The Three Auditions: ENC, QUEBEC, and NECCA Pt. 1

Sorry for the distance between this post and my previous post. To make up for it, this post will probably become very long.
I have finally finished my set of auditions for the circus schools I've applied to for next year:

• L'Ecole Nationale de Cirque (National Circus School in Montreal, aka ENC),
• L'Ecole de Cirque du Quebec (Circus School of Quebec, aka ECQ), and
• NECCA's Pro Track (the 2nd year program of the school I'm at now).

I also got the chance to see Cirque Eloize's newest show "iD" in Burlington, as well as the "Cirque De Demain" festival show while I was in Montreal.

To read all about the ENC audition, and the shows:

Last month, on the weekend of Feb 19th, Rachel Schiffer (wire-walker extraordinaire) and I headed up to Burlington to see Cirque Eloize's newest show "iD". This was a stop on the way to Montreal, where I would be auditioning for the National Circus School, and Rachel would be training a new wire act with Allison Alisan Funk. "iD" was a fun show. To put it bluntly, it was circus people and breakdancers thrown onto one stage. I liked the intention of the show, mixing extremely talented circus artists with a more urban medium to try and cultivate a rich infusion, but I felt like the show fell flat in the follow through a little. In my head, having seen the final product, it seemed as if the director paired up each circus performer/act with a breakdancer, and said "ok, go collaborate, and come back in a few days and we'll put it all together." This 'imagined rehearsal process" of mine seemed to work well for some acts, and really fail with some others. There were a couple acts where I was highly impressed at the blending of the two art forms, and there were a bunch of acts I felt that the two performers didn't interact at all, and had no connection to eachother. My favorite act of the night, which I also felt had the most exemplary result of the circus/breakdance collaboration, was the contortion act. Here's a video of the original cast pair performing the act. I was so delighted to see how they played off of eachother's movement, going as far as to modify their own techniques to blend more.

From Burlington, we travelled up to Montreal, where I got to stay with the always lovely Amanda Dunbar (whom I know from working at Smirkus. Amanda was a trapeze coach), and her boyfriend Kalervo (who actually somehow managed to captivate me with ... a VIDEO GAME!)

Before the audition, I had one day of freedom to roam Montreal, so Adam (who's in Intensives with me, and was up in Montreal because his brother Cooper was also auditioning for ENC) and I strolled around Rue Ste. Catherine, and checked out random fun things.

Eventually though, it was time to sleep, for I had a huge day ahead of me in the morning.

So there it was, the day of ENC auditions day 1. I got there with plenty of time to stretch and warm up before any of the audition elements, my body was feeling good, I felt ready for everything (except the dreaded Acrobatic assessment, which I knew my performance would be little better than last year at this time.) Though I am in the acrobatic class at NECCA, I feel like there are way too many people in the class to actually produce any real progress in new acrobatic skills. Anyway, back to ENC. The first assessment of the day was acrobatics, and I did what I know how to do well, but there was a lot that I don't know how to do, and thus had to "pass". I knew I would have to kick some major ass in the strength and flexibility sections of the audition to make up for my lack of acrobatic repertoire. During strength, I knew we were being evaluated on not only the numbers of how many times you can do something but the quality of how you do it (body control). I set out to do respectable numbers but to never compromise form. I was very happy with the outcome of my strength portion of the audition. Next was flexibility. I was feeling flexible that day (I have great days and not so great days when I feel like I have to push through a barrier to get all the way into my stretches. Luckily, this day was a flexible day! My right split wasn't all the way down, but all my other flexibility skills were at their max, and it felt good. After the flexibility, there was a lot more waiting before we were evaluated on a little bit of acting and dance. The acting portion was a very vague improv exercise. We were assembled into a long line. In no order, they would call our name and a character, and we would have to step forward and introduce/be that character for a while until they were satisfied. It's very awkward because there isn't a goal. You have to create your own situation. I was given "vampire" and I ended up swooping in, telling one of the judges that she looked very...tasty, and inviting her for dinner. I knew that they weren't exactly looking for the next dramatic legend, but the ability to take risks and make a fool of yourself, and own a decision.
Anyway, next was dance. We were given three sequences that would take us in a diagonal path across the room. Then in a line, we one after another followed that diagonal path in front of the judges to a cool drummer's beat. I have NO classical dance training, but I didn't f- up, so I was ok with that. I'm sure I could always have danced it better, but oh well.
After that, we were led back to the cafeteria, where we would wait for the judges to deliberate on who they would be cutting that day. After an hour and a half ish long wait, we all rushed up to a tv monitor with the numbers of who would stay on it. My number wasn't there, and I was ok with that. I knew I did the best I could, and that isn't good enough for ENC, and I'm very ok with that. It would be an honor to go to that school, but it also isn't my first choice for artistic reasons. So for the rest of the week, I got to hang out with Adam, my friend Amanda and her boyfriend Kalervo. It was fun, randomly wandering around Montreal with no real set plan. I was excited by Friday, because that night, Amanda, her friends, and I were all going to see the "Cirque De Demain" Festival show at La Tohu (if you are seeing ANY circus show in Montreal, it's at the LA TOHU theater, it's RIGHT next to Cirque Du Soleil, and ENC, and it's like the MECCA of circus around here). Cirque De Demain is an annual circus festival/competition, and each year, after the competition, they create a "best of" show and tour it to a few different locations. I was really excited to see the show, it was so full of talent, and passion, and wonderfully exciting, and sometimes dangerous displays of skill. My favorite act was this guy from Barcelona named Kerol. Picture a slightly punk rock esque kilt wearing man with converse, and button down shirt, and a baseball hat on. Now, add to this that he's a BADASS club juggler. Now, to top it all off, he's an amazing beatboxer who self-accompanies his juggling performance with precision timing that can't be synced unless you are producing the sounds yourself. Also, did I mention, his piece was called "Welcome to my Head", and it was definately a tour into the delightfully psychotic. He would take random moments to screach, mime unzipping his skull and opening it up to reveal a dragon, flash his pink polka dotted underwear from under his kilt...etc. It was so mesmerizing to watch someone taking their odd nature, and amping it up to 1000 and then balancing it out with an elegently skillfull juggling number. It was so good.

The next day, my last full day in Montreal, I spent hanging out with a bunch of NECCA folk who travelled up for just that weekend to see the Cirque De Demain show. Aimee Hancock, one of our coaches was up to see the show as well, and it was her birthday, so we all went out for a celebratory lunch and I met swinging trapeze artist and friend of Aimee's Rachel Walker. Rachel and I got roped into seeing the Cirque de Demain show again that night, because all the other NECCA folk were seeing it Saturday. Rachel could score us 10$ tickets, so I went again. It was awesome to see the show again, and I ended up getting to meet lots of the performers after the show, including KEROL the psychotic Barcelonian juggler. My Montreal trip ended with a nice bang.

The next morning, Aimee, Christina, Anthony, and I piled into Christina's car, and headed back to Brattleboro.
What a week!
Some pics below:

View from the top of Mont-Royal a nicely hike-able mountain right near McGill

Inside the very beautiful building found near the top of Mont-Royal. It looked like an amazing place to stage some performance, and there was stage lighting... :)

While I was with my friend Amanda, she took me to the school where she teaches, Ecole de Cirque Verdun.
I got to help out and teach some rope while I was there :)

Emily showed us this thrift store that had a ROOM, filled from the floor to about 6 feet up of clothes, and whatever you find in there is $1. It was awesome. I got some random costume things for me, and a purse for Shannon.

Cirque De Demain Festival Show curtain call :)