"Makeup offers a great deal of freedom of expression. We're working with two main ingredients: a face and our imagination."

After completing studies in fashion design at Seneca College of Applied Arts in Toronto and costume and set design at the National Theatre School of Canada Eleni Uranis first worked for Cirque du Soleil in 1989 as assistant to costume designer (and her former classmate) Dominique Lemieux on the show Nouvelle Expérience. She undertook research for the designs and was responsible for coordination between the creative team and the costume workshop.

That engagement led to work on Saltimbanco, Mystère, Alegréa, Quidam, "O", and La Nouba. Eleni took care of fabric research, fittings and artistic quality control. She then worked closely with Cirque Senior Vice President, Creative Content Gilles Ste-Croix as costume designer for a unique show called Pomp Duck and Circumstance which was presented in Hamburg, Germany from 1996 to 1999. In 2002, Eleni worked as assistant to the world-renowned designer Thierry Mugler, creating and coordinating the costumes for the Cirque du Soleil production Zumanity in Las Vegas.

In March 2002 Eleni's career took a new direction when she went to work for the Makeup Department at Cirque, creating colorfully dramatic designs for the faces in the touring show Dralion. "After ten years as an assistant in the costume department, I found that my work was becoming a bit less creative," she explains. "I was increasingly involved in management and I felt increasingly removed from the creative process. I had always liked makeup, and I painted in my spare time. So I took private lessons and bit by bit I gravitated toward makeup as the next step in my career."

She adds that she particularly enjoys the close contact she has with the performing artists, because they work as a two-person team to create a look for the character. "Makeup hides, reveals and transforms the character," she says. "With just a little color, everything can change. Through makeup you forget the person playing the role and discover their character. "

From 1962 to 1987, François Barbeau also played a key role in training the new generation, as a teacher at the National Theatre School of Canada and then as director of the school's Scenography Program. His emulators include Dominique Lemieux, Michel Crète, and Stéphane Roy, all designers at Cirque du Soleil.

Since 2004 Eleni Uranis has assisted makeup designer Nathalie Gagné on the Cirque productions KÀ, Corteo, Delirium and LOVE, and in 2005 she designed the makeup for Reflections in Blue, the show Cirque produced for the opening ceremonies of the FINA World Aquatic Championships held in Montreal in 2005.

"For Wintuk we want to be able to identify the characters, so the makeup isn't a mask, it's very natural" says Eleni. "But when the action is transported from the urban setting to the imaginary world of the Arctic, where anything is possible, the artists' faces are blissfully transformed."

Eleni Uranis was born in Oradea, Romania.