It’s a good job Agnès Soheir loves heights. After all, when she appears during Cirque du Soleil she does so high above the crowd, suspended in a very comfortable harness, doing what she loves most: singing. And it isn’t just normal singing – it’s no pop song or power ballad or even operatic aria. Instead she sings in an invented language, one through which words have no meaning and intention becomes everything.
‘It’s based on sounds and onomatopoeia,’ Soheir said of the songs that she sings as L’Âme Force, the larger than life vocalists who literally oversee and drive the blinding momentum of Cirque’s latest offering, Dralion. ‘But it’s just sounds so you don’t have to follow any musical lines.
‘Personally it gives me a lot of freedom because depending on what mood I’m in and how my body feels and how my mind feels or whatever a state I am in – I can put any intent into it because there are no words essentially. It’s a language so I can give it any mood I want, because it’s a vehicle for the feeling to travel through. So if I want to give it the feeling of happiness or sadness or joy I can do that, because the intention that goes in it goes through the word.’
Soheir appears as one of two vocalists who both play L’Âme Force, a quintessential ‘fifth element’ who connect the other four elements who appear in the show. ‘The show is based on the four elements: fire, earth, air, water,’ said Soheir. ‘We are kind of the power. We connect them. We give them power. We’re very ancient and old and like sages. We are omnipotent and wise.’
The show itself is a fusion of the East and West, hence the name Dralion – it’s a morphology of ‘dragon’ symbolising Eastern influences, and ‘lion’, which represents the West. And just as the title is a fusion, so the content of the show brings together unique aspects of differing world cultures, the result a visual feast that is a testament to human capacity. Music, foot juggling, rope skipping and even a ballet which takes place on a bed of light globes are just a few of the feats Cirque du Soleil offers up this year.
But for Soheir – who has been a part of Dralion for nearly 10 years now – the opportunity to run away with the circus came unexpectedly. ‘I had been working as a back-up singer in Montreal for 15 years and they called me because the singer – there was only one male singer in the production before they called me – had unfortunately lost his voice a week after the premiere because he had been working so much. So they called me because as a back up singer you have to learn words quickly. And so it just went on and on and 10 years later here I am.’
Dralion will be running on Perth’s Esplanade with the season extended until March 25. Tickets to all shows are available now through www.cirquedusoleil.com.
Scott-Patrick Mitchell
