Nelson Smyles Interview: Cirque du Soleil Luzia

We catch-up with Australian Nelson Smyles, circus performer of the latest Cirque du Soleil touring Australia with Luzia to talk… well circus arts!

Gymnast, diver, parkourist… How did these skills help you become a professional circus performer?

I think about the journey that I took while I was learning them from gymnastics as a kid to high diving as a teenager, and then when I got too big to do gymnastics. Parkour and freerunning got me into a much more less rigorous way of learning acrobatics. So that journey from strict structure for competition to developing movements because I think they’re interesting, coupled with when I went to the National Institute of Circus Arts in Melbourne were all the things that I needed to start my journey in circus and deep diving.

What advice would you give to up and coming circus performers?

Fall in love with failure. I think I would go to school everyday and try to screw up the trick that I was doing so much that I knew exactly how to do it wrong so that I could go from doing it wrong to doing it right.

How did the amazing NICA (National Institute of Circus Arts) help fine-tune your skills?

I would be nothing without NICA! I think the coaches, the space and that I was allowed to do NICA supported me quite a bit – it also made hoop diving and clowning a fun experience. As a result, I never went into NICA dreading the hour of training. I would always go in thinking, today’s going to be a good day and my coaches always had my back. I love what I do!

In your last year of your circus arts degree, you sent a video of your skills to various circus companies across the world in order to start your professional career, what was it like hearing back from Cirque du Soleil and being offered a contract?

I can still remember it clear as day. I woke up one early morning to go to school and I think it was winter, too. So I was getting up and I was freezing when I checked my phone and I had an email from Cirque du Soleil that said “Hey, we have a position available early next year for a hoop diver and the understudy for the clown. I showed it to all my housemates and I said “This is spam, right?”. They said  “Just in case it’s not, make sure you send something back”, so I sent my availability to them and then I didn’t hear anything for 11 weeks.

I said, Okay, so it must have been spam. And then I woke up another morning and I’d gotten the job! I showed everyone, and we celebrated. We were all super excited. When I went to school next, someone asked me “What are you going to do next year?” And I said, I actually got accepted into Cirque du Soleil this morning and they said, “Oh, yeah, I bet you did”.

So tell us a little about LUZIA and how we will be wowed and bedazzled in Melbourne?

The show perfectly represents Mexico. I can still remember touring Mexico with the show and seeing everything in Mexico that is perfectly represented in the show. Other things that make Luzia so special is the combination of water in a big top show. The Rain Turn is one of my favorite characters to play with when I do the understudy role for the clown, and it also makes for incredible spectacles during other acts.

Tell us a little about your “character” and what kind of circus skills do you use in the performance of LUZIA?

The Hummingbird is one of the characters of the hoop diving act. They are the reincarnated souls of the fallen warrior in Mexican culture. When it comes to me and the team, we are just as close as those that would have been in that situation way back when in Mexican culture. I love them like they’re my family, and I believe that the love that we share is visible on stage. We have so much fun doing what we do. We are so creative every moment that we see that there’s a bit of empty space. We fill it with skills or connection and I think it carries through the entire show with me and my team.

What are you most looking forward to bringing LUZIA to your hometown?

For my grandma to see it.

With so much happening in many Cirque du Soleil performances, what advice would you give the audience?

Take a step back from everything that’s going on in your life. That’s what a circus performance is for, for you to be able to just remove yourself from everything that’s going on in your day-to-day and be transported somewhere else. With Luzia, it’s so easy to do with the music, the lights, the characters, the artists, the technicians, everybody that’s involved which makes a very immersive experience for you to just take a second and let go and enjoy yourselves for two hours.

For more information, visit: www.cirquedusoleil.com