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

[Wednesday November 9th, AUDITION DAY, cont]

They moved through the solo presentation section with extreme efficiency. There was no chatting to the casting team beforehand, and no feedback afterwards. You were told who was on deck to go next, and who was on-deck-on-deck (aka 2nd up to get next), and that was about it.

Being fourth up meant I didn't have much time to overthink or get nervous: I just had to get warm and get focused. Mercifully, I was allowed to hang up my straps on one of the lower aerial points in the secondary area to warm up my flags, tic-tacs, and spins.

One of the non-Éloize people present at the auditions was a woman named Stacy Clarke. Stacy is currently the CEO of Circus Talk, but she worked for Cirque du Soleil for many years as one of their talent scouts and key casting personnel (that link takes you back to the 16 x 9 documentary on Cirque du Soleil auditions I linked in the last post; it's set to start at exactly the time when Stacy [well, Stacy from 10 years ago!] is on screen talking to one of the gymnasts auditioning).

Stacy has actually been at the studio in Toronto I've been rehearsing at (Artists' Play) not infrequently over the past 2 months, working 1-on-1 with a couple artists who were prepping acts for big cruise ship contracts and giving feedback to others (like Glory, on her amazing aerial net act – which I think really wowed the casting team). I've only interacted with Stacy a few times: she comes across as very no-nonsense, very capable, and a very direct communicator. No sugar-coating.

[[[ SIDEBAR: I've heard that Stacy wants to invest some time and energy into the Toronto circus community; that she thinks that there's a lot of talent there (true!...I'm biased though, obviously 😆); and that the Toronto community has an inferiority complex next to Montreal (also very true) but that that doesn't have to be the case. The studio owner of Artists' Play mentioned that Stacy apparently has spoken to her about running an act creation workshop there sometime in March or May (my ears perked up; I'm wondering if it would be a good way to keep polishing and developing wherever Le Numéro Barbette is by that point!), along with some career counselling to help point individual artists in the right directions for their goals, capabilities, and potential within the industry. ]]]

I found myself standing next to her as I was 'on-deck', waiting for the artist before me to finish their act.

"Why did you choose to do such a short act?" Stacy said to me as I was waiting on deck for my act.

"Honestly, I just didn't know if we were going to be allowed to present anything longer," I said. "We didn't get any information about the audition whatsoever until Tuesday afternoon. Yesterday," I said. 

Stacy quietly made a face that made it seem like she was acknowledging the degree of chaos to this entire undertaking. 

I continued: "I'm working on a 6-minute act but it's definitely not ready for presentation. I also heard there was a lot of applications so I thought a shorter number would be better, time-wise; I picked something that would let me show off some of the sequences I've been working on this year."

She nodded, indicating nothing positive or negative from the gesture.

"And you're just doing straps? Not contortion?"

"Just straps," I answered. "I've been focusing intensely on that this year. I'm still doing contortion, but less of it."

"Is your number contortion straps?"

"...No," I said reluctantly. "I've found the translation of that vocabulary into the context of aerial straps to be far slower than I ever expected. It's coming, but it's going to require a lot more research to incorporate it to a degree that I think is high-level enough."

"Is that transition related?"

I blinked. "You mean– you mean doing contortion less?"

"Yes," she said without missing a beat. "Is there a physiological component to that?"

"Maybe?" I said, shifting my weight from one foot to the other. 

I thought about top surgery– the time off, the disruption of it all, even though recovery had been as utopian as possible thanks to [Dr!] Jen [Crane, aka Cirque Physio].  

I thought about the big 'question mark' of whether starting testosterone had indeed reduced my flexibility, or whether I simply wasn't as maximally bendy as I've been at points in my life because I pour every waking moment of physical effort into ekeing out progress on aerial straps and don't crush my nerves into pain-coated dust from forcing myself into positions where my (noodly) neck is bearing a lot of my body weight in extreme extension. 

"That's ... hard to say," I settled for, finally, truthfully. "To be honest, I'm having a lot less neck pain with my current training split, so my focus is probably going to stay straps-dominant for the next little while."

"I see," she said, giving nothing away again. 

I fought hard not to read into it.

I started second-guessing myself right away anyways. 

Maybe you shouldn't have talked about neck pain like that to a casting person, Ess. Maybe you should've danced a little more carefully around that contortion question Ess. You probably could've found a more positive spin to that, Ess. 

But then they were calling my name, and it was showtime, baby.

I don't think I'm supposed to do this, but fuck it, I thought to myself, and walked up to the table of casting directors, straps in hand. I'd spoken in English to the other artists for most of the day, and the conversation with Stacy was fresh in my head, so I spoke slowly and carefully.

"Bonjour, tous et toutes," I began. "J'ai préparé un numéro court pour vous aujourd'hui, parce ce que je ne savais pas si c'était correct de présenter un numéro plus long. Donc, mon numéro c'est seulement trois minutes. J'espère que vous amélioré***," I finished, spilling the last word out of my mouth like molasses so I didn't trip over it.

(***the incorrect word, as it so happens: I realized long after it was too late that I asked the casting directors something like 'I hope you improve it' instead of 'I hope you enjoy it', which was what I meant to say [should've said something like "j'espère que vous apprécies". *facepalm*)

[Translation: Hello, everybody. I've prepared a short number for you today, because I didn't know if it was okay to present a longer number. So, my number is only 3 minutes. I hope you improve* it] [*facepalm; see above bracketed note]

A woman with fiery red hair who had been quieter than most of the other casting creatives for the entire morning looked up with interest from her papers. "Ah, tu parles francais? Merci. Nous apprécions l'effort." [Ah, you speak french? Thank you. We appreciate the effort.]

I smiled, nodded, and turned to go rig my straps. Gulp. Glad I didn't miss that opportunity, I thought to myself as I clipped my rigging plate into the lowered and waiting carabiner. I felt more nervous that reassured. Maybe I should've tried to speak more French earlier in the audition...Stop it! Focus! Get in the zone. 

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Your final instalment of this audition adventure awaits you on Sunday at 11am EST! Until then, stay strange & wonderful.

XO Ess