PRESS KIT
SHOW OVERVIEW
Written and Directed by Robert Lepage
TOTEM traces the fascinating journey of the human species from its original amphibian state to its ultimate desire to fly. The
characters evolve on a stage evoking a giant turtle, the symbol of origin for many ancient civilizations.
Inspired by many founding myths, TOTEM illustrates, through a visual and acrobatic language, the evolutionary progress of species.
Somewhere between science and legend TOTEM explores the ties that bind Man to other species, his dreams and his infinite potential.
Show Name
The word “totem” contains the idea of the order of species. We carry in our bodies the potential of all species, all the way to our
desire to fly - like the thunderbird at the top of the totem pole.
THE ACTS
(IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
Bars (Carapace)
A giant turtle at centre stage represents the
origins of life on Earth. The creature’s shell
is whisked away to reveal an effervescent
community of amphibians and fish that lives
beneath its carapace. They burst into a playful
parallel bars number, with artists embodying
frogs launching themselves into the air from a
power track and leaping from one bar to the next,
criss-crossing in mid-air with inches to spare.
Devil Sticks
The Tracker appears as a virile toreador
spinning his devil sticks to a sizzling
flamenco-inspired beat.
Antipodism (Crystal Ladies)
Hoops Dancer
Two Crystal Ladies emerge from the fiery bowels
of the earth to evoke the creation of the world
and the beauty of minerals. Wearing sparkling
costumes that mirror the Crystal Man, the artists
spin squares of glittering material on their
hands and feet before coming together to create
a dazzling display of coordinated highspeed
motion.
(Part 1) An Amerindian artist performs a
narrative dance, using hoops to create static and
dynamic shapes to evoke various animals and
images in a ritual that symbolizes the endless
circle of life.
(Part 2) Surrounded by members of numerous
tribes, the dancer returns to create new figures
with his hoops, finishing with a globe that he
raises high above his head.
Fixed Trapeze Duo
Like two lovebirds, a young man and woman
tease, play and sulk in an innocent game of
seduction and eventually intertwine their bodies
in a light-hearted vertical dance of fresh,
unusual movements and lifts.
Manipulation
The Scientist represents reason and the
quest to understand the universe in ways
that can be quantified, measured and put
into boxes. His “laboratory” features an
orchestra of glass containers filled with
mysterious fluorescent fluids as he steps
into a transparent cone and juggles with
luminous balls that might represent planets
or molecules—or both—making them chase
after each other in spiral orbits.
Perches
Rings Trio
Roller Skates
Ten businessmen trying to reach the highest peaks
execute a number that requires extreme strength
and flawless teamwork. The porters on the ground
hold long metal perches while the agile acrobats
climb almost to the cupola of the big top.
Bollywood-inspired music accompanies two
men as they compete against each other on the
rings—until a woman arrives and shows them
how it’s done. Their graceful movements, sheer
physical strength and superb physiques take to
the skies above a summer beach.
In a scene that evokes a wedding ceremony, a
pair of roller skaters spins and whirls at heartstopping speeds atop a tiny platform—just
1.8 metres in diameter—shaped like a drum.
Russian Bars
Unicycles and Bowls
Wearing colourful costumes inspired in part by
the lost civilizations of South America, ten artists
perform feats of strength, balance and acrobatic
movements. The jumpers are launched into
the air and fly weightlessly across the sky like
cosmonauts, leaping from one bar to the next
with astonishing agility in a thrilling evocation of
the human desire to escape the Earth’s gravity.
The abundance of fall is represented by the
harvest colours and details of the costumes
as five unicyclists juggle metal bowls in
an astounding display of agility, balance,
synchronized control and physical grace, tossing
the bowls with their feet—sometimes over their
shoulders—and catching them on their heads
without using their hands.
THE MAIN CHARACTERS
The Tracker
Environmentally conscious, a friend of the
animals, he guides and assists the Scientist in
his explorations. Angered by the thoughtless,
polluting actions of a clown, he transforms
before our eyes into a Toreador.
The Amerindian Dancer
The young Amerindian dancer takes us into
a magical world, tracing the history of the
evolution of species with his rings.
The Scientist
A Darwinesque explorer who visits the different
worlds of the show. In his advanced laboratory,
aided by his assistants and a monkey, he dazzles
us with his amazing physics experiments.
Crystal Man
He comes from space to spark life on Earth. Early
in the show, we see him animate the turtle’s
skeleton and at the end he closes the show by
diving into a lagoon.
COSTUMES
Kym Barrett’s initial approach to the TOTEM costume designs was
rooted in documentary-based reality. This process entailed research
into real animals, plants and birds as well as traditional cultural
and tribal designs to source her fanciful, inventive concoctions.
Kym’s other major preoccupation was the show’s theme of evolution,
which led her to emphasize the importance of the human body at
every opportunity. She points to the example of a forest populated
by butterflies and frogs, saying it was important to her to show the
human body as part of the overall visual mosaic of the scene.
The third show theme reflected in the costumes is the cycle of the
seasons, which underscores the importance of nature to the show.
Neon-bright colours, vivid, shiny fabrics and playful details lend
a summer atmosphere to the Bollywood-inspired beach scene. To
suggest a time of harvest and the abundance of fall, the unicyclists’
costumes feature seed pods, flowers, trees and leaves. And the two
roller-skaters are dressed in white and silver to help create a winter
tableau.
To recreate such a broad range of textures, colours and markings
found in nature, Kym concentrated on the treatment of fabrics rather
than on the fabrics themselves: Advanced printing techniques,
fluorescent pigments, mirror fragments and crystals allowed her
to ”paint” on canvases as varied as Lycra and leather, with results
that constantly interact with and adapt to the show’s ever-changing
lighting.
Costume Closeups
• The Crystal Man—a recurring character in the show—
represents the life force. His (literally) dazzling costume is
entirely covered of small mirrors and crystals creating a ball
of energy when he comes down from the sky in a beam of pure
white light. The glittering mobile mosaic is made up of about
4,500 reflective components on a stretch velvet leotard.
• The Hoop Dancer’s costume is inspired by the traditional
ceremonial clothing of a number of North American Indian
tribes, rather than an accurate portrayal of any one culture. It
includes a Hopi cross and a headdress, and features extensive
use of leather.
• In the opening scene of the show the marsh is populated by fish
and frogs. Their patterns and colours came from real fish and
frogs – including the most poisonous frog in the Amazon jungle
– and are replicated by the pixelation of the image in the screen
printing process. The textures of the fabrics are also a close
match to the skin of fish and frogs found in nature. The end
result resembles a community of human amphibians.
• Each unicyclist has her own look, but together they form an
integrated unit. The base costumes are printed in earth tones,
with small details sewn onto them – including bolts and screws
as well as feathers and insects. The line of the costumes and
the stylized tutus create flirty ballerina silhouettes.
• The costumes worn by the foot-juggling duo are based on Lycra
body stockings. Each is adorned with 3,500 crystals and the two
headdresses are each encrusted with a further 1,000.
• The Businessman character looks like he’s wearing an off-therack black suit, but when he’s pursued and tackled by a gang of
monkeys it has to break away at various points on his body when
they tear it off him. The monkeys are each wearing a customwoven fur to reflect their individual personalities.
• The Cosmonauts are wearing two costumes in one: When they
first appear (under black light), their body-hugging Lycra suits
glow dramatically in the dark, but as soon as the stage lights
kick in, their look is completely transformed. Some of the printed
motifs recall Mayan drawings, and each artist is wearing an
individual variation on the theme.
Costumes Facts
• There are 779 pieces of costumes in the TOTEM wardrobe
(including shoes, headpieces, accessories, etc.)
• The heaviest costume is Crystal Man and it weighs 8 pounds!
There are 4,001 pieces of mirrors just for his unitard.
• A team of 6 people clean, iron, repaint the shoes and maintain
the costumes in the wardrobe department.
• The artists apply their own make-up, which can take between
30 minutes to an hour and a half. Except for the frogs, as part
of their make-up is air brush!
• The use of electronics is present in the design of TOTEM’s
accessories (i.e. the tracker’s hat, the cosmonaut helmets, etc.).
SET DESIGN AND PROJECTIONS
The Turtle - Support of the World
Set and Projection Closeups
At the heart of many founding myths that live on in a variety of
legends and oral traditions, the turtle represents the earth and
carries the entire weight of the world on its shell. This totemic
animal is also omnipresent in the scenic environment of TOTEM.
• The border of the stage recalls the plastron (underside) of a turtle.
The motifs on the surface of the stage itself are a collage of handdrawn images inspired by the patterns on the plastrons of several
turtle species.
The large oval framework on stage represents the skeletal
substructure of a huge turtle shell that serves both as a
decorative set element and as acrobatic equipment. At the start of
the show it is covered with a cloth printed with the shell markings
of a forest turtle, reproduced through macro photography.
Depending on the artistic needs, the skeleton is raised to the top
of the tent or opened at an angle like an enormous shell.
• Bordering the marsh upstage, the reeds conceal the artists and
some set elements before they enter, as well as serving as a
projection surface. To save weight and facilitate storage on tour, the
reeds are inflatable.
An organic world of multiple transformations
• Some of the projections on the marsh interact with the movements
of the artists in real time. Infrared cameras positioned above the
stage and around the marsh detect their movement and produce
kinetic effects such as ripples, splashes and reflections in the water
and the flames.
The visual environment of TOTEM is an organic world, a marsh lined
with reeds near an island (the stage), on which images are projected.
Set designer Carl Fillion gave it curves and non-linear forms to reflect
the natural world.
Tilted slightly forward, the image marsh acts both as a stage entrance
and as a projection surface. Through the magic of moving images it
becomes a virtual swamp, a river source, a marsh, a lake, an ocean, a
volcanic island, a pond and a starry sky.
The images in the projections are drawn from nature and were shot for
the production in various parts of the world, including Iceland, Hawaii
and Guatemala. Even the images of boiling lava were filmed by Image
Content Designer Pedro Pires.
The “Scorpion Bridge” serving as a mobile platform connects the
marsh to the scene features variable geometry, allowing it to adapt to
each tableau. In one of the clown numbers, for example, it becomes
the prow of a boat then rises to become a plane in flight, and finally a
rocket taking off. In another scene, the bridge is configured to look like a
vertical totem pole.
The concept of the Scorpion Bridge was loosely based on a retractable
pedestrian bridge in London. Built of steel and weighing 10,000 lbs, its
8 powerful mineral oil hydraulic motors allow it to rise, descend, extend,
retract and curl in on itself like a scorpion’s tail. Its reflective surfaces,
which shine like mirrors, are made of stainless steel plates. The base of
the bridge houses lighting equipment, a laser, speakers and cameras.
During the show, the bridge is monitored by an operator using four
infrared cameras.
• During the rings trio number, the Scorpion Bridge turns into an
Indian carpet that unrolls on the beach in a reference to the
Bollywood aesthetic that inspired the overall look of this scene.
• Photographs taken by Guy Laliberté during his 2009 Poetic Social
Mission aboard the International Space Station are integrated in the
show.
Acrobatic Equipment
• The turtle skeleton weighs 2,700 pounds (1,225 kg), includes
2 horizontal bars and is completely covered in a non-slip finish.
• The unicycles are 7 feet (2 m) tall but very light, which makes them
easier to manoeuvre down the ramp at the beginning of the act.
• The perch poles are made of duralumin, an alloy used in
aeronautics. The tallest pole is about 33 feet (10 m) high.
CREATORS’ BIOGRAPHIES
Guy Laliberté was born in Québec City in 1959. An accordionist, stilt-walker and fire-eater, he founded
Quebec’s first internationally renowned circus with the support of a small group of accomplices. A
bold visionary Guy Laliberté recognized and cultivated the talents of the street performers from the
Fête foraine de Baie-Saint-Paul and created Cirque du Soleil in 1984.
Guy Laliberté was the first to orchestrate the marriage of cultures and artistic and acrobatic
disciplines that is the hallmark of Cirque du Soleil. Since 1984, he has guided the creative team
through the creation of every show and contributed to elevating the circus arts to the level of the great
artistic disciplines.
guy lalibertÉ | Guide and Founder
Cirque du Soleil has become an international organization, as much in terms of its makeup as in the
scope of its activities and influence. Guy Laliberté now heads an organization with activities on five
continents.
“Cirque du Soleil began with a very simple dream. A
group of young entertainers got together to amuse
audiences, see the world, and have fun doing it.”
In October 2007, Guy Laliberté entered into a second lifetime commitment by creating ONE DROP
which fights poverty around the world by providing sustainable access to safe water. This new dream
stems from the knowledge that the right to water is key to the survival of individuals and communities
all over the world and from the values which have been at the heart of Cirque du Soleil since its
inception: the belief that life gives back what you have given and even the smallest gesture will make
a difference.
Université Laval (Québec) awarded an honorary doctorate to Guy Laliberté in 2008. The year before,
Guy Laliberté took the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for all three levels: Quebec,
Canada and international. In 2004, he received the Order of Canada, the highest distinction in the
country, from the Governor General of Canada. The same year, he was recognized by Time Magazine as
one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2003, he was honoured by the Condé Nast group
as part of the Never Follow Program, a tribute to creators and innovators. In 2001, he was named a
Great Montrealer by the Académie des Grands Montréalais. In 1997, Guy Laliberté received the Ordre
National du Québec, the highest distinction awarded by the Government of Quebec.
The multidisciplinary artist Robert Lepage is equally talented as a theatre director, playwright, actor and
film director. Lauded by critics the world over, his modern and unusual work transcends all boundaries
between disciplines.
In 1975, Lepage entered the Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Québec and, following a study period in
France, he took part in several productions in which he combined the roles of actor, writer and director.
In 1985, he created The Dragons’ Trilogy, a show that earned him international recognition. He followed
this with Vinci (1986), Polygraph (1987), Tectonic Plates (1988) and Needles and Opium (1991). With A
Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1992, he became the first North American to direct a Shakespeare play at
the Royal National Theatre in London.
ROBERT LEPAGE | Writer and Director
From 1989 to 1993, Lepage was Artistic Director of the Théâtre français at the National Arts Centre in
Ottawa. In 1994, he founded his own company Ex Machina and directed The Seven Streams of the River
Ota (1994), Le Songe d’une nuit d’été (1995) and a solo production, Elsinore (1995).
“What is it about the circus that so captivates us?
It’s a discipline in which the performers must always
go beyond. We witness the transfiguration of the
human being. In the short time they are in the air, or
performing acrobatic feats, circus artists become
more than men and women—they are demigods,
and we are transported into a world of mythology.”
Also in 1994, Robert Lepage made his début in the world of cinema. He wrote and directed his first
feature film, Le Confessional, which was screened the following year at the Cannes Festival Directors’
Fortnight. He went on to direct Polygraph in 1996, Nô in 1997, Possible Worlds in 2000 (his first feature
film written in English) and finally, in 2003, a film adaptation of his play The Far Side of the Moon.
La Caserne, a multidisciplinary production centre in Quebec City, opened in 1997 under Robert Lepage’s
leadership. There, he created and produced Geometry of Miracles (1998), Zulu Time (1999), The Far Side
of The Moon (2000), a new version of The Dragons’ Trilogy with a new cast (2003) and The Busker’s Opera
(2004). This was followed by The Andersen Project (2005), Lipsynch (2007), The Blue Dragon (2008) and
Eonnagata (2009).
Lepage made a grand entrance in the opera world when he staged the successful double bill of
Bluebeard’s Castle and Erwartung (1993). He followed this with La Damnation de Faust presented for
the first time in the Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto, Japan (1999), 1984 in London (2005), The Rake’s
Progress in Brussels (2007) and The Nightingale and Other Short Fables in Toronto (2009).
Robert Lepage created and directed Peter Gabriel’s Secret World Tour (1993) and his Growing Up Tour
(2002). As part of the festivities surrounding the 400th anniversary of Quebec City in 2008, he created
Le Moulin à imagesTM—the largest architectural projection ever produced—on the walls of the Bunge, a
massive grain silo. In 2009 he and his Ex Machina team created Aurora Borealis, a permanent light show
for the structure, inspired by the colours of the northern lights.
Winner of many prestigious awards, in 2009 Lepage received the Governor General’s Performing Arts
Award for his outstanding contribution to Canada’s cultural life throughout his career.
TOTEM is Robert Lepage’s second Cirque du Soleil show following KÀ (2004). “Inspired by the foundation
narratives of the first peoples, TOTEM explores the birth and evolution of the world, the relentless
curiosity of human beings and their constant desire to excel,” he says. “The word TOTEM suggests that
human beings carry in their bodies the full potential of all living species, even the Thunderbird’s desire to
fly to the top of the TOTEM.”
GILLES STE-CROIX | Artistic guide
When Gilles Ste-Croix first told his parents he wanted to go into show business they said “Anything but
that!” Ste-Croix grew up in rural Quebec, but he was determined not to stay there. He became a hippie
and a nomad, living in communes and making the obligatory ‘60s pilgrimage to the West Coast where he
lived in communes and audited some drama classes.
Ste-Croix did try to conform, even working in an architect’s office for a while, but he knew in his heart that
he wasn’t cut out for a conventional business career. At the same time, his search for a vocation was not
in any way aimless or vague. He says that from his teens he always had a strong drive to succeed and an
equally strong desire to entertain. However, his entrée into show business came about in a most unusual
and unpredictable way.
In the late 1970s, Gilles Ste-Croix was living in a commune in Victoriaville, Quebec, picking apples to
make money. One day he mused that the job would be a whole lot easier if he could attach the ladder to
his legs - and devised his first set of stilts.
A friend happened to mention the Bread and Puppet Theater in nearby Vermont, which used stilt-walking
as the basis of many of its performances. Ste-Croix went to see the company and realized that his applepicking skills might actually be in demand in the wider world of entertainment.
In 1980, Gilles Ste-Croix and a band of street artists founded the Échassiers de Baie-Saint-Paul and
organized a street performance festival called the Fête foraine de Baie-Saint-Paul, which would eventually
lead to the founding of Cirque du Soleil with Guy Laliberté in 1984.
In 1984 and 1985, Gilles Ste-Croix designed and performed many stilt acts for Cirque du Soleil. In 1988,
he became Cirque’s Artistic Director, as well as coordinating a talent search that extended to the four
corners of the globe. He was Director of Creation for all of Cirque du Soleil’s productions from 1990 to
2000: Nouvelle Expérience, Saltimbanco, Alegría, Mystère, Quidam, La Nouba, “O” and Dralion. In 1992,
he directed Fascination, the first Cirque du Soleil show presented in arenas in Japan. He also directed the
groundbreaking 1997 dinner/cabaret show Pomp Duck and Circumstance in Germany.
In 2000, while continuing to act as a consultant for Cirque du Soleil, Gilles Ste-Croix decided to realize
one of his greatest dreams: Driven by his passionate interest in horses, he founded his own company to
produce the 2003 show Cheval-Théâtre, which featured 30 horses and as many artist-acrobats under
canvas and toured ten cities in North America.
NEILSON VIGNOLA | Director
of Creation
In December 2002, Gilles St-Croix returned to Cirque du Soleil as Vice-President of Creation, New Project
Development. In July 2006, he was nominated Senior Vice-President of Creative Content and New Project
Development. Gilles currently focuses on his role as Creative Guide, alongside Guy Laliberté.
“At Cirque, the director of creation seeks to maintain and protect the creative spirit. The degree of
freedom Cirque offers creators is enormous and my
role is to encourage them to stretch their limits.”
Neilson Vignola graduated from the National Theatre School of Canada in 1980. He began his professional
career working in various capacities at many leading Quebec theatre companies, including the Théâtre du
Nouveau Monde and the Compagnie Jean Duceppe.
It was with a 1981 production of The Tales of Hoffman that Neilson took his first steps into the world of opera as
a stage manager. He received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ministry of Arts and Culture
of Quebec and left for Europe in 1985, where he spent a year observing the work of several opera directors.
In 1986, he assisted the director Richard Dembo on another production of The Tales of Hoffman, and Robert
Altman on his production of The Rake’s Progress. In 1989, he worked on a production of Aida staged in Tokyo
and Toronto. From 1990 to 1993, he was director of production at the Opéra de Montréal. In 1996, he worked on
a production of Turandot mounted at the Montreal Olympic Stadium and in 1997, he directed La Cenerentola at
McGill University.
His longtime collaboration with TOTEM‘s director Robert Lepage, working as his assistant, began with a
production of The Damnation of Faust, which was staged in Japan (1999), Paris (2001) and New York (2008).
This was followed by a production of 1984 (the world premiere of which was mounted in London in 2005) and
The Rake’s Progress, which played in Brussels and Lyon in 2007.
Throughout his career, Neilson has also worked on festivals, musicals, dance productions and tours. Between
1987 and 1997, La La La Human Step, the Quebec singer Diane Dufresne, Le Théâtre Populaire du Québec,
Le Festival International de Nouvelle Danse and other companies engaged him as stage manager, production
director, technical director or assistant stage director.
Neilson has worked steadily at Cirque du Soleil since his first assignment in 1998 as technical director and then
interim tour director of Saltimbanco. Following an assignment directing the development of new touring show
infrastructure in 2002, he joined KÀ as director Robert Lepage’s assistant and production stage manager, and
in 2005 he filled the same positions on DELIRIUM with Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon – which led to his first
appointment as director of creation on ZAIA in 2007, followed by TOTEM.
“For me, the ultimate satisfaction is to deliver a show that will conquer and provoke emotions in the audience,”
says Neilson. “Our approach to TOTEM was to create a Big Top show in which not only human beings, but
humanity itself would be at the very heart of our purpose.”
CARL FILLION | Set
and Props Designer
Carl Fillion has a degree in set design from the Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Québec, where
he taught technical drawing from 1992 to 2002. His training also included studies in architectural
design and structure.
Carl has worked with many prominent companies and directors around the world and has a long list of
theatre, multimedia and opera credits to his name, including sets for La Celestina staged by Fernando
de Rojas’s Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, The Burial at Thebes at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin
and the opera Simon Boccanegra at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.
TOTEM is Carl Fillion’s first design for a Cirque du Soleil production, and he set himself the challenge
of making all its forms organic, full of curves and irregular shapes, to reflect the forms found in
nature – while serving the technically demanding needs of the show’s performances.
Carl’s long association with director Robert Lepage began in 1994 with the groundbreaking show Les
Sept branches de la rivière Ota, and he has continued to create set designs for more than a dozen
major theatre and opera production mounted by Lepage’s company since that first collaboration.
“TOTEM is about evolution, so it was appropriate that the sets went through their own evolution,” says
Carl. “I don’t have single one-size-fits-all approach that I apply to every production. It depends on the
genre – theatre, opera, and now, circus – and it also very much depends on who the director is. But I
do always like to work with space, constantly transforming it and filling it with movement.”
“I like to transform the scenic environment by
creating elements that move and turn, on stage, in
full view of the audience. My main visual signature
as a designer can be found in the way I sculpt the
space and keep it in motion.”
KYM BARRETT | Costume
Designer
Kym Barrett, who has created some of the most influential clothing seen in recent years, had a
nomadic childhood, living for a while on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean before attending a
boarding school in her native Australia.
“Costumes are a way of reinforcing the story that’s
being told, and that’s how I primarily see them.
I trained as a milliner, and I like the sculptural
aspects of fabric.”
She went on to attend the National Institute of Dramatic Arts in Sydney, where her association with
Baz Luhrmann led her to the United States and Mexico to work on his 1996 film Romeo + Juliet.
The costumes she created for Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in that film attracted a great deal
of attention and led to her meeting the Wachowski brothers, who hired her in 1999 to design the
costumes for The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions – costumes that inspired
fashion designers, other costume designers and consumers around the world.
Her other film credits include Three Kings (1999), starring George Clooney, the Hughes twins’ From
Hell (2001), starring Johnny Depp, and the Wachowskis’ Speed Racer (2008).
For her work on screen, Kym was nominated in 2001 by the Costume Designers Guild of America’s
Best Costume Award for The Matrix, and won the guild’s award for Best Commercial Costume Design
in 2002. The same year, she was nominated for a best costume design Golden Satellite Award for her
work on From Hell and in 2007, she was nominated for excellence in costume design for the fantasy
film Eragon.
For TOTEM, Kym’s designs reflect many facets of the creation and evolution of life and the
development of civilizations on earth. Her work also encompasses the cycle of the seasons.
“Although TOTEM is quite fantastical, there’s also a sense of reality,” says Kym. “The costumes were
inspired in part by documentary film. I wanted them to have a kind of documentary patina, even
though we were inventing our own reality.”
and
BOB & BILL | Composers
Musical
Directors
Composers, arrangers and orchestrators Guy Dubuc and Marc Lessard, who work professionally as
“Bob & Bill,” are well known for their ability to blur the lines between genres and styles and have vast
experience in the entertainment and media worlds.
ÉTIENNE BOUCHER | L ighting Designer
“We set fire to all genres to create a musical,
visual, atmospheric fusion.”
“As early as the first run-through, ideas are bumping into each other and fusing together at a crazy
speed. Everything takes shape in my head. I then
synthesize and refine my concept during rehearsals.”
In 2003, the two partners composed the music for Splinter Cell (Pandora Tomorrow), a best-selling
Ubisoft video game for which they also created the sound effects. In 2004, Bob & Bill supplied the
music direction and arrangements for Cirque du Soleil’s mega show Midnight Sun celebrating the 25th
anniversary of the Montreal International Jazz Festival.
They have produced several record albums including Monica Freire’s Bahiatronica and Pink Floyd
Redux, a collection of remixed songs from the British cult band, as well as the soundtrack album for
the Cirque du Soleil show KOOZA. Three-time nominees for a Quebec music industry ADISQ award, Bob &
Bill also created the music for several films and television series. In 2008, they released their own
first album, Crime Report, a work combining electronic and organic sounds.
Bob & Bill have been working steadily with Cirque du Soleil since 2007, creating the musical
arrangements for many special events, including Cirque’s production for the 400th anniversary of
Quebec City. In 2009, they composed the music for director Robert Lepage’s production Pageant de
Canotgraphie.
Cultures and genres collide in the music and lyrics they have written and arranged for TOTEM in a
fitting reflection of the show’s own themes. “Each acrobatic number has its own respiration, its own
rhythm, and its own arc,” say Bob & Bill. “The music has to take that into account – not only in the
interests of the audience, but in the interests of the artists too.”
Since leaving the National Theatre School of Canada in 1999, Étienne Boucher has been much in
demand for his lighting designs as much for theatre and dance as for musicals and opera. He has
participated in nearly a hundred productions.
“I like to fill the whole space between the projector and the artist with light,” says Étienne. “It allows
me to colour the air, which in turn lets me pick out the details of the set design and sculpt the
artists.”
Etienne’s precise, chiselled designs – at times expressionistic, at times poetic – form pictures of light
that fuel the narrative of the productions he works on. Concerned with the meaning of both colour and
light, he is regarded in his milieu more as an illuminator than a lighting designer.
He has regularly worked in partnership with directors such as René Richard Cyr, Brigitte Haentjens
and Martin Faucher, and since 2004 he has worked closely with TOTEM director Robert Lepage at the
latter’s company, Ex Machina. Their association began with La Celestina (Spain), and continued with
Lipsynch (on international tour), The Rake’s Progress (presented in co-production in Brussels, Lyon,
San Francisco, London, Madrid and Milan) and Le Rossignol et autres fables (Toronto and the Aix-enProvence Festival in 2010).
Over the years, Étienne Boucher has won many accolades, garnering several award nominations at the
Soirée des Masques (Quebec), winning two Masques in 2007 for lighting productions of Du vent entre
les dents and La Dame aux camélias.
“In TOTEM, I wanted to play with the colours of the projections on the marsh to create a third
dimension by extending those effects onto the stage,” says Étienne Boucher. “The light I have created
for this show is a reflection borrowed from nature. My greens and blues were inspired by ice, and the
reds and yellows were definitely inspired by fire. “
Content
PEDRO PIRES | Projection
Designer
“I usually create realistic images but I like to play
with textures and colours to give them a certain
sense of poetry.”
Pedro Pires grew up in Quebec City, where he soon discovered his ability to reproduce and animate
characters and monsters. These experiments allowed him to develop his own techniques of molding
and special effects.
In 1990, at age 21, he entered Laval University to study Fine Arts. Following that, he received a Special
Make-Up Effects Certificate from the renowned New York artist Dick Smith and completed a Computer
Graphic Design Certificate at the Centre NAD – National Animation and Design Centre – in Montreal.
His film debut was in 1995 with The Sound of the Carceri, a documentary by director François Girard,
in which he recreated the fictitious prisons of Piranesi around the cellist Yo-Yo Ma, in 3D. This work
won him an Emmy Award for Outstanding Visual Effects and a Gemini Award for Best Visual Effects,
in 1998. He worked with François Girard again on the artistic direction of the visual effects in the film
The Red Violin.
In 2001, he took on the visual conception for the film Possible Worlds, which marked the beginning of
a long artistic collaboration with the playwright, director and film-maker Robert Lepage.
In 2007, he set up his own film production company, Pedro Pires Inc., dedicated to the creation
of original content using digital technology. In 2008, his company produced the short film Danse
Macabre, a multidisciplinary collaboration with Anne Bruce Falconer and Robert Lepage, where he acts
simultaneously as scriptwriter, director, photographer and editor. This film has been screened at many
festivals since 2009 and has to date won 27 international prizes.
TOTEM marks his first collaboration with Cirque du Soleil. “In TOTEM, the screen for the projections
is a kind of virtual marsh at the rear of the stage,” notes Pedro Pires. “All the images are drawn from
nature, even when they seem quite abstract. They evolve through the show in a long mix or a morph to
create an ever-changing tableau that interacts with the artists and lives in harmony with the stage
lighting.”
JACQUES BOUCHER | SOUND
DESIGNER
,
“I am guided by instinct. Once I immerse myself in
the emotion of a scene, I amplify that emotion to
create moods.”
For more than 25 years Jacques Boucher has been exploring myriad ways to connect with the emotions
of audiences in Quebec and elsewhere through his sound designs.
A graduate of the Conservatoire de musique de Québec, where he studied the bass, Jacques played
with rock bands while pursuing his studies in classical music. Intrigued by the power of sound
vibrations, he quickly became interested in the entire universe of sound, and he points out that sound
is a powerful vehicle for emotions.
He began his professional career with the Quebec company Le Bruit bleu for which he created largescale sound installations. This experience led him to the Capitol Theatre in Quebec, where he held the
position of Chief Sound Engineer for ten years.
Jacques also worked as a sound engineer for various Quebec artists including Richard Séguin,
Laurence Jalbert, Diane Dufresne and Bruno Pelletier. He went on to develop an expertise in sound
design for musicals such as Dracula (2006) and large-scale events, including the mega-show 2000
voix chantent le monde, presented in Quebec City in 2000 with over 2,300 singers on stage.
The next high point in Jacques’ career came in 2008 when he was invited to handle the sound for
almost every event presented during the celebrations of the 400th anniversary of Quebec City. As
Chief Designer and Sound Engineer, he created the sound design for the Quebec Symphony Orchestra’s
performance of the Symphonie des mille by Gustav Mahler, The Image Mill by Robert Lepage, for which
he designed the sound system spanning 1.2 kilometers, and the tribute show presented by Cirque
du Soleil.
Jacques is also hired as sound designer and chief sound engineer for some Cirque du Soleil special
events, including Les Chemins invisibles which was created specially for Quebec City in 2009.
“For TOTEM I created a multi-source sound environment to produce an all-enveloping ambiance,” says
Jacques Boucher. “Given the theme of the show, which deals with the evolution of man, I wanted to
pay homage to the human ability to perceive sounds according to their sources, a function that has
enabled man to survive for millennia.”
NATHALIE J. SIMARD | Make-up
Designer
JEFFREY HALL | Choreographer
“To create beautiful pieces, it has to come straight
from the heart. If you are passionate, your artwork
will speak for itself.”
“Circus choreography is physical theatre centered
around the artists’ skills while driven by the emotions of theme.”
Nathalie J. Simard has been practicing the art of makeup for over 20 years. She studied visual arts and took
several theatre and makeup workshops, but is largely self-taught, having learned her craft on the streets of
Quebec City. There, she explored the many facets of makeup in depth and developed a distinctive style that
is all her own, using the body and face of her subjects as her canvas.
An innovator since the 1980s, Nathalie became well known for transforming children and adults alike with
her distinctive designs at festivals and outdoor events throughout Quebec. Constantly on the lookout for new
sources of inspiration, she then took her talents to other stages across Canada, Asia, Europe and the United
States.
Her creations have been seen by tens of thousands of people in several major events such as the
International Children’s Festivals network across Canada and the International Buskers Festivals held in
Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
Nathalie has worked on theatre productions for Marie Dumais and photography projects with David Cannon.
She also worked with characters for the EOS Circus in Quebec City, and created hundreds of makeup
designs for the Quebec City Festival d’été and Winter Carnival. For ten years, she has designed characters
for productions by the Quebec creator Olivier Dufour, including his show Le Chemin qui marche (one of the
main events of Quebec City’s 400th anniversary celebrations), and Festival Montréal en lumière.
Early in 2000, Nathalie founded Kromatik, a company that specializes in makeup for street art. Working with
a team of artists as dedicated as herself, she developed a technique of makeup and animation that set
new standards in the field. Combining speed, creativity and originality, she can produce a collective work in
minutes.
TOTEM marks Nathalie’s first collaboration with Cirque du Soleil. “The show deals with humanity in all its
diversity and richness,” she says. “I used the patterns and iconography of a vast array of different cultures
to create the different characters. I am just as inspired by all the artists, their energy and their performance
to create characters that are a really good fit.”
Known for blending his spectacular athleticism with his artistic eclecticism, Jeff Hall has inventively
brought humour, dialogue and physical performance together on stage. He was Canadian Freestyle Frisbee
Champion in 1989 and 1990, and the sport led him to the performing arts when he took a dance class to
improve his Frisbee technique while at University. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Contemporary Dance
at Concordia University (Montreal) and a Matriculation in Classical Music at McGill.
Jeff has performed with many independent choreographers. He created the groundbreaking Duodenum with
Pierre-Paul Savoie and eventually found his way to the Fondation Jean-Pierre Perreault, where he performed
in the productions JOE and Piazza. He toured extensively with the Montreal company Carbone 14 from 19901995, performing in both the show and the film Café des Aveugles, and the show Le Dortoir as well as its
award-winning film adaptation by François Girard.
As co-Artistic Director of PPS Danse from 1992-1998. Jeff co-created Bagne, as well as the multimedia
production Pôles, working with visual artists Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon. This work has been presented
in important venues across Canada and around the world and he and Pierre-Paul Savoie received the
prestigious 1996 Jacqueline Lemieux Price for its choreography.
Jeff was reunited with Carbone 14 as a performer in the 2001 creation Silences et Cris by Gilles Maheu. He
then became Gilles’ assistant in La Bibliothèque, Carbone 14’s 2002 creation. That same year, he assisted
director Robert Lepage working on the remounting of Trilogie des Dragons, and Marie Brassard on her La
Noirceur, both presented at the Festival Théâtre des Amériques in 2003. Since then, he has completed a film
directing program at l’Institut National de l’Image et du Son (INIS).
Jeff started his relationship with Cirque du Soleil in 2005 as an artistic coach for The Beatles LOVE. His next
major Cirque assignment was as acrobatic choreographer for ZAIA.
In 2009, Jeff choreographed and danced in the film Falling, directed by Philip Spozer and Marlene Miller and
choreographed Du Haut des Airs presented in 2010 by Cirque de Demain (France).
“In each and every number in TOTEM there is an evolutionary factor, which is the thread that runs through
the show,” he says. “Our decision to illustrate that thread through dance styles as diverse as hip hop and
Bollywood came very naturally and organically. We researched Hindu dance, American Indian dance, African
dance, coupled with theories of animism and TOTEMism.”
FLORENCE POT | Acrobatic
Performance
Designer
A gymnast at the age of six, Florence Pot completed her university degree in physical education in
France and went on to specialize in sports psychology. She decided to move to Montreal in 1991
primarily to continue her academic career.
She studied for her master’s degree in sports psychology at the University of Montreal while working
as a coach at the club Gymnix de Montréal. She returned to France two years later to choreograph
performances for the French Gymnastics Federation.
Motivated by a lack of professional challenges in France and a strong desire to work at Cirque du
Soleil, Florence came back to Canada in 1997 to renew her network of contacts at Cirque and work
in a variety of capacities, including helping four Canadian gymnasts prepare for the Sydney Olympic
Games in 2000.
In 2001, she accepted a position scouting acrobatic talent for Cirque’s casting department and in
2003 she became the company’s chief scout. In 2006, she accepted the invitation to become Acrobatic
Performance Designer on ZED (Cirque’s resident show in Tokyo) because she wanted to get closer to
the creation process and be part of it from start to finish. She is reprising the same role on TOTEM.
“With TOTEM, the theme of evolution extended into the acrobatic acts in the show,” says Florence Pot, “,
which we selected to reflect the evolution of human motor functions.”
EQUIPMENT AND
PIERRE MASSE | Acrobatic
RIGGING
DESIGNER
“I don’t make any distinction between the acrobatic
and the artistic. Acrobatics is as much an art as the
visual arts.”
“My job is to support the artistry and creativity of
the show by allowing the performers to express
themselves as fully and freely as possible. At the
same time I have to make sure they don’t face any
unnecessary risks.”
Pierre Masse, who grew up in a show business family, has worked behind the scenes in just about
every genre of the performing arts for the past 25 years. He was involved in major productions with
the Opéra de Montréal and the Grands Ballets Canadiens as well as a production of Les Misérables.
Pierre was appointed head carpenter and automation specialist for Celine Dion’s Falling Into You
world tour from 1995-1997 and stayed on as head carpenter and stage manager for her Let’s Talk
About Love world tour from 1997-2000. He followed that with his appointment as Senior Project
Manager, Automation on A New Day, her long-running Las Vegas show.
Pierre first worked for Cirque du Soleil in 1996 as an automation consultant for the show Quidam.
Soon after that he became involved in the development of other Cirque projects and went on to work
on the Cirque shows Varekai, Zumanity, KÀ and CRISS ANGEL Believe. TOTEM is his first show as
Acrobatic Equipment and Rigging Designer.
“I’m absolutely fascinated by every single piece of equipment we create for our shows,” says Pierre
Masse. “But as far as I’m concerned, the most sophisticated piece of engineering on the stage is the
human body. It never ceases to amaze me to see what the artists are capable of doing.”
FAST FACTS
TOTEM:
• TOTEM world-premiered in Montreal on April 22, 2010. During its
first year, the show follows a very different path in its touring.
After visiting Montreal and Quebec City in Canada, travelling to
Amsterdam, Holland, it is now set to start the New Year under
the prestigious Royal Albert Hall in London, England.
• TOTEM marks Robert Lepage’s second collaboration with
Cirque du Soleil, following KÀ at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas,
which has just celebrated in 2009 its fifth anniversary.
• TOTEM “hybrid show” is the first Cirque du Soleil big top
show to be created in such a way that it can be adapted to
the reality of arenas and other venues from the very outset.
TOTEM Cast and Crew:
• The cast of TOTEM comprises 52 artists from 18 countries—
Australia, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, Finland, France, Germany,
Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Mongolia, The People’s
Republic of China, Russian Federation, Spain, Ukraine, The
United Kingdom and The United States of America.
• The crew is composed of 11 employees in the ARTISTIC
SUPPORT team, 7 in PUBLIC SERVICES, 15 in TOUR SERVICES
and 26 employees in the TECHNICAL department. All 59 employees
represent 10 countries—Australia, Canada, France, The
Netherlands, New Zealand, The People’s Republic of China,
Russian Federation, Switzerland, The United Kingdom and
The United States of America.
• Although English is the official language of the tour, you will
often also hear French being spoken on-site in addition to
many other languages including Chinese (Mandarin), Spanish,
Russian, Italian, Dutch and Portuguese.
• There are 111 touring employees with 49 official accompanying
members (spouses and family). So a total of 160 on the road!
• A total of 18 children on tour between the ages of 2 months
and 15 years old. And we are expecting five new babies to
be born in the next six months! Currently, the youngest tour
member is two months old and the eldest is 60!
• The kitchen employs one touring kitchen manager and three
touring cooks.
• The school on-site has two full-time teachers and 6 students
—one minor performer (Nikita Moiseev - Russian Bars) and five
children of touring artists.
• Two performance medicine practitioners (one performance
medicine supervisor and one therapist) travel with the tour.
CIRQUE DU SOLEIL AT A GLANCE
The Creation of Cirque du Soleil
From a group of 20 street performers at its beginnings in 1984,
Cirque du Soleil is a major Quebec-based organization providing
high-quality artistic entertainment. The company has 5,000
employees from close to 50 different countries, including more
than 1,200 artists.
Cirque du Soleil has brought wonder and delight to close to
100 million spectators in over 300 cities on five continents. In
2010, Cirque du Soleil will present 21 shows simultaneously
throughout the world. The company has received such
prestigious awards as the Emmy, Drama Desk, Bambi, ACE,
Gémeaux, Félix, and Rose d’Or de Montreux. Cirque du Soleil
International Headquarters are in Montreal, Canada.
The Creation of Cirque du Soleil
It all started in Baie-Saint-Paul, a small town near Quebec
City, in Canada. There, in the early eighties, a band of
colourful characters roamed the streets, striding on stilts,
juggling, dancing, breathing fire, and playing music. They
were Les Échassiers de Baie-Saint-Paul (the Baie-Saint-Paul
Stiltwalkers), a street theatre group founded by Gilles Ste-Croix.
Already, the townsfolk were impressed and intrigued by the
young performers – who included one Guy Laliberté who became
founder of Cirque du Soleil.
A few statistics
• In 1984, 73 people worked for Cirque du Soleil. Today, the
business has 5,000 employees worldwide, including more
than 1,200 artists.
• At the Montreal International Headquarters alone, there are
close to 2,000 employees.
The troupe went on to found Le Club des talons hauts (the High
Heels Club), and then, in 1982, organized La Fête foraine de
Baie-Saint-Paul, a cultural event in which street performers
from all over met to exchange ideas and enliven the streets of
the town for a few days. La Fête foraine was repeated in 1983
and 1984. Le Club des talons hauts attracted notice, and Guy
Laliberté, Gilles Ste-Croix and their cronies began to cherish
a crazy dream: to create a Quebec circus and take the troupe
travelling around the world.
• The average age of employees is 37.
In 1984, Quebec City was celebrating the 450th anniversary of
Canada’s discovery by Jacques Cartier, and they needed a show
that would carry the festivities out across the province. Guy
Laliberté presented a proposal for a show called Cirque du Soleil
(Circus of the Sun), and succeeded in convincing the organizers.
And Cirque du Soleil hasn’t stopped since!
• Close to 15 million people will have seen a Cirque du Soleil
show in 2010.
• Cirque’s employees and artists represent close to
50 nationalities and speak 25 different languages.
• Since 1984, Cirque du Soleil’s touring shows have visited
over 300 cities around the world.
• Close to 100 million spectators have seen a Cirque du Soleil
show since 1984.
• Cirque du Soleil hasn’t received any grants from the public
or private sectors since 1992
TOURING SHOWS IN ARENAS
In 2010, Cirque du Soleil
will present twenty different shows
around the world
TOURING SHOWS UNDER THE BIG TOP
SEASONAL SHOW
The Theater at Madison Square
Garden in New York City
(from November 2010 to January 2011)
Resident shows
Treasure Island
in Las Vegas, Nevada
Bellagio
in Las Vegas, Nevada
New York-New York
Hotel & Casino
in Las Vegas, Nevada
The Mirage
in Las Vegas, Nevada
Luxor
in Las Vegas, Nevada
ARIA Resort & Casino
at CityCenter,
in Las Vegas, Nevada
MGM Grand
in Las Vegas, Nevada
The trademarks Cirque du Soleil, Nouvelle Expérience,
Saltimbanco, Alegría, Mystère, Quidam, La Nouba,
“O”, Dralion, Fascination, LOVE, OVO, Zumanity, The
Sensual Side of Cirque du Soleil, KÀ, Corteo, KOOZA,
Wintuk, Varekai and TOTEM are owned by Cirque du
Soleil and used under license.
The trademark LOVE is owned by The Cirque Apple
Creation Partnership and used under license.
The trademark The Beatles is owned by Apple Corps
Limited.
The trademarks CRISS ANGEL and Believe are owned
by Criss Angel and used under license.
Viva ELVIS is a trademark owned by Elvis Presley
Enterprises, Inc. © The Cirque EPE Partnership. Elvis
name and likeness used under license.
Walt Disney World® Resort
in Orlando, Florida
The Cirque du Soleil
Theatre Tokyo, Japan
The Venetian
Macao-Resort-Hotel
in Macau SAR, China
ON STAGE OR BACKSTAGE
IT’S YOUR TURN TO BE PART OF THE SHOW
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