Sculptor captures acrobats in precise detail

By Mytae Carrasco

Friday, May 29, 2009 | 3:43 p.m.

Sculptor Richard MacDonald relies on his photographic memory to capture acrobats in motion before freezing them forever in bronze. His gallery is in the “O” Theatre lobby at the Bellagio.

Unlike most artists, he says, he doesn’t need a camera to document their body mechanics. He imprints their physique, facial expressions and passion in his mind before he goes to work capturing the essence of Cirque du Soleil performers’ physical abilities in figurative sculptures.

MacDonald has recently added three new sculptures to the more than 50 figurines in bronze that dot the gallery and is available in the gallery Friday and Saturday to meet the public.

“When I’m watching (the performers), I can see mechanically how their body is put together,” MacDonald said. “I know all of the musculature; I know the anatomy as good as most doctors.”

“O” dancer Stephen Reynolds said he wasn’t sure what to expect when he posed for MacDonald.

“He is very up close. He rotates, looks at you … sculpts and shapes and looks … You kind of feel like a crazy bizarre thing for a minute,” Reynolds said. “It’s nothing negative or bad, it’s just so intense it makes you think, ‘Well, I don’t know if I can continue to hold this particular pose.’

“He is so close to you that you feel any small thing you do would affect what he is doing.”

Posing for MacDonald was an eye-opening experience for Anya Wyttenbach, one of the show's aerialists.

“In the beginning it was interesting because I had no experience. I’ve never sat for anybody before. At the same time it was a mini-creation,” she said.

MacDonald said he picks his “muses” according to how he needs to be inspired.

“I say to them that the premise by which we are going to operate is that you are an incredibly talented individual but I don’t want to see anything that you’ve done before,” he said, chuckling.

Reynolds said the experience of sitting for a sculpture with MacDonald is intense.

“His energy, thirst and strong will feeds yours so the two of you battle and try to create this beautiful artwork. All of this is unspoken within each other, it’s just an energy that is connected within the room,” Reynolds said.

When the performers enter his studio, MacDonald gets to see them in a different light. Each sitting lasts about two hours. Depending on the pose and the strength of the performer, some poses cannot be held for longer than five or 10 seconds, MacDonald said.

“Once we found the position we were going to do, it was just basically working on that,” Wyttenbach said. “He uses extreme detail, so it’s just many hours of him observing your body and observing how you move and how the position is exactly, and it is very precise. I was surprised how precise he works off the physicality of your muscle and body.”

Although some of the sculpting is done while the performer is in the studio, some of it MacDonald bases off his memory. His own senses of rhythm, balance and dance come into play while he’s working, he said.

“Fifty percent of the piece is done while the performer is away the other 50 percent is done in a snap, snap, snap,” MacDonald said.

MacDonald says he’s seen “O” 14 times.

“I’ve been up in the grid, down in the pool, and all around,” he said. “I’ve seen if from a lot of different perspectives.”

Those perspectives have allowed MacDonald to find inspiration without the glare of the spotlight, letting him see the artists’ “human” form, he says.

“As dancers we have this mentality to want to ‘live forever.’ For us, it’s the impiety of living forever -- someone captures you in one of your most prized positions. It’s me until the dawn of time,” said Reynolds on “Bullwhip,” the sculpture he posed for.

No performer makes that pose during the show.

In addition to placing sculptures in the gallery, the performer who posed also receives a copy.

MacDonald is in the “O” Theatre gallery Friday and Saturday from noon to 5 p.m.

http://www.bellagio.com/amenities/richard-MacDonald.aspx