High Life - Roll Up! Roll Up!
September 2004

Ever fancied joining the circus? Now there’s a neighbourhood worth running away to.

Members of travelling circuses might say that society sees them as a pariah group banished to the edges of town; a freak show to move on quickly after the performance; rabble-rousers living in caravans who don’t bother to wash.

So how’s this for some postmodern marketing? Let’s buy a piece of land on the outskirts of town -- a rubbish dump, in fact. Let’s get cutting edge architects and some government subsidies, and let’s build an empire. And, at the same time, let’s get rid of the stink.

It may sound like the kind of impossible feat that circuses are famous for, like super strong men, or heads-in-tigers’-jaws. But Montreal pulls it off.

The city has long been a training ground for artists learning to eat fire, juggle and defy gravity; ten years ago, Cirque du Soleil chose the poor immigrant district of St-Michel to build its C$37m (£15m) training studios. It needed to build big, and the price of land was a fraction of that downtown. The fact that it was on North America’s second biggest landfill just added to the allure. ‘At the time, St-Michel was the dump of Montréal,’ says Gaétan Morency of Cirque du Soleil. ‘Now, it’s a Silicon Valley of circus arts.’

Canada’s National Circus School chose the same toxic site for its expanded offices. It is also base to the visionary Cirque Éloize and numerous troupes involved in street performance, jazz, dance and comedy. With all this potential employment in one place, Montreal fast became the destination of choice for anyone wanting to join the circus.

But for the residents of St-Michel, the world’s circus capital was just glossy buildings behind high walls. The mostly Haitian and Asian immigrant community, who lived in subsidised housing around the perimeter of the rubbish dump, would never have the chance to see a Cirque du Soleil show; after all, the troupe that’s performed for various heads of state and more than 42 million people is in such demand, they’re rarely at home.

In the past, you would have been sorely disappointed if you came to Montréal looking for so much as a big top. The city may be undisputed training ground for circus artists but actual performances are thin on the ground. However, the circus is coming back to town.

This month, Tohu -- a hub for circus artists, incubator for new productions and host of several performance spaces -- unveils its new centrepiece, the Chapiteau des Arts, a 1,700-seat big top, complete with Canada’s first circular stage designed for circus arts. Built with a $10m grant from the Quebec government, it will host some of the world’s most extraordinary acrobats.

The origin of the name Tohu is a Hebrew phrase describing the chaotic initial state of the universe. St-Michel would be a good setting. The district makes the paper every day for the wrong reason: gangland violence, armed theft, drug trafficking. Rubbish is still dumped here daily, and that contract has many more years to run.

But with the backing of Cirque du Soleil and others, the future looks greener. Their out-of-the-box thinking and big bucks are transforming the huge, festering tip with new buildings that use recycled materials and innovative heating systems. A neighbouring plant collects methane gas released from the rotting rubbish and converts it into electricity. The orchards and vegetable gardens supply the canteen. Over the next 15 years, St Michel will be further improved with 200 acres of parkland with five kilometres of scenic cycleways.

It’s the sort of grand projet they can carry off in bilingual, multicultural Montreal. The French-Canadian city cleverly blends arcane European humour with North American bigger-is-better ambition. It is the kind of intellectual environment that helps give rise to shows like Cirque du Soleil’s Quidam, whose symbol was a headless man representing modern isolation, inspired by René Magritte. Hardly stuff for kids. But then throw in some excruciating contortionist positions to make the crowd “Ooh!” and “Aah!”, and you might just have created the greatest ahow on earth.