Man on a Wire

“I cannot have a bad day,” said Fabrice Lemire, artistic director for Cirque du Soleil’s production of Varekai, which will occupy the Baton Rouge River Center stage the week of March 12—16.

It’s true that most would find it difficult to get caught in the doldrums if they too spent their waking lives amidst the astonishing pageantry and gymnastic feats of Cirque du Soleil. But Lemire isn’t boasting.

Born in Paris, Lemire began dancing at the Paris Opera Ballet School at the age of three. At age sixteen, he graduated from the Conservatoire National, and by nineteen, he was a principal dancer. He left dancing at age thirty, but not due to any physical decline: “As a dancer, I was very self-interested, very self-motivated.”

In a graceful move befitting his background, Lemire opted out of the spotlight. “I was more interested in choreography—giving my own vision to others and seeing how they developed it.”

Varekai—which means “wherever” in the Romani language—first debuted in 2002, billing itself as “an acrobatic tribute to the nomadic soul.” When Lemire came aboard as artistic director in 2012, his job was not to build from the ground up but to keep Varekai moving forward.

In overseeing this vast touring show, a person in Lemire’s position conducts his own balancing act. It’s a technical marvel that keeps the myriad components of a production afloat: over fifty stage artists, a crew charged with their success and safety, and dozens of others integral to making this imaginative world—one in which high-flying Icarus crash-lands in the midst of a lurid and exotic forest—into a reality.

So when Lemire insists that his days are rosy, he’s speaking of a deliberate strategy. With a production of this magnitude, there is no room for ego or pride. Not from the artist twirling mid-air. Not from the technical operator hoisting him or her aloft. And certainly not from the man who stands at the center of it all.

“You need to be ready and available for anything. You need to be ready for any kind of surprises,” said Lemire.

Beyond providing a sturdy dam to artistic temperaments, Lemire is charged with keeping the production fresh and innovative. “It can’t always be a traditional circus,” he said. “Technology today is a big deal.”

One technological advantage on which the show relies is automation, the backstage cues that create “magic” for the audience. But automation doesn’t mean “autopilot.” The execution of these cues demands open communication between the backstage crew and the onstage artists as they respond to each other’s actions. “It’s a dialogue from beginning to end,” said Lemire.

“This relationship needs to work while touring,” he explained. The close proximity of the employees from week-to-week could make for a messy, dramatic heap of a production, but Lemire’s open-door policy helps to quell tensions.

As for the show itself—Lemire must maintain the “cool,” so to speak, of a twelve-year-old production. And his philosophy applies to not only the refining of Varekai, but also artist negotiations, touring, and a creative existence as a whole.

“You have to shift it to keep it alive.”

Varekai runs at the Baton Rouge River Center from March 12—16. brrivercenter.com.