Helena Merten ran away to join the circus. Now the talented Queenslander is returning home … with the circus.
The 29-year-old Gold Coaster, one of the stars of Cirque du Soleil – LUZIA, is revelling in the 2024-25 Australian tour and especially happy to be heading to Brisbane where the show opens on September 25.
That will mean she is close to home and friends and family, all of whom she expects to see in the Big Top when it sets up next to the Royal Queensland Golf Club on the northern banks of the Brisbane River.
The former student of A.B. Paterson College is now an internationally renowned performer. In LUZIA, as the spectacular Running Woman (a character that is essentially a giant butterfly), she does hoop diving, Chinese pole work and swing-to-swing acrobatics, which keeps her busy.
“I share the role of Running Woman in this amazing butterfly costume,” Merten says. “I also do hoop diving and other acts and I guess I’m on for about 20 minutes.”
That’s a lot of time considering what she gets up to. The Running Woman act is particularly poetic and spectacular and features one of the most notable costumes.
“I wear a monarch butterfly-inspired costume and I have these huge wings that are six metres long each,” Merten says. “My favourite part in the show is how that character is introducing the imagined world of Mexico to the audience.”
Because Mexico is the inspiration for LUZIA, which premiered in 2016 and has been touring the world since with Merten one of its star performers.
Drawing inspiration from the rich tapestry of Mexico’s cultural heritage, the production unfolds as a breath-taking kaleidoscope of colour, sound and gravity-defying feats. It features 1000 costumes.
Merten joined the show in 2017 and has travelled to Mexico with LUZIA.
“Visiting Mexico really helped us understand things better about the culture,” she says. “We were relieved that they loved it there.”
Director Daniela Finza Pasca also wrote the show and researched it thoroughly. LUZIA invites people to an imaginary Mexico, like in a waking dream where light (“luz” in Spanish) quenches the spirit and rain (“Iluvia” ) soothes the soul in a series of grand visual surprises and breath-taking acrobatic performances.
LUZIA takes audiences on a surrealistic journey through a vibrant world filled with wonders, playfulness and striking artistry. As it smoothly passes from an old movie set to the ocean, to a smoky dance hall in an arid desert, it brings to the stage multiple places, faces and sounds of Mexico, both traditional and contemporary. Rain is incorporated into acrobatic and artistic scenes, which is a first for a Cirque du Soleil touring production.
For Merten, coming home in this show is just part of the dream she has been living since she left the Gold Coast to make her way in the world. She trained in gymnastics as a youngster, became a national champion in tumbling and finished second at the Sports Acrobatics Nationals as a flyer in women’s pairs.
At 18 she left home to join the cast of The House of Dancing Water in Macau and at age 21 went on to become the youngest athlete to compete in the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series.
In 2017 she sent a video to Cirque du Soleil and was snapped up quicker than she expected when she was offered the chance to join LUZIA as a hoop diver and Chinese pole specialist, two disciplines she had never specialised in. But after a few weeks training at the Cirque du Soleil headquarters in Montreal it was clear she was a star in the making and she has toured the world with them ever since.
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“It’s a dream come true,” Merten says. “I’ve been very fortunate because I have dreamt of this since I was seven years old when I saw my first Cirque du Soleil show, QUIDAM, in Brisbane. Now I’m returning home to Queensland, where it all began, and I am beyond excited to perform in front of my home-town crowd.”
LUZIA senior tour director Yannick Spierkel says the company always feels welcome in Brisbane.
“Queensland has always been a huge fanbase for Cirque du Soleil, ever since our first show in Australia, Saltimbanco, opened here in 1999,” Spierkel says. “In 2024, our 25th anniversary year in Australia – the love affair continues.”
Cirque du Soleil – LUZIA will be under the Big Top, next to the Royal Queensland Gold Club, Eagle Farm, September 25 to November 10.
cirquedusoleil.com
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