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Today we’re working with cheerleading. This is not a discipline we have here at Cirque du Soleil.
Typically we have the sourcing level where we go out and we’re actively seeking new talent
not necessarily for a specific role, but for the anticipated means of all our shows.
We’ve been watching the development of this discipline for a number of years now.
It’s incredibly popular in the United States
and we’ve always been particularly interested in the fact that there is a huge difference
in body shape between the bases and the flyers as well as their highly distinctive repertoire.
It’s very much research and development to see where we can take this, what we can create.
The performers are very, very energetic and passionate.
Acro sports, it’s a connection of the two, three or even four gymnasts, athletes with dynamic moves.
Cheerleading is more that explosive fast, showing maybe the most difficult thing you can do.
It’s really rigid, really robotic.
And now we try to do the same skills but with a little dancing art and more feelings.
What I want to actually throw you as a challenge is to use the space more, right?
So it’s not only vertical, but it’s also lateral.
What I noticed in competition is that they don’t dance at all. In fact, there is no choreography.
Here you connect elements and dancing and choreography altogether.
The sequence we’re working on right now, I really wanted to bring out the fluidity of movement,
as well as how movements or sequences can be connected and there is no comparison.
There’s a range of motion and a range of skills that is just enough different from some
of the other acrobatic disciplines and all of that was really peaking our interest.
What we’re doing now is just letting them explore as much as possible
and being able to pull and cull from their vocabulary something that we think could translate to the stage.
This really interesting because we never have been able to hire people from cheerleading
and this is first experience for us. The first experience for, I think, everywhere.
It’s very much what we hoped it would be, that they are able to work together,
work outside of their typical stunt duos.
We wanted to see that they would be able to crack open a little bit their shell
and break free from some of the traditional cheer training that’s sometimes a question of form,
sometimes a little bit of question of technique. And certainly, on the level of artistry,
how can we encourage them to continue to explore that artistic layer that will make it special.