Original subtitles

Every time there is a show in Montreal, it is under a microscope because we

cannot fail in our own market.

Nelson is going to do clown duty for a couple of weeks.

He's got addictions to feel.

We want him to be one of the best of the best. I think time will tell.

I'm definitely nervous. I fell about 10 feet onto the hard stage.

It's the first time that I'm going to be back performing.

And then she gets old.

We have very opinionated people.

When you're in a team, you cannot just be thinking about yourself.

If there is a little bit of friction, we don't want this energy to stay around

the team at the premiere.

It's the opening night. A lot of important people are coming.

Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats.

The show is about to begin.

It's such a massive thing to premiere a show in Montreal.

From the moment that Gracie told me to the moment that I was there on the

there was a slow rant.

Okay, this is happening. You're doing this. Oh, my goodness. Can you believe

Holy moly. What are you going to do? Why are you here? Why did they pick you?

Oh, my God.

It's scary, for sure.

There's so many different faces that I see sitting in the chairs.

2 ,500 people, some of the most important people from ISQ or from Cirque

Soleil's past, present and future.

Okay, this is my entire career on the table.

Okay, you're on. Give the audience a good show.

There

is

a lot of tension in the artistic tent the night of the premiere.

A lot of people are coming from around the world. Our promoters are coming in

town. And it has a huge impact on the success of the tour.

Premiere is our introduction of the show to the city.

And word of mouth is what gets people to come to see us. We want to make sure

that whoever comes is spreading the word, posting on social media, showing

everybody that they're having such a great time so that people like Charlie

relax.

Live entertainment in general right now is a bit uncertain.

Like there's so many things happening in the world.

Circus in the same boat. So we try to keep our little Luzia bubble protected.

But we want to find ways to have the best sales as we can.

Obviously, like there are tickets revenue that we need to hit.

That's why right now you're talking to someone that is very excited to see how

this premiere is going to play out.

When the first light came on for the parachute, I was like so nervous. I had

do an act for myself, but I was like, oh my gosh, I hope he's okay.

I was stressed for Nelson because the heads from Montreal are looking at him.

And he's a backup clown, so he was not hired as a clown.

So I came down, just trying to make it work, still haven't slept in like three

days.

The lights shift, I feel this pressure, and I'm just looking for that first

laugh, that first response from the audience.

There's wow, there's laughter, there's excitement from the crowd.

And then there's that release of applause from the audience, which is

nice.

That's when you can kind of gauge how the show is going to be from that

It's very, very nerve -wracking to perform in front of the creator of the

It was really important to do well.

I'm so happy to be here, and I love it so much that, like, the idea of maybe

what if I didn't get renewed or re -signed something, I would be so, so

devastated.

Because Nelson is the clown, I'm doing hoop diving.

It was like, but it's Nelson. Of course I'm just going to do it.

I'm definitely nervous.

I'm doing the full act.

I think I definitely take all of his nerves for him. And so I think because

can't really talk very much during the show, it's actually better if we just

stick to the plan, stick to what we have to do, focus on our job that day. I'll

just look at him and blow him a kiss, and that's probably better.

I don't know what you guys do to hoop diving, but we taught her all she had to

learn, and we'll be there to support her, and we'll see how she does.

For premieres, I understand I have no control about what's happening on the

stage.

You know, if I'm backstage in the artistic tent and I'm talking to the TV

saying, like, please make it happen, or no, don't do that, they can't hear me.

It's their responsibility, and I trust them to make good choices.

It's really very moving.

Here the success of this show, you know, it's at the side with the public.

There's still too many things going around, things that need to be prepared

the after party.

But as I'm walking around the big top, I can tell that the crowd is there

because I can hear it all the way into my office.

It's a relief.

I could see the artist being proud of the public reaction.

I felt the same way.

Tonight, I saw an amazing show.

My

role

is to manage the party, so welcoming celebrities and influencers.

and like a lot of people from the community to get the word of mouth

To be so disciplined and so busy all the time, it's nice to like know you can

have kind of a night where you can just let go.

I think some people will do it more than others.

It's a good time for us all to connect together, but really everyone has to be

disciplined.

Because my number one obstacle during premiere week is reminding people that

we'll have show notes.

Yes.

No, of course, man.

If I'd have known it was for you, I might have done a bit better.

Tell me about Nelson.

How did he do tonight?

Just looking what time Daniele is arriving for all these interviews and

Being in Montreal does invite a lot of the original conceptors and designers.

Daniele Finsipato wrote and was the original director for the show, so he's

to ensure that we're still going in the right direction.

Check, check, one, two.

Check, check, one, two.

Nothing's missed. Check.

I've met him in passing a couple of times because he comes and he gives

beautiful direction for the whole show.

And I guess I was always too nervous to go up and be like, hey, how you doing?

I'm Nelson.

I think Nelson did a good job and especially for the amount

of pressure. Everyone has opinions.

Everybody's got their perspectives.

Were you happy?

I was happy. I was really happy. It was a very special moment for me and I was

enjoying it the whole way through.

Good. But sorry if it projected a bit.

I'm sorry.

Okay, I'm not sorry. Good.

We go there and we work on it a little bit.

Basically, I am a clown. That is my background.

And for a clown, the spectator is the most important part of the show. Yes, of

course.

If you think about your clown, your perception of the clown, describe me

your clown, somewhere you would start.

I guess my, the end goal is something I was thinking about. And so would that be

like as the, like I want to be out there and I want it to be a representation

of me at the foundation and then the necessary character on top of that.

It's much more easy to be honest on stage if you do complicated things at

same time.

Yesterday you continue to go in some form in an over act.

Don't continue to do like in a form that you can call a slapstick.

I ate.

Okay. Huge mistake.

Yes, for sure.

I think I was trying to really not overact.

Daniele is an Italian clown and they study a lot more philosophy.

And so when he gives me notes, there's such a weight.

I absolutely fall into this is funny, let's do this, as opposed to,

you know, not losing respect for the story, but...

I do often find myself enjoying the funny things a lot.

Nelson thinks I should do something. I need to do. What I will do? Nothing.

Stay there. Do nothing.

And the honesty, too, as well. Honesty to me and honesty to the story is the

goal. Try to do nothing. If it's possible, just breathe.

And I find sometimes I do it.

It feels really, really nice. And then sometimes it feels nice, but it doesn't

look good.

That's what I'm trying to do.

He needs to work a lot.

Hello. How are you? How are you?

Good. Since the premiere, everyone has been getting notes from Cirque

headquarters. Today I'm meeting with Daniele to discuss the Adagio Act.

It's very good to have you here.

When we started nine years ago and where you are now, it's very clear that you

understand exactly what we try to do.

You discover so many things.

I could discover more.

I'm an original member of the cast.

Adagio is an act that requires a lot of push and pull.

Even though I'm getting thrown around, it requires a lot of control and

to get me in the air. If we're not working together, the act looks bad and

risk injury.

Adagio, his blindness is so elegant.

I've been doing this show for nine years and sometimes it's a little bit

frustrating because when I will want to explain something to one of my

reporters, they don't understand necessarily.

How we can help the other to understand what you understand?

That's a good question.

Sometimes I take more time to connect with them in the act because every day

sometimes a little bit different, you know? Yeah.

I think everyone is learning in a more graceful manner. But the premiere,

it went...

I don't know.

But in any case, what you achieve is so beautiful.

You achieve something.

And keep it because things can also disappear very quickly.

When you are on stage, you try to talk with them or not?

Sometimes. Sometimes if I feel like it's a very, the energy is very different.

I will change in my energy. I will change and then they will understand.

Naomi knows how to drive them, I think, more than anyone else.

But the question is how it will be possible that someone like you can

influence the work of the others.

Daniele asked me to take charge.

I'm shy.

In general, like, I was very, very shy when I was little.

So he wants us to be a bit more grateful, a bit more in sync, and that

require me to take the lead.

It makes me wonder if I want to explore stepping in and to really communicate.

I don't know if Nelson had ever spoken to Daniele about the clown act, or

especially not that in -depth before.

I'm pretty sure I've got it. You know if you want already? Yeah. What do you

want? Ham Benedict.

But sometimes you have to go through something that's hard to make you better

the end.

You don't understand French. I do understand French.

So when Daniele gives me notes, it's something a bit uncomfortable to be

in, but I can see that down the track it will be something that will be super

good for me to go through.

Libby kind of had to babysit me a bit and pick me up and say, Nelson, we'll go

out, everything's going to be all right.

Fish cheese.

Just Google translate it. I don't know what that one means.

Head on the bone. Oh, my God. Breakfast routine.

Mick talks about this all the time. I'm getting that. The breakfast routine?

Where to take, yeah.

All right. I think I'll just eat the scrambled eggs.

Are you all right? Yeah.

I can always tell when he has pressure, he kind of makes jokes about it.

Not in a bad way, but it just makes light of the situation that could be

really difficult.

Oh, yeah.

There you go, guys.

Yeah. Thank you so much. You and I.

Oh, my God.

That's how to make you think.

For sure.

Good luck with that.

I'm going to destroy that.

Freaking incredible.

All of the city, everything needs to be... Clean.

I always take care of my world.

For me, when I go on stage, the only thing I have in mind is to give the

happiness to people, the smile.

My name is Aboubakar Traoré. I'm from Guinea -Conakry, West Africa, and I do

football dance.

It's a mix of artistic dance.

movement with acrobatics.

My dream was to be a football professional, to be the next Ronaldo,

Messi.

When I arrived in France, I had a chance to try with a professional team,

Paris Saint -Germain.

Then, unfortunately, I had a injury.

I spent one month in the hospital because I had a hip injury.

And then my dream was over.

I couldn't realize it was really the end for me in football.

Yeah, I was really sad and my feeling was really down.

And I told myself, I don't want to play anymore football.

And then I had my brother who was doing football freestyle.

He told me, hey.

This is another art where you can learn, you can progress, and I think you can

also be happy.

I play on the street with a lot of football resellers.

When I arrived in Louisiana, I couldn't speak English at all. I could only say,

hello, my name is Abu.

I was like, oh, I need to learn English so I can do things by myself.

So being a loser here really helped me to grow as an artist and to learn.

This ball is brand new. So when we start with this, we need at least a five -day

project because it's slippery.

So it's a good challenge.

It's slippery.

For the premiere, everyone at IHQ, they say Abou is struggling with makeup.

So we need to go step by step. We need to find the proper way of getting him

where we want.

This proximity we have with Montreal is good because

that helps every artist develop what they are doing.

I love the challenge and today they come to give me some feedback.

So we just gave you your review of things you need to work on.

This is how you apply your makeup right now. See the shape of the eyebrows?

Yeah. Make sure that they're not descending because otherwise it's going

you look a little bit sad on stage. Okay.

When I arrived, to be honest, I wasn't expecting to do a makeup before

performing on stage.

As men, we are not used to do a makeup.

So for me, it was like something strange. I thought you come, you do your

and then you go home. So eyeshadow should be here and not so low.

Okay, okay.

But... Mary, she was important because when I arrived, I didn't know my care

mandatory.

I was really afraid to put the paint on my eyes. It was really difficult. And

plus, to remember every step, it was hard.

Okay, when you draw the black line on your eyes, make it a bit more thick

because when you blend it, then it disappears.

We don't see it as much. Yes.

Stressful moment for him to have me at the back of him always.

Is it?

Yeah.

My role was really to develop the makeup concept and after to teach all of the

artists how to execute their own makeup before the show.

After the delay, the acrobat, artist, musician, they do their own makeup

each show. Considering we have around 50 artists per show, it would take a lot

of hair and makeup artists to prepare all of them if we would do it that way.

So usually when I do this, I use left here, and then I use the right

hand as well.

So both hands can do the makeup on both sides.

Haven't seen that much.

Yeah? Yeah.

That's it.

Most of the artists was coming from the circus school and gymnastic competition.

So for me, it was totally different because freestyle is something coming

the street. You are your own trainer.

So, yeah, I was.

I'm afraid about the judgment.

They will say I'm not enough good, so they will not keep me.

Okay, let's try it.

This way, right?

Yes.

Yeah, it's okay. This will blend, yeah.

I do as well down, right?

Is it clear?

Yeah. I feel like now he has it nailed down.

Now, 10 years later, I'm still here.

It takes time, of course, to trust yourself and having that confidence as

I think to work in Cirque du Soleil and to

work in Lucia, we are constantly working to do best every night.

My name is Majo Cornejo. I'm the singer of the show Lucia.

For me to work in a show that talks about my country, Mexico, and my

makes me take every aspect of this work, how do I say, very personally.

Make sure the voices, we hear every single word clearly.

Yeah, I feel pressure, like, to have all the people from Creation here and all

the artistic team here watching us.

You want to come with us? Welcome, the new guys.

It's been a while.

Simon Carpentier is the composer of the music in Lucian. He's here just to check

the new music, the new musicians.

So I just wanted to say, even if we sometimes have some challenges, you're

going strong and all the moves and all that. I have lots of notes for the mix

and the house, though.

We have some issues sometimes with the vocal.

The voice has to be on top of things, and then the piano is less present than

used to be. It might be something little.

It's very important.

But we're going to work on that.

So let's do a few sound checks.

It's your tempo or the piano.

You don't have a click on that, right? No, but it's really like the acrobat's

time. So we are following them all the time. Like if they take more time in

moment, we have to wait for them.

You need to meet in the middle. Yep. That's what I mean.

I always try to follow the acrobat and like to feel their energy.

I understand.

Yeah. But I think we should go more with the music than them. Yeah. Because it

gets in your head.

I think if we are not connected with the acrobat, this doesn't work.

Eventually, you're going to help them to let go. Let's move on. Yeah, yeah,

yeah.

I try to follow them, but at the same time, they don't want us to be too slow.

So we are trying, like, to be there. My advice would be respectfully, you don't

need to follow them.

I can feel that I have like two bosses, like the acrobats and also Simone.

Can we hear the voice?

We will see what's going to happen.

I think that now that we are in Montreal, we all have a lot of notes and

of different points of view.

Yeah, we are all doing our best.

The biggest challenge for me to be in this moment, I think it's like I'm far

from the family all the time and far from Mexico.

I think it's the hardest part to be part of Lucia.

Today I called my dad. I was just feeling like lost.

My

dad

and my mom are both musicians, so they get it.

My dad, he's an amazing person. He's always like working and fighting for his

dreams and also like for my dreams.

To live through

the screen, because you are not there for the important moments, like when my

sister got married, I couldn't go.

When my grandma passed away and I couldn't go, I was so mad and

It was really sad for me.

These are the things that sometimes we don't talk about it.

Bye.

You have to sacrifice a lot of things, like to live your dream and to be far

from the people that you love.

It's hard.

I think we're all really grateful to have Daniele here to hear what the

have to say and make the show better.

We need to go to first position and turning.

It actually gives me, personally, motivation to want to jump higher and to

better and to perform harder tricks.

I definitely feel more a part of the swing team, so much more than hoops,

because that's...

where my roots are. That's why I came to Luzia to do Swing the Swing. So I'm

ready to get back to it.

I'll do a single salt swing. So it's like with one swing and then I flip and

then I come back to the same swing.

Olivia's been training a trick that is called single salt gainer.

I just want you, before you go, to step on the mat and work with... Yeah.

We were working there for like a year, and then she ended up falling off the

swing.

So now we need to work with her, you know, to rebuild her trust, to do that

trick again.

Pro.

Yeah, the last time I tried the gainer trick, I went to the hospital.

But I don't quit easily.

We see the signs there of stress because mentally she's not ready.

It was very hairy, but I'm doing it. And I do plan to start training it again a

bit more.

Hey.

No. No, it's not bad, huh?

And know more about the trick now. And I'm better at the trick for the fall.

But it will definitely take some time to gather that courage again.

She never did the jump without launch.

She's been training for two years.

I don't want to jinx it like I did last time, but I have another jump that I'm

kind of working on.

It's from my seat position, and it's the back layout.

So I've been training this one for a long time now, way longer than the

jump, and so we've switched back.

Now repeat.

Good, Olivia.

Olivia, she bounced back so quick. So I think the memories of the trauma she had

there, I think that would not affect.

She's an amazing acrobat.

But the last one, very good.

And I feel like that in the show, huh?

After swing training, like, okay, yeah, I'm raving it.

After meeting with Daniele, I don't feel like it's a responsibility.

I feel it's more of a conversation with my team.

Well,

Daniele asked me to take charge.

Let's go.

So today, that's what I plan to do.

your eyes and think the box is still there.

It's 45 centimeters.

That's from here. You should catch Eddie here.

Okay, let's go.

She had the height. She had the time. She had everything. But when they

caught... Still struggling to pull it on the handstand.

And this will let her put the hip on.

Naomi is very calm.

Chris, he likes to talk a lot, give a lot of feedback.

I think this is prettier because you make the whole element of a one -time.

And in the handstand... If I don't feel these arms, I cannot help you. There is

a progression.

If you get the handstand really solid, this will not be a problem.

But I'm afraid that if you make the move now, you kind of skip a step.

I love Chris.

He's got big opinions, but today he's just not listening.

Sometimes it's the language.

When we're saying something and we're thinking it's clear, we end up figuring

out that he didn't understand anything.

Daniele asked me to take charge, but clearly some of them don't want to take

direction from me, and I'm not sure what to do.

After practicing the trick a few times with Chris, now I'm feeling a little bit

far from the goal. So, yeah, mixed feelings.

We're in Montreal.

All eyes are on us, especially from IHQ, and making sure that the show is in tip

-top shape.

And that applies for me as well.

Last I measured, I was 191.

And I really held on to it.

93 kilos.

The first time I was measured for Cirque du Soleil, I was 21.

Right on the arrow, this one.

Big foot.

I was super young. I was super thin.

And over the last eight years, My body's changed.

We've had to do another measurement and get all the costumes changed because I'm

not the little kid that I was when I first joined the tour.

I'm here.

I think

I'm very lucky that my

body is the way that it is because it separates me from everyone else.

All the other acrobats.

of a shorter stature, strong, bouncy.

I like to think that my length, the people in the back row really get a good

view of the trick.

What are you filling out? What

are these things? It's the weight, the weight of the artist.

Yeah. We had to change profile.

No.

Are you the heaviest tube diver?

Obviously.

But in the world, that was how I was hired.

What are you going to do?

Nothing.

But it's this number. What are you going to do about that?

You want me to get to the 100, Mark?

Can I lift it up?

Be the only 100 kilo acrobat in the world?

I'll do it.

Bring it on. I'm scared. I'll order McDonald's tonight.

You know, circus is a dangerous career. So there's different elements that we

have to consider to ensure injury prevention.

It's more dangerous when I'm casting someone who's not going to fit the

acrobatic profile.

I'll yell at you when the cameras aren't rolling.

I think my biggest takeaway from the note session with Daniele would have to

being very empathetic towards the audience and really taking a lot of care

respecting the fact that they've paid all that money to come and see you,

is something that I think I'll really put into my performance.

I wouldn't say it's a hope. It's more the end goal is to just come back as the

clown. It's not something that I hope for. It's something that I'm going to

Have a great show tonight, everybody.

Nelson to set.

Copy, Nelson.

Good job!

Stand by, fade to black, and Nelson in.

Go.

There's no need to project outward as much as I am. They pay to come and see

I don't have to make sure that they're watching.

As I did the show, it was, okay, empathy, empathy, empathy, empathy,

And I was like, where can I be empathy?

And I picked the audience member, and I think they had a sore leg or something.

And so I was like, there's the moment.

Show the care in that moment.

There's an opportunity to take advantage and make your clown a bit better, then

I absolutely have to do it.

Nelson is not afraid about judgment.

So is beautiful.

To be an understudy, your colleagues can always compare you to the one that was

there before.

I find it is an act of generosity.

for an acrobat to be an understudy and to save the show.

Before we jump every show, you take time.

I visualize, I breathe, I pray, I watch myself do it in my head before I do it.

You do it, you're not scared.

I'm prepared for this, I train for this.

Also, I think what's really important is the team. I really don't think I could

have gotten back up on the swing if I didn't have a team that I felt so safe

with.

There's so many different parts of Olivia and that's what makes her so

I can see her focus and I can see her confidence when she does her specialty.

She sometimes has a moment where she's feeling the nerves and then she does it

anyway.

For me, the makeup is different.

In the beginning, it was harder because it took me three hours. Now, I'm around

30 minutes, so it's a lot of progress from the start.

the energy he brings to football you see the love the passion he has for that

you know and then he shows that on stage and it's beautiful

during

the show the musicians

have the opportunity to improvise a lot especially like during the acrobatic

moment and i have to make it work for both the acrobats and also simone but

i have to respect what i have in my mind in my heart what i'm living

this is the first time i hear there was a discussion between the

composer and my hope but for us it's very important that there is no big

change into the rhythm of the song It's very important for the music and the

routine to really be in symbiosis.

We trust Maho.

Maho will know how to set the pace for the song.

Three, four, three, four.

You don't have it. You didn't. The last few shows went great. I really feel like

I'm finding my rhythm.

Oh, that's cheating.

Restart the game. For the first time, I didn't feel stressed.

I didn't feel nervous.

It almost feels like it's second nature now. I can really enjoy the performance

as opposed to being worried about the performance.

Feels good.

I love the attention, of course. I would never want to steal Eric's job from

him, but I would be so thankful if he would share the character with me. I

a bit of that.

Three weeks ago, I had my appendix removed.

It was a premier, and I couldn't be there with...

I didn't like.

I wrote this track.

It's mine. I know every corner of it.

It's my coat someone else is wearing.

Next, on Cirque Life.

The fitness test happens twice a year. It is mandatory for the artist.

It's a way for Cirque to make sure that the artists are still able to do what

they do.

If you fail the test, then you cannot perform.

Alex is very special. We don't know how to really test him. His body is out of

this planet.

With Dorit, we are trying to get to trick the slick coin. You're upside

You feel your weight shifted very far forward, and you can't see the floor.

So it is really challenging.

Now I come back, and I show them.

the back now make us laugh nelson thinks he gets it it's i think it's more mind

games than an actual exercise