Dream a little dream

You go to work in a box, to school in a box. You come home—another box!—to dinner that comes out of a box, to a family busy talking into little boxes, and you sit on the couch and stare at the very loudest box. Life is boxed in, and it feels gray.

Then a man enters. A man with a bowler hat and umbrella. A man without boxes—and without a head.

Surrealist Rene Magritte would approve.

“My role is to come in and stir up the dust,” says Cory Sylvester, a California native and six-year Cirque du Soleil veteran whose head does appear while performing, unlike the profile-challenged title character of Quidam, Cirque du Soleil’s renowned, world-traveling show now in its 16th year of production. “As the mediator between Zoe, the young girl who stars in the show, and the world around her that is about to change, I challenge the audience to think. It’s a gentle smack in the face to consider something different.”

To accomplish this, Sylvester’s entire day is engineered in detail to maximize six very specific minutes. From when to sleep, to what to eat, to how to rehearse, exercise and concentrate, each fickle facet of his schedule has been regimented in the service of one primary goal: improving his solo performance on the German wheel, a spotlight turn that opens the show.

In 1996, when Quidam was founded, then-19-year-old Sylvester sat among the crowds wowed by this story of quiet desperation, imagination and bold rebellion against the status quo. He was most struck by the show’s first performer, who somersaulted, twisted, turned and spun his way through the narrative on a giant double-hoop. Enthralled with the performance, he felt compelled to try it himself.

“It inspired me,” says Sylvester, who had been working in special effects departments on films at the time. “Not unlike Zoe, the wheel performer changed my world. It was a spark.”

Enrolling in the prestigious National Circus School in Montreal, the home of Cirque du Soleil, Sylvester trained for three years before submitting a highlight tape to the famed acrobatics company. To his surprise, Cirque wanted to audition him for one role and one role only, the same one that had inspired him years before.

Dream became reality, and sometimes, Sylvester cannot believe it still.

“I’ll even be on the wheel, in the middle of a performance and realize, ‘Wow, I’m performing with Cirque du Soleil,’” Sylvester says. “That’s how fulfilling this is. But then I have to snap out of that and just focus on what I’m doing.”

After his White Rabbit-like entrance on the German wheel as Zoe’s guide into a wonderland of fantasy and self-expression, Sylvester plays multiple supporting roles in Quidam, just like the other 50-plus performers who breathe life into this interpretive coming-of-age tale.

“There is a wow factor with the acrobatics, the costumes and the music, but Quidam takes you on an emotional journey,” says the show’s artistic director, Fabrice Lemire. “It’s a poetic story, but ultimately, it’s an observation of society, about people transitioning, people growing up and growing out of their comfort zones. It’s about getting people out of their boxes.”

Quidam runs Feb. 22-26 at the Baton Rouge River Center. For tickets and more information visit brrivercenter.com.