THE SHOW

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.

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.

In October 2007, Guy Laliberté entered into a second lifetime commitment by creating the ONE DROP Foundation to fight 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.

In 2007, Guy Laliberté received 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.

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.

Neilson Vignola graduated from the National Theatre School of Canada in 1981. He began his professional career working in various capacities at prominent Montreal theatre companies including the Théâtre de Quat’Sous, the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, the Compagnie Jean Duceppe and l’Espace Libre.

Neilson 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 worked on a production of The Tales of Hoffman at the Opéra du Nord in Lille, and on Robert Altman’s 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.

Neilson Vignola made his mark into the world of opera working as director Robert Lepage’s assistant on the The Damnation of Faust, which was staged in Japan (1999), Paris (2001) and New York (2008), 1984, wich was mounted in London in 2005, and The Rake’s Progress, which played in Brussels in 2007.

Throughout his career, Neilson has also worked on festivals, musicals, dance productions and tours. In 1987 he was stage manager for the La La La Human Steps production New Demons. From 1988 to 1990 he worked at the Théâtre Populaire du Québec and in 1993 he was technical director for the Festival International de Nouvelle Danse and stage manager for singer Diane Dufresne.

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 stage manager, and in 2005 he filled the same positions on DELIRIUM.

“For me, the ultimate satisfaction is to deliver a show that pleases the audience,” says Neilson. “It takes a team to pull that off, and I enjoy being a team player. I don’t like working in isolation. I really appreciate the interplay of ideas.”

Neilson Vignola was born in Forestville, Quebec in 1956.

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 from1990-1993.

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.

To create the costumes for ZAIA, Dominique set out to evoke cultural diversity. "In my visual research I was inspired by the citizens of large world's cities," she explains. “A new culture has emerged from the ethnic mix that characterizes the modern city. There’s a spontaneously variety that is reflected in the way today's young people dress. The ZAIA costumes refer to this eclectic merging of genres."

Dominique Lemieux was born in 1957 in Montreal.

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.”

Violaine Corradi was born in 1959, in Trieste, Italy.

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’s professional career began with many independent choreographers and he eventually found his way to the Fondation Jean-Pierre Perreault, 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, which toured the USA and Europe . He also co-created the multimedia production Pôles, working with visual artists Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon. He performed in the Swiss collective creation OMA in 1999 and taught at the École de Cirque de Verdun, creating three annual student shows. He also co-created a highly successful two-hour circus show, Les Écureuils, which has been seen by more than 16,000 children since 2005.

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 Bibliothèque, Carbone 14’s 2002 creation. That same year he assisted renowned director Robert Lepage working on the remounting of Trilogie des Dragons, and Marie Brassard on her La Noirceur, both presented at the Théâtre des Amériques festival in 2003. Since then he has completed a film directing program at l’Institut National de l'Image et du Son (INIS).

Jeff hall has received three creation grants from the Canada Council, as well as the prestigious Jacqueline Lemieux Award for choreography. His work has been presented at the Canada Dance Festival in Ottawa, the Festival International de Nouvelle Danse in Montreal, the Dresden Tager der Zeitgenössischen Musik Festival in Germany, the Lisbon Arts Festival Expo 1998, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the Arts Festival of Atlanta.

Jeff started his relationship with the Cirque du Soleil in 2005, working as an artistic coach on LOVE. “Circus choreography is physical theatre centered around the artists’ skills while driven by the emotions of theme,” he says. “From there the movement is built with the shared experiences of the performers.” Since his work on LOVE Jeff has worked at Cirque as an Artistic Coach and continued as the Creator/Director/Choreographer of shows at l’École de Cirque de Verdun.

“My contribution to ZAIA is to help artistically shape each of the acrobatic numbers into a cohesive and dynamic act – to which the director can add his own personal vision, his color,” he says. “It is collaborative work built with the acrobatic coaches. I love taking acrobats, many without any previous theatrical experience, into choreographic situations in which their acrobatic skills are harmonized by their individual stage personas. It’s a privilege to watch these performers grow as they confront personal and physical risks every day”

Jeff Hall was born in 1958 in Ottawa.

Rob Bollinger was destined for a career in the world of acrobatics. His mother was a ballet dancer and his father, inducted into the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame , was a pioneer in the sport of trampoline. He was the inventor of double mini trampoline and owned a trampoline club in Illinois , where Rob grew up. "I’ve lived on a trampoline all my life, from the age of one," he recalls.

Rob studied Business at Indiana University on a scholarship as a competitive springboard diver. He won two national diving championships and qualified to try out for the 1980 Olympics, and stayed after graduation to train for the 1984 Olympics. He was disappointed not to make the team on either occasion, and at first he turned away from the world of competitive sports.

Rob tried his hand at a variety of jobs in aeronautics and insurance, but he 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 its 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, later becoming artistic coordinator and eventually he was appointed the production’s artistic director. He went on to add the artistic direction of Mystère to his responsibilities. ZAIA is the first Cirque show he has worked on as a creator.

“It’s been a wonderful journey,” says Rob. “I've had the opportunity to taste a lot of different aspects of Cirque and seen people – and myself – grow throughout the process.”

For ZAIA, Rob says he wanted to create a continuum of acrobatic performance within the acts, rather than a collection of individual images. “For example, the end of one acrobatic image or sequence on teeter-board becomes the beginning of the next acrobatic image on trampoline,” he explains. During Mystère, I got the idea of combining the trampoline with a teeter-board, And now, twelve years later, I have the opportunity to develop this concept by creating two rebound surfaces – a combination of a flexible trampoline and more rigid power track – linked in the middle by a teeter-board. This contribution to the show makes me feel like I'm following in my father’s footsteps.”

Rob Bollinger was born in Sycamore, Illinois in 1960.

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 and DELIRIUM and LOVE, ZAIA is Nathalie Gagné’s tenth contribution to the creation of a Cirque du Soleil show.

"Through the diversity of my designs, I was affirming the distinct personality of each character for ZAIA,” says Nathalie. “At the same time, I wanted to establish certain ‘family’ resemblances to reflect the fact that they belong to different communities. Some artists are playing several roles, and that posed real challenges in terms of quick changes. That’s why I used natural-looking skin-colored masks that allow the artist to add or remove elements as the show requires. "

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 ).