Touring Cirque du Soleil headquarters is the circus equivalent of Charlie visiting the Chocolate Factory:
The building is filled with wonderful toys, objects, and artists whose characteristics stretch the imagination. A couple weeks ago, David Simard from Cirque du Monde, gave attendees of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education conference an extremely informative tour. This was my second visit to the heart of the so-called Cité des arts du cirque. For a virtual version of the general tour, see this post on The Roarbots blog. Here, I will simply share three fun facts from our visit. Our group came across the talented Anna Ostapenko training for a hand-balancing number in Varekai. After this, we were lucky enough to see some of the Toruk team working hard to prepare for the show’s debut. Finally, we went to the very top floor of the building. I have wondered about this mysterious room and its high ceilings during many of my trips to the National Circus School and the Tohu. I’ll leave what it’s used for a mystery. I will, however, share with you this photo of my favorite item inside.