Navigating Careers
What do dancing, dangerous stunts and eco-tourism have in common? They have Darren Smith, a fast talking entrepreneur who's currently clambering all over the stage in "KÀ," one of Cirque du Soleil's resident shows in Las Vegas.
It all started though, in Australia. Darren grew up in Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia and took ballet, jazz, tap and acrobatics at his mother's dance school. When he turned professional, he toured in "Miss Saigon" and "Cats." "I did the Australian tour, the Asian tour, the German production, the Flemish production. All of 'Cats.' I learned three different languages."
But eventually, he'd had enough. "I had finished 'Miss Saigon' in '98 in Amsterdam. I was doing it over there in Dutch and I flew back to Australia and I worked in bartending for a couple of years. And then I started my own business, the eco-tourism business, with my younger brother...So we basically drive our own boat and take customers on board and take them up to a national park. It's actually going out and showing them stuff in its natural environment...They love the kangaroos."
Darren loved the water and didn't, he said, even particularly miss the dancing. "I quit when I was 24. I didn't want to be one of those dancers that ended up with like destroyed knees, destroyed ankles...I think at that time I reasoned, 'This is a good time to actually give up.' So I gave up and then Cirque du Soleil came back four years later and that was a tough comeback, to start at 28."
"I was driving the boat when I finally got the phone call from Montreal in the middle of a tour. Like, 'Hey, you've got to re-audition in Sydney.' I hadn't done anything for three and a half years so it was a big comeback."
But why consider it at all? He said, "I thought twice about it. I'd just spent all my money starting a business in Australia." Nevertheless, he took the job and spent six months rehearsing in Montreal and then another six months rehearsing on the mammoth stage in Las Vegas and as he describes it, "...'KÀ' has no stage which is normal. It's not much of a platform for dance on most of the show. Otherwise it's Kung Fu related or Wushu related so it's been like an interesting change. Instead of like actually dancing up a storm, you jump off something or fly around."
The main stage is an enormous platform known as the Sand Cliff Deck. It's 25x50 feet and it can tilt from flat to 110°, rotate 360° and travel up or down - all at the same time. And Darren loves the sheer size of the stage. He said, "Actually, I found the rehearsals more frightening. I don't know. I feel pretty much at home in a theater. It's like a bit more comfortable when it's a really big machine. In Montreal, they put you in a, what do you call it here, a cherry picker?...You go up about 35 feet and you've got nothing around you. You're jumping down into an air bag."
But on an 80,000-pound platform, working with cast members from 12 different countries, many of whom speak limited English, even the biggest daredevil needs safeguards. "KÀ" has plenty. "There are stop signs that say, 'You can't move off the stage right now. Keep a 6' clearance.'" The performers all wear earpieces for audio cues and the riggers, continually watching from the grid overhead, use hand signals as a backup.
Darren clearly relishes the challenges and loves being a jack-of-all-trades in the show. "I do the Pipes and Beams, which is the pre-show and then I get changed and I go into the Blizzard scene, which is the mountain tribe people, which involves climbing and flying around, which is some partner work as well, and then I usually shoot into 'Battlefield' at the end, which is on the wall at 80°. I mean that's really the closest thing to dancing you can really get where you've got your feet on the ground. Well not on the ground - on the wall."
Ground, wall, water. It doesn't matter. Each requires work in order to be good. Darren's advice to dancers is to "get into something like a general training program, maybe ballet for your core stuff. You need technique so you've got good technique behind you. I like Pilates which keeps your injuries at bay or keeps you strong before an injury happens. Or even yoga, or something on a general basis for stretching. And at auditions? Don't stand at the back. You've got to be fast. And be really cocky." Take Darren's advice. Learn to navigate the waters and then settle back for the ride of a lifetime.