Page 108 --
My Premiere Experience In A Circus
By: Sonia St-Martin

    When I was four years old, there was a very nervous child, who jumped around everywhere. Then my mother registered me in a course of gymnastics. After seven years of this discipline, I entered the National School of the Circus. I learned how to juggle, how to be acrobatic, how to do the trampoline and jumps on the ground. I participated in the School for eight months, then I participated in  the spectacle at the end of the year. It was
the premiere time that I appeared in front of a public group. I was terribly nervous. At the end of the spectacle, I learned that Cirque du Soleil wanted to invite me to perform in the tour of < < Saltimbanco > >. I accepted immediately.
    The repetitions began on July 22. When I saw the scene and the equipment, I was afraid! We repeated the play and the acrobatics for nine months. The day I finally saw my costume, I was with the angels! But, the evening of the premiere representation, I can say to you that I was tended. At the end of the spectacle, I could have shouted with insanity and joy, for so many were content with me.
    To leave San Francisco was a great shock for me and my family. I miss my mother, my father and my brother enormously and I miss my friends. It is very hard for the moral one, but one survives... And then, the life of the tour enables me to make new friends, some being adult friends. These friends, Alike them very much and I have enormous pleasure with them enormously. They
respect me and I respect them too. What I like here, it is that people don't treat me like a child, but like a young adult. The only thing that I regret, it is not to have more friends that are my age.
    While traveling with Cirque du Soleil, I have also seen all kinds of cities throughout the world. They are rather nice! In California, the landscapes are splendid and the temperature is more pleasant than Montreal's.
    My work day starts with school (10:30 am - 3:00 pm): then I am exerted on the Chinese yo-yos (4:30 pm - 5:00 pm) and then the Russian swing (5:00 pm -6:00 pm): I help wash them and then have to assemble them on the track (6:15pm - 6:30 pm): I will eat until approximately 7:00 pm: I make myself up, Input on my costume and I perform the spectacle (8:00 pm - 11:00 pm). My daycare rather charged but I like it.
    I think that living life on tour is difficult, especially because I am
far from my friends and family, but Cirque enables me to travel, to make new friends, to take part in spectacles in front of 2,500 people in one evening and to live all that in but a single, unique experience.

Page 111 --
    The Chocolates Of Julie
    250 black chocolate gr. in small pieces
    1/4 liter of crème 35%
    2 cullerees of Grand Marnier (optional)
    cocoa
   
    In a pan, heat the creme until it's boiling. Withdraw the flame a bit and add the chocolate while vigorously turning the substance with a spoon until the mixture becomes consistent. Then add Grand Marnier. Let cool until it's almost firm. Using 2 spoons prepare portions and roll them into the shape of balls between your palms then in the cocoa, until they are well covered init. Deposit the truffles on a blank paper sheet and let harden for at least an hour in a fresh and dry place. The major enemy of the chocolate is the humidity! Person in charge of the kitchen: Julie Brisson.

Page 112--
    " Cirque du Soleil comes from Montreal, but surely via the Moon or Mars... " - S.D Los Angeles Times

Page 115 --
     Assemble the Chinese checkmates, draw the fabric,
Tire, draw, raise, push, in front of my eyes
Is a veil
My tears of rage like a black sky create the echoes
Of the raucous clouds of apprehension
 Basculent and broad, they fill up the horizon
 With their dark threats. Ah, it is not!
At the top of them, I insult the fate
That did not want the one who reaches the port
Without once again spitting us the irony,
the ridiculous illusion of lulling hopes
- S.P.

Page 117 --
    In the desert
Of the hearts and souls
 Of a pirouette and a flower
Cascades of laughter
In response to the silence
Of the little, lithe beings
And what we say to make them smile
 And speak to them about this childhood
Of an immaculate, flawless tent
 Of a promise, of a hope.
 - S.P

Page 119 - 120 --
    A projector pierces through the obscurity. Some of us gather in the round, answering the call of the Taiko drum. Suddenly, in grandness, the scene, such as Gaia, half-opens and you reveal....
    You! Vulnerable and fragile, of the Thunder and Light, marked with there'd taint of iron in Nature to the confluence of all cultures. Your silhouette emerges from the enfuming entrails of the scene, much like an archetype suddenly liberated from our unconscious: matron, gas-wastes, king of foolishness, everyone... Geant, Shiva, Castor and Pollux... Angels, Devils, even Death! We'll fix you: your masks become our mirrors.
    Your dumb gestures resonate deeply in us, point out times to us that weave never seen. The scene changes into a village, a solid time. You change under our eyes, becoming a wandering, medieval entertainer, a traveling minstrel, a shaman. We give ourselves up little by little to your charm: foreigners have arrived, we become a family, a tribe, a tape of resistant. Linked by...
    ENERGY. The erotic fusion of the actor and the act. It is not only you who DEBATES under fire, but also us and the myriad of other characters all-round you who impose to you our will to recreate! The pressure of our eyes seals the pact: our common force is spiritual as well as physical.
    You fly away with it, invincible with the heat of Icare. We fight feral, conscious of each of our efforts, each conquered by the challenge. Azure love runs between us, a privileged link so intense that its memory remains with us when the applause was kept silent. Because what kind of immortality returns to us if we are re not urgent or if we touch the fuel four humanity? But permanence is a dangerous illusion.
    Finally, we are not anything more than angels of dust, subjects to the wind. And when the breeze of the finale comes to carry it far from our lives, the silhouette of your presence remains in our psyche. It haunts us when wise other people.
    One evening with you is more than one spectacle, it is a plot, a triumphing a world or the repetition that has the mediocrity. The light attune. The installed obscurity is made new. But the Taiko drum still resounds. - V.R

Page 125 ---
    After having conquered Las Vegas, America, Europe and Asia, where will Cirque du Soleil go now? " One should not forget our comings, " writes the president of Cirque du Soleil, Daniel Gauthier, in his preface to The Challenge of Cirque du Soleil, " and the spirit which animates our actions must be the subject of particular attention... Here thus the adventure has tube shared; that to belong to the team of Cirque du Soleil which is always an object of pride and pleasure. "
    The close collaboration of everyone contributes to the image, international and multidisciplinary of Cirque du Soleil. It is this engagement of fusion, drive, confidence, audacity, instinct, courage and grace that makes it very possible, while appearing simple. A ballad of life now? How do you preserve the astonishment, continue to push the language beyond the words, to pass the physical limits and boundaries, to surprise the world, to reunite people, to dispute the future and reinvent the reinvention?  
    It is this challenge. This sorcery. Cirque du Soleil has flown through time like a torpedo, making a large hole in the traditional ideas of what circus is. But its clean identity remains deliberately prone to change. Work in progress.
    For these merchants of happiness, the challenge of the future is to find new means of the present, without forgetting the promises which they made: create a generous circus which attracts respect, which never forgets how it came to be, which takes and demonstrates the celebration of youth while making known its great potential, which creates favorable conditions and a spontaneous, multicultural evolution and which contributes to the preservation of natural resources, materials and humanity.
    " Cirque du Soleil must continue to be as it is today, " Laliberte says.
" The greatest danger of the company are their successes. One knows what success can cause. They must be vigilant. They must continue as they have been to maintain passion and pleasure. " - S.D.  

page 134 - 136 --
History of Cirque du Soleil...

1982 - A group of public entertainers gathered by Guy Laliberte and other future founders of Cirque du Soleil, assemble a festival at Bay-Saint-Paul, a small tourist city at the edge of the St. Lawrence river. They call this recanted, which gathers musicians, acrobats, wanderers, fire-eater and other traveling acrobats of the street, < < Fete Foraine > >. It extend over six days, presenting nine spectacles with workshops of circus arts, and attracts 2,5000 people.

1983 - One second edition of Fete Foraine takes place, more significant and more useful than that at the premiere. The ultimate goal is to establish a permanent institution with its own Big Top, which is able to produce spectacles of circus in all Quebec and possibly in the remainder of Canada and the world.

1984 - The official projects are preparent for the programming of the Celebrations of the 450th anniversary of the arrival of Jacques Cartier, the European discoverer of Quebec. The artists who have assembled at Fete Foraine invite us to take part. A contract with the government of Quebec is useful and has the throw. Thus Cirque du Soleil.
    The possessed group have a Big Top that seats 800 people, with the assistance and consultations of Marcel Rossel of the Knie Circus in Switzerland. It is the premiere of a life-time that the artists work for in a tent and get their first look at the life in a circus. They present about fifty spectacles in less than three months underneath their blue and yellow Big Top.
    Each one must provide its own costume. The program consists of 50% Quebecois, 50% French, Belgian and Swiss. The Big Top is small, the spectacle a little precarious but good. Cirque achieves good criticisms and, with that, have achieved much fulfilling satisfaction.

1985 - For the premiere, the self-produced Cirque ventures beyond the borders of Quebec, in the search for a new public, in Ontario. The group has a new Big Top that seats 1500 people. Laliberte, always on the front, can make daring decisions and necessities to face the difficulties, without never 
losing confidence or phase in the project. Guy Caron, clown and traveling acrobat, with Pierre Leclerc in 1980, from a circus school in Montreal, joined the rows of Cirque du Soleil. Cirque has began, to some extent, the starting point of what became the National School of Circus.
    In 1985, Caron becomes artistic director.
    It proposes Franco Dragone, an Italian artist from Belgium, to make the scene setting for the spectacle. For Caron, Dragone, has also signed with the Commedia Dell' Arte and has been to the National School of the Circus. The tour must last 16 weeks, from May 12 to September 2. It is during the premiere time that a team entirely Quebecoise assemble a Big Top. The workshops are given up in favor of a professional presentation. The limiting funds give the signs of a difficult spectacle. The public in Ontario is very small, but those who leave adore the spectacle.
    In September, Cirque du Soleil sets up its offices in Quebec and Montreal. Talk begins with the Immobilize Company of the Architectural Heritage of Montreal to install Cirque du Soleil in Firemen Station #7 and the National School of the Circus in the hurdy-gurdy parks of Dalhousie. Both are historic protégé sites.

1986 - A grant is obtained for a second Canadian tour. From September, energy builds up at the end of April and includes/understands the opening of the Vancouver Expo, and municipalities of Ville Lasalle, Sherbrooke, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec, Toronto, Saint-Sauveur and Longueuil. The tour is considered most significant to the year in Canada and it allows Cirque Soleil to establish its financial equilibrium, different from the case in 1985.

1987 - Cirque du Soleil settles officially in firemen station # 7, close to the Vieux-Port. The town of Montreal gives them an amphitheatric lease of 20years in exchange for renovation costs. For the premiere time, Cirque du Soleil also crosses the border of the United States. The Big Top acquired in 1985 is redesigned to accommodate 1750 people now. The creators mobilize themselves to reach " artistic excellence " and the spectacle seen in Los Angeles, We Reinvente The Circus, is a true triumph. The creative association of Dragone and Caron is defined by Caron as, " the crystallization of three precedented years."

1988 - Cirque du Soleil widens its tour in the United States, assembling its blue and yellow Big Top close to the World Trade Center in New York, also playing in Washington, Orange County, San Diego and San Francisco. One speaks about a Big Top which can now seat 2500 witnesses. Cirque du Soleil gains pricing, which contributes to increasing its quality and richness.
    And more and more, Laliberte, who always has considered Cirque du Soleil  like a company having an unpolitical and universal philosophy, searches for numbers of circus members coming from the whole world.

1989 - Cirque du Soleil defines its objective: to be " a Quebecois network of cultural companies whose goal is international."
    A Big Top of 2500 seats is acquired and the European premiere tour is announced for 1990.

1990 - Nouvelle Experience, put into scene by Dragone, is a true innovation. A large success. New numbers, artists, costumes, lighting, music and the new Big Top. Nouvelle Experience is played in Montreal, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. We Reinvent The Circus goes on to London and Paris.

1991 - Nouvelle Experience continues to gain expansive public appeal, playing in San Diego, New York, Sainte-Foy, Toronto, Chicago, Washington and Atlanta. The spectacle gains the prize of Drama Desk in New York for its " unique theatrical experience."
    In April, talks with Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas has water, but in October a contract is signed with the Mirage for 12 years. Nouvelle Experience will debut in November 1992. The final contract also finalizes the creation of two new spectacles.
    In July, an agreement of production is signed with the Knie Circus for a tour in 60 Swiss cities from March to November 1992.  
    In September, after 3 years and 10 months of negotiations, Fascination, the contract of a spectacular production which combines We Reinvente The Circus and Nouvelle Experience, is signed with the Fuji Television Network to be in Japan as of September 1992.

    1992 - Cirque du Soleil now has four spectacles in three continents.
    1. Saltimbanco, a new spectacle put into scene by Dragone, voyages through  Vieux-Port in Montreal and Sainte-Foy, San Francisco, San Jose and Santa Monica. In 1993, the tour continues in the towns of Costa Mesa, New York, Toronto, Chicago, Boston, Washington and Atlanta.
    2. The mega project, Fascination, tours in eight Japanese cities, the arenas of immense framework involved, employs 72 artists and gains insanely wonderful success (May 31 to August 22).
    3. Caron directs the co-production with the Knie Circus of We Reinvente The Circus, which is easily modified to not include animals. The new spectacle is seen in more than 60 Swiss cities (March 29 to November 20). It confirms and looks further into the affection that goes between the two circuses.
    4. Nouvelle Experience made its debut with the Mirage on November 10 and will remain there until November 1993.

1993-1994 - The yellow and blue Big Top (a concession stand heated like the desert) has the same dimensions of that which traveled America and has been manufactured in Bordeaux style according to the instructions of Cirque du Soleil. It accommodates 1300 witnesses and the spectacle is reduced to 90 minutes.
    In December 1993, 70 artists will inaugurate the room especially built with the new casino. Treasure Island, with a very new spectacle, which will remain in Las Vegas for six years. A second production in Japan is also in preparation for 1994. In April of the same year, Cirque du Soleil will present in Montreal, the premiering new spectacle which will traverse America for a news tour for two years. - S.D.

page 144 --
    " Cirque du Soleil is a marvel. It is us. We like to take risks, but risks calculate. Intuitive. We made errors, but we seldom made the same error twice.
     " Our duty is to make people happy, it is what we believe in. We are always funambulists, but the rope is now much higher. The fall would be all the more bigger, but we also have much more experience.
     " We are in a process of permanent renewal. It is simple. We cultivate our garden so that it always remains flowering. That is all. "

book jacket --
    Cirque du Soleil has reinvented the circus. Nothing less. For ten years, everywhere in the world, it has dazzled its audience. Its spectacles are of stupefying feats of acrobatics, strange costumes, brilliant lightings and  bewitching music in extraordinary settings and scene.
    Here is the history of Cirque du Soleil since its first steps in the streets of Quebec until its more recent representations under its own yellow and blue tent. This magical book, filled with unedited anecdotes, is a homage to the mysterious capacity of imagination and has the determination of those which make Cirque du Soleil shine.
    Authors:     Sylvie Drake grew up in Alexandria, Egypt. After studying French and English literature, she immigrated to the United States. In 1993, she became  these subject of critical honorary success in  the Los Angeles Times after having written and directed the theatrical header during more than 20 years. She recently accepted the artistic station in the Denver Theatrical Centre Company.
    Not from Montreal and sharing his time between Canada and the United States, Vincent Robert continues an active career as a scenarist in these two countries. He studied at the Concordia University of Montreal and the university of Southern California and he currently teaches scenarization. The Celebration; a film which made the realization, obtained a gold medal at the International Festival of Film and Television in New York.
    Adam J. Bezark is a redesigner/conceptor of Los Angeles. He saw Cirque du Soleil for the premiere time in 1984 and fell under its charm. Since then, he collaborates occasionally with the troop of which he became a faithful friend.
    Principal photographer and Co-editor:
     From Paris, Veronique Vial studied photography and then carried out several reports around the world. Her photographs have been seen in several magazines such as Vogue, Her, Esquire, Vanity Fair, Los Angeles Times Magazine, GQ, etc.

Translation by Pam

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