Cirque Du Soleil Corteo

A Day In The Life Of A Cirque du Soleil Performer

Cirque du Soleil’s latest show, “Zarkana,” opened last week at Radio City Music Hall. It’s the most ambitious production the show has ever mounted, due to the scale of the venue. Radio City is the largest indoor theater in the world, housing over 6,000 seats.

Studded with computer-generated imagery, blue sand art and of course, breathtaking stunts, the show employs around 70 acrobats who probably think doing 50 splits in a row is akin to reciting one letter of the alphabet.

Speakeasy dropped by Radio City a few weeks before the show premiered to talk to Jeremie Roberts, a performer in the show who’s an expert on the Cyr wheel . (We’re assuming a warning not to try any of this at home would be extraneous on our part).

Name: Jeremie Roberts

Age: 27

Place of Birth: Outside Paris

Background: I started practicing [circus arts] when I was 7. Then I took clown classes and learned how to juggle. I kept on going with circus workshops and acting classes. When I was 15, I enrolled in the French National Circus School. I studied there for three years then moved to Montreal to study at the Canadian National Circus School. Cirque du Soleil saw me and I joined “Corteo.” I did the teeterboard act and learned the Cyr wheel, which I’m doing for this show.

Learning Curve: I was very dizzy when I first learned the Cyr wheel but then I got used to it. For the teeter-board, I created a technique without anyone spotting. It works as long as you communicate with your partner. There are specific rules. If you have a problem, like you can’t push the board hard enough, you need to tell them early.

What attracts him to the circus: It’s fun to do the acrobatics. I really like to be on stage and meet the audience. There are big pieces of equipment – your work is very large. It’s never small stages or small machinery. There are so many aspects – video, lights. We get to travel, which I really really enjoy. I’ve been everywhere in the US and Japan and I spent three months in Russia.

Ethnic makeup of the show: There are three or four Chinese acrobats on this show. We are 76 artists. The band is only Americans, except the singers. Three out of four singers are French Canadians. For the acrobats, 2/3 are from ex-USSR. Russia, Belarus, Ukraine.

MovimientoValencia.uk: Cirque du Soleil: Corteo in Valencia

The clown represents his own funeral, taking place in a carnival atmosphere, while a guardian angel watching in silence. Through a mix of large and small, the ridiculous and the tragic and the magic of perfection and charm of imperfection, the show highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the clown, as well as his wisdom and delicacy to illustrate that portion of humanity that resides within us all. The music , lyrical and playful on, carries Corteo through a timeless celebration in which illusion teases reality.

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