Check out this moving video with Adriana Pegueroles, Boleadoras dancer with Saltimbanco for 13 years, as she reminisces about her time with the show on the eve of Saltimbanco’s final performance. We also hear from Carmen Ruest, Director of Creation for Saltimbanco’s restaging in 2007. Transcript below the video:
Adriana Pegueroles:
My name is Adriana Pegueroles and I do the Boleadoras act. Bo-le-a-dor-as, it’s difficult to pronounce. I have been on the show for thirteen years. When the circus first called me and I was about to sign my contract, the first thing I asked was “how many shows a week? How many times will we be on stage?” They said eight or ten times. I was so honored! Super! That meant that I was going to start working with the Cirque and doing this act ten times a week! If all I had to do was perform the act, and all I have to do is focus on what is happening on here (the stage). I am the queen!
Each night when I do my act in this show, I am nervous, but happy. Every night I feel so lucky that I can dance onstage. I’ve traveled all over the world, visited a hundred and forty-eight cities. I’m sure you’d agree that it was hard work, but it was so rewarding.
Carmen Ruest:
The Bolas community is quite small in the world of circus. Saltimbanco has set up a small milieu for girls and boys. In the beginning of Saltimbanco, under the Big Top, the bolas number starred two girls who manipulated the bolas, and one boy who played the keyboard and drums. Later, the girls were alone with only music from the band. When we started the arena shows, we decided to have a mixed duo of bolas: a boy and a girl. At the beginning of their act, they both play Argentinean drums. That was such a nice improvement. It lit a fire onstage!
Adriana Pegueroles:
You couldn’t go onstage thinking that was going to be the same act over and over again. You had to be ready every time, concentrate, have fun, and be able to touch that person way in the back, you see? It will be the same tonight. Of course, it will be more emotional but I don’t want to think about that. This is not a finale. Why should it be a finale? No, no, no, no…
Carmen Ruest:
In the beginning, under the Big Top, the girls wore headdresses, which made some movements with the boleadoras strings impossible. Then I said “Girls, let your hair down. Let’s go!” Adrianna was very happy with the decision because she could do her trick of passing the string through her hair, and that was difficult to do.
Adriana Pegueroles:
I feel that I am so lucky to have had these thirteen years because this is the type of act I had been hoping for since I was very young. This is the biggest gift of my life. I wish the same to every artist.
Video Production Crew:
Director Eric Chaussé.
Assistant to the Director, interviewer and researcher: Héloïse Binette.
Cirque du Soleil
{ SOURCE: CirqueSpotlight, Youtube | http://youtu.be/RcEGUCuw0aQ }
