This week, photographer Sarah Blais ventured into the tents of Cirque du Soleil to capture performers when they’re offstage. She was lucky enough to meet the Balance Goddess, Peacock Goddess, and guitar player Angie Swan. Packing for the circus is quite difficult — so the performers let us in on what their essentials are.
Swiss-born Lara Jacobs has been performing since she was 5-years-old (now 30), with her family’s theatre circus. The unique balancing act she performs was her father’s creation, which is now a part of Amaluna. (It took Lara 485 days to properly prepare for the show!) Her act takes a massive amount of concentration, and zero wind. In the show she wears shorts, a small top, and a long tail which adds difficulty to the act. So what does Lara have in her suitcases? She’s taken 10 out of her 60 pairs of heels, lots of jewelry, but a smaller amount of clothes. Growing up in a circus family meant lots of creative energy. Lara’s creative outlet is in her headpieces, which are now sold at the Cirque du Soleil store in Montreal. She’s wearing one of these hand-made creations in the photographs, and is currently making one for her 9-year-old son’s Halloween costume. The headpieces range in price from $300-600.
25-year-old Florida-born Amy McClendon is the Peacock Goddess dancer of Cirque du Soleil’s Amaluna. She lived in NYC for 6 years (her favorite restaurant there is Hillstones) and trained at The Ailey School of dance theatre. She was part of Lost in the Stars (the Broadway show) and now is on a 2-year contract with Cirque. Amy takes dance classes in the cities the circus visits, where she wears her leggings, leotards, and ballet slippers. For the show, Amy wears a special shoe that acts like a sandal covering her metacarpal, but leaving her heel and toes exposed. She goes through 30 of these a year. Because the performers don’t have extra time to go out, Amy likes to dress up at work; black leggings, tuxedo shirts, and nice accessories including her Michael Kors watch are part of her daily outfits. Her glasses, similar to the Warby Parkers her boyfriend rocks, are just for show. In the show, Amy wears a white dress with a very low back decorated in pearls and crystals. The black peacock costume is a leather halter with form-fitting pants, silver sequins down the legs, and an elaborate headpiece. Last week, as Amy was exiting the stage, she dipped under the tightwire, but wasn’t quite low enough and her mask/headpiece slid back on her head almost falling off. It hasn’t happened before, and she’s positive nobody noticed.
Angie Swan is a 30-year-old electric guitarist who hails from Los Angeles. She’s been at it for 19 years, but just joined Cirque in February. During the creation process of the show, the all-girl band practiced for up to 15 hours a day to make their act perfect. Something Angie had to practice was rocking heels, as she’s a T-shirt, skinny jeans, and Converse kind of girl. In the show, the girl-band also rocks tight pants and mesh shirts with an extremely long velvet purple coat. Apparently, Angie can be mistaken for Prince in her stage costume. While travelling, Angie will accumulate clothing that she finds in new cities and tends to donate old clothes as she moves through.
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Sarah Blais shoots Toronto Standard’s Uniform Project. Follow her on Twitter at @sarahblais_.
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