Swinging through the air some 10 metres above ground performing twists and somersaults may seem daunting to some, but not to Noé Robert (27). As a professional swinging trapeze artist his life revolves around performing his best moves for audiences all over the world. He didn’t however grow up dreaming of the trapeze. “I chose trapeze by accident”
Up until about the 1960’s, circus artists commonly learned their craft from their artist parents working in traditional circuses. With the dawn of the contemporary circus, professional circus schools emerged, and circus enthusiasts without slackrope-walking or juggling ancestry could learn the trade.
Noé Robert took this particular path to run away with the circus. His very active childhood prepared him for the rigors of circus school: “I went to a secondary school (an ‘École de Culture Générale’) in Switzerland that offered the usual curriculum combined with extra time for arts or sports. Instead of choosing one discipline, as is common, I took two: dance and circus. Besides my regular classes I trained classical ballet and modern dance in the mornings and worked on circus techniques in the afternoons. On top of that I was competing in the national division in gymnastics (tumbling) and trained most evenings.”
Despite this arts-oriented upbringing Noé never aimed for a professional career in any of these fields. He wanted to be an interior and exterior designer – for the holiday season only, that is. As his education progressed, however, he came to realise his love for circus. After graduating, he auditioned for several circus schools in France. During one of the auditions, while having no experience in this particular discipline, he expressed an interest in swinging trapeze. After some trials, the school’s judges disappointingly gave him their verdict: the trapeze just wasn’t for him.
ENC
By then, however, young Noé had his eyes set firmly on the trapeze and applied for the famed École Nationale de Cirque in Montréal instead. This world-famous school has been home to many of Cirque du Soleil’s professional artists. At ENC, the selection committee were very impressed with his capabilities. They saw his potential for… swinging trapeze! And so, Noé’s trapeze training began in earnest.
Life at one of the world’s top circus schools wasn’t easy. The students got taught multiple physical disciplines from about 9 am in the morning to 6 pm at night, with additional theoretical subjects taught during evening hours. “My trapeze coach, Elena Fomina, liked to work early in the morning, so most days my trapeze classes would start at 8.30 am. To be physically prepared for the work, I had to get in early to warm up. I often got up at 6.30 am to get to school in time.” Being very ambitious, a full week of intense training just wasn’t enough for the young trapeze artist. He made a habit of working on Saturdays too, taking classes with renowned trapeze coach Viktor Fomine at his trapeze studio, École Leotard.
Although there is a lot of pressure on ENC students to excel, Noé says his year was, after some initial troubles, exceptionally supportive of one another. “We started out feeling very competitive. There were many of us practicing the same disciplines, which adds to the pressure to outdo each other. After about 6 months we realised that we were going to make our lives a living hell if we continued this way and the atmosphere changed a great deal. I am very grateful for the support we gave each other, because it brought out the best in everybody, both physically and artistically. I still keep in touch with many of my former classmates.”
Travel
In this profession, travel is almost a given. Performers travel the world when on tour with their companies, but also to find work. Noé has been to – amongst others - Canada, the USA, Hungary, Finland, China, Sweden and Mexico in pursuit of his passion. Getting on a plane much like we would catch a bus, travel has become one of the few reliable constants in his life: “It doesn’t feel like travel anymore, it’s more like a permanent state of being. Whether I wake up in France, China or Spain, my morning routine is the same.” Does he still like to travel? “It does get tiring at times. I sometimes wonder whether I would prefer to settle down somewhere. I get to see wonderful places, but I’m always in ‘work mode’; I don’t travel for pleasure very much.”
"You need to be a very stable person to be a trapeze artist"
Performing trapeze around the world is hard on both body and mind. “There are so many variables; travelling to different countries, the uncertainties of the work I do in the air, being responsible for both my own safety and others’… you need to be a very stable person to keep this up. Staying calm and balanced from within is essential.”
In order to remain in good shape for the trapeze work, Noé is very disciplined when it comes to training: “I like to train in the mornings, perhaps because it’s become a habit after my time at ENC. On a training day I wake up very early. I like to cycle to the training studio; it takes me about an hour, so it’s also a good warm up. I usually train about an hour and a half, or two - five days a week. On specific days I add physical preparation to this; strength training, and form and timing exercises. I also work on my flexibility.”
Performance days, on tour, are different: “When I perform I like to sleep in, since I usually perform late at night. When possible, I like to have a short training session in the afternoon. Afterwards I go out into the city for a bit, to relax and have a change of scene. I get back to the performance venue about three to four hours before my performance to check my rigging (the installation of the trapeze, red.) and consult with the director or crew if needed. I then start doing my stage make-up, which, since it’s very elaborate, takes a long time. After I finish my make-up I warm up and get ready for the show. I don’t have any special rituals; I guess that with all the different circumstances I work in, I can’t really afford to. I do however take some time to focus on my act, because I need to be very concentrated when I go up.”
Inspiring others
Right after Noé received his degree from Montréal, he got invited by the Academy for Circus and Performance Art in Tilburg (NL) to teach. “I’ve always been involved with helping others progress, even back when I was a boy in tumbling class. When I started in Tilburg, however, I hadn’t ever taught swinging trapeze at a high level. It was quite funny, since most of my students were my age or older than me.” It became something he enjoyed doing: “I discovered that I liked teaching very much and received a lot of positive feedback. I’ve been invited back many times since then and teach in various other schools, too.”
It's like riding a bike (but not quite)
To excel in this discipline, you need to be physically fit and mentally alert. Since the discipline is so demanding, getting back into it after a period of rest can be hard. Noé: “Whenever I haven’t trained for a while, because I’ve been away teaching for example, getting back isn’t easy. I am now at a place where my techniques; the actual moves I do, are quite solid: like you would remember how to ride a bike. The strength to execute those moves, and the stamina to keep doing them one after another, take most work. I always beat myself up after a break for letting it slide! The longest time I ever went without training was about three months, I think. But it’s tough every time.” Laughing: “Oh well, you cry for about a week, and then you’re back to normal.”
Noé states that swinging trapeze is a very ‘balanced’ discipline for the body, compared to many other circus arts: “You need strength, spatial awareness and flexibility. Some disciplines focus mainly on the muscular development of the upper body or extreme flexibility. In trapeze you have to have it all: you need power and stamina to push the swing high, while executing the moves takes excellent core and upper body strength. Good flexibility is essential too, because you need to be able to move freely when performing specific manoeuvres.”
Risks
Besides all this, there is also the very real danger of falling, whether it be falling to the floor or missing a ‘trick’ and hitting the trapeze bar. Swinging trapezists generally work with a longe: a belt that goes round their waist, attached to a rope that goes up to the bar above them and attaches to the floor with a bungee (a bunch of thick elastics, red). This way the actual danger of falling to the floor is diminished, but not gone: it’s one of the reasons why trapezists are always very careful to inspect their equipment before going up.
The danger of missing a move and hitting the bar or falling into the longe with great speed, is also a factor to take into consideration. There isn’t one trapezist out there that hasn’t been bruised and scratched by their beloved equipment. This is why most trapeze artists work with a longer, a person holding the longe rope from the floor, guiding them through transitions and softening the blow when they fail to catch the bar. Still, many artists have fractured ribs, or worse, falling into the longe or hitting the 8 kg metal bar they normally swing from at great speed. Noé knows these dangers all too well: “I took a bad fall once, and my longer didn’t respond in time. I hit the bar and broke two vertebrae as a result.” It didn’t stop him from getting back in the air. “While injured, my main concern was when I could go up again. Not training was frustrating, but the worst was not knowing how it would be when I got back.”
Clearly, a good relationship between longer and trapezist is very important. Noé: “I have worked with several different longers in my career. It’s always difficult with a new person, especially having to direct them while you are on the trapeze instead of next to them. They have to follow your moves very closely. After all these years though, I have become quite confident in what I do and I know what to expect. Nowadays, when I work with someone new they are often more nervous about the big tricks than I am!” Working with a longer is also one of the things that makes this a complex profession: “You don’t just have yourself to worry about on tour, you also need to take care of your longer. He or she has to be in good shape and tuned in to your moves to perform well.”
Coffee and conversation
The installation for swinging trapeze can take up a floor space of about 15 by 5 meters. This, plus the necessary minimum height of about 10 meters and the extensive technical set up that needs to process the extreme forces put upon it, make it a difficult discipline to travel with and rehearse. Noé: “It’s always hard to get enough rehearsal time on stage. I once worked with singer Natalie Dessay for a big gala performance in Paris. Most of the other artists had been practicing for about one and half months before the scheduled performance date. During all that time we only got together for coffee and talked, since we never had the opportunity to practice on stage. We had done only about two proper rehearsals before the big dress rehearsal. Surprisingly, it went amazingly well!”
“It was also the first time that I’ve felt so wonderfully supported by a fellow artist during my performance," Noé remembers. "Natalie is very famous, although I didn’t really realise it at the time, but she’s also a very kind, down-to-earth and professional person. We had such a good connection that working together was a great pleasure. Thanks to this the show turned out to be one of my best performances ever, despite the lack of rehearsal time.”
With the dawn of contemporary circus the focus has shifted from the showcasing of impressive feats to more intimate performances with a storyline connecting the various 'acts'. Noé: "When I perform, I feel close to my audience yet far away from them at the same time. I can play with that, too: focusing my attention on one person or opening up and playing to everyone." What does he want to portray to those people gazing up to him from below? “The story on which I based my act, and the character and storyline I built from there are my guideline. I keep them deliberately vague, because my audience doesn’t necessarily need to recognize that story during my act. Watching me, I like them to be impressed by the moves I do and to experience a sense of beauty. What they take away from my performance is completely up to them.”
And while there may be hard times, Noé is convinced that this life is the one he loves best: "I love the feeling of freedom that flying on my trapeze gives me, the adrenaline when I jump, twist and flip... Up there, it feels as if no one can touch me. Performing my act is my 5 minutes of freedom."
To find out where Noé is performing next, have a look at www.noerobert.com
© Photos Noé Robert