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 Cirque du Solo - After groups such as Cirque du Soleil, Anais Guimond makes her own way June 27, 2002 By Skana Gee - The Daily News She flies through the air with the greatest of ease, she’s the daring young … Oh no, she’s falling to the ground. No, she’s back up. For Anais Guimond, work is a series of ups and downs. And backs and forths. Not to mention spins, pirouettes, twists and flips. You see, she’s a bungee-trapeze artist. “On my equipment, I feel secure — if you ask me to go up a ladder, no way!” laughs the Quebec City acrobat, who now lives in Halifax. A lifelong gymnast, athlete and actor, Guimond has been perfecting her circus act since 1995, when she was introduced to the field by a now-former boyfriend. Her professional debut came the next year with a troupe known as Elastics Gymnastics, at an outdoor venue where she was perched 12-metres above the ground (usually, she’s up about seven metres). Since then, she’s trained and performed across North America — including a nine-month stint with Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas — eventually returning to her home province, where she opened a training studio. Guimond also honed a solo show, performing an elegant yet energetic routine — complete with stunning costumes — at conventions and fairs before joining two permanent cabarets. All the rage in Quebec, the clubs blend dance, song, acrobatics, magic and even opera for a flamboyant night on the town. But almost two years ago, after doing 600 shows over a three-year period, Guimond was ready for a change. She attended an audition for Caribbean Workout, an aerobics show that airs on The Sports Network (TSN), at the urging of a pregnant friend who couldn’t go. “I’d never done aerobics in my life — I’d done sports, but never aerobics,” says Guimond. She followed officials’ instructions to “keep your smile and have fun” and got hired for the Barbados-shot program, where she met Cape Breton-born cameraman Patrick Doyle. Their romance prompted her to relocate to metro, where she snagged a “continuity” role on Made in Canada. “I always tell myself things happen for a reason — you have to take a chance,” says Guimond, who lives with Doyle and their dog in Fairview. She makes her local bungee-trapeze debut at the Nova Scotia International Tattoo, staging a three-minute “flash” of bungee-trapeze ballet that’s bound to leave the audience salivating for more. “It’s an amazing exposure for me,” she says. “I put people in the mood — it’s like mystery.” Indeed, just watching her practise at Titans Gymnastics Centre in Dartmouth — which has given her free space — is a thrill, her moves a combination of grit and grace. After the gruelling session, Guimond is panting, with welts on her hips from the safety harness. But she loves it. So much, in fact, that she plans to open her own school for circus arts, Atlantic Cirque, in September. Guimond believes Halifax — host of the popular International Buskers Festival each summer — is ripe for this endeavour, the first of its kind in the region. She’ll teach aerial skills (trapeze, circle, cube) acrobatics, high wire, contortion, Chinese poles, trampoline, human pyramids and the like, to youth ages six to 17, as well as offering adult classes and even corporate retreats. (Ironically, she won’t be teaching her own specialty, because bungee-trapeze is so time and labour intensive). Participants need enthusiasm more than any special skill, insists Guimond. She, however, needs investors and sponsors willing to grab onto a trend that has picked up speed elsewhere — Montreal alone has half a dozen circus schools, Guimond notes. Part of the problem here is a misconception about what “circus” means, she admits. “People think lions, tigers, fire, clowns and whipped-cream pie. That’s not what I’m doing — this is the performing arts.”
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