Cirque Éloize Audition: Part II of *VII (Patreon)

That's right, it's a "VII" instead of a "IV" now ... ! Surprise!  

This story turned out to need more space than I initially thought it would take. It's now spanning 7 instalments total. They're going out to you on an every-other-day schedule in (what I hope are) small, digestible parcels* 

(*feedback welcome! do you care if you get giant, 5000-word essays all in one go? do you like being drip-fed things in 'chapters' like this?)

This will take us through to the end of next weekend to reach the finale of this fun little circus adventure –– and then it'll be back to Barbette (I have so much to tell you!)

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MONDAY November 7th

On Monday I made the 6 hour drive from Toronto to Montréal. 

I pulled into the city around 3pm and checked my e-mail inbox. 

Still nothing one way or the other about the auditions.

What do I do? I frowned a little, weighing my options as fished out one of the last, lonely Timbits that remained in my road-trip snack box (old-fashioned glazed, if you were wondering). 

Is it like film and TV where if we haven't heard then it's pretty much a 'no thank you'? Or ... 

I thought back to the stories I'd heard from other artists about bygone auditions with Cirque du Soleil, about receiving invitations to attend auditions quite literally at 11pm the night prior. 

Maybe it's just taking so long to process all the submission they got that there's a communication delay?

I decided to throw caution to the wind and did what I've since been told by several Gen Z'ers is unthinkable in 2022: 

I cold-called Cirque Éloize. [dramatic gasp]

A young man answered the front desk phone, listened to my polite inquiry, and re-directed me without telling me whose extension he was sending me to.  A friendly woman who introduced herself as Francine picked up on the other end.

"Bonjour, hi," I opened. "My name is Ess, I'm a circus artist from Toronto and I just got into town here in Montréal. I'm calling to see if there might be any further information you might be able to share with me about the Wednesday audition call that went out a couple weeks ago? I heard that you received a lot of applications, so I know that maybe things are a bit swamped but – I also figured it couldn't hurt to call and follow up."

"Oh yes, I'm just starting to work through sending out e-mails now," she replied, her voice warm and smooth. "We received a lot more applications than we were expecting. What's your name again?" she asked. "I'll pull up your profile now."

Oh jeez–

"Ess," I replied. "Hödlmos–"

"Ah, yes I've got you here in front of me," Francine said quickly. "And you came from Toronto! You're already here in Montréal?"

"Yes, that's right. Me and a few other artists got into town today, just in case we received an invitation to attend your audition. I'll be staying in town for a week afterwards for some Residency time through TOHU for another project."

"Oh, how wonderful," she said.

Okay, doesn't seem like this was an inappropriate move, I thought to myself. I had been fully prepared for a brusque, chilly "Wait for an e-mail" type of response.

"I'm just looking through your profile now," Francine was saying. "You want to do contortion for us, or straps?"

"I was hoping to share some of the straps work that I've been doing recently." 

I paused. 

Would it be pushing our luck to ask ...? Screw it – "And I know there's a few other artists here now who've arrived from Toronto..." 

"Oh, okay. And what are their names?"

"Glory Dearling and LeeAnn Ball," I replied, trying not to sound relieved that Francine seemed unruffled by this boldness. "And Edio. Silva, I think, is his last name." (Edio hadn't been working in the pulling trio with me, Glory, and LeeAnn, but he'd hopped in my car for the drive to Montréal with the hopes of presenting an aerial silks act at the auditions.) 

"Well if you're here then we should definitely try to get you out on Wednesday instead of the next block in December or whenever it ends up being." 

Is this actually happening this way...?! I wiggled with some nauseating mixture of delight and anxiety in my seat, eyebrows halfway up my forehead in disbelief. 

I worked to keep the surprise out of my voice: "Well, great! I'd love to come out, and I know the others are excited to share their work as well." Calm and collected. 

"I'm just working through sending out all the e-mails now," Francine said. "You should receive an e-mail invitation shortly, and then there'll be a follow-up email tomorrow with details about timing for the day, if you're in the morning group vs. the afternoon group, etc."

"I really appreciate it, thank you so much."

"Thanks for calling to follow-up," she added. "I like the initiative."

Wow.

And that was that. 

I ended the call and slumped back in my seat with a sigh of –

Relief? 

Anxiety?

Determination? 

Trepidation?

Who knew.

I would have to take a moment some other time to process the absurdity of calling a big circus company to ask about audition invitations and that phone call seemingly making the difference – 

Or was that absurd? 

Anyone younger than me that I've shared this anecdote with has looked at me with a mixture of horror and awe. 

Anyone older than me that I've shared this anecdote with has given me the "*head nod* Nice, that was a good idea" reaction.

So I suppose it depends. I personally have no anxiety about making phone calls, but many of my peers do. I know it's kind of the social culture now to avoid phone calls, where possible. My younger sibling –6 years my junior– definitely fits the Gen-Z stereotype of "for the love of god please never actually phone me, please only ever text". 

Then again, pretty much anyone I can imagine being in a position of creative responsibility within the hierarchy of a company is more likely than not an older Millenial (at the youngest) or somewhere within Gen X (who don't seem to have this aversion to dialling a phone number and just cold-calling someone). 

Regardless – 

The only thing I needed to worry about now was my final rehearsal the next night (Tuesday) at the open training in the Studio Création at the École Nationale de Cirque, and then getting through the audition day itself on Wednesday. Hopefully I'd be in the afternoon slot (2:00pm to 6:00pm) and not the (urgh) crack-of-dawn 8:30am to 12:30pm slot.

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Your next instalment of this Cirque Éloize audition story is coming' atcha on Saturday morning, 11am EST [it's longer than today's, and there's more photos in it -- yayyy pictures)! 

In the meantime, stay strange & wonderful --

XO Ess