O" has helped me reach the top level of my discipline. Q. WHAT DO YOU LIKE THE MOST ABOUT BEING PART OF CIRQUE DU SOLEIL? Everything! Q. HOW DID THE TRANSITION GO BETWEEN YOUR FORMER CAREER TO YOUR CURRENT CIRQUE CAREER? It was seamless. Q. WHY WOULD YOU RECOMMEND AN ARTIST TO JOIN CIRQUE? Just to go to one of the Cirque shows and you will feel the professional artistry! Q. HOW IS LIFE ON TOUR/IN LAS VEGAS? Working in Las Vegas is very, very cool. Life was very hectic when I was touring and now I feel more settled. * * * OLEKSANDR PYLYPENKO Ukraine | Artistic Gymnastics - High Bar Q. WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST ATHLETIC ACHIEVEMENT PRIOR TO JOINING? Reached Master of Sport Level Q. PLEASE TELL US ABOUT YOUR ATHLETIC BACKGROUND PREVIOUS TO JOINING? I began formal training in gymnastics at age 7 and continued training until I was 18. Q. WHEN DID YOU JOIN CIRQUE DU SOLEIL? I began as an artist in Alegría in 2001 then joined Mystère at the end of 2005. Q. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CONTACT WITH THE ORGANIZATION? I heard about and went to a Cirque audition in Kiev. Following the audition I was invited to general formation but had to wait until I turned 18 to get my passport. Q. WHAT KIND OF AN EXPERIENCE WAS YOUR AUDITION? It was a little stressful because being at general formation didn’t guarantee I was going to get a job and the training really pushed me out of my comfort zone. Q. HOW DID YOUR INTEGRATION GO IN MONTREAL AND IN THE SHOW? I was given the opportunity to slowly grow into my role in Alegría and I already knew a lot of the artists there from general formation, so it went well. When I joined Mystère I didn’t know as many people but my integration was far easier. Q. HOW DOES BEING PART OF A CIRQUE DU SOLEIL SHOW ALLOW YOU TO EXPRESS YOURSELF IN YOUR DISCIPLINE? By combining my gymnastic skills with the artistic direction of Cirque du Soleil I get to show the audience something amazing every night. Q. WHAT DO YOU LIKE THE MOST ABOUT BEING PART OF CIRQUE DU SOLEIL? The energy you get back from the audience is amazing. You do your performance and people get a great feeling out of it, but the energy they give back is that much more. Q. WHY WOULD YOU RECOMMEND AN ARTIST TO JOIN CIRQUE? You are given the chance to express yourself on stage every night where you get to share something amazing with the audience. And you actually get paid to have fun. Q. HOW IS LIFE IN LAS VEGAS? Life in Las Vegas is good, your schedule allows time to take classes at the local university or just enjoy what the city has to offer. # # # Stay tuned for more pieces of this series coming soon! In Part Five: Paulo Lorador (Balancing), PJ Bogart (Diving), Raphaël Sanchez (Keyboards), Ross Gibson (Tumbling), and Sabú Alegría (Wheels). And in the final installment: Suo Liu (Martial arts), Tumelo “Michael" Moloi (Other dance styles), Vanessa Convery (Jazz & Tap dance), Zara Tellander (Female vocals), and Zeng jiao JIAN (Martial arts). ------------------------------------------------------------ INTERVIEW /// "JOHN GILKEY - CLOWN, ACTOR, CHARACTER" By: The Chapiteau, a Cirque du Soleil Fan Club ------------------------------------------------------------ John Gilkey is an actor/clown from California who is known by many Cirque du Soleil fans thanks to his memorable characters in Quidam and Varekai. Back in 2015, John took some time to talk with our friends over at The Chapiteau about how he got into acting and clowning, his history with Cirque du Soleil, and his current projects at the time. We intended to publish this interview at the time it happened, but, hey, better late than never, right? # # # Q. What do you consider yourself, an entertainer, an artist, a clown? What would you call yourself? That's a really hard question for me to answer. I go back and forth a lot on that. Certainly early on I never thought of myself as a clown. I always felt that was something that was kind of difficult to attain because I sort of held it in sort of a lofty place, that idea of what a clown is and I never considered myself ready for that, maybe. And I guess I still hesitate to use the word today. I don't know, anytime people ask me what I do I just end up rambling and I never make any sense and they walk away from me. Yeah, let's say I'm a performing artist. And I guess I draw from lots of different inspirations, places for inspirations, so I don't necessarily fall into a particular category. I think. It's hard to tell from my point of view, obviously, but I think I kind of bring different things together. Q. Where were you born? I was born in Northern California in the San Francisco bay area. Q. Is that where you're right now? No. I live in Los Angeles now, in Hollywood. I came down here to LA for Iris, but I stayed here after it closed. Q. When did you start performing? When did your career start? Pretty young. I was performing by the time I was 13. I was juggling then. I learned to juggle when I was 10 and I played around with that for a while. When I was 13, I think the first show I did was my junior high school talent show with a friend of mine who was also a juggler. So in my teens, I started doing little shows here and there, little company picnics. I didn't really do any birthday parties, really. I think I did one. And competitions, I was competing in these juggling competitions; the International Jugglers Association that had sort of regional and national competitions. That's where I began. It wasn't until I got to the Pickle Family Circus when I was 20 that I started to learn more acrobatics and clown and stuff like that. Q. Do you still juggle? Hardly. Rarely. I kind of miss it, but it's funny, I don't know. I don't have the occasion to do it so much. It was also back then it was a very social activity for me. I would meet up with people at least once a week and juggle and I just don't have a group here in LA that I get together with to juggle. And I guess I spend more time on the acting/clown type stuff now. My juggling balls are like by my bed and every once in a while I pick them up and juggle right before I go to bed. That's about it. Just to prove I can still do it, I guess. Q. When you were juggling, before you started acting, did you think you would be on the stage juggling as opposed to acting? When I was younger, I never could have imagined stopping to juggle. I thought I'd be doing that for sure the rest of my life because it was so central to everything I did, to who I was. I never could imagine growing out of it, but I did. I found limitations in the juggling pretty early on, actually. When I was just starting out I was super into learning the hardest tricks and juggling the most amount of objects and that kind of thing, but pretty soon I realized two things: I didn't necessarily have the natural talent for high skill juggling and also I felt there was a limitation in what I could communicate to the public if I was just focusing on the technical aspect of juggling. So early on I started to move towards character and more the performance, let's say the artistic side of it – the creative side of it. And that seemed to set the course for the rest of my career as I moved away from skill based routines as time has gone on and I've shed all of that and I'm doing more and more now character based stuff. We can call it clown if we want. Q. Did you go to an acting school? How did you start? No. I'm super lucky because as I say, when I was 20, I started to work for the Pickle Family Circus and for people who don't know, this circus was a very important circus sort of in the evolution of modern circus. In the states it was the first one ring no animal circus and it was heavily focused on clowns. In particular three clowns: Larry Pisoni, Geoff Hoyle and Bill Irwin. Bill Irwin has gone on to become the most famous of those three. They're all sort of equally talented clowns. So this show that I joined and I spent four years there, that's where I began to learn a more broad performance skill set. I arrived with the ability to juggle and a little bit of performance skill that I sort of just picked up along the way. In the Pickles, I learned everything I needed to learn. It was like my university, in a way. In fact, I dropped out of university right before I joined the Pickles and I spent four years in the Pickles. So that was my school. I never went to any traditional schooling. I took an acting class in university for one quarter, but I never did any sort of focused training. When I say the Pickles, I was learning from the people I was learning with and the directors and the choreographers and things like that. I did do one one-month class workshop on clown from a guy named Ronlin Foreman who teaches at the Dell'Arte school in Northern California. This was a turning point for me because even though I've been sort of dabbling in clown and character stuff at that point, this was the point where I was sort of directly introduced to the challenges of clown and sort of more of the history of modern clown relating back to Jacques Lecoq who teaches the sort of physical theatre in Europe. So that one month at Dell'Arte was what sort of careened me off into a more focused clown direction. And that one month with Ronlin was the only real sort of direct clown training I had, besides all the on the job stuff I picked up. Q. And what year was that? I joined Pickles in '87 and I did the workshop with Ronlin in 1990. Q. And after that did you start doing any solo work or did you join some kind of company? Yeah. So after Pickles, I went directly to Switzerland where I joined a theatre group called Teatro Dimitri. Dimitri is a famous Swiss clown who has a school and a performance company that tours around Europe and I went into the performance company. There were seven of us. Basically, we just toured around for two years performing two different shows there. Super physical. It was more of a time for me to focus on my acting and clown type skills and I was diminishing the reliance on the circus skills and focusing more on the acting and clown. Q. When did Cirque du Soleil happen? After I left Dimitri, I had a couple of years where I was performing as a solo artist and that's where I created the version of my dance with the coatrack that I do in Quidam. I'd been doing that for many years but different versions of it. It was evolving. So in that time right after Dimitri and I came back to the States, I created the version of that that was eventually used in Quidam, as well as this thing with the hoops and the dart. All that was created in this two year period between Dimitri and Cirque du Soleil. So in that time I was performing variety shows and comedy clubs, mostly in the States, a little bit in Europe. I'd auditioned for Cirque in '95. Q. Was it a general audition or were they specifically looking for someone for Quidam? It was general. It was in LA in the tent. Alegria was here in LA. It was funny, it was mostly dancers and actors, I guess. They were sort of focusing on dancers and characters. At that point I was still thinking of myself more as this juggler type person that I didn't really know where to fit in in the audition. They would ask everybody to raise their hand, ‘which are you a dancer or actor?' I didn't feel like I fitted in with either of those, but they had us all do a lot of dance choreography, everybody at the beginning of the audition. I was really having trouble keeping up; I'm not a dancer. I can move, but I'm not a dancer. But I was having fun and they loved it. I guess I looked like a complete idiot trying to do all the choreography, and they loved it. The director she came up to me and said, "Oh, keep doing what you're doing. It's great. It's great." After a while they broke us into two groups and I thought, "Oh, good. Finally, I made it through the dance and I can go with the actors. I'll be more comfortable over there." And they called out everybody's names, "Ok, these guys stay here with the dancers and these guys go with the actors." They didn't call my name. I said, "Don't you want me to go with the actors?" They said, "No, no, no. We want you to stay with the dancers." But that turned out really good because that contrast between these really highly skilled dancers and then me, highlighted my lack of skills and my goofiness, I guess. So their casting lady, Dominique, she really responded well to that. She took video tapes from that and she was pushing hard with Franco who directed Quidam. She pitched me to him based on that audition and it wasn't until year later… I'd call her every once in a while and she's like, "We're still very interested. We're still very interested, but we don't know yet." But a year later they finally invited me to Montreal to what was essentially a callback audition. It was a workshop with Franco – few people that they were considering to bring on as characters. There were about seven or eight of us and we did a couple of days of workshops. And then they offered me the job basically that night. Maybe it was only one day and that night they called and offered me the job. It was a long wait, but then suddenly, weirdly, it happened right away. Q. So at that time, the company was fairly young. I'm curious, back then was it a popular company as far as entertainment? Did you know about Cirque du Soleil? For me, I knew about Cirque from quite early on. As I said, I was with the Pickle Family Circus from '87. In '87 we were performing in Los Angeles with the Pickle Family Circus and Cirque du Soleil came to Los Angeles as part of the LA Theatre Festival. So we were both in LA at the same time. This was the very first time that Cirque du Soleil had come to the US. It was their third year in existence. We had a friend that was with the Pickles in previous years but was now with Cirque du Soleil, so we went to see her in that show. I was blown away, really blown away. I knew right then and there that that was what I wanted to do. There was a guy in the show, his name as Mark Prue. He was brilliant, this guy. He was sort of the main character of that show. I thought that guy was just so cool and the show was beautiful, just so beyond anything I'd ever seen that I decided that was what I wanted to do. So for the next 9 years until '96 when I was actually hired, everything I did was aimed at preparing myself to work in the Cirque du Soleil. So I knew from relatively early on that that was something I wanted to do. Q. Did you create the character of John? Mostly. The thing that we changed was – the easiest way of saying is like the status of the character. When I arrived, the character look was the same, we kept the routines and the look, but I was a more naive character, sort of younger, more naive, more innocent and Franco pushed me into a higher status – more authoritative, stronger, more driving kind of enlightened character. He kept saying, ‘You're illuminated.' I had much more experience than anybody else [the other characters] on stage, was the idea. That was a big adjustment in terms of the inner workings of the character. I came in and I was kind of a smaller body and I was small steps and he was always trying to get me to big steps and to really take the space because he was pushing me into that role of the ringmaster, essentially. Even though it's not a traditional ringmaster, dramaturgically, it's that position of the ringmaster that I held, so I had to be a much stronger character for that. Q. Was there an inspiration behind John? Not from my point of view and I don't think from his either. For me, it was something that just developed over time. Something that just sort of evolved organically. Knowing the way that Franco works, he doesn't write anything. Everything that he develops is from improvising with his cast. It's more of a process of devising and discovering characters and movement. I know he had some inspirations for the show in terms of tone and look, things like that, but nothing specific about my character, that I know of. Q. How long did you tour with Quidam? About three years. Q. And then from there? After Quidam I did about half a year of special events with Cirque. Then there was a failed attempt at a TV show. Before Solstrom, there was another TV show that was supposed to happen. I was going to be one of three hosts/writers of that show. I worked on that for about 6 months. Q. What kind of show was it supposed to be? That's a good question. There were different things that we considered. The thing that we were focusing on at the point when they pulled the plug was essentially a live variety show. You'd film the show in front of a live audience. You had these three hosts that would do bits. We had sort of life themes and we brought in different Cirque type acts from around the world, both from within Cirque du Soleil shows and outside Cirque du Soleil shows. It's a real pity we didn't get to do it. It was going to be cool. It's a bummer because we had some really good ideas and some really talented people involved. It makes me sad. But they pulled the plug on it and eventually it became Solstrom. But Solstrom is way different then what we'd imagined for this other one. So I was doing that and as soon as they pulled the plug on that basically I happened to be in the right place at the right time. They wanted to replace the original clowns of Dralion rather suddenly so they had to do something. It happened very quickly. It was all within three week period of time where they asked me to do it. I brought it a friend of mine who we'd already talked about working together, so this was sort of the perfect opportunity. I went to New York… This is Gonzalo I'm talking about. So Gonzalo and I created these two numbers very quickly in New York and brought them back to Montreal, showed them to the director, Guy Caron, and they accepted the acts. We flew to Miami and shortly thereafter we were in the show with these new numbers. The ones in the DVD, that's [sic] the original clowns, Les voilà. So after they left, we brought in completely new characters and two new acts. The two acts that they were performing… they did four acts in the show, Les voilà. Two of the acts were their acts that they owned and they took those away with them when they left Dralion. We replaced those two acts with two new acts of our own. We also performed modified versions of the other two acts that Les voilà had created with the original clown director. Q. As far as Dralion and Quidam, would you say that it was very different? Because in Quidam you were the main character. Yeah, exactly. In Dralion I was more of a straight clown. I mean, Cirque… I don't know if they still do this but they kind of use to draw a distinction between characters and clowns. Initially I was supposed to be a character in Quidam because there were already these three guys who were going to provide the clown material. In the end, in Quidam, I sort of straddled both. I did some character work and clown work. In Dralion, it was strictly clown. It was all comedy. One of the things that the characters do in the show is that they provide a through line and they drive the momentum of the show, but in Dralion that was not my responsibility. Q. After Dralion, what did you do? So Varekai was in early stages of creation when I finished Dralion. I sort of threw my hat in the ring because I wanted to be involved in Varekai because I'd heard they were basing this show partly on this artist that I was really into and that I had been super inspired by. This guy, Robert Parkeharrison, he's a photographer. I was totally into this guy's stuff and I wanted to do something based on this guy's stuff and then I learned that Varekai was going to use that as inspiration for that show and I thought, "Oh, this is perfect!" I kind of threw my hat in the ring for that show but they different plans; they had another guy they wanted to hire, so they said no. I hung out for like a month in Montreal just trying to rub shoulders and network and be at the right place at the right time but they said "No, no. We don't want you." So I drove back to California from Montreal and in two weeks they called and I had to go back and do Varekai. I had signed another contract for something else so I was only available for the first year of Varekai. I went back a month later. I flew back to Montreal and I started the creation process for Varekai. Q. You said because you had another contract you could only be with Varekai for a year? Yeah. When they said no to me for Varekai, at that point I had this offer from Franco Dragone to work with him. I was very upfront with Cirque. I said, "Look, I have this offer from Franco and there are certain things about that that are really appealing and if you guys were able to offer those things to me as well, then I would consider staying here." In the end, they said, "No. We don't want you. We don't have a place. We don't need you." So I said ok, thank you very much and I told Franco that I'd like to work with him. Let's do it. Then two weeks later Cirque came back and said, "Oh, we do want you after all." But in the end it worked out fine. I came back and did the one year of Varekai and that was super fun and I got to work with Franco as well. Q. The Skywatcher, you created that character, right? Yes. Although, for that character and that show, it was one of the first shows after Franco left Cirque. So, the creation process was beginning to evolve into a different format, into a different shape as it was when Franco was there. For this show, for example, directed by Dominic Champagne, he had a script for the show. It wasn't a real typed script and it wasn't obviously based on text, but he had an idea – pretty good idea of the story and certain events he wanted to have happen. So he had an idea of what the Vigie, the Skywatcher was, much more than what Franco had for what I did in Quidam. For Varekai, there was more of a skeleton for me to work with in terms of the character. I went obviously back and forth a lot with Dominic. We shaped it together and it evolved quite a bit from what he originally imagined. But it was a very different process with Dominic. Q. So then you went to work with Dragone? Yeah, on the Le Reve project for the Wynn Hotel in Vegas. Q. This was for clowns as well or characters? Well yeah, clowns, supposedly. I was hired as the clown conceptor so I was in charge of conceiving the bits and casting a team of seven clowns with the clowns sort of developing these bits for the show. In the end we sort of made a distinction between some of the actors – made some more clown type and some more character type. That's essentially what the project was. We started out… we had seven months of rehearsals. Way too much. Way too much rehearsal. We spent about three and a half months in Belgium and three and a half months in Vegas before we opened, developing the characters, the look, the numbers and all of that. Q. How long were you in Le Reve? Well I didn't perform. I was just in the creative team. I was there for a couple of years in pre-production and then as I say, about six or seven months for the creation period and then a couple of months after it opened. I did actually performed a little bit in the show because one of the guys was injured, so I went in for maybe a dozen shows or something like that. But essentially, I was on the creative team only. Q. After Le Reve… After Le Reve a did lots of stuff. Little here and there, smaller projects. Nothing too exciting. Just kind of more experimental stuff, maybe I can say. I spent a lot with the big shows and the big budgets… you have to please a lot of people and you have to create material that's sort of aimed at a large general audience, so I was having fun experimenting with more far out ideas that might have a smaller audience but that might be creatively super interesting. I still, even now, spend a lot time doing that. Q. So let's talk about Iris. I think it closed prematurely… Yeah, they were having trouble finding a public from the very beginning. It was difficult to get enough people in there. Sadly. Q. What was the name of your character? Oh, that's a good question. What was the name of my character? I don't think I had a name. That must have been one of my problems. It was not maybe the best character I ever created. I don't know that I ever named it. Isn't that funny? Q. But I think, for example, in Quidam and Varekai and even with the clowns, it seemed like you had a lot more stage time or presence. I feel that in Iris we didn't really get to see you that much. Or maybe there was so much going on that you didn't really get to stand out like in these other shows. No, you're absolutely right. I mean, there's various reasons. There were five, for one thing, so there was a lot of us. We also, we didn't have a lot of direction. That's putting it kindly. We didn't have another direction. And in fact, something that happened early on, because of this lack of direction… I didn't want this to happen but it happened… I was sort of put in charge as the group/clown leader, let's say. Sort of unofficial leader. As the leader, the guy who was sort of pushing and guiding us, it was impossible to look after myself and everybody else. It would feel weird to put myself at the center if I'm the guy leading. That doesn't feel fair. So I was really trying to help support everybody else, so I ended up diminishing myself. And so not only am I not in there that much, and you could say that about the other characters too because there are five of us, but the main mistake I made I think was that I put myself in a role where I was serving everybody else in almost every scene and that meant that there was a lack of consistency from my character. It was very difficult to understand who I was and what my relationship was to the show and even what my relationship was to the other people in the show because it was always changing. I feel that was because I couldn't direct myself very well as well as guide everybody. And by everybody, I mean the five clowns. So I kind of took a back seat in that show. Q. I guess I wasn't wrong… No, you're absolutely right. And I think many people would agree. I think lack of stage time is putting it nicely. I think there were other problems, it's just that I wasn't very clear and particularly interesting. Q. Which of these Cirque du Soleil characters that you created or you portrayed is your favorite? That's hard. My first show that I performed in was Quidam. So just like somebody who's a fan who goes to see the shows and their first one they see it's their favorite, there's a very special place for Quidam, obviously for me. And in a way also, Quidam was the show that most represented me, I think. I think it was the closest to me and that I was able to maybe be my most personally creative in that show. Q. I think there's something very endearing about that character John. Yeah, it's definitely one that when people speak to me, it's the one that people remember the most. It was really really a remarkable show. It's hard to beat that. But it's true, sometimes I was frustrated with Varekai and that character and I had my doubts. I had a lot of doubts about that character and what I was doing in that show. I'd gone for years without watching the DVD or anything and I went back and looked at it and I was like, "Oh, man. That's not bad. That's a pretty cool character after all. Why was I so troubled about that character at that time. He's a great character." So, I love the Varekai character as well. Same for Dralion. They're all different. I'm proud of that, that they're different. They've all got something to offer. Q. Where can we see John Gilkey today and do you think we'll see you in a Cirque du Soleil show soon or maybe in the future? At the moment I'm working in LA teaching, which I'm really, really enjoying. I'm taking in all this stuff that I've learned from my circus experience and all of that and sort of sharing that with actors and comedians in LA. That's going really well. It's super fun and people are getting turned on to this sort of new take on how to perform comedy. That's super exciting. From the classes, we've developed a performance company called Wet The Hippo. You can check it out online, WetTheHippo.com. There's also the classes. I also have a website for that, theidiotworkshop.com. Those are my focus points now. We're performing twice a month in LA doing our full show as Wet The Hippo. I don't have a big spot in that show, I'm kind of directing the show as it goes on. In terms of my Cirque relationship, you never know. They sort of always called when you least expect it. I definitely miss being on stage with Cirque. Particularly, we were talking about Iris and that was a bit frustrating for me because I didn't feel at home in that character. It didn't feel like it was my best work, so I definitely want to get back on stage with Cirque and create a character that really fulfils my need. I hope that happens. I hope there's a place for that. And I think there might be some sort of coming together with Wet The Hippo and Cirque du Soleil. I think that would be ideal. That the stuff that we're discovering with Wet The Hippo can serve and fold into Cirque du Soleil somehow. I think there's a real strong connection to be found there. So that's what I'd say to keep your eyes open for that kind of thing. # # # Read and HEAR this fantastic interview on The Chapiteau's Website: < http://www.thechapiteau.com/interviews/john-gilkey/ > ======================================================================= COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER ======================================================================= Fascination! Newsletter Volume 16, Number 12 (Issue #155) - December 2016 "Fascination! Newsletter" is a concept by Ricky Russo. Copyright (C) 2001-2016 Ricky Russo, published by Vortex/RGR Productions, a subsidiary of Communicore Enterprises. No portion of this newsletter can be reproduced, published in any form or forum, quoted or translated without the consent of the "Fascination! Newsletter." By sending us correspondence, you give us permission (unless otherwise noted) to use the submission as we see fit, without remuneration. All submissions become the property of the "Fascination! Newsletter." "Fascination! Newsletter" is not affiliated in any way with Cirque du Soleil. Cirque du Soleil and all its creations are Copyright (C) and are registered trademarks (TM) of Cirque du Soleil, Inc., and Créations Méandres, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No copyright infringement intended. { Dec.10.2016 } =======================================================================