ギー・ラリベルテは 1959 年にケベックシティで生まれました。アコーディオン奏者、竹馬乗り、火食い芸人、そしてギーは、少人数のグループのサポートも得て、ケベック最初の国際的名声を得たサーカス集団を結成しました。大胆な夢想家、ギー・ラリベルテは、ベ･サン･ポールの Fête foraine （ラ・フェト・フォレーヌ）から優秀な人材を発掘して才能を育て、1984 年に Cirque du Soleil を結成しました。

ギー・ラリベルテは、文化、芸術、アクロバットを融合して調和させた最初の人物です。この調和こそ、Cirque du Soleil の象徴です。1984 年以降、彼はすべてのショーでクリエイティブチームを率い、サーカスアートを偉大な芸術分野のレベルにまで引き上げることに貢献してきました。

Cirque du Soleil は、活動と影響の範囲の大きさにおいても、国際的組織に成長しました。現在ギー・ラリベルテは、5 大陸で活動を続ける組織のトップの座にあります。

2007 年 10 月、ギー・ラリベルテは ONE DROP FOUNDATION を組織し、彼の人生の次のステップに踏み出しました。この組織は、安全な水を継続的に供給することによって、世界中の貧困と闘うことを目的としています。この新たな夢は、水を得る権利は世界中の個人と共同体の生命の維持に不可欠であるという認識、そして創立当初から Cirque du Soleil の理念の核となっていた価値観が発端となっています。その価値とは、生命は自分が与えた分だけこちらに与えてくれ、たとえ小さな活動でもいずれ効果を発揮する、という信念です。

ギー･ラリベルテは 2009 年 9 月に民間人としてカナダで初めて宇宙旅行を行いました。彼の使命は、地球上の人類が直面している水の問題に対する関心を高めることでした。「Moving Stars and Earth for Water」というテーマのもと、この宇宙始まって以来最初の Poetic Social Mission（詩的な社会活動）は芸術的なアプローチで人々の心を動かすことを目的としていました。そのアプローチとは、さまざまな芸術的パフォーマンスによる 120 分間の Web キャスト特別プログラムを、5 大陸の 14 都市と国際宇宙ステーションで公開するというものです。

主な受賞歴と特記事項
2011 年に、ギー･ラリベルテはカナダのビジネス功労賞「Order of the Canadian Business Hall of Fame」を受賞しました。2010年には、ハリウッド・ウォーク・オブ・フェームにギー・ラリベルテの星のプレートが設置されました。同年、ケベック州政府により、6 年前に授与された名誉賞「シュヴァリエ」よりさらに上級の「オフィシエ」が、「Ordre de la Pléiade」のメンバーとして授与されました。2008 年にギー･ラリベルテはラヴァル大学（ケベック州）より名誉博士号を授与されました。その前年には、Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 賞を、ケベック州、カナダ、国際の全 3 レベルで受賞しました。2004 年には、カナダ総督より、カナダ最高の栄誉であるカナダ勲章を授与されました。  同年、タイム誌により、「世界で最も影響力のある 100 人」のひとりに選出されました。2003 年には、Condé Nast グループにより、クリエイターとイノベーターを対象とする Never Follow Program で栄誉を称えられました。2001 年、彼はグレーター・モントリオール・アカデミーにより、偉大なるモントリオール市民の称号を与えられました。1997 年には、ケベック州政府最高の栄誉であるケベック勲章を授与されました。

その他の受賞歴と特記事項

2009
Canadian Marketing Associationによる、ライフタイム・アチーブメント賞を受賞

2002
カナダのウォーク・オブ・フェームに名前が彫られる

1998
アメリカン・クラフト博物館（現在はニューヨークのアート・アンド・デザイン博物館）によるヴィジョナリー・アワードを受賞

1996
第 43 回 Gala du Commerce（ケベック）にてVision nouvelle賞を受賞

1988
Gala Excellence La Presse（ケベック）のパーソナリティ・オブ・ザ・イヤーを受賞

1988
Les Affaires 誌（ケベック）の Entrepreneur of the Year 賞を受賞

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 apple-picking 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.

Since 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.

ニールソン・ヴィニョーラは 1980 年にカナダ国立演劇学校を卒業しました。Théâtre de Quat’Sous、Théâtre du Nouveau Monde、Compagnie Jean Duceppe、l’Espace Libre などのモントリオールの著名な劇団のさまざまな分野で働きながら、演劇人としてのキャリアを築きました。

1985 年にはカナダ芸術評議会とケベック州芸術文化省より助成金を得てヨーロッパへ渡りました。ヨーロッパには 1 年間滞在し、いくつかのオペラで演出家の仕事を間近で観察する機会に恵まれました。1986 年にはフランス、リールのオペラ・デュ・ノール劇場での『ホフマン物語』、ロバート･アルトマンの演出による『放蕩者のなりゆき』のプロダクションにも参加しました。1989 年には東京とトロントで上演された『アイーダ』の制作に参加しました。1990～1993 年には、モントリオール・オペラ劇場の制作ディレクターを務めました。1996 年には、モントリオール・オリンピック・スタジアムで上演された『トゥーランドット』の制作に携わり、1997 年にはマギル大学で上演された『ラ・チェネレントラ』の演出を担当しました。

ロベール・ルパージュ演出の『ファウストの劫罰』は、ニールソン・ヴィニョーラの名をオペラの世界に知らしめるきっかけとなりました。彼はロベール・ルパージュの助手を務めていたのです。このオペラは、日本（1999 年）、パリ（2001 年）、ニューヨーク（2008 年）で上演されました。『1984』（2005 年ロンドンで世界初演）と『放蕩者のなりゆき』（2007 年にブリュッセルとリヨンで上演）にも、ロベール・ルパージュの演出助手として参加しました

ニールソンはこれまでに、フェスティバル、ミュージカル、ダンスプロダクション、ツア公演の演出もてがけています。1987～1997 年には、ラ・ラ・ラ・ヒューマン・ステップ、ケベックのシンガーであるディアーヌ・デュフレーヌ、ケベック大衆劇場（Le Théâtre Populaire du Québec）、国際ヌーベルダンスフェスティバル、その他のカンパニーで、ステージマネージャー、プロダクションマネージャー、テクニカルディレクター、アシスタントステージディレクターなどを歴任しました。

シルク･ドゥ･ソレイユとは 1998 年に、Saltimbanco（サルティンバンコ）のテクニカルディレクターと一時的なツアディレクターを務めて以来、一貫して協力関係にあります。2002 年に新しいツアショーのインフラストラクチャの開発の管理を担当した後、ディレクターであるロベール・ルパージュのアシスタントおよびプロダクションステージマネージャーとしてKÀ （カー）に参加し、2005 年の DELIRIUM（デリリアム）ではミッシェル・ルミューとヴィクター・ピロンのもとで、同じ立場で参加しました。このような経歴を経て、ZAIA（ザイア）のディレクター・オブ・クリエイションに任命されました。

「私にとって究極の満足とは、お客様の感情を刺激するようなショーをお見せすることです」とニールソンは語ります。「成功を勝ち取るにはチームで仕事する必要があります。私はチームのメンバーであることに喜びを感じています。ひとりで仕事をするのは好きではありません。アイディアを交換して相互に影響しあうのがほんとうに好きなのです。」

ニールソン・ヴィニョーラ：1956 年ケベック州フォレストヴィル生まれ

Writer, actor and director Gilles Maheu, one of the leaders of theatrical creation in Canada, is renowned for the originality of his works, which combine text, dance, music and film.

Over the last 30 years, Gilles Maheu has led the theatre company Carbone 14, whose works have been presented in more than 30 countries and won some 40 awards at home and abroad.

His staging of Notre-Dame de Paris won the 1998 Victoire award for best production of the year in Paris and the Félix for best musical and best director in Montreal. This work been seen around the world, attracting an audience of more than seven million in 12 countries, including China, South Korea and Taiwan. In 2004, his staging of Don Juan, which was also a resounding success in Montreal, Paris and Seoul, earned him Félix awards for best show and best direction.

Gilles Maheu is the cofounder of the Montreal theatre companies Espace Libre and Usine C. He earned many accolades for his work in these research and creation spaces, including the Governor General of Canada’s Award for the Performing Arts in 1992 and the Grand Prix du Conseil des Arts de Montréal in 1995.

The international success of Gilles Maheu was reconfirmed when the Songlei Media Communications company of Beijing hired him in 2006 to direct the first private Chinese opera, entitled Butterflies.

Gilles Maheu played the lead in the Jean-Claude Lauzon film Un Zoo La Nuit in 1988. This memorable performance led to his being a finalist for the Genie award for best actor (Toronto).

Although this is the first time Gilles has worked for Cirque du Soleil, he has known Cirque founder Guy Laliberté for more than 30 years. “We did street theatre together before Cirque existed,” he says.

"This is an interesting period to work with Cirque du Soleil,” he adds. “The company is diversifying and exploring new forms of artistic expression. We share many characteristics and speak the same language – not a language focused on text, but physical and acrobatic body language. ZAIA is the result of the meeting between my poetic and visual writing and the acrobatic magic of Cirque du Soleil."

Gilles Maheu was born in Montreal.

Guillaume Lord started his college studies in communications but soon switched to design and production, which he studied at Collège Lionel-Groulx from 1990-1993.

With over 15 years of professional experience as a designer, Guillaume has created sets for theatre, dance, circus, variety ( Arturo Brachetti's world tour) and musicals in Canada and abroad.

For the stage, he has created remarkable designs for many Quebec productions including Maureen Hunter 's L'Atlantide/Atlantis (Théâtre de la Manufacture), Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt's Le Libertin (Just For Laughs), Steven Berkoff's Décadence (Théâtre de Quat'Sous)) Le Temps et La Chambre – which won the Masque Award for best set and the Gascon-Roux award – Art, La Grande Magia and Pacamambo, an opera for children.

Besides working with Quebec directors such as Serge Denoncourt, Lorraine Pintal, Claude Poissant and André Brassard, Guillaume has explored the dance scene with choreographers Shann Hounsell (the Czech Republic National Theatre), Ginette Laurin (O’Vertigo) and Jean Grand-Maître for whom he designed the sets for the Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris, Milan's Balletto della Scala, the Stuttgart Opera Ballet, the Munich Opera Ballet, the Norway National Ballet and Alberta Ballet.

He has also worked as art director on feature films and documentaries and designing sets for art exhibitions at the Musée du Québec. His screen credits as assistant art director include: The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire (2002), The Stork Derby (2002) The Royal Scandal (2001) The Sign of Four (2001), and he was the p roduction designer for The Child of Music (1999), Faces of Dance (1996) and Magic Violin (1996).

“The design for ZAIA was inspired by many influences,” says Guillaume. “I see it as a psychological journey into space and it contains references to optical sources as small as eyeglasses and as big as telescopes. Essentially it is the interior of a huge observatory looking out at the night sky – and I used astronomical charts to make sure the position of the stars and planets are accurate.”

Guillaume Lord was born in Montreal in 1971.

Dominique Lemieux designed the costumes for all Cirque du Soleil's productions between 1989 and 1998. Every single show—We Reinvent the Circus (1989), Nouvelle Expérience (1990), Saltimbanco (1992), Mystère (1993), Alegría (1994), Quidam (1996), "O", La Nouba (1998) and Corteo (2005)—bears her unique imprint.

As a costume designer, Dominique does a lot more than simply outfit the artists. Her designs play a key role in creating the fantastic characters that populate the Cirque du Soleil universe.

With an expert eye, Dominique weaves colors, patterns and fabrics into fabulous costumes. But her choice of material is not strictly guided by aesthetic considerations alone. For Dominique, determining how fibres react to skin, movement, fire or water is of vital importance, and she never loses sight of the artists' needs.

Dominique's passion for drawing started at an early age and led her to study fine arts at Concordia University. After earning her degree, she worked as an art designer and children's book illustrator. She later enrolled in the set design program at Canada's National Theatre School (NTS), where the courses she took in drawing and costume design took her career in a whole new direction.

From 1986 to 1988 she worked as an assistant to François Barbeau, one of Montreal's top costume designers and also a teacher at the NTS. During this period, her creations could be seen on stages across the city. Her skills were soon much in demand among directors from every corner of the theatre world in Quebec.

Violaine Corradi was born in Trieste, Italy and arrived in Montreal at the age of four. Her father was a composer and conductor, and her mother an opera singer. In keeping with the family tradition, she received classical training in singing, piano, clarinet and side flute. At the age of seven, she joined the children’s choir that accompanied the Bolshoi Opera, the Milan Scala and the Opéra du Québec during performances at Place des Arts in Montreal.

She later studied drama, and chose piano and voice as her principal instruments. Her work gradually evolved into a fusion of musical styles as she developed a strong interest in world music, which would later become pivotal in her compositions.

Violaine’s work reflects the rich diversity of her influences and interests. She has composed scores for numerous exhibitions and films. From 1993 to 1998 she composed, arranged and interpreted the music to accompany leading Quebec poets in the audio series Poésie/musique. The nine titles in this collection, which she co-produced, have enjoyed wide success in international French-speaking markets. Some of the pieces from her 1996 solo album Passages, including Illuminations, are included in anthologies alongside works by such artists as Philip Glass, Jon Anderson and Andreas Vollenweider.

Since 1999, Violaine has composed arranged, produced and served as musical director of the soundtrack of the IMAX films Bears and Great North, the Grand Prize winner of the 2001 Géode award at the Paris Film Festival.

Violaine Corradi’s music for ZAIA is her third assignment with Cirque du Soleil, following Dralion and Varekai. "At Cirque du Soleil, the creators are asked to work in a vacuum, like the acrobats. But we also engage in a collective creation: That is our safety net,” she says. “The director, Gilles Maheu had an inspiring vision for ZAIA that greatly stimulated my creative process for the show. When I write the musical score, I first develop the themes that the characters inspire in me, because everything flows from them.”

Originally a dancer and an ice skater, Martino Müller is a Swiss choreographer based in Amsterdam. His first professional engagement was as a dancer with the Karlsruhe Ballet in Germany. A year later, he joined the Stuttgarter Ballet directed by Marcia Hydé. His original interest in classical ballet changed when he came in contact with the contemporary work of Jiri Kylián. He then moved to the Netherlands to fill a position with the Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT I). Martino ventured into choreography in 1992, when he was asked to work for NDT II, the junior group of the Dutch company.

His first choreography 'Who’s Watching Who' proved to be a striking debut and received an important prize from a Dutch arts organization. That same year Martino was invited to work for the Festival der Kunste in Bad Gleichenberg, Austria. This led to a production called 'A Woman Can Take You To Another Universe–Sometimes She Just Leaves You There' – which NDT I subsequently included in its own repertoire. NDT I then asked him to create a new piece. The premiere of this creation, 'Heidi,’ took place in 1994. Since then he has choreographed for various prestigious dance companies, including the Lyon Opera Ballet, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Gulbenkian Ballet in Portugal , the Stuttgart Ballet, BalletMet in Columbus , Ohio and the Göteborg Ballet in Sweden.

Müller’s first choreography for a musical 'Notre Dame de Paris,’ directed by Gilles Maheu, was nominated for a Canadian Theatre prize in 2000. In that show, which has toured the world, he synthesized modern dance with acrobatics for the first time and that led to his involvement with ZAIA.

“It’s a big challenge to try and combine Cirque with dance,” says Martino. “But dance is actually just about people who express themselves, people who have emotional energy and that actually creates a connection between the dancers and the acrobats, and it does so in a very positive way reflecting human emotions we all might have and want to express. If I feel that they’re feeling something, it’s valid and it works. The choreographies in this show are structured, but I also give the dancers the freedom to change things if they don’t feel right about it and I encourage them to challenge themselves because they can’t simply do the same thing over and over in every performance.”

Martin Müller was born in 1963 in Aarau, Switzerland.

Known for blending his spectacular athleticism with his artistic eclecticism, Jeff Hall has inventively brought humor, 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 1990-1995, 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 Award 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.”

Rob Bollinger was a competitive trampolinist at the age of 9 and partnered with his father on the invention of the double mini trampoline as his family owned a trampoline club in Illinois, where he grew up. He studied Business at Indiana University on a scholarship as a competitive springboard diver. He won two national diving championships and qualified  for the 1980 and 1984 Olympics trials. He did not make the team on either occasion, and at first turned away from the world of competitive sports. Rob tried his hand at a variety of jobs in aeronautics and insurance, but always found the pull of acrobatics too strong to resist, so he went to work in diving shows in theme parks, which led him all over Europe. On his return to the United States he put his talents as a diver and trampolinist to work in film and television as a professional stunt man, notably for Universal Studios. Rob joined Cirque du Soleil in 1993 during the creation of the first resident show Mystère as a coach and artist in the show’s original house troupe. In 1997 he joined "O", first as a coach, then as artistic coordinator and eventually he was appointed the production’s artistic director. He also added the artistic direction of Mystère to his responsibilities. This is Rob’s second show as Acrobatic Performance Designer after ZAIA.

Guy Lemire is an inveterate, tinkerer at heart. Compelled to assemble and disassemble anything mechanical as a child, he spent much of his youth playing in the alleys of his neighborhood, spending hours building all kinds of projects.

Guy first got interested in theatre in high school via an amateur troupe of mild-mannered rebels. He attended the National Theatre School of Canada in 1986, installing theatrical equipment in the old Monument National theatre, a performance space that used a system of sandbags as a counterweights, perches, claws and ropes. "In short, it was a fabulous school," he recalls.

Curious and creative – essential qualities in his profession – Guy established a solid reputation in the world of Montreal theatre as a director of set design concepts involving mechanical components. He worked on numerous productions at the Theatre du Trident (Quebec), the Quebec City Summer Festival, the Montreal theatres Monument National, Theatre de Quat'Sous, Theatre du Nouveau Monde, as well as for several touring productions. He also designed the sets for Océania, a multimedia virtual entertainment installation in Montreal.

Cirque du Soleil first approached Guy to design and implement some of the set elements and act as project manager for the show KÀ, in 2002. Following the success of KÀ, he went on to work on the Cirque productions LOVE and Dralion.

In 2006, Guy Lemire became Cirque du Soleil’s Acrobatic Equipment Research Specialist, a position that led to his first appointment as a creator with his rigging designs for ZAIA.

"The safety of the artists is always our primary concern,” says Guy Lemire. “On the creative front, I am particularly proud to have contributed to the design of the equipment in the trampoline number – two tracks in the form of an X that cross in the center on a springboard. It’s a complex system that allows both units to respond independently."

Guy Lemire was born in 1964, in Baie-du-Febvre, Quebec.

Swiss-born Montrealer Axel Morgenthaler is recognized as one of the most innovative visual designers in Quebec, appreciated equally for his talents as a lighting designer and as a multimedia artist in the performance arts as well as architectural projects.

After spending his formative years in Europe, where he trained in theatre arts and electronic engineering, Axel turned his attention toward lighting design for dance and theatre.

Axel Morgenthaler uses light to explore new concepts in set design, visual arts and architecture, employing video, multimedia and cinema as his supporting elements. His lighting designs stand on their own as true works of art, though they are often integrated within various other artistic expressions such as dance, theatre and architecture. In 2002 he was awarded a Bessie Award in New York for the best set and lighting design for "Luna" by the O Vertigo Dance company.

Axel has more than 100 lighting and set designs to his credit, working with such eminent Quebec choreographers as Édouard Lock, Ginette Laurin and Marie Chouinard, Stephen Petronio (USA), Alonzo King (USA) and The Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation (USA) He has worked on virtual theatre happenings with such creators as Montrealers Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon. He has also worked with many theatre directors, including Quebec-based Gilles Maheu, Robert Lepage, Wajdi Mouawad and Lorraine Pintal. He has also been invited to participate in international opera and theatre productions at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Alberta and the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada and the Shauspielhaus in Vienna, Austria.

International film and television producers have hired Axel to produce special effects, notably for The Hunger TV series, produced and directed by Tony and Ridley Scott. In 2000 he held his first solo art show in France, showcasing his lighting installations. His work as a visual artist has been shown in exhibitions in Canada, the United States, France and Switzerland. He has received commissions for large scale permanent lighting art works from the Montreal Airport, the Montreal subway and the W Hotel.

In 2001, Axel founded the visual design company Photonic Dreams with the goal of offering a global visual approach to performance art, architecture and art show projects. His recent work as architectural lighting designer for the Montreal entertainment district Quartier des Spectacles, has won him international recognition for his creation of the “signature lighting” of the area and the illumination of several Montreal cultural landmarks.

“Although ZAIA is set in outer space, it’s not a scientifically accurate rendition,” Axel points out. “It’s more of a lively, poetic interpretation of the cosmos. So the challenge was to create intimate, playful moments in a vast, dark empty space. And then there’s the challenge of balancing the stage lighting with the video that’s so important to the show.”

Axel Morgenthaler was born in 1964, in Berne, Switzerland.

Geodezik is a design and multimedia production company at the meeting point of the visual arts, new media and cybernetics. It specializes in the creation of video projections for the stage and public spaces, including museum exhibitions and architectural installations.

This inventive Montreal-based company, founded in 2006 by Jimmy Lakatos, Mathieu St-Arnaud, Raymond Saint-Jean and Olivier Goulet, is known for its expertise in video design, “video set design” and animation for many artists and entertainment companies throughout North America.

Director Gilles Maheu, dance company O Vertigo, comic Stéphane Rousseau, all from Quebec, and the American rock group Linkin Park and The Killers and singer Justin Timberlake have all turned to Geodezik to enhance their shows. The company also designed the video projections for both Bette Midler’s new show in Las Vegas and for Cher’s Vegas show.

ZAIA is the third Cirque du Soleil assignment Geodezik has worked on. They created the video system for the Cirque show DELIRIUM in 2006 and are supplying video projections for the closing celebrations of the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City that will take place in the fall of 2008.

Two founding members of Geodezik – Jimmy Lakatos and Raymond Saint-Jean – have worked on ZAIA’s video elements.

Jimmy Lakatos

Jimmy’s career path started in the visual arts and eventually led to “video set design,” which is now his specialty. A longtime friend of Montreal theatre directors Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon, he was one of the founders of Artificial, a multidisciplinary digital group whose creations have been seen at festivals and in museums throughout Europe, Latin America and North America.

Raymond Saint-Jean

Director, video designer, writer and editor Raymond Saint-Jean began his career directing music videos and short films. Since then, he has turned to dramas, documentaries and films about the performing arts. In 2003, he won the Rockie Award at the Banff Television Festival for his documentary Le Mozart Noir. In 2006, his documentary Ville Fantôme was awarded three prizes at the Yorkton festival, including the prestigious Golden Sheaf Award of Excellence.

"Given the expressive power and narrative complexity of the images that are used by artistic creations today, designers are employing video to tell stories rather than simply create textures or make backdrops for the stage,” says Jimmy Lakatos. “With Cirque du Soleil, we have the good fortune to be able to create scenery on an unparalleled scale with total creative freedom."

"For ZAIA, we designed a self-supporting 2,300-kg sphere,” adds Raymond Saint-Jean. “It is an unprecedented video sculpture that projects images in a 360-degrees radius using six projectors mounted inside it. This mosaic of images sometimes turns the sphere into a planet, the Earth or the Moon, depending on the requirements of the narrative."

Steven Dubuc was still in college when he went to work as a system engineer for a Montreal sound company called Audio Concept in 1980. In 1982 he undertook his first cross-Canada rock’n’roll tour as a sound engineer with the Powder Blues Band, hitting 57 venues from coast to coast in 60 days.

With no formal training as a sound engineer, Steven went on to work for the Moscow Circus as Head of Touring Sound between1987 and 1989. In 1990 he was the Production Soundman for the Canadian national tour of Les Miserables. He returned to Montreal in 1992 to take up duties as Head of Sound at the Montreal Forum and got his first assignment from Cirque du Soleil in 1994, as Technical Director for Alegría. He later became Technical Director (production & touring) of the North American tour of Quidam.

His work took him away from Cirque in 1997 to become Project Manager (Audio) for Disneyfest Asia as well as World Cup soccer installations in France. That led, among other assignments, to the position of Project Manager for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games international broadcast center. He also managed the power systems for Celine Dion’s 1999 World Tour and worked for the F1 World Championship providing technical expertise and support for all European races.

Steven returned to Cirque du Soleil in late 2000 and then became Technical Director for Zumanity in 2002, moving on to KÀ, as Project Supervisor (Audio) in 2003. He left Las Vegas for Montreal in 2004 to become Technical Director for special projects. And then it was back to Vegas as Theatre Technical Director of LOVE in 2005.

“You can’t walk into a beautiful room and have it be silent,” says Steven. “It needs to be texturized. Sound design is one of the places where technology meets art. And with a Cirque du Soleil production like ZAIA, when you first walk into the lobby you’re already in the show, thanks to the visual stimuli and the sound environment, and then as the room blends into the show, so does the sound.”

Steven Dubuc was born in Beloeil, Quebec, in 1962.

Makeup Designer Nathalie Gagné has been fascinated by makeup and its influence on the actor’s craft since her teens. She studied theatre production at Cégep de Saint-Hyacinthe, a community college in Quebec, then went on to become one of the first graduates of the Montreal subsidiary of the famed Paris-based makeup school École Christian Chauveau.

Before joining Cirque du Soleil, Gagné worked in theatre, film and television. She was twice nominated for a Gémeau award for best makeup, all categories combined. The honor is conferred by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television.

“Makeup is a reflection of the character’s soul. It’s also a magic wand that sweeps away inhibitions,” says Gagné, who since 1995 has crafted more than 200 separate makeup designs for Cirque. Her final concepts were culled from over 2,000 sketches.

Since Cirque performers have to apply their own makeup, Nathalie Gagné involves them in the actual creation of their onstage look. “Unlike actors, acrobats aren’t used to studying their own faces,” she says. “One of my goals is to get them to do just that, and help them find within themselves what I call ‘lines of force’ that will serve to build their characters.”

Nathalie Gagné is also responsible for ensuring the integrity of all makeup designs that bear her signature. Since the performers apply their own makeup, workshops in makeup techniques are now part of the general training provided to Cirque du Soleil artists. Gagné first teaches performers how to do their own makeup, and then writes a step-by-step application guide for each of them.

Nathalie introduced new makeup concepts to the shows Mystère, Alegría and Saltimbanco, which led her to work with director Franco Dragone and costume designer Dominique Lemieux. Following her work on Quidam, “O”, La Nouba, Varekai, Zumanity, KÀ, Corteo, Delirium, LOVE, ZAIA and CRISS ANGEL Believe™ is Nathalie Gagné’s eleventh contribution to the creation of a Cirque du Soleil show.

"To establish the rich, ripe characters in CRISS ANGEL Believe™, we worked the way we do in film, – designers and artists building together – to invent each of the personalities,” says Nathalie. By using costumes and projections as components of the makeup, we are looking to create a crazy but perfectly credible universe. We wanted to turn the improbable into the plausible. "

Nathalie Gagné was born in 1963 in Trois-Pistoles, in the Lower St. Lawrence region of Quebec.

Leonid Leykin can’t remember a time when he didn’t want to be a circus performer and right from the start he knew he wanted to be a clown. He studied at the famous Licedei, a Leningrad theatre school that specialized in the art of clowning. His teacher there was Slava Polunin, who is widely regarded as the best clown in the world – and who has appeared in Cirque du Soleil productions as well as his own renowned solo shows.

For many years Leonid traveled the world as a member of Licedei’s touring company, and his first visit to North America was with the troupe. At that stage of his career he was also directing theatre in Russia , acting in Russian films, starring in his own television show which featured comedy routines and Russian celebrities as guests, and appearing regularly with the Moscow Circus.

For Leonid, the whole idea of clowning goes a lot deeper than simply making people laugh with a pratfall. “The clown has a lot of freedom,” he says. “Even in the days of the Soviet Union the clown could stand apart from society and offer a sometimes funny, sometimes sad commentary on the human condition.”

Leonid was first approached by Cirque du Soleil in 1993 but the success of Licedei kept him from accepting the company’s invitation until 1997. In 1998 he joined the European tour of Alegría. He went on to join the cast of “O” in Las Vegas in 2000, creating a highly memorable and much-loved clown act. He stayed with the show until 2007.

“My approach to clowning is lyrical and poetic rather than slapstick. I prefer to work with the eyes rather than the body,” says Leonid. “I can stand on the stage and do nothing, and everybody understands what I want to say.”

ZAIA marks the first time Leonid has created a clown act for any performer other than himself. “It’s very difficult to find really good clowns,” he says. “But we found two wonderful performers for the show, one is from Italy and the other is a Canadian originally from France . When we see really good clowns like these two, we can see some part of ourselves.“

Leonid Leykin was born in 1961 in Leningrad (now known as St. Petersburg ).