My mom, being a very artistic person, always tried to take me to any and every concert, dance recital or performance she could. I’ve always appreciated her for keeping me artistically driven throughout my life. I remember when I was six years old my mom wanted to take me to the circus as the previous year we had gone to the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey’s circus at Madison Square Garden.
I remember liking the circus but it never really ‘wowed’ me maybe it was because I was an animal lover or it wasn’t keeping my attention (I was only five years old at the time). So throughout the years, my mom tried to take me to something different every year until I was 10 years old and she’d learned about this brand new circus from my uncle called Cirque Du Soleil. This was a new type of circus that didn’t use any type of animal acts and were fresh off their semi-success of their first three shows but were trying to reinvent themselves. She took me to see Nouvelle Experience when it toured NYC for the first time.
I was absolutely floored as I’d never seen anything life it before. The colored costumes and songs amazed me! Over the next 20 years as I grew up, so did Cirque Du Soleil quickly becoming a world wide phenomenon in artistry and entertainment. In the past 20 years I have never missed a New York City Cirque Du Soleil show, except for Wintuk. Even when visiting Las Vegas for the first time last year in 2010, I saw Ka at the MGM Grand and the Richard McDonald exhibit at the Bellagio featuring Cirque Du Soleil artists.
I, of course, was on their mailing list and applied to a few jobs at their Montreal offices (They’re notoriously good to their employees so I was willing to scrub toilets and work my way up ha-ha!). I received an e-mail from them around July 1st 2011 about a contest they were having where they wanted to choose the top and trendiest bloggers and freelance journalists and send them to a free showing of their latest piece entitled Zarkana playing at NYCs Radio City Music Hall. Honestly, I initially sent the e-mail to my trash box as I thought “I’d never win this; I have no shot”.
But then that little voice inside me said “Hey why not enter? What’s the worst that could happen?”
So I sent Cirque Du Soleil a link to my site where my articles are published. Two weeks go by, I check my inbox and see an e-mail from Cirque Du Soleil and the subject says “Blogger Night: Congratulations!” I was floored as I couldn’t believe they actually choose my articles as a winner. I even received an official press kit that gave me very in-depth behind the scenes access on each show. Not only do I and a guest get two free tickets to see Zarkana, but we winners also get a reception beforehand at the five star Oceana Restaurant.
I’m sitting in my bedroom, two days before we contestant winners go see Zarkana and I felt compelled to write a ‘pre-show’ article. I can’t wait until the dinner and the show! I feel so completely honored to have been selected. I’ve pretty much grown up with Cirque Du Soleil over the past 25 years and I can’t wait to grow old with them artistically.
NOTE: this is part one in a two part article which will conclude after I see the show! A bientôt!
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