Staying In The Hoop

21 October 2014 | 5:31 pm | Paul Ransom

Cirque du Soleil returns to Oz this summer with another spectacular; this time on the theme of evolution.

Cirque du Soleil returns to Oz this summer with another spectacular; this time on the theme of evolution. One of the stars of Totem tells Paul Ransom about Native American hoop dances and dropping out of college to tour the world.   

If you were ever going to consider dropping out of college to run away with the circus, you could hardly choose a better big top than the famous, globe-trotting blue and yellow grand chapiteau of Quebec’s Cirque du Soleil.

Thus it was for a young Californian-born sociology student named Eric Hernandez. One day studying hard, the next packing his bags to tour the world with Cirque’s latest juggernaut – the Robert Lepage-directed spectacle Totem.

However, rather than being a straightforward ‘plucked from obscurity’ story, Hernandez’s 2011 switch from undergrad to circus performer came via a curious collision of the ancient and the modern. Cirque casting had seen Hernandez on YouTube performing a traditional Lumbee Indian hoop dance. Three years and more than 750 shows later, he and 44 other acrobats, dancers and singers have landed in Australia for yet another Cirque summer down under.

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For Hernandez though, the real beauty of the story isn’t so much his own trajectory as the hoop dance and the Lumbee culture that underscores it. For though born in Covina, California, Hernandez’s ancestry traces back to the North Carolina-based Lumbee tribe. “I learned the dance from my uncle when I was about ten years old and I’ve been doing it since then,” he explains. “It tells a story about the different plants and animals and how they relate to humans, and that kind of ties it in with the theme of Totem.”

Created by legendary Canadian film and theatre director Robert Lepage, Totem is ostensibly about evolution. It tracks human life from the primordial ponds to the sky and places our journey within the broader context of nature. Much like Ovo (which toured Australia last summer) and their much touted Avatar tie-in, The hoop dance itself is a traditional wedding ceremony. According to Hernandez, “The hoop represents the wedding band. In the show it appears right before the roller skaters, who are in a wedding scene, so for me it’s cool that the dance has retained its true spirit in the show.”  

Indeed, Cirque has not only revived the circus but helped to weld together the disciplines of dance, music and acrobatics in a way that satisfies not simply the aesthetics of the family friendly arena but the genuinely artistic and philosophical ambitions of creatives like Totem’s director Robert Lepage. For one time sociology student and proud Lumbee descendant Eric Hernandez, it has also been a ticket to the world. As he explains it, “We get to perform for thousands of people every night and I can get to share this dance and this culture that I’ve been doing since I was a kid with the whole world.” 

Sydney: 28 Oct — 4 Jan 2015, Under The Big Top at the Entertainment Quarter
Melbourne: 21 Jan — 15 Feb, Flemington Racecourse 
Brisbane: 10 — 26 April, Under The Big Top at the Northshore Hamilton
Adelaide: 11 June — 5 July, The Plateau in Tampawardii
Perth: 31 July — 16 Aug, Belmont Racecourse