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00:01Every time there is a show in Montreal, it is under a microscope.
00:07Because we cannot fail in our own market.
00:12Nelson's gonna do clown duty for a couple of weeks.
00:16He's got big shoes to fill.
00:18We want him to be one of the best of the best.
00:21I think time will tell.
00:26I'm definitely nervous.
00:27I fell about 10 feet onto the hard stage.
00:31It's the first time that I'm gonna be back performing.
00:37And then she just falls.
00:40We have very opinionated people.
00:43When you're in a team, you cannot just be thinking about yourself.
00:48If there is a little bit of friction,
00:51we don't want this energy to stay around the team at the premiere.
00:55It's the opening night.
00:57A lot of important people are coming.
01:10Ladies and gentlemen, madames and monsieur, please take your seats.
01:15The show is about to begin.
01:18It's such a massive thing to premiere a show in Montreal.
01:23From the moment that Gracie told me to the moment that I was there on the stage,
01:28there was a slow ramp.
01:31Okay, this is happening.
01:32You're doing this.
01:34Oh my goodness.
01:34Can you believe it?
01:35Holy moly.
01:36What are you gonna do?
01:36Why are you here?
01:37Why did they pick you?
01:38Oh my God.
01:47It's scary, for sure.
01:51There's so many different faces that I see sitting in the chairs.
01:542,500 people.
01:56Some of the most important people from ISQ or from Cirque du Soleil's past, present and future.
02:12Okay, this is my entire career up on the table.
02:18Okay, you're on.
02:19And give the audience a good show.
02:21Aéroport de Lucia.
02:23Prêt pour le décollage.
02:24Pisteur.
02:36There is a lot of tension in the artistic tent, the night of the premiere.
02:43A lot of people are coming from around the world.
02:46Our promoters are coming in town.
02:48And it has a huge impact on the success of the tour.
02:53Premiere is our introduction of the show to the city.
02:56And word of mouth is what gets people to come to see us.
03:01We want to make sure that whoever comes is spreading the word, posting on social media,
03:05showing everybody that they're having such a great time so that people like Charlie can relax.
03:11Live entertainment in general right now is a bit uncertain.
03:14Like there's so many things happening in the world.
03:17Cirque is in the same boat.
03:18So we try to keep our little Lucia bubble protected.
03:23But we want to find ways to have the best sales as we can.
03:27Obviously, like there are tickets revenue that we need to hit.
03:32That's why right now you're talking to someone that is very excited to see how this premiere is going to
03:39play.
03:39Yeah.
03:43Stand by Dave.
03:45Nelson in.
03:47Go.
03:56When the first light came on for the parachute I was like so nervous.
04:01I had to do an act for myself but I was like, oh my gosh, I hope he's okay.
04:07I was stressed for Nelson because the heads from Montreal are looking at him.
04:13And he's this backup clown so he was not hired as a clown.
04:16So I came down just trying to make it work.
04:19Still haven't slept in like three days.
04:22The lights shift, I feel this pressure and I'm just itching for that first laugh, that first response from the
04:29audience.
04:47There's wow, there's laughter, there's excitement from the crowd.
04:57And then there's that release of applause from the audience which is really nice.
05:02That's when you can kind of gauge how the show is going to be from that moment.
05:16It was very, very nerve-wracking to perform in front of the creator of the show.
05:20It was really important to do well.
05:23I'm so happy to be here and I love it so much that like the idea of maybe what if
05:28I didn't get renewed or re-signed something, I would be so, so devastated.
05:33Because Nelson is the clown, I'm doing hook diving.
05:36It was like, but it's Nelson, of course I'm just going to do it.
05:40I'm definitely nervous.
05:42I'm doing the full act.
05:44I think I definitely take all of his nerves for him.
05:48And so I think because we can't really talk very much during the show, it's actually better if we just
05:52stick to the plan, stick to what we have to do, focus on our job that day.
05:56I'll just look at him and blow him a kiss and that's probably better.
06:00Olivia's due to hook diving, but we taught her all she had to learn and we'll be there to support
06:05her and we'll see how she does.
06:07Woo!
06:08Hey!
06:10Let's go!
06:40For Premieres, I understand I have no control about what's happening on the stage.
06:46you know if i'm backstage in the artistic tent and i'm talking to the tv of saying like please
06:50make it happen or no don't do that they can't hear me it's their responsibility and i trust
06:55them to make good choices it's really very moving
07:05here the success of this show you know is decided with the public
07:14there's still too many things going around things that need to be prepared for the after party
07:19but as i'm walking around the big top i can tell that the crowd is there because i can
07:25hear it all the way into my office
07:35the premiere how do you think it went
07:39it's uh it's a relief i could see the artist being proud of the public reaction i felt the
07:47same way tonight i saw an amazing show
08:03my role is to manage the party so welcoming celebrities and influencers
08:09and like a lot of people from the community to get the word of mouth going
08:19to be so disciplined and so busy all the time it's nice to like know you can have kind of
08:25a
08:25night where you can just let go i think some people will do it more than others
08:33it's a good time for us all to connect together but really everyone has to be disciplined
08:38because my number one obstacle during premiere week is reminding people that we'll have show notes
08:52tell me about nelson how did you do tonight
09:10okay
09:12just looking what time daniele is arriving for all these interviews and stuff being in montreal does
09:19invite a lot of the original conceptors and designers daniele finzi pasco wrote and was the
09:26original director for the show so he's here to ensure that we're still going in the right
09:31direction check check one two
09:36check check one two nelson smarts check
09:40i've met him in passing a couple of times because he comes and he gives beautiful direction for the
09:44whole show um and i guess i was always too nervous to go up and be like hey how you
09:48doing i'm nelson
09:54i think nelson um did a good job and especially for the amount of pressure everyone has opinions
10:02everybody's got their perspectives were you happy i was happy i was really happy it was a very special
10:07moment for me and i was enjoying it the whole way through good but uh sorry if it projected a
10:12bit
10:12still sorry okay i'm not sorry good
10:18we go there we work on a little bit
10:22basically i am a clown that is my background and for a clown the spectator is the most important part
10:30of the show yes of course uh if you think about your clown your perception of the clown
10:37what to describe me what is your clown from where you will start
10:42i i guess my the end goal is something i was thinking about and so would that be
10:49like as the like i want to be out there and i want it to be a representation of me
10:56at the foundation and then the necessary character on top of that
11:05it's much more easy to be honest on stage if you do complicate things at the same time
11:13yesterday you continue to go in some formula over
11:24don't continue to do like in a form that you can call a slapstick
11:31i hate okay huge mistake yes for sure i think i was trying to really not overact daniele is an
11:41italian
11:41clown and they study a lot more philosophy and so when he gives me notes there's such a weight
11:47i absolutely fall into this is funny let's do this as opposed to you know
11:57not losing respect for the story but i do often find myself enjoying the funny things a lot
12:06nelson thinks i should do something i need to do what i will do nothing stay there do nothing
12:13and the honesty too as well honesty to me and honesty to the story is the goal try to do
12:19nothing if
12:20it's possible just breathe and i find sometimes i do it it feels really really nice and then
12:26then sometimes it feels nice but it doesn't look good and so that's the that's what i'm trying to do
12:36uh he needed to work a lot
12:47hello how are you how are you good since the premiere everyone has been getting notes from
12:54circ headquarters today i'm meeting with daniele to discuss the adagio act
13:00it's very good to have you here and so when we started nine years ago and where you are now
13:07it's very clear that you understand exactly what we try to do you discover so many things
13:14i could discover more i'm an original member of the cast
13:20adagio is an act that requires a lot of push and pull even though i'm getting thrown around it
13:27requires a lot of control and strength to get me in the air if we're not working together the act
13:33looks bad and you risk injury adagio is uh lineness is so elegant i've been doing this show for nine
13:42years and sometimes it's a little bit frustrating because when i uh will want to explain something
13:49to one of my orders and they don't understand necessarily how we can help the other to
13:55understand what you understand
14:00that's a good question sometimes i take more time to connect with them in the act because every
14:09day sometimes a little bit different you know yeah um i think everyone is learning a more graceful
14:17manner but the premiere it went i don't know but in any case what you achieve is so beautiful
14:28you achieve something
14:31and keep it because uh things can also disappear very quickly
14:36when you're on stage you try to talk with them or not sometimes sometimes if i feel like it's a
14:44very
14:44the energy is very different i will change in my energy i will change and then they will understand
14:51naomi knows how to drive them i think more than anyone else
14:58naomi knows how to drive them in the act but the question is how it will be possible and someone
15:03like
15:04you can influence the work of the others daniele asked me to take charge
15:13i'm shy in general like i was very very shy when i was little so he wants us to be
15:20a bit more graceful a bit
15:22more in sync and that will require me to take the lead it makes me wonder if i want to
15:30explore stepping
15:31in and to really communicate kiti posso dire è molto bella lei ha capito delle che a volte la fragilità
15:42è più forte della forza
16:01i don't know if nelson had ever spoken to daniele about the clown act or especially not that in depth
16:08before
16:09i'm pretty sure i've got it you know what you want already yeah what do you want hand benedict
16:15but sometimes you have to go through something that's hard to make you better in the end you don't
16:20understand i do understand french yeah so when daniele gives me notes it's something a bit uncomfortable
16:26to be present in but i can see that down the track it will be something that will be super
16:32good for me to
16:33go through no libby kind of had to babysit me a bit and pick me up and say nelson we'll
16:38go out
16:39everything's going to be all right it's fish cheese just google translated i don't know what that one
16:43means yes head on the bone oh my god breakfast poutine mick talks about this all the time i'm getting
16:50that the breakfast poutine what does it say yeah all right i think i'll just do the scrambled eggs
16:59i can always tell when he has pressure he kind of makes jokes about it not in a bad way
17:05but it just
17:05makes light of the situation that could be taken really difficult oh yeah there you go guys yeah
17:15thank you so much are you enjoy cinder than a yeah oh there we go to you should have an
17:20egg you think
17:20for sure good luck with that i'm gonna destroy this super yummy freaking incredible
17:44okay all the city everything needs to be clean yeah i always take care of my balls
17:53for me when i go on stage the only thing i have in mind said to give the happiness to
18:01people the smile
18:03my name is abubaka traoré i'm from guinea conakry west africa and i do football dance
18:10it's a mix of artistic dance movement with acrobacy
18:19my dream was to be a football professional to be the next ronaldo the next missy
18:26i arrived in france i had a chance to try with the professional team
18:32paris syndrome then uh unfortunately i had a jury uh i spent one month in hospital because i had a
18:44hips injury and then uh my dream was over i couldn't realize it was really the end for me in
18:55football
18:56yeah i was really sad and my feeling was really down and and i told myself i don't want to
19:02play
19:02anymore football and then i had my brother who was doing football freestyle he told me hey
19:11this is another art where you can learn you can progress and i think you can also be happy
19:19i play on the street with a lot of football freestyle
19:29when i arrived in lusia i couldn't speak english at all i could only say hello my name is abu
19:37and i was like oh i need to learn english so i can do things by myself so being a
19:43lusia i really help me
19:45uh to grow as artist and uh to learn this ball is brand new so when we start with this
19:53we need at least
19:54five day projects because it's slippery so it's a good challenge
20:00it's slippery for the premiere everyone at ihq they say abu is struggling with makeup
20:10so we need to go step by step we need to find the proper way of getting him where we
20:16want
20:23this proximity we have with montreal is good because uh that'll help every artist develop what they
20:30are doing i love the challenge and uh today they come to give me some feedbacks
20:38so we just gave you your review of things you need to work on
20:44this is how you apply your makeup right now see the shape of the eyebrows make sure that they're not
20:50descending because otherwise it's going to make you look a little bit sad on stage okay
20:55when i arrive it to be honest i wasn't i expect to do a makeup before performing on stage as
21:01men
21:02we are not used to do a makeup so for for me it was like something strange i thought you
21:08come you do
21:08your eyes and then you go home so eyeshadow should be here okay okay okay but marie's she was important
21:18because when i arrived i didn't know my care was mandatory
21:26i was really afraid to to put the pens on my eyes so it was really difficult and plus to
21:33remember
21:33every step it was hard okay when you draw the black line on your eyes make it a bit more
21:40thick because
21:40when you blend it then it gets it disappear we don't see it as much yes stressful moment for him
21:46to have me
21:47at the back of him always is it my role was really to develop the makeup concept and after to
21:56teach
21:56all of the artists how to execute their own makeup before the show at cirque du soleil the acrobats
22:01artists musician they do their own makeup before each show considering we have around 50 artists per
22:07show it would take a lot of hair and makeup artists to prepare all of them if we would do
22:11it that way
22:12so usually when i do this i use left here and then i use the right hand as well
22:21so both hands can do the makeup on both sides haven't seen that much yeah yeah that's it most of
22:29the artists was coming from the circus school and gymnastic competition so for me was totally different
22:36because freestyle is something coming from the streets you are your own trainer so yeah i was
22:43afraid about the judgment they would say i'm not enough good so they will not keep me
22:52let's try this way right this is it yes yeah it's okay this will blend yeah so and you say
23:00i i do as well
23:01uh down yes is it clear yeah i feel like now he has it nailed down now 10 years later
23:10i'm still here
23:12it takes time of course to trust on yourself and uh having that confidence as well
23:27i think to work in church to soleil and to work in lucia we are constantly working to do best
23:34every night
23:37my name is majo cornejo i'm the singer of the show lucia for me to work in a show that
23:43talks about
23:44my country mexico and my culture makes me take every aspect of this work how do i say very personally
23:52make sure the voices we hear every single words clearly yeah i feel pressure like to have
24:00all the people from creation here and all the artistic team here watching us
24:05you want to come with us welcome the new guys it's been a while simon carpenter is the composer
24:12of the music in lucia he's here yeah just to to check the new music the new musicians so i
24:20just wanted
24:21to say even if we sometimes have some challenges you're still going strong and all the moves and all
24:28that i have lots of notes for the mix in the house though uh we have some issues sometimes with
24:35the
24:35vocals the voice has to be on top of things and then the piano is less present than it used
24:42to be
24:42it might be something a little it's very important but we're gonna work on that so let's do a few
24:49sound
24:58check
25:04it's your tempo or the piano you don't have a click on that right no but it's really like the
25:09acrobats time
25:10so we are following them all the time like if they take more time in the movements we have to
25:16wait for
25:16them you need to meet in the middle yep that's what i mean i always try to follow the acrobats
25:24and
25:24like to feel their energy i understand yeah but i think we should go more with the music than than
25:31them yeah because it gets in your head i think if we are not connected with the acrobats this doesn't
25:39work eventually you're gonna help them to let's go let's move on yeah yeah yeah i try to follow
25:45them but at the same time they don't want us to be too slow so we are trying like to
25:52be there my advice
25:53would be respectfully you don't need to follow them i can feel that i have like two bosses like the
26:02acrobats and also simon can we hear the voice we will see what's gonna happen
26:21i think that now that we are in montreal we all have a lot of notes and a lot of
26:26different points
26:27of view yeah we are all doing our best the biggest challenge for me to be in these moments i
26:37think is
26:38like i'm far from the family all the time and far from mexico i think it's the hardest part to
26:44be part
26:45to be part of blusia
26:48how are you how are you how are you how are you here in montreal in a little park today
26:57i called my dad i was just feeling like lost
27:19my dad and my mom are both musicians so they get it
27:29my dad he's an amazing person he's always like working and fighting for his dreams and also
27:37like for my dreams
27:47to live through the screen because you are not there for the important moments like when my sister got
27:55married i couldn't go when my grandma passed away and i couldn't go i was so mad and disappointed it
28:05was
28:06really sad for me these are the things that sometimes we don't talk about it
28:12yeah bye bye you have to sacrifice a lot of things like to live your dream and to be far
28:21from the
28:23the people that you love it's hard
28:36i think we're all really grateful to have danielle here to hear what the creators have to say and to
28:42make the show better uh we need to go to first position and turning it actually gives me personally
28:51motivation to want to jump higher and to do better and to to perform harder tricks i definitely feel
28:57more a part of the swing team so much more than hoops because that's where my roots are that's why
29:03i
29:03came to lose you to do swing the swing so i'm ready to get back to it turn table's moving
29:16i'll do a single salto so it's like just with one swing and then i flip and then i come
29:20back to the same swing
29:43so now we need to work with her you know to rebuild her trust to do that trick again
29:54in france yeah the last time i tried the gainer trick i went to the hospital but i don't quit
30:00easily we see the signs there of stress because mentally she's not ready
30:07it was very scary but i'm doing it and i do plan to start training it again a bit more
30:13hey no that was
30:17not bad huh and know more about the trick now and i'm i'm better at the trick for the fall
30:22but it will
30:23definitely take some time to gather that courage again she never did this job without launch she's
30:33been training for two years i don't want to jinx it like i did last time but i have another
30:39jump that
30:40i'm kind of working on it's from my seat position and it's the back layout so i've been training this
30:46one for a long time now way longer than the gainer jump and so we switched back all right ready
31:03now repeat
31:10good olivia olivia she bows back so quick so i think in memories of the trauma she had there i
31:17think that
31:18would not affect she's an amazing acrobat but the last one was very good and i still like that in
31:25the
31:25shower after swing training it's like okay yeah i'm ready for this
31:37after meeting with daniele i don't feel like it's a responsibility i feel it's more of a conversation
31:46with my team well daniele asked me to take charge
31:53let's go so today that's what i plan to do
32:01it was a bit but it was a bit too close
32:09so now close your eyes and think the box is still there
32:14it's 45 centimeters that's from here he should catch at least here
32:35chris can we do some
32:37time she had everything but when they caught still struggle to pull it on the handstand and this will
32:43let her put the hip on biceps naomi is very calm chris he likes to talk a lot give a
32:49lot of feedback
32:50i think this is prettier because you make the whole element of the one thing
32:54and in the handstand if i don't feel these arms i cannot help you there is there is a progression
32:59if you get the hands and really solid this will not be a problem
33:03but i'm afraid that if you make the move now you kind of skip a step
33:09i love chris he's got big opinions but today he's just not listening sometimes it's the language
33:17when we're saying something and we're thinking it's clear we end up figuring out that he didn't
33:22understand anything daniele asked me to take charge but clearly some of them don't want to take
33:31direction from me and i'm not sure what to do after practicing the tricks a few times with chris
33:39now i'm feeling a little far from the goal so yeah mixed feelings
33:53we're in montreal all eyes are on us especially from ihq and making sure that the show is in tip
34:00-top
34:00shape and that applies for me as well okay now we need your high last i measured i was 191
34:09and i really held on to it
34:1593 kilos the first time i was measured for cirque de soleil i was 21. right on the arrow this
34:22one big
34:23foot i was super young i was a you know super thin and uh over the last eight years my
34:31body's changed
34:31can give you this to wear beautiful it was blue suits we've had to do another measurement and get
34:37all the costumes changed because i'm not the little kid that i was when i first joined the tour
34:42i'm here perfect blue come in front of the mirror
34:50i think i'm very lucky that my body is the way that it is because it separates me from everyone
34:57else all the other acrobats are of a shorter stature strong bouncy i like to think that my length the
35:05people in the back row really get a good view of the trick
35:20what are you feeling out what are these it's the weight the weight of the artist
35:30yeah
35:35we had to change profile
35:39nelson are you the heaviest tube diver obviously but in the world that was how i was hired
35:45what are we gonna do whatever nothing but it's this number what are we gonna do about that
35:50i'm gonna try you want me to get to the 100 mark i'm gonna lift it up be the only
35:55100 kilo acrobat in
35:57the world i'll do it bring it on i'm scared i'll order mcdonald's tonight
36:05you know circus is a dangerous career so there's different elements that we have to consider
36:10to ensure injury prevention it's more dangerous when i'm casting someone who's not going to fit
36:17the acrobatic profile i'll yell at you and the cameras aren't rolling
36:22i think my biggest takeaway from the note session with danielle would have to be
36:36being very empathetic towards the audience and really taking a lot of care and respecting the
36:42fact that they've paid all that money to come and see you which is something that i think i'll
36:46really put into my performance
36:50i wouldn't say it's a hope it's more the end goal is to just come back as the clown
36:57it's not something that i hope for it's something that i'm going to do
37:01and have a great show tonight everybody nelson is set copy nelson
37:08good job standby play to black and nelson in go
37:19there's no need to project outwards as much as i am they pay to come and see me i don't
37:25have to
37:25make sure that they're watching as i did the show it was okay empathy empathy empathy empathy empathy
37:32and i was like where can i be empathy and uh i picked the audience member and i think they
37:37they had a
37:38sore leg or something and so i was like there's the moment
37:45show the care in that moment
37:57there's an opportunity to take advantage and make your clown a bit better then i absolutely have to
38:02do it
38:07nelson is not afraid about judgment so it's beautiful
38:13to be an understudy your colleagues can always compare you to the one that was there before
38:21i find it is an act of generosity for an acrobat to be an understudy and to save the show
38:38before we jump every show you take time i visualize i breathe i pray i watch myself do it in
38:47my head
38:47before i do it you do it you're not scared i'm prepared for this i train for this
39:05also i think what's really important is the team i really don't think i could have gotten back up
39:11on the swing if i didn't have a team that i felt so safe with
39:17there's so many different parts of olivia and that's what makes her so special
39:21i can see her focus and i can see her confidence when she does her specialty
39:27she sometimes has a moment where she's feeling the nerves and then you know she does it anyway
39:43for me to make up it's different in the beginning it was harder because it took me three hours now
39:51i'm around 30 minutes so it's a lot of progress from the start
40:11abu the energy he brings to football you see the love the passion he has for that you know
40:16and then he shows that on stage and it's beautiful
40:31during the show the musicians have the opportunity to improvise a lot especially like during the
40:38acrobatic moments and i have to make it work for both the acrobats and also simon
40:44but also i have to respect what i have in my mind in my heart what i'm living
40:52this is the first time i hear there was this discussion between the composer and my hope
40:57but for us it's very important that there is no big drastic change into the rhythm of the song
41:04it's very important for the music and the routine to really be in symbiose
41:11we trust my hope my hope will know how to set the pace for the song
41:34the last few shows went great i really feel like i'm finding my rhythm
41:39oh that's cheating restart the game for the first time i didn't feel stressed i didn't feel nervous
41:50it almost feels like it's second nature now i can really enjoy the performance as opposed to
41:55being worried about the performance feels good
42:04i love the attention of course i would never want to steal eric's job from him but i would
42:09be so thankful if he would share the character with me i love a bit of that
42:20three weeks ago i had my appendix removed it was a premiere
42:27and uh i couldn't be there which i didn't like i wrote this track it's mine i know every corner
42:38of it
42:40it's my coat someone else is wearing
42:50the fitness test happens twice a year it is mandatory for the artist it's a way for
42:56sir to make sure that the artists are still able to do what they do if you fail the test
43:02then you
43:02cannot perform alex is very special we don't know how to really test him his body is out of this
43:11planet
43:14so you can't see the floor with zora we are trying to get the strict the split coin you're upside
43:18down
43:18you feel your weight shifted very far forward and you can't see the floor so it is really challenging
43:27now i come back and i show them the best now make us laugh nelson thinks he gets it it's
43:35i think
43:35i think it's more mind games than an actual exercise
43:38so
43:41so
43:42so
43:47so
43:54so
43:55so
43:56so
44:07We'll see you next time.
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