El
ahora retirado co-fundador y cabeza creativa del Cirque du Soleil, Gilles
Ste-Croix y su esposa, Monique Voyer, promueven el desarrollo de los niños del
pueblo a través de un Circo Social.
El Cirque du Soleil está en venta. TPG Capital, una empresa de capital de riesgo, es la que manda ahora.
Una
vergüenza que el Cirque du Soleil, se asocie con el Grupo VIDANTA (Mayan
Palace), un depredador conocido.
The
rising son of Cirque du Soleil in SAN PANCHO, Bahía de Banderas, NAYARIT.
CIRCO
de los NIÑOS: Now retired from Cirque du Soleil, Gilles Ste-Croix, and his
wife, Monique Voyer, have set up a circus school for children in San Francisco,
a Mexican beachfront village in the state NAYARIT *.
______________________
In an old warehouse in a tiny town on Mexico’s
Pacific coast, Cirque du Soleil co-founder Gilles Ste-Croix is holding tightly
scheduled rehearsals before the launch of his latest production.
Like Cirque’s shows in Las Vegas, it features
skilful acrobats, daring trapeze artists, stilt walkers and jugglers. The
difference? All the performers are local children.
“When I see a kid who can walk on stilts the first
time, the smile on his face is incredible,” says Ste-Croix, 65, who retired
from Cirque du Soleil last year. “I wish this had happened to me when I was 8
years old.”
Ste-Croix, who has a house in San Francisco — a
bohemian beach town in NAYARIT, México, known locally as San Pancho — raided
Cirque du Soleil’s warehouses for old rigging and costumes for his Circo de los
Niños. He badgered friends for professional lighting and projection gear. And
he spends $50,000 (US) a year on the project.
The circus school started four years ago when 40
children signed up for the first show. It now has a permanent home in the
renovated Bodega Circo warehouse where more than 70 children aged 8 to 17 learn
acrobatics, juggling and trapeze.
“The children are learning what is theatre. If
they’re going to juggle alone in the yard back home, it’s very different to
going on stage, doing it in front of people,” says Ste-Croix.
Stilts and tentacles
At the warehouse, the doors are painted in red and
yellow big top stripes. Inside, dozens of children with painted faces wiggle
into leotards or edge along a low-hung tightrope backstage before the first
performance. Families line up outside under mango trees for the best seats.
A clown serenades them on an accordion as children
on stilts stalk the yard in pink costumes sprouting tentacles. A comedy duo
featuring a woman in a flamenco dress and a man with a rapper’s heavy gold
chains entertains the crowd.
People are still squeezing along rows of chairs
inside as the show opens to a man beating a bass drum behind a screen projected
with flames. A young girl in a green feathered costume climbs and spins on a
thick rope topped with a huge rose.
The audience whoops and cheers through the acts,
which includes boys backflipping and girls creating silhouettes on the trapeze
or in synchronized aerial hoop routines. Seven people balance on a bicycle to
circumnavigate the stage before the grand finale involving the whole cast.
“Hell yeah, I was nervous,” said Nicte, 14, who
balanced on the tightrope and bicycle in the show. “You get used to shows but
you still get those nerves when you’re going to go on stage and that crowd is
out there. It’s incredible, it’s actually addictive.”
Many, like 10-year-old Natalia who performed the
opening and closing rope act, have their hearts set on circus careers.
“It was so exciting but before the show I had
butterflies in my stomach I was so nervous,” she said. “I want to be in Cirque
du Soleil, doing acrobatics or maybe trapeze. I just want to be there.”
Ste-Croix, who founded Cirque du Soleil with Guy
Laliberté in 1984, says a handful of the children have the drive and talent to
eventually join a major circus school, if they push themselves.
“When I was 12, I wanted my father to give me the
money to buy a bass as I wanted to be Paul McCartney, and he never gave it to
me. He said, ‘You’re going to go and play in the pubs, it’s not the life I want
for you,’ ” says Ste-Croix.
Meet the Beatles
It wasn’t until he was in his 30s, after abandoning
a career as an architect and a job in theatre, that he started the Quebec
street performance group that eventually morphed into Cirque du Soleil.
Now a huge business currently running 18
productions, it generated close to $1 billion (US) in revenues last year.
Cirque’s first theme park is in the pipeline for Puerto Vallarta, an hour south
of San Pancho.
Helping create The Beatles LOVE show for Cirque,
Ste-Croix says, was the pinnacle of his career. He worked with legendary
producer George Martin at London’s Abbey Road Studios — and met McCartney.
“Of course I told him (about his childhood
fixation), and McCartney said, ‘How many kids wanted to be me?’ We became good
friends after that,” recounts Ste-Croix.
“After that show, I said, ‘What am I going to do
next?’ I’d done the thing I wanted to do in life.”
How would his life have been different had his dad
bought him a guitar? “I’d probably be a bum!”.
________________
*Story
originally published by Sophie Hares, Special to the (Toronto) Star, on Mon
Apr. 20 2015: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2015/04/20/the-rising-son-of-cirque-du-soleil.html
Private Equity will now call the shots at Cirque du Soleil. A good thing Gilles
Ste-Croix retired last year.
A
shame that Cirque du Soleil associates itself with the VIDANTA Group (Mayan
Palace), a well- known predator.
Cirque
du Soleil en venta. TPG Capital, una empresa de capital de riesgo, es la que
manda ahora.
Según
fuentes conocedoras de la situación, en el consorcio liderado por TPG, también participa
la compañía china Fosun Capital Group. El fondo canadiense de pensiones Caisse
de Dépôt et Placement du Québec estudia sumarse (1).
Cirque
du Soleil.
Todo
comenzó en Baie-Saint-Paul, un pueblo pequeño cerca de la ciudad de Quebec, en
Canadá. A principios de 1980, un grupo de personajes coloridos deambulaba por
las calles en zancos, haciendo malabares, bailando, tragando fuego y tocando
música. Eran Les Échassiers de Baie-Saint-Paul (los caminadores sobre zancos de
Baie-Saint-Paul), un grupo de artistas callejeros fundado por Gilles Ste-Croix.
Los lugareños estaban impresionados e intrigados por los jóvenes artistas,
entre los que se encontraba Guy Laliberté, quien más tarde fundaría y se
convertiría en presidente del Cirque du Soleil (2).
CIRCO
de los NIÑOS: Cirque Social en San Pancho NAYARIT.
En
2011, el co-fundador de Cirque du Soleil y Guía Creativo, Gilles Ste-Croix, y
su esposa, Monique Voyer, tuvieron un acercamiento con Entreamigos, una ONG que
maneja un Centro Educativo ubicado en el pueblo costero San Francisco, en el
municipio Bahía de Banderas, Nayarit, con la idea de crear un espectáculo
circense con los niños de San Pancho. Con la ayuda de algunos amigos de Canadá,
Cirrus Cirkus, el programa Circo del Mundo de Cirque du Soleil, quienes donaron
el equipo y con la ayuda de cientos de voluntarios locales, el primer
espectáculo de Circo de Los Niños fue presentado en marzo de 2011 como un
evento de recaudación de fondos para Entreamigos.
Hasta
ahora tres espectáculos de 90 minutos fueron diseñados y patrocinados por
Gilles Ste-Croix y Monique Voyer, promoviendo el desarrollo creativo de los
niños del pueblo, ayudándoles a ganar confianza en sí mismo y retar sus
capacidades físicas (3).
Nicole
Swedlow de Entreamigos: “Un regalo increíble,
que el cofundador y guía creativo del Cirque du Soleil Gilles Ste. Croix y su
esposa Monique Voyer hicieron a Entreamigos, a la comunidad y sobre todo a los
niños y niñas de San Pancho “ (4).
Entreamigos
es un Centro Educativo en San Pancho que relaciona culturas y comunidades.
Ofrece oportunidades educativas a niños y familias. Busca descubrir y cultivar su
potencial intelectual, su creatividad y su conciencia de sí mismos.
Grupo
VIDANTA y el Cirque du Soleil.
En
noviembre del año pasado Cirque du Soleil y Grupo VIDANTA anunciaron que quieren desarrollar el primer
parque de atracciones de su clase en Nuevo Vallarta, Bahía de Banderas,
Nayarit, el cual podría incluir un parque acuático y otro eco-turístico donde
se mostrarán shows al aire libre con cupo de 3 mil a 5 mil espectadores y
estaría terminado en 2018 (5).
Es
una vergüenza que el Cirque du Soleil se asocie con un depredador como el Grupo
VIDANTA (Mayan Palace).
El Grupo
VIDANTA (Mayan Palace) se comporta peor que una empresa minera canadiense o
china. Destrucción ambiental irreparable y rotura del tejido social en
Jarretaderas, comunidad aledaña al MAYAN en Nuevo Vallarta, Bahía de Banderas,
NAYARIT (6).
El
patrón del grupo VIDANTA (MAYAN PALACE)
es tapar el ecocidio con Circo (7).
Estaría
bien que los clientes del MAYAN PALACE se fijen a qué precio esta compañía está
“inspirando la felicidad de generaciones de sus clientes”.
Las dos caras de la misma moneda.
Las dos caras de la misma moneda.
NOTAS:
(1) El
fondo de capital privado TPG cierra la compra del Cirque du Soleil: http://economia.elpais.com/economia/2015/04/17/actualidad/1429268046_122224.html
TPG
Capital, anteriormente conocida como Texas Pacific Group es una empresa de
capital riesgo fundada en 1993 por David Bonderman, James Coulter y William S.
Price con sedes en Fort Worth (Texas), San Francisco y Londres. La empresa
recibe su nombre de una antigua empresa ferroviaria: https://tpg.com/
(2) Cirque du Soleil:
https://www.cirquedusoleil.com/es/press/kits/corporate/cirque-du-soleil/creators/ste-croix-gilles.aspx
(3) Circo-de-los-Ninos: http://circodelosninosdesanpancho.mx/es/acerca-del-circo-de-los-ninos
(5) Cirque du Soleil
construirá un parque temático en Nayarit http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2014/11/17/espectaculos/a15n1esp
(6) MAYAN
PALACE (Grupo Vidanta) daña de manera feroz y continua el ecosistema en BAHIA
DE BANDERAS: http://rivieranayaritone.blogspot.mx/2014/08/mayan-palace-grupo-vidanta-dana-de.html
(7) El
patrón del padrón Daniel Chávez Moran, fundador del grupo VIDANTA (MAYAN): TAPAR
EL ECOCIDIO CON CIRCO http://www.quequi.com.mx/2084_portada/2530685_tapan-ecocidio-con-circo.html
Mayan
Palace continúa el ecocidio: http://www.quequi.com.mx/2084_portada/2525638_mayan-palace-continua-el-ecocidio.html
