Many of you will have witnessed the incredible acrobatics, death defying gymnastics and mind blowing circus and theatre that is Cirque du Soleil. The company which employs over 4,000 people from over 40 countries helps to bring aspects of our sport to a huge audience in numerous shows spanning the globe. Look closely the next time you watch a show and you could recognize some of the acts and support staff.
Many of our top gymnasts are part of the Cirque cast, as they look to continue within the sport after their elite careers. One such gymnast who took that step is Beijing 2008 star Marissa King who recently starred in Amaluna at the Albert Hall. Alongside Marissa was top GB coach Chris Bowler, we caught up with both of them after the show to find out more about their journey into the “Circus of the Sun”.
Q. MARISSA, TELL US MORE ABOUT YOUR MOVE FROM OLYMPIAN TO CIRQUE DU SOLEIL PERFORMER.
“After my elite career as a gymnast I went to Florida in the summer of 2009 to study and I started competing almost straight away. I competed for four years. I then transitioned out of collegiate gymnastics into Cirque. I knew I wanted to join Cirque. I saw a show in Macau in 2008 when the GB team went there for a pre-Olympic test event and that’s when I knew that was something I wanted to do. I went on to audition in 2011 but I finished my collegiate career as I knew going to university in Florida was such a big opportunity and I couldn’t have stopped that half way through. I needed to see that through and finish my degree. I actually continued training for a fifth year, took an internship, took a second degree. I took an extra year because I wanted to help with the team still after we won our first national championship. I wanted to do some student coaching to see if coaching was something I wanted to get into. I still travelled with the team, helped the assistant coach and also did my internship within media as media was the second degree I took. I also trained on the side, ready for Cirque. There were so many options and I wanted to see what I wanted to do after I graduated.”
Q. FOR PEOPLE WHO DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW BIG THE UNIVERSITY GYMNASTICS SCENE IS OUT IN AMERICA, CAN YOU EXPLAIN A LITTLE BIT MORE?
“It’s very different because in elite gymnastics you have around three big competitions in a year whereas at NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) you can do sixteen competitions in four months and that’s something that it took me some time to get used to; the fact that we travelled and competed so much. It was an incredible experience because it’s different. It’s difficult in its own way. It’s slightly simplified routines with less skills but it’s all about perfection and performance. In some ways I don’t feel like to I got to be myself at competitions until then. At college in America I was really able to express myself. I had a great collegiate career and being part of the team in Florida that won our first national championship was a great moment and a really big deal.”
Q. SO HOW DID YOU THEN GET INTO CIRQUE?
“I saw my first show in 2008 like I said and from then it was something I wanted to do. I knew some other GB trampoline and artistic gymnasts who had gone on to join Cirque and they really inspired me to pursue that. It was just a matter of when. Sometimes it can be difficult because there may be an opening with a show but a certain profile has to fit and that can take time. You might have to wait for a new show to go through creation for new openings to come up and even then they are figuring out exactly what acts they want and who might fit that. You have to get chosen from a pool of people they’ve chosen to look at. I kept putting myself out there. Every year at national championships we had scouts come and watch and I always connected with them.”
Q. SO ONCE YOU WERE AT THE CIRQUE HEADQUARTERS IN MONTREAL, CANADA, WHAT WAS THE PROCESS FROM DAY ONE THROUGH TO SHOW ONE?
“My formation was quite quick. They wanted the show to be on tour soon. I had to adapt because the setup is very different. Amaluna involves an asymmetric bar routine but the low bar is slightly higher and the stage revolves. I had to explore the structure of the apparatus once I got there and develop and understanding of the show, who your character is and what your role is within the show. Going to HQ was really insightful and a really good stepping stone to see what the journey I was starting was all about. It was a perfect introduction and preparation phase.”
Q. FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN’T SEEN AMALUNA, HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE SHOW AND YOUR ROLE WITHIN IT?
“It tells the story of a girl coming of age, a washed up sailor she meets and falls in love with, and the challenges they face to be together. My character is one of the amazons, one of the protectors of the island. We’re the ones who keep everything in place. It’s our island and we are guarding it for our queen. We’re strong, we’re fierce and we need to be somewhat intimidating to the men when they arrive on the island. It’s always nice to have an intention on stage, remember how you are supposed to act and what your place is within the show. You need to keep with that every show, every day. Doing ten shows a week can be tiring and it’s hard work but you always work to get in character and stay within that mindset.”
Q. WHAT’S IT LIKE TOURING WITH THE SHOW?
“It’s crazy we’ve been everywhere- Miami, Houston, Tarragona, Madrid, Belgium, Paris and now London. This is my seventh city. I’ve been on tour for a year but it still feels like I’m relatively new. When I watch videos of my performances back I still feel like there’s so much I can improve on.
The Royal Albert Hall is just the most amazing venue. When I tell people I’ve performed here they’re all impressed! Standing center stage and looking out is an image I am never going to forget. It’s been overwhelming because so many people have wanted to come and see it. It was harder when we were in North America but it’s been easier since we’ve been in Europe and definitely lots more since we’ve been in London. It’s been an incredible opportunity and a great time to be home!”
Q. CHRIS, TALK US THROUGH YOUR BACKGROUND WITHIN GYMNASTICS COACHING AND THEN YOUR MOVE INTO CIRQUE DU SOLEIL.
“I started as a gymnast. I was a decent gymnast but I was by no means exceptional. I knew I’d reached my potential in my teens. From that point I needed to make a choice and I chose my education. I went to university and I studies sport and exercise science. I started coaching from the age fourteen. I was with Woking Gymnastics Club, I was still training as a gymnast and I got into coaching. That led me to coach at other clubs like Basingstoke Gymnastics Club and I continued to coach through my time at university. When I came out of uni I continued to work my way up through the club system and I found myself at Pinewood Gymnastics Club. I carried on gaining my coaching qualifications to the point where I became a high performance coach and I was directing Pinewood. I did that for several years and I felt I achieved quite a lot in that setting. I helped the club grow and felt I was of integral support to the coaches there who produced several regional, national and European champions across a number of disciplines.
I was looking for a new challenge. I originally applied to Cirque du Soleil for a casting position and they interviewed me. A couple of months later I got a call from them and it just so happened that their show ‘Totem’ was in London at the time. I went to visit the show and caught up with the artistic director and I ended up joining that show when it finished in London in early 2012. I toured the USA with that show as head coach. My main purpose was to guide and support the artists on a daily basis and help the development of the acrobatic content, in line with the artistic director and the original concept for that show.
After being on ‘Totem’ for a few years I was looking for something else and the opportunity to get involved in the creation process for a new Cirque show came up. Toruk (based on James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’) has just started touring the world and I spent a good few months in Canada being involved in its creation process. That was great. It continued to broaden my experiences and learn new acrobatic disciplines. That led me to my position as an acrobatic coach with the show ‘Amaluna.’ I was drawn to the opportunity to go back to where I started, tour Europe and be a coach for the show when it came to London’s Royal Albert Hall. It’s a unique, prestigious venue. I was also very open to continuing my own experiences within the company and contribute to another show. ‘Amaluna’ is quite a new show and has been through some changes and I was asked to assist in continuing to develop the acrobatic content.”
Q. HOW HAVE YOU FOUND MOVING THROUGH THREE DIFFERENT SHOWS; AS HEAD COACH, TO A CREATION PROCESS AND NOW ACROBATIC COACH? WHICH ROLE PUSHED YOU THE MOST?
“They each had different challenges. When I joined ‘Totem’ I was fresh into the company. I went straight from a gymnastics club setting and competitive setting into the world of live entertainment. That transition at age 27 had challenges. I had to learn how to work with not gymnasts, but acrobats, artists and a whole team. I wasn’t dealing with parents, coaches, judges and committee members anymore. I was dealing with lighting technicians, riggers, artistic teams, stage managers and lots of press. That was all new. I was part of a much larger team now. The company is huge. Learning how to find my feet and direction as head coach on ‘Totem’ took some time. I had to build relationships with everyone there. There were 18 different nationalities and I had to learn how to communicate with everyone.
‘Toruk’ was a completely different setting. We weren’t touring. There was a whole array of people put together working towards the goal of putting together this new, unique spectacle. One of the challenges was the time constraint. When you’re delivering a new show you are given a few months. It came with its own challenges. The equipment was totally different. The stage was different. Learning how to work with it all and manipulate the equipment to get the best out of the performers was the real challenge. Part of my role was to really motivate and stimulate the artists too. We had to keep them safe and healthy during long days, six days per week.”
Q. YOU’VE ESSENTIALLY SPENT YOUR LIFE ON TOUR FOR THE PAST FOUR YEARS. WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT IT AND WHAT DO YOU MISS ABOUT BEING AWAY FROM HOME?
“Obviously I miss my friends and family. I’m quite a family oriented person. I do miss my roots to an extent but the touring life is unique. You live, work and socialize with the same people every day. It’s full on and it’s not for everyone. I guess you either love it or hate it. I’ve been very fortunate to be able to travel the world and see things that I probably never would have seen otherwise. The challenges of touring include simple things like you can’t buy a piece of nice furniture you see and love for your home. You visit all these wonderful places but you can’t take it all with you. You have to be selective in what you tour with and you’re sort of living out of a suitcase. When you start to settle somewhere it’s suddenly time to move on. Every place you go, you get to embrace the people and embrace the culture.”
Q. WHEN YOU FIRST STARTED COACHING FOR CIRQUE, WHAT SKILLS DID YOU WALK IN WITH?
“I felt one of my main strengths was being able to communicate with all the different people, which I got from the club setting. One of the bigger challenges was learning about the new equipment. In a sense, from my original coaching career, yes, I knew how to coach a somersault, I had that underlying principle of gymnastics and biomechanics and what it takes it to rotate and twist and tumble. Then, it was ‘what if you take someone who is hanging upside down?’ or taking it out of the norm and putting it on unique equipment. In the gymnastics world you will often have one gymnast at a time and on static apparatus that does not move and what happens in a performance is down to that gymnast. Then you go to Cirque and an entertainment venue and suddenly you’re dealing with equipment that moves while the artist is on it. In ‘Amaluna’ there is a turntable so the stage actually rotates while the artists are working on the bars. I needed to know how that equipment works to then be able to relate that back to what the artists do and get the best out of them. As a coach I got the skills set from the club setting to break the acrobatic in the circus would down and understand them and tackle these new challenges.”
Q. WOULD YOU SAY THAT FOUR YEARS WITH CIRQUE HAS DEVELOPED YOU AS A COACH?
“Absolutely. I think when I joined the company it put me out of my comfort zone for sure. I had to learn so much. Working with gymnasts at a high level, we were used to peaking at competitions just a few times a year. As a coach with Cirque I have to manage the artists to perform ten shows a week, 300+ shows a year and try to put out the same energy and the same level of performance every single time because each audience deserves the same show. Trying to motivate the artists after they are tired is important. I have to know them all as individuals so I know when to push, when to support, when to rotate certain skills within an act to keep everyone safe. The mental aspect of being a performer as opposed to a top competitive gymnast is different. They’re not training 30 hours a week anymore. They might only be training a few hours a week now and the time up on stage rehearsing on the equipment is limited. A lot of it is maintenance but I also need to look to the development of the acrobatic content so very careful planning is needed by me so when each artist does have stage time they get the most out of it and everything they do is productive.”
CIRQUE DU SOLEIL, WOWING THE WORLD
By: Matte Hart, 1066 Gymnastics Head Coach, for Gymnast Digital Magazine
