All the pretty horses

Cavalia stage manager has to anticipate
its stars’ moods and fears

by CHRIS BARRY

Name: Annick Gouailler

Age: 32

Occupation: Stage/Production manager

Bio: This nifty Plateau broad graduated from the theatre department at CEGEP Lionel Groulx 10 years ago and immediately started working at the arguably shittiest job in show business, that of stage manager, hustling bumptious performers, roadies and other characters around in the effort to “make sure the show must go on.” Earning her stripes at Cirque du Soleil and a variety of always hilarious musical comedy shows, for the past year, Annick’s been the behind-the-scenes gal at Cavalia, taking on the gig “because of the challenge of working with horses—or any animal for that matter—for the very first time. It’s very, very stressful working with horses, you know.”

Why working with horses is so stressful: “Because we can’t communicate with horses the same way we do with other performers. If something happens, we can’t really ask them, ‘Hey, what happened? Why are you so afraid?’ So you sort of have to think for them, watching everything they do, understanding and sensing what they’re feeling. That’s the hardest part, thinking for them.”

Does she ever sense horses telling her, “No, that’s okay, I don’t really feel like jumping through hoops right now. Perhaps you and your idiot circus can go fuck yourselves while I just chill here backstage and eat some more hay”? “Well, the horses are really the stars of this show, so it’s extremely rare when one just goes off doing what it wants. We have really good riders and the horses almost always listen to them—although you do hear riders sometimes acknowledging that they had an especially challenging time with a certain horse some nights. You see, the horses are really smart, they hear everything and sometimes even the smallest thing, like a light bulb blowing out on a lighting pattern they’re used to, will scare them. So we have to make sure that everything is always really calm and quiet backstage.”

Do the equines of Cavalia ever get any vacation time? “Sure, they get time off when we’re tearing down and setting up the big top in each city. So they get a 10–15 day holiday every two months.“

Are they trained by whips or whispers? Both. “We use whips, but in the same way a maestro uses a baton to direct an orchestra, a rider uses a whip to direct their horse. The whips aren’t used brutally, only very lightly to direct them.”

Is it safe to assume this year’s Cavalia spectacle includes a good old fashioned diving horse act à la Atlantic City’s Steel Pier in its heyday? “What?! A horse diving from 100 feet in the air into a pool of water?! Of course not.”

Once their best circus days are behind them, are the particularly well-hung horses ever sold off to Latin impresarios to spend their golden years working the highly erotic yet arguably dubious Mexican girl-and-horse sex show circuit? “I highly doubt it. They’re sent to rest in the fields, eat grass and be happy.”

Childhood ambition: To become a physician. “I wanted to do something that would help people. And then I realized I could best help people through show biz.”

Literary preferences: Tintin comics.

Musical preferences: Jean Leloup, Indochine, U2.

Words of wisdom: “Stand by.”

Comments: dimwit@hdot.net