Rewind to a few months back...

The start of year 2010 I picked up and left Toronto to move to Montreal (thanks for everyone who helped and was supportive!), with a goal to learn French and employment with the newest Cirque du Soleil show Totem. Now 9 months down the road, I'm still trying to learn French but I did have the privilege to work as a dresser on Totem for the past 5.5 months!

in Wardrobe with Tatiana

It was an amazing experience to work during show creation. I started work in mid-March, a hectic time when designers of the show are still coming in and out of the Big Top to make modifications of the show. The costume designer, the assistant and people from the costume shop of headquarters were almost there everyday to do fittings with the artists. It was astonishing to see the effort that was put in to create a show. 

My daily responsibilities as a dresser consisted of: 

• prepare costumes for show (ironing, steaming, preping small details, etc)
• distribute costumes to road cases
• repair and modify costumes
• maintain and clean head pieces, masks, wigs, shoes and costume-props
• help distributing make up to artists (I got to help with airbrushing make up for 2 weeks!)
• run shows (getting artists dress properly, presetting costumes, help artists with quick changes)
• launder costumes

I have learned a lot from working at Cirque, and the even better thing is, it never felt like work to me!! Score!

In July, the show moved to Quebec City and I followed. Quebec is a beautiful, touristic city, people were very friendly and bonus that the area I live in is very trendy, close to the old town and party area, hehehe.

Thanks to Gary's broken pinky finger (Note to self and you lot: do not ask Gary for advice to do a handstand), he came to stay with me for 3 weeks. Fortunately, the weather had been really nice the time we were staying there so we went out often to explore the city.

Genevieve & I loading the Wardrobe truck

My work finished at the end of August. It's been a great pleasure to work with the Wardrobe team on Totem! I will miss the people and the work but it is also time to move on. I am sure we will come across each other again sometime in the future.

Next stop, OVO in Washington!!!

interesting remarks:

all sides of the pedestrian crossing lights turn at the same time at all the intersections.

no Quebecois understand Gary's accent.