Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Cirque du Soleil:

The long road to the Cirque stage

Performers follow lengthy process before stepping in front of an audience

Costumed Cirque du Soleil performers dance, twirl, flip and flex on stage, evoking a range of emotions and reactions from those watching in the crowd.

Those onlookers don’t always realize the lengths performers go to in landing on that stage.

The head of casting for Cirque’s American shows, Krista Monson, said some prospective gymnasts, acrobats and dancers literally have to jump through hoops to successfully audition for the troupe.

She said some have danced with snakes and baked cakes to woo the Cirque casting team.

“We had a dance audition last year and ... there was a woman who came in with a large basket,” Monson said. “She danced a very exotic dance and took out an 8-foot boa constrictor. The artistic director behind my chair (was) quivering.

“There’s been a lot of people that have kicked a lot of holes in the walls -- not from frustrated moments but because of beautiful, artistic moments,” she said.

Monson said she has seen some notable auditions while traveling the world in search of the next wave of Cirque performers.

“The most memorable ones are usually the ones where people are doing things outside of their comfort zones,” she said. “I’m always inspired, every day, by what I see.

“This one clown came in (to audition) with a huge cake and with this huge photo of him and his phone number painted in frosting across of it,” she said.

Cirque du Soleil held its first open casting call in Las Vegas in September. Dana Brass, Cirque’s Vegas-based resident shows casting adviser, said Cirque had the Vegas casting call because of the city’s unique position, rife with talent.

“We know that there’s a lot of talent in Vegas ... and we know that there’s a lot of talent going through Vegas,” she said.

And while she said the cake-baking clown did make the cut, it takes more than creativity and cake-baking skills to impress the casting specialists.

“Internally, you have to really be alive,” Monson said, and it takes a “high degree of both artistic and athletic excellence in order to work with us.”

She said she and her colleagues are constantly on the lookout for “artists or acrobats from all over the world that have an open mind that want to grow and develop.”

“It could be someone who just finished their career in the Olympics, so they’re a hardcore acrobat … and they’re looking for the next step in their careers,” she said.

The transition isn’t always easy for many athletes who have dedicated years to training and competing in their sport.

“When you’ve trained so hard in something for your whole life, it’s hard … to dance around in a silly suit in front of thousands of people,” Monson said.

“When you’re taking someone out of sport, somehow there has to be a process where you make that athlete into an artist,” she said.

Monson and Brass focus on filling roles for the established Vegas shows –"KÀ", "Zumanity," "O," "Mystère," "Love," and “Criss Angel Believe” – and La Nouba, which is the permanent Walt Disney World show in Orlando.

Though the newest addition to Cirque’s Vegas family, “Believe,” was cast out of Montreal, Monson said she and Brass already are looking for new talent to incorporate into the show – “youthful, high-energy and athletic” dancers, especially.

“The dancers (have to be) versatile, very, very strong technically in contemporary and ballet technique, plus strong in hip-hop and popping,” she said, explaining that “popping” is a form of street dance.

While no new roles are being developed for “Believe” – or any of the other Vegas-based shows – Monson said vacancies come up and injuries do happen.

Most Cirque shows have few spoken lines, meaning the vast majority of performers are required to express their character’s mood and emotion physically.

Cirque du Soleil’s traditional casting process is long and difficult. There are no walk-ons and few initial applicants are offered roles.

The first step is to submit a video demo reel for review. “We’ll look at their strength, flexibility and acrobatic moves,” Brass said.

From there, scouts invite those who show potential – about one out of every 20 – to an audition. But being asked to audition is hardly a guarantee that there will be a job offer at the end of the day.

“At least half of them are cut at the audition,” Brass said.

“The sad part of it is you see so much great potential, but it doesn’t mean those people are really ready to work with us yet,” Monson added.

Profiles of qualified applicants are created and put into a talent bank of nearly 38,000 qualified and short-listed performers.

The talented few who are selected for placement are sent for training at Cirque headquarters in Montreal.

“We have something called the general training program and that takes place in Montreal every year,” Brass said. “The intention is to have people trained on standby in case there’s a need in a particular show.”

The training can take anywhere from three to five months, while role-specific training for some positions, including acrobats for “Ka” and “Love,” take two months.

Once training is completed north of the border, casted performers join their shows for a month of on-site training before taking the stage in front of an audience.

Cirque directors from all over the world – Cirque has dozens of different shows across the globe – utilize the database as spots open up in their cast.

“They come to us and say ‘I need an artist, this is what I need,’ and we can look at our prospects,” Brass said. From there, “it’s in the director’s hands.”

Cast members complete 12 to 15 hours of training each week outside of their nightly performance schedule, which is 6 p.m. until midnight.

Though no additional open call auditions are scheduled for Las Vegas, interested acrobats, dancers, gymnasts, clowns and other performers are encouraged to watch the Cirque du Soleil casting Web site for future opportunities, and send in that demo reel when it’s ready.

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy