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
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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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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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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Mailman (City Letter Carrier)
Is there a big difference in the amount of mail you deliver today from 5-10 years ago?
Magician
How do you feel about magicians on TV who reveal how tricks are done?
Firefighter
What kind of shape do firefighters need to be in?
Yeah their act actually used to be alot more hardcore, they're getting old. Check out their earlier stuff.
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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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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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