5 days to China: ADVENTURE TIME (Patreon)

Troy and I have been invited to participate in the 6th International Circus Festival of China – hosted at the Chimelong Resort in Zhuhai, China. With our departure date a mere 5 days away, everything is starting to feel very stressful / impending / semi-impossible / real.

It’s one of three big circus festivals / competitions in China (though I’ve found it very difficult to find much information on it through standard North American channels ...)

It’s a Big Deal: this festival sponsors our airfare, accommodations, meals, baggage transport, insurance, and visa acquisition fees. There are huge financial prizes: two gold medals with a $30,000 prize each, 3 silver medlas with a $20,000 prize each, and 4 bronze medals with a prize of $10,000 each; and then – no doubt – a slew of ‘special prizes’ unrelated to medalling, given by local organizations, or circus companies, and the like (like how Troy and I won the Prix Moulin Rouge at Cirque de Demain – not a medal, but still pretty frickin’ awesome!).

And, it’s a big adventure to boot … because this little noodle has never been to China.  

The last two months has been a steady drip of emails pushing new application forms and inquiring about visa statuses and checking and double-checking application forms for both mainland China, for the festival, and a separate Hong Kong show (though we only just heard that the promoters of the latter have cancelled the performance due to the ongoing political unrest. I was really hoping to go to Hong Kong. I mean, I’m sure I also prefer not accidentally getting tear gassed but … I really wanted to go to Hong Kong).

We’re performing the act that we choreographed with Roberto Campanella for the 40th Cirque de Demain in Paris earlier this year: two strange, wonderful creatures coming across one another and ultimately teaming up to hopefully make you squirm in your seats just a little bit (or a lot). 

“So what are you stressed about, Ess?” you may be saying to yourself. “You’ve been to MONGOLIA. 12-hour time changes are old hat for you. The act is already made. You already performed it at Cirque de Demain. What’s the worry?”

Well, my friends, when your duo partner is in high-demand for every other horror movie and TV show in the North American market, it can make for extremely challenging preparation parameters: 

Troy has been on a top-secret movie project in LA since end of August/beginning of September. Initially, we had a small 10-day window in Toronto to regroup and revisit our act – to get back in our creature-y headspaces and fine-tune all the little transitions that can use a little extra polish – between his return from LA and our departure to China.  

… And then he was headhunted for a horror project in Sweden immediately on the tail end of the LA project. 

Which is AMAZING. But also …

Goodbye, precious rehearsal time! 

What does the plan look like now, you ask?

This Sunday, we’ll fly from Pearson International Airport in Toronto to Beijing, and connect from Beijing to Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport.

We will arrive at Chimelong Resort on the 11th, jetlagged out of our minds, after around 22 hours of travel. I believe we’re booked on an Economy class ticket – but on the advice of a fellow stunt rigger in Toronto, I might make a crazy bid to upgrade to a higher class ticket AT the airport on the day of departure …

We will have 4 days to accomplish what feels like the insanity of back into sync with each other before our first show in front of an audience.

(One small, saving grace is that there are no performances before a jury until a couple more days after that. I’ve heard from a Swedish acrobat that was at the festival last year that there is lots and lots of time waiting for rehearsals and meetings; hopefully those are moments that can be stolen to continue to revisit all the bits and pieces I want to tweak in our performance before it’s time for the Big Shows.) 

I will take deep breaths. 

I will remind myself that one of my greatest strengths is in pulling off the impossible. 

I will remember the words of friends and strangers telling me that I am a wonderful performer, who makes their heart quicken, eyes widen, and breath catch.  That I can take any stumbling blocks in stride, and find ways to turn them into benefits ­– whether that’s backstage, 3 hours before we’re due to go on, or in the very moment that I find myself beneath spotlights and thousands of eyes. 

I will dive down so deeply into my own body, my own breath, that when I move back towards the surface of my own skin it will be with a hurricane’s-worth of energy and power and emotion to offer freely and openly to everyone watching. 

It’s going to be a beautiful adventure, friends.