FEATURE by Christine Laskowski, “Behind the Scenes” photos by Matthew Niederhauser ZAIA: Behind the Scenes Meet the folks responsible for the magic of Cirque du Soleil Feature Story Feature

All stage photography courtesy of Cirque du Soleil

t was mid-afternoon when we entered the training room for 专 ZAIA, Cirque du Soleil’s premier show at the Venetian Macau, 题 and I immediately thought of Sisyphus. Situated in the cor- ner was a five-meter pole, on which Chinese acrobats where Iclimbing up and down and up and down, ad infinitum. But this was all in a day’s work for the acrobats in ZAIA’s “Globes and Poles” act, in which eight acrobats in costumes of fluorescent armor stand on large silver balls holding poles upon which the remaining acro- bats jump and catch themselves by their legs, with an enchanting mastery of gravity that has become synonymous with a Cirque du Soleil show. Given the $150 million and three years of preparation on ZAIA, I have to say it has been money and time well spent. It’s a show that successfully transports you into its dream realm from the moment you walk through the hall into the theater, which is designed to re- semble a telescope aimed at the cosmos. With the stage as a focal point, set up like a precisely orchestrated master shot, the show extends beyond the stage and into, as well as above, the audience, as dancers frozen in blocks of ice and upside-down cyclists move gracefully toward the stage from the periphery. But the trick behind this magic is, well, a whole lot of dedication. And after going backstage and meeting those that devote them- selves to creating a superb show each night, it becomes really clear why ZAIA’s the visual treat that it is.

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Props/Cory Hair & Makeup/Sarah We found her working on: We found her working on: Wigs. Drumsticks for the dancers. Cirque du Soleil policy dictates that each actor put on their own makeup. In the beginning, it was a very long process. “For those that had never been required to do something like this before. Well, it was a long road to hoe,” Sarah says. “For the actors, they have a lot of energy, so it was pretty difficult to get them to stay still for that long, which is why we tried to keep the make-up classes to 2 hours. But now, they really do a phenomenal job. Because what they do is perfectionist in nature. They have an eye for that sort of detail.”

Costumes/Lacy We found her working on: A mic pack sewn into the shorts worn by one of the female dancers who does a jig onstage. Her jig needed to be louder. They do a lot of maintenance here, as the lifespan of a costume can be very short. As Lacy says, “some costumes break every day.” When asked which performers are the most tempermental, she says “the globes and poles.”

Actor and Director Profiles

Zaia/Kaleen McKeeman Kaleen McKeeman is probably one of the sweetest people you’ll ever meet, but then you catch a glimpse of her arms and realize, in the unlikely event that she’d want to fight you, she’d definitely win. Kaleen Her involvement with the circus began in elementary school in Hollis, New Hampshire, where she and several friends joined a juggling club. From there she got in- volved with Circus Mircus in New England, and spent her summers traveling with them. This is where she discovered aerial straps. When the time came and she got accepted into the National Circus School in Montreal, she proposed straps as her major. “No girl had ever done straps before,” she tells us with a mixture of humility and pride. Her stint with ZAIA coincidentally began in China. “I have a twin sister and I came to China to visit her, in Hangzhou,” recalls McKeeman. “We were in Beijing when we heard Cirque had a really interesting offer. And then they offered me a job for China,” she recalls laughing. “But I wasn’t going to go to Cirque unless I was able to do straps,” she admits, “and that’s what they offered me.” When asked to discuss how she goes about rehearsal and choreography for her aerial straps act in ZAIA, she says the key was starting slowly and keeping low to the ground, to get comfortable and to build trust. “A lot of people will ask me- ‘What if you’re tired one day, or mad at your partner?’ It happens that partners don’t get along, but I’ve never seen someone in danger. Of course there’s fear. No, that doesn’t go away,” she says. “I think that would be bad actually.”

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Romeo/Roman Tomanov Roman Roman Tomanov, while a seasoned acrobat at nineteen, is still definitely a teenager who spends his free time doing things teenage guys do, like lis- tening to rap and hip hop and answering questions with the polite disinter- est of a young man who’d probably prefer hanging out with his friends. Originally from Moscow, his dad was a flying trapeze artist and started teaching Tomanov aerial straps at age 6 following a move to Las Vegas. It was there he began performing a solo straps act for over 10 years. “And once that show ended, I went on tour with my Dad as my coach,” he says. Although accustomed to the rigors of an acrobat’s lifestyle, training in Montreal for ZAIA “was a lot of work,” Roman admits. “We trained all day until 6 o’clock. Not just strength training, but music training and acting, too.” When asked about coming up with the choreography for ZAIA, Roman explains: “In the air it’s me and Kaleen’s choreography. It took us a while to figure out what we’re going to do. Basically, we built it up ourselves. But it was tricky. I worked all my life solo, so this is my first time doing a duet. It’s kinda fun. I feel comfortable performing with her.”

Dancer/Zhao Rui Zhao Zhao Rui started dancing at the age of 12, well, because he thought it was RUI healthy. “I began with classical Chinese dance and minority dancing,” Zhao says. “I studied dance in Beijing and when I graduated I came to Guangzhou and got a job dancing at the Guangdong Modern Dance Company.” Last March, Cirque du Soleil held an audition in Guangzhou, after which he was recruited and joined Cirque in September 2007. “I arrived in Montreal on the 8th of September last year and start training on the 10th,” recalls Zhao, who had only been out of the country once before he moved to Canada to train. “I had been to France before for 3 months. I felt very surprised, though, when I first arrived in Montreal. I learned many different dances there, different dance styles. Still, it was very exciting to dance outside to the country.” The process of learning the choreography for ZAIA was an open one, according to Zhao. “We had a lot of chances in Canada for the dancers and the director and choreographer to communicate. So yes, we as dancers have a lot of say,” he tells us. Story Feature “If we feel like there’s a better way, we tell them and they will probably adapt it.” Zhao’s routine on the day of a performance begins about 2-3 hours before the show: “One hour for exercise and two hours for makeup. In the beginning, for like a month, I applied my own makeup everyday just to learn, which to me 3-4 hours to finish,” he tells us shaking his head, laughing. “Now I can do it in 2 hours.”

专 Joël 题 Artistic Director/Joël Bergeron “I’m from the theater world,” is how Joël Bergeron replies after being asked how he first got involved with ZAIA. “I studied at the National Theater School of Canada in Montreal, and from there it was pretty obvious I’d follow the live entertainment scene.” After freelancing as a stage manager and an assistant to the director, the Cirque du Soleil show “Dralion” came up and Bergeron ended up touring with that show for four years, followed by work on the creation of “Love” in Vegas with The Beatles. “And from that I jumped onto this one- the creation of ZAIA, from the start about three years ago.” The inspirations for the characters, like Zaia herself, who is a little girl who travels outside of her world to discover different planets, “was a strong character from day one that the director wanted to implement- a cross between Alice in Wonderland and Le Petit Prince,” Bergeron explains. “And that already was a strong story line to guide us. I guess it was also loose enough to give us a lot of flexibility because as much as we like to plan and put things on paper, it’s only once we start working directly with the acrobats, with the artists, that we see the full potential and see where it can go.” Many of the images in ZAIA, like the astronaut who peddles an old-fashioned bicycle across the stage with sparks flying out the back, come directly from the stage director’s dreams. “You know,” Bergeron tells us laughing, “He would sometimes come to the creative meeting and say: ‘Guys, you know I had this dream and I see this happening.’ That’s something that this stage director wasn’t shy of doing. You know, just take time to establish a tableau. I think it’s one of the points in our show that’s a bit different compared to maybe even other Cirque du Soleil shows. It’s that we just allow a poetic image to take place and give it that time. Because nowadays with music videos and everything, we’re very bombarded with images and stimuli and I think there are some moments in our show which are just a bit toned down, which allow just a bit more dream, just a bit more poetry.” Joël getting silly with other Cirque Directors Marco Lenzi, Rob Mackenzie and Véronique Allard 32 www.urbanatomy.com // NOVEMBER 2008 www.urbanatomy.com // NOVEMBER 2008 33