OVO Under His Wing P2
Little Bean Gets A Surprise Lesson From A Pro
At some point during her recent week-long summer camp program at NH Audubon, Little Bean had mastered the art of the back bend move. That’s the gymnastic backward bend where you bend over backward, down to your hands and flip your whole body back.
I’d never seen her do this but she came home excited that she had managed it, but then, alas, had lost it again. In the days leading up to our tour and interviews of the production and cast of Cirque du Soleil’s OVO, she had tried and tried to reproduce the back flip, but couldn’t.
Fast forward to our back stage tour at SNHU Arena on the evening of the first performance of OVO, the theatrical production that focused on the natural movement of insects.
Little Bean has been a bit reserved throughout the tour, perhaps somewhat overwhelmed by the size and scope of the production.
That all changed when two of the performers broke free from their tumbling practice routines and came over to talk to her. She interviewed one of them, Kilian Mongey, from France. You can read that interview here, OVO Part 1.
The second performer, Wellington Lima, immediately took to Little Bean. I discovered later that he’s also a teacher of capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian form of martial arts and also a Trampoline Wall Teacher. Looking back, it makes a lot of sense.
Little Bean was initially going to interview him, but that went right out the window when he asked her if she had ever taken gymnastics.
She launched into her story about learning and then losing how to do a back bend. Wellington didn’t even hesitate. “Ok, come on let’s go!”
She glanced over at me and I nodded. And for the next few minutes Wellington worked with her, showing her how to properly arch her back, helping her through several successful back bends. He then did some acrobatic lifts with her, teaching her foot placement and where to safely hold for the moves.
I think we were both sort of in shock! Little Bean was getting an impromptu gymnastics lesson from a 25-year veteran of Cirque du Soleil.
Afterward, he chatted a bit with her about the importance of being safe, but not being afraid.
“It’ll come back,” he told her, “just keep trying.”
Finally both Wellington and Kilian signed Little Bean’s autograph book before heading back to continue their practice.
Listen, I’ve been doing back stage pressers like this for a long time as a reporter and writer and I’m not naive. The point of these things is to drum up positive press for events like this to help sell tickets.
But these guys didn’t have to do this. Wellington didn’t have to give her a lesson, and this little article in a subscription journal isn’t going to make or break them. This is Cirque du Soleil, they’re gonna be just fine.
But they did it because they seem to like what they do, enjoy their art and had an opportunity to pass that on to an eager kid. That means something.
“That was cool daddy,” Little Bean whispered to me as we made our way backstage again to check out the small village that the circus creates when they roll into town.
That was cool, and there was so much more to come! Tomorrow we’ll take you back stage to look at some props, some music and a whole lot of training!
End Notes: OVO plays at SNHU Arena from today, Aug. 10 through Sunday, Aug. 11. We certainly encourage you to check it out here: OVO information about SNHU Arena show
So cool!
She won’t soon forget this!! So awesome of them!!