Dan
Worldwide, --
Male, 33
Lead artist, feature act and fire coach for Cirque Du Soleil. Recently for the ZAiA production in Macau from 2010 to 2012. Currently freelancing while between Cirque contracts.
I'm a fire dancer / fire manipulation specialist. I use flaming props such as fire swords, fire ropes, fire staffs, with special effects and pyrotechnics in a combination of dance and martial arts style movements. Ask me anything, and check my website... www.sparkfiredance.com
Many small companies borrow inspiration from Cirque du Soleil shows, costume styles and makeup being the obvious influences. Other more established companies like Les 7 doigts de la main or Cirque Éloize go beyond Cirque du Soleil and explore completely unique and distinctive styles all their own. I find that much more compelling. Working for companies like those can in some ways be even more highly regarded than performing for Cirque du Soleil as these smaller elite troupes require an equally world class level but with multiple skillsets / disciplines generally required from their casts.
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Dream job. hmm. No. That would be wingsuit basejumper or Dj superstar... or something that takes less work. When your on a contract the show takes up a very large part of your life. It does get easier as it goes, and you can be making good money, but your away from friends and family, often in a place you wouldn't choose to live for a resident show, or constantly unpacking/repacking for a touring show. When your not on a contract and freelancing your working all the time. 7 days a week your answering emails, fielding enquiries (if your lucky) pitching proposals. Otherwise your calling agents, sending out promo material, shooting new material, photoshopping, videoediting, fixing your website, designing costumes, debt collecting, fixing equipment, dealing with logistics and itineraries for gigs, and if your really lucky you get time to choreograph, rehearse and practice somewhere in there. There's often nothing dreamy about being a performer, but getting in with Cirque can make certain things easier, it shifts your focus to body and mind maintenance, which is what most want. You do have to learn how to adapt your performances for the long haul, night after night after night. As far as when I knew what i wanted to do? I haven't figured that out yet. This is just what I'm still doing in the meantime.
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Well the key there is it's not a mistake if the audience doesn't realise. There are obvious mistakes, jugglers dropping, acrobats falling over, these happen once in awhile, as rarely as we can make it! Then there are the times when something wasn't done quite as smoothly as it could have been, when an artist is sick and can only give 90%, when an injury means a trick is skipped, these are more often than you'll ever know.
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It took me 2 hours in the beginning. After quite a few months of doing the same makeup day after day I got it down to a comfortable 35 minutes. If I really need to I can do it in 22 minutes, but it's definitely cutting a few corners. I've seen an acrobat (who will go unnamed) do his in 15 minutes when he was really late, but you'd not want to get caught by the director looking like that. For photoshoots or media appearances they'll have the head makeup artist do alot on us and it can take several hours.
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Auto Mechanic
If I know nothing about cars, how can I tell if a mechanic is ripping me off?
Professor
How do you prevent cheating and plagiarism these days?
Audiologist
Are earbuds dangerous for my ears?
Not really. I mean there's some relationships that happen, good friends of mine have found long term meaningful relationships, but on my show many of people either came with their partners, or had relationships outside the show cast. It's a shame to destroy peoples illusions of super flexy sexy orgies of ripped acrobats, but the reality is we all have a very high degree of professionalism and are generally very cautious when it comes to disrupting what has to be a very focused work environment. Relationships are not frowned upon or anything, I think everyone's just careful not to fuck with their work place.
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I haven't seen them live myself except for recordings. Personally I really dig 'Ka'. Love the costumes. Many others absolutely go for 'Love'. Out of all of cirques shows 'O' has been the most successful, even referred to as the mother show sometimes as it's proceeds subsidize many of the less profitable shows.
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From 30K USD for new recruits in certain acts, up to 250K USD for established artists who hold exclusive rights to their act.
sources:
- Brian d Johnson, Macleans magazine, "cirque du soleil" July 27 1998
- Cirque_du_Soleil HRM Practices ICMR center for Management Research, Manasi Pawar 2007
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