Robert Lepage has built a reputation as one of Canada’s most esteemed theatre artists, and after writing the 2005 Cirque du Soleil production “Kà” its not surprising that he was approached yet again in 2010 to put together the masterpiece that is Totem. Currently touring Australia, TOTEM seems to effortlessly live up to those high expectations Cirque du Soleil has built a reputation on.
Alternating between indigenous stories of creation and modern human achievements, TOTEM succeeds in beautifully exploring the the evolutionary process of species and our instinctual human curiosity to explore and reach new bounds.
Whether it be the the perfectly timed music ensembles, the incredibly intricate costume design or the sheer talent of the cast, Cirque du Soleil’s attention to detail ensures that every fragment of the performance captivates its audience.
After attending one of the Melbourne performances, Caitlyn McMahon had the chance to chat to TOTEM cast member, David Resnick – David joined TOTEM in January 2013 at 24 years old after performing on Cruise Ships and in production shows in Reno, NV and Las Vegas, NV.
He loves being on stage and playing a character to touch the audience. Touring the world with Cirque du Soleil is a dream come true and a learning experience for David who gets to share the stage with world-class performers.
How many years have you been apart of Cirque du Soleil and what is your role?
I’ve been apart of Cirque du Soleil since October, 2012. And my role, I have two different roles. I play the Crystal Man and one of the frog characters of Caropace.
How does performing all around the world in the circus compare to your previous performance experience in Las Vegas and such?
Well all three are very different. When I was living in Las Vegas I obviously had a permanent place that I was staying and living, it was away from the strip. The climate, Vegas is hot and dry and then cold in the winters. And then working on the cruise ships, ship life is definitely something that is much different than reality. I mean not only being on the ship working but doing artistic shows and performing along with learning the maritime duties and everything else that goes along with it. And now with Cirque it’s nice to have a change of scenery. And every city we go to and every place we go to the city’s different, the culture’s different, the people are different, where we stay is different, the site is different. So there’s a lot of change. But thankfully we’re in each city for enough time to call it home.
Oh wonderful! Are you enjoying Australia thus far? Is this your first visit?
Yeah Australia is pretty wicked! It’s not similar to the states, but I’d say it’s the most similar than anywhere else I’ve been. It’s spaced out and nice! And I’ve never been to Australia before.
Oh how exciting then! Somewhere completely new!
How physically demanding is your job? How many hours do you train a day and what does it involve?
The show is two and a half hours and although I’m not on stage two and a half hours typically during the show I do some sort of physio or maintenance for the body just for injury prevention. And before the show, before our act we train for 15-20 minutes. And we also have a space for training for an hour to an hour and a half one to two days a week. Depending on the needs for the group and where we’re trying to go and what part of the city we’re in. If it’s the early end of the tour we might push a little more than we would at the back end of the city cause the body’s more fatigued. So it varies. And also everybody does their own physical conditioning, like everyone has their own personal exercises that they like to do pretty regularly.
As a child did you have any aspirations about becoming a gymnast in such a large, worldwide production?
Um, I grew up in a gym. So I knew I loved gymnastics. And gymnastics is one of those things because you do it year round, so much time and effort goes into it and it becomes a drug. So it’s something that you need, it’s something that if you do it to a high level it’s something that you always want to keep doing. I had my Russian coach when I was a kid, he was in the show Arius, in Reno. And he did flying trapeze and after our practices he would take us backstage, to the show and the training and practices. So I watched that and I would fall into a trapeze net three days a week from pretty high. So that kind of got me and my mind going on what performing is and what it was and when I got to the point in the US where it was either go to college or university for gymnastics, which for men is not super popular and there’s not a lot of money, it’s really expensive to go to university. Because of Title 9, which is a program that took away men’s scholarships in certain programs and gave them to the women’s side of the sports world so that the playing field could be more equal. So that’s the reason I didn’t do it in college. So I just kept developing my skills and slowly weaned my way into performing and I got more and more interested. I went to a Cirque du Soleil audition and I had seen shows and I was really curious. I just finally decided I was going to do it!
I did see the show last week and it is just incredible! You must have worked so hard and yeah, you should be very proud of yourself!
How many countries have you visited and how many shows have you performed? Do you have a favourite?
I’ve preformed in close to 800 shows.. Somewhere, roughly! For me it’s… We’re at 1600 and my first show was 946.
Yeah, that’s a lot!
Yeah! So roughly.. 700.. I don’t know, it’s up there! And in terms of countries I haven’t really been to that many with Cirque because we have been doing the North America tour. So I went to lots of cities in the States I’d never been to and to a couple places in Canada and we went to Auckland, New Zealand and this really for everybody is the real world tour because we have the Pacific and then Japan.
From a performance perspective, how would you describe Totum?
From a performance perspective, well I guess the show means something different for everybody in their own roles because of what they express on stage. But for me it’s, the crystal man character, the mirror man is like kinetic energy and like spark of life and when he comes down and the big bang happens, and lights start flickering and he starts doing acrobatics and gets on the bar and that’s like the spark of life, he gives energy to the amphibians. From there the show goes through a story of evolution and it touches on many additional aspects; native life, what comes from space, what comes from under the earth, like the crystal ladies, the minerals. And there’s a lot of connections between things! Like the crystal man is supposedly a cousin of the crystal ladies. So through out the show things are related; the story of evolution, the story of natural being and things that we face like love, the native culture and the story of what is love and being together.
Cirque du Soleil’s ‘TOTEM’ will be in Melbourne until the end of March before it makes its way to Brisbane in April.
Tickets are available here.
Check out the trailer for Cirque du Soleil’s TOTEM below –
