Last week I attended the EIC hosted by University of North Carolina School for the Arts (UNCSA) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. They brought together specialists from Cirque du Soleil, their technical support vendors Stage Technologies, Philips Vari-Lite, CooLux, CM Entertainment Hoists, and Meyer Sound, and business partners Carnival Cruise Lines.

What happened was both magic and the revealing of the magic. Cirque staff pulled back the curtain and exposed attendees to a wide variety of workshop sessions that delved into the inner workings of the company. There were simultaneous classes held in a variety of venues including the many stages, shops, and classrooms available at UNCSA. This is small campus tucked in near downtown, but they have many venues both on and off campus, that allow them to teach all aspects of the performing and visual arts to a very focused student body. This isn’t one college within a larger university – the entire school is about the arts.

It takes a large and coordinated effort to host an event like this, and the UNSCA staff and students pulled it off with nary a hitch. Sessions started on-time, and were well presented and informative. You couldn’t attend a session without walking away a smarter person. This was the third year for the event and it was dominated by attendees from UNCSA (it was mandatory for many of the students). All of the attendees from other schools or businesses were made welcome and invited to join in with the social happenings after each day’s sessions. The French General Napoleon Bona Parte is credited with the observation that “An army marches on its stomach,” and the food supplied to attendees met that requirement well. No one went hungry. I also must say that the student body at this school was one of the most professional groups I’ve ever met. Polite, attentive, and on their game.

They call it Show Business, and cirque du soleil treats it that way, but has a light-hearted outlook and a serious skill set they want you to have if you make the cut to join their family. Every track of the program emphasized the need to come to them well-trained, but ready to forget everything and (re)learn the Cirque way anew. Training to work for them usually takes about three months before you see live show action, and a large part of that training is related to safety. All of the workshop sessions emphasized that, and the Health & Safety track spent the entire three days going into the details and nature of their program.

The Stage Operations and Management track looked at work that the backstage crews provide to get the performers on and off stage on-cue. There was a very candid session about differences between working traveling shows and single-venue shows.

The folks from Stage Technologies provided a look at the latest in machinery automation cue consoles and hoists. Hands-on training for those interested was provided. Later in the conference a group of us took a tour of UNCSA’s Automation and Mechanics Lab. This is an amazing facility that provides hands-on training in electrical, electronic, mechanical, pneumatic, and hydraulic systems used in theatre productions. They have a vast library of hoists, controllers, and test-beds to let the students dig into the inner workings of stage automation. Backing-up the Automation Lab is a full machine shop to bend, drill, press, cut, weld, and form just about any material. When you come out of their program you will be a skilled machinist as well as a ‘putter together of things that are magical and safe.” They take their automation seriously here, so studying the European SIL-3 machinery safety standard is part of the program.

The audio guru’s from Meyer Sound started-out slow and ramped-up fast getting the students to build software based control panels for iPhones, iPads, and laptop computers so that just about any imaginable sound mixing, cueing, or routing scenario could be laid out and implemented. By the time the class was over on Saturday, there was 3D audio whizzing around the studio.

The Rigging classes ranged from knot tying to performer rescue and a wide range in between. The session on basic hardware covered both conventional stage rigging bits and pieces to more complex sailboat and mountaineering devices that Cirque has found useful in the many different applications they have. The common theme throughout the event was borrowing knowledge and technologies from other disciplines and applying them to show production.

A very popular set of classes involved donning climbing harnesses and rappelling off of the high bay catwalk in the vast scene shop in the Design & Production building. No safety nets or crash pads were used – you had to do it right or risk the consequences! Many students hung around (pun intended) and ran the rappelling drop repeatedly. Below, Mike Peters demonstrates a rope rescue procedure while dangling from the Scene Shop roof.

There were far more classes offered than one could attend, so you have to “Choose wisely, Grasshopper.” Students were encouraged to attend sessions that were outside their core curriculum so that they would be exposed to different perspectives and possibilities.

CooLux and the Cirque staff ran a track of sessions about media servers, video projection, and synchronizing all this to the rest of the show.

Presentations were also provided by Carnival Cruise Lines that discussed working in the Cruise Ship industry. It’s much more than just not getting sea-sick while you work. The tight confines of a ship and the inability to call a repair man make for some very interesting logistics.

Phillips Vari-Lite let the students see the man behind the curtain, too, with all the magic exposed inside the VL series lights and some in-depth look at color mixing technologies.

There were also sessions that addressed the performer opportunities, wigs, costumes, and make-up, and prop construction. The equipment that Cirque designs must be engineered to last through thousands of shows, so building-in the durability and maintainability from the beginning is a must.

The classes change each year to keep the event interesting for the students that attend the school, so more and different programming will be lined-up for next year. Guest from anywhere are welcome, and there were a few that came in from as far west as Texas. If you are considering applying for work with Cirque, are looking for a good great College to attend, or just want to know more about how the other half lives, get this event on your calendar for 2012 and beyond. http://eic.uncsa.edu It’s just a plane ride away.

Each evening the crew from CooLux and Meyer Sound put up a giant movie screen in the outdoor commons area and everyone watched Cirque du Soleil shows Alegria and La Nouba in High Definition under the stars. WOW. The next best thing to being there.