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Small World of Cirque du Soleil Travels the World
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Neither movies nor television can capture the awe and admiration felt while watching a live performance, especially one as physically demanding as the Cirque du Soleil’s “Varekai.”
With TV or the movies, the audience knows technology can mix the unreal with the real. A performance of Cirque is real and any lighting or special effects used serves only to enhance the artists’ performance.
“Varekai” was to open last night at the Covelli Centre but Cirque had to cancel that performance “for technical reasons,” the arena announced late yesterday afternoon. The problem involved the center winch, a lifting device used in aerial acts, a mainstay of the show. The Youngstown premiere will be tonight instead and shows will run through Sunday as planned, Cirque said, ”so we can give patrons the best show they can possibly have.”
The Mahoning Valley press was invited to watch the rehearsal the Varekai troupe held Wednesday afternoon at the arena and left impressed at both the artists and backstage and offstage staff who make the artists’ performances possible.
Among the offstage performers are seven musicians and two singers, one male, the other female. Backstage are light and sound technicians, makeup artists, wardrobe assistants, special effects staff, five chefs and one dietitian.
The performing artists can eat whatever they choose, says Alona Zhuravel, 22, an acrobat who grew up in Russia and admits to loving sweets including ice cream. Moderation is key she says. The chefs ensure sees that the troupe eats well and the dietitian that all maintain a balanced diet, Zhuravel says.
Varekai, by the way, is Romany for “Wherever,” and Youngstown is the fifth city where this troupe is performing.
Maybe it was because the lights were dim and it was hard to see as the press corps entered. But just about all aspects of Cirque set up are large and seemed even larger, from the stage 75 feet wide, 101 feet long and 42 inches above the main floor of the Covelli Centre, to the catwalk 36 feet above the stage.
Equipment that weighs 80,000 pounds hangs above the stage, says Michael Naumann, an assistant production manager, to hold the high wire acts and trapezes.
The Cirque caravan consists of 19 trucks that transport its own stage and equipment, including a portable gym backstage, where the artists stay loose between numbers.
As the press was led to the stage, the artistic director, Fabrice Lemire, was conversing and laughing with 15 dancers and hand balancers as they limbered up on a covering of a thin blue plastic surface that made it easier for them to slide.
Besides making some of the performers – gymnasts, dancers and acrobats -- available for interviews, publicist Vanessa Napoli made makeup artists and wardrobe assistants available. “One of our singers is from Ohio,” Napoli announced. “And so is one of our wardrobe assistants.”
Napoli is the source of most information in this article except that attributed to a gymnast, wardrobe assistant and an assistant production manager.
The performers range in age from 17 to 49 although most appeared to be in their early 20s, all trim and fit with not an ounce of fat.
As Zhuravel relates, she works out every day even though she performs five days a week. Her workouts consist of cardiovascular exercises including a lot of running, she says.
All performers work 10-week stretches and then get two weeks off that many use to go home. They use their days off to sightsee and Zhuravel told how she enjoyed South America, especially Santiago, Chile, and the opportunity to see the Andes Mountains.
She is typical, having started her training at 6, first performing at 7 and performing regularly at 10. Perhaps not so typical, both her parents were circus performers.
Napoli insists that nearly anyone can perform what the audience sees the dancers, gymnasts, trapeze artists and acrobats do. “You can do all of it if you start young enough,” she asserts, and have the drive to excel. “Some things are harder than others,” she allows.
Asked if she’s tried her hand at any of the dancing or gymnastic numbers, Napoli forcefully states that she has not.
Cirque du Soleil arrived in Youngstown this week but preparations for its visit began a month and a half ago, the assistant production manager, Naumann relates, when he first came to scope Covelli out and hire 70 local people to support the Cirque entourage. “Nothing is routine,” Naumann comments.
The safety of the cast is his foremost concern – “Safety is everything,” he says -- seeing to it that adequate padding is everywhere. Indeed, as the gymnasts and dancers were warming up, you could see most wearing kneepads and one woman wearing hip pads.
Naumann, 38 and with Cirque 17 years, speaks for most when he relates his workweek is 80 hours long. Those 80 hours pass quickly, though. “Time flies and it’s a lot of fun,” he says. When and where the weather is warmer, ”I golf a lot on my days off,” he says. When it’s colder, “I ski where I can.”
He grew up in McCall, Idaho, two hours north of Boise, and applied to work for Cirque when it was playing Boise.
The wardrobe assistants, including Amanda Smith from Cincinnati, are responsible for the costumes, wigs and shoes worn by the 50 who appear on stage. Each artist has two to three costumes for each performance, Smith says, each costume fitted for each performer.
Most are bought in Montreal, Canada, home of Cirque, which has 19 troupes on tour, but Smith and her colleagues fit and tailor each costume and pair of shoes.
She shows a Singer sewing machine that dates from the 1920s, powered by a foot treadle, she uses to work on the shoes. She tells of a time Cirque was in Taiwan and had to replace a worn-out pair of size 14 shoes. Her search took three days.
Costumes have useful lives of up to a year, Smith says, but take up to two weeks to break in, including at least one wash. The artists dislike having to break in their costumes, but once they have, they’re loath to give them up.
Some costumes, especially women dancers’ made of a thin shiny material and designed with glitter, must be repaired after each performance. The glitter falls off from contact with the floor.
Most artists have at least one wig. It’s quicker to don or change a wig, Smith explains, than try to restyle an artist’s hair in 15 seconds.
The performers come from 18 counties, the most distant being Australia, and all must pass an audition. Those with whom we spoke related how much they enjoy the life, the sense of family, the travel and the opportunity to see the world. The Cirque show is its own closed and close-knit little world where everyone relies on everyone else.
When asked about what they’ll do when they retire or their bodies tell them it’s time, most responded with how much they enjoy being a part of Cirque and of their intent to stay “as long as it’s fun,” as one artist put it.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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