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
Adrenilne always comes. Trust your muscle memory. Rehearsed it enough and your body knows what it's doing.
Cirques a tough stage because you feel like you have to deliver not just for yourself or for the audience, but for every other artist and technician and every bit of sweat and love they've put into making the show work. It's high pressure because you respect and value your fellow artists and crew so highly.
Day in day out, it's tough to find the balance between that push and your own energetic limits.
Have your physical and metal routines to prepare yourself. Take some deep breathes, thank the universe for the chance to challenge yourself once again...
For general corporate gig work, as long as I've got fire in my hands I know I'm all good, more fire is always better than less, got the tap on that raw power and can ride it. Better for me to come off stage with burns than feeling like I didn't bring enough.
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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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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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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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Dry Cleaner
Why do dry cleaners have autographed pictures on their walls?
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon
How often do people wake up during surgery?
Sr. Software Engineer
Are those $12,000 "learn to program" bootcamps a rip-off?
Worst, Chinese. Very unresponsive. Different social backgrounds.
Best, to be honest I love performing at festivals best, when there's some fat dubstep or drum n bass rockin out and I can go wild and the crowds there with me for every drop... Like this:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=372227859566075
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Group acts have rotations so different versions can be performed depending on whose out and there's always a contingency plan. The lead roles have backups. The acts can be modified, or if it's a specialty act there's often a backup act other artists can do. If not then the act can be cut. The backup artists and acts are usually rotated into the show once or twice a week to keep them practiced at it. Artists are also rotated through different show cues so they can be covered if necessary. Cirque encourages artists to continue to develop other skills that it can utilise for backup acts. If the injury happens during show the artist is assessed by the physios and the call is made to stage management as to whether they'll be out of the next show fully or on a modified track, for example cues only, no jumping etc. If you've gotten sick or injured outside of work, or an injury has worsened, you're expected to notify a minimum of 3 hours prior to show so stage management can modify the lineup accordingly. If an artist from a specialty act is out with a serious injury for quite awhile, i.e. surgery, then another temporary replacement act can be sourced and flown in. If an act is already out, and someone from a backup act gets sick there might be an emergency staging to modify the show as necessary. So really, there's quite a few variations that can occur on the shows, and we have to keep on our toes! As for myself, when I was too injured to perform at all (which was only once for a couple weeks) the two chinese dancers who I had been coaching fire performed a duo as replacement.
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No special training. My discipline is a self taught one. When I started there wasn't even youtube videos to learn from, which I think gives you a special something, to have to learn and discover the hard way from scratch.
I was performing at festivals from my early teens, during and after finishing high school. Work wise most jobs I've had felt like a waste of time compared. I prefer to spend my hours developing something that expands myself, my learning, abilities, or buisness acumen... and often that only comes from running your own buisness.
I certainly had much more of a home base and stable life before performing full time though. I had to give up a lot to follow the performance path, it's a tough choice to make, but lifes full of those.
Still on the lookout for what to do next. The toughest question for any performer as it's not a great career to grow old with!
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