Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/288963
| SPRING 2014 bcliving.ca entertainment 16 Cirque du Soleil's TOTEM opens May 15th in Vancouver W hile it's hitting the Lower Mainland for the first time, TOTEM premiered in Mon- treal in 2010 – but plan- ning for the show began years before that. Like all new productions, the incubation process starts at the Cirque du Soleil head- quarters in the borough of Saint-Michel in Montreal (one the five most underprivileged areas in Canada). It's a sprawling facility that has three acrobatic training rooms, costume workshops, and houses over 1,500 employees, including artists, scouts, cho- reographers, costume designers and more. Cirque takes great pride in overseeing every aspect of the production and nearly every- thing that you'll see in the show was made in-house, right down to the custom-tailored shoes for each individual performer, made by their resident cobbler. e initial creative team is small, includ- ing a director (Robert Lepage), a director of creation as well as Cirque founders Guy Laliberté and Gilles Ste-Croix. At this early stage, the team will bounce around ideas and themes they'd like to try in the new show. "It's a process of exploration and experi- mentation," says Caitlan Maggs, the artistic coach for TOTEM. "e director and chore- ographer will talk to us about what they see or what they imagine the direction the show will take, and then we try different things. It sort of evolves as it goes along." After much thought, a theme was chosen: the evolution of man. From there, the creative teams are brought in and the vision of the show begins to take shape. The ArTisTs When a new show is created, a collection of performers ("artists" in Cirque speak) has to be assembled. Athletes and circus performers make up the bulk of Cirque's talent pool, so you'll likely see former swim- mers, gymnasts and other ex-sports stars in the various productions. Because shows are 2006 delirium 2003 alegria 2004 quidam 2006 varekei 1986 la magie CONTiNue CirQUe iN VANCOUVer A WAlk through the Ages TOTEM explores the evolution of mankind, from knuckle-dragging to selfies. p14-17_Ent-Cirque.indd 16 2014-03-13 11:03 AM