Red Man
Allan McCormick is one of "Le Rêve's" "red men" - men who, clad only in long, flowing blood red skirts, perform one of the show's signature numbers in flawless synchronicity. It's a tightly executed, brilliantly choreographed number that combines dance, aerial choreography, and acrobatics - all on a stage surrounded by water.
When he auditioned for "Le Rêve," Allan had a ten-year dance career and nearly a lifetime of gymnastics under his belt but he went into rehearsals with not a smidgeon of aerial or diving experience. Rehearsals, needless to say, were trying. "You can imagine the rehearsal process. Imagine? Being like all together, you have a thirteen-hour day during that creation period and we might've been sometimes eight hours in the water."
"Before, when we trained in Belgium, I had a little bit of trouble just because scuba scared me a little bit. I mean going down deep. I wasn't crazy about diving from high heights, or anything like that, you know...But they trained us so well. We went through circuit training under water and you take your scuba, you breathe, you pull yourself along the rope and you get to the next station and you breathe and keep going."
The training was vital because the scuba is an integral part of the number. "You saw after the Red Man dance, we do that thing into the water and we disappear and we wait for a scuba diver. The scuba diver gives us air and, you know, you're breathing really fast. They take you through these tunnels, these long tunnels, to exit through the back so you don't see us again."
"Just as a side thing that's interesting. You know the tattoos on our foreheads? I had an accident in the tunnel during scuba and I bolted to the surface and I got ten stitches in my head. And we didn't know what to do. I had to go right back in the next night. And somebody suggested, 'Well, why don't we try putting a tattoo on his forehead?' And I was the only one with a tattoo."
But not for long. The tattoo is one more detail that sets the tone for a number that shows the interconnectedness, and appropriateness, of both a masculine and a feminine side. Allan said, "You have the relationship with the girls, which is really intimate and soft and we're very vulnerable at that moment with those women. And then the women leave and we really have a chance to show our power."
"I just feel like it's a surprise, isn't it? I mean, because you see these guys firstly coming out in red skirts so you really don't know what to expect. It's a really strong entrance and then you see them already going into dance and acrobatics immediately, flying in the air. There's all that element to the spinning, the turning and then the girls leaving and the guys doing a really high energy acrobatic dance that exits into the water. They disappear. They don't come back and I think it's a surprise. You expect, 'Oh, is it going to be martial arts?' You have an association with this or that. You don't really know what's going to happen."
That's also what Cherice Barton, Le Rêve's Resident Choreographer, likes about the number. She said, "Stylistically in this show...all of the choreography is done so it looks like a human being dancing, as opposed to a dancer taking a pose. And that's why, if you look at the show, all the guys are very much like men. It's the sheer power of these beautifully, sculpted bodies."
Sculpted bodies that were comfortable with their feet firmly on the ground, not spinning above the stage attached to a simple loop. It gave "spotting" a whole new meaning. Allan said, "I got down the first time and I took off my hand loop and I threw up. I'd just never spun like that and it makes you dizzy."
And he had to learn to gauge the velocity of the spin in order to end up facing front. "You have to land toward the audience on all of those, not toward the center or to the side. It's just practice. You do it over and over again in rehearsals and then you're like, 'Oh, I know where I am.' Before, no, I would never have known where I was. When I landed, it was like I'd be lucky to even have a clue to stand up and be on balance after that."
So, diving...stitches. Aerial work...dizziness. Why do it? Allan said, "I've thought about that a lot. I mean, how often do you really find what you love? How do you find a show that you really love? And for me, this is it."