Erika Lemay | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 23 March 1983 Quebec, Canada |
| Known for | theatrical interpretation, dance, aerial acrobatics and contortion |
| Website | erikalemay |
Erika Lemay (born 23 March 1983, Quebec, Canada) is a Canadian artist, aerial dancer, actress, and author. She is a show director specialized in luxury events, and creator of Physical Poetry. [1]
Lemay began ballet when she was four years old. She was a gymnast until the age of 11, when she became the youngest member of Cirque Eos, a Canadian circus company. At the age of 14, she performed for the first time in Europe in "La Piste aux Espoirs", Belgium's International Circus Festival, winning the gold medal and the Public's Choice Award. This boosted her international career, touring Canada, US, Europe, Middle and South America with international circuses. In 2003, Lemay became a freelance artist, presenting at various international events. [2] [3] [4] [5]
Lemay is also an inspirational speaker [6] and Arts Ambassador for the nonprofit organization "Thinking ahead". [7]
In 2020, Lemay staged Aerial models for Valentino. [8] In 2021, she published a book titled Almost Perfect: The Life Guide to Creating Your Success Story Through Passion and Fearlessness.
In March 2022, Lemay made an appearance in the spin-off America’s Got Talent: Extreme, [9] winning Unanimous Golden Buzzer for her act and becoming a Grand-Finalist. [10]
Lemay is the founder of health and wellness company LEMAlab. The company features a supplement line for physical artists and joint health. [11] After having suffered a serious shoulder injury, doctors told Lemay it was the end of her career. She made a full recovery and returned to perform. That inspired her to start the company.
Physical Poetry is an art form created and performed by Lemay in theaters. [12] The art form is a physical language created from the fusion between acrobatics, aerial arts, dance, and theater. [13]
Performances by Lemay include:
Erika Lemay appears as guest star of Cirque du Soleil in different events, [19] [20] including:
Cirque du Soleil is a Canadian entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul on 16 June 1984 by former street performers Guy Laliberté and Gilles Ste-Croix.
Mystère (my-steer) is one of six resident Cirque du Soleil shows in Las Vegas, Nevada. Held in a custom theatre at the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino, the show was first performed on 25 December 1993, making it the company's longest running show. As with many Cirque du Soleil productions, Mystère features a mixture of circus skills, dance, elaborate sets, opera, worldbeat music, and street theatre-style comedy. Featuring a musical score composed by René Dupéré and Benoît Jutras, the show was created under the direction of Franco Dragone. The word "mystère" comes from a French word meaning mystery.
La Nouba was a Cirque du Soleil show that ran for 19 years in a custom-built, freestanding theater at Disney Springs' West Side at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. It was a contemporary circus performance featuring acrobats, gymnasts, and other skilled performers. The show's creation was directed by Franco Dragone, who also directed many of Cirque du Soleil's earlier shows. Its title derives from the French phrase faire la nouba, meaning "to party" or "to live it up".
Franco Dragone is a Belgian theatre director. He is the founder and artistic director of Dragone, a creative company specializing in the creation of large-scale theatre shows. He is also known for his work with Cirque du Soleil and Celine Dion.
Corteo is a Cirque du Soleil touring production that premiered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on April 21, 2005.
Varekai was a Cirque du Soleil touring production that premiered in Montréal in April 2002. Its title means "wherever" in the Romani language, and the show is an "acrobatic tribute to the nomadic soul".
Valentin Alexandrovich Gneushev is a Russian circus director and choreographer.
Ludivine Furnon is a retired Olympic athlete from France. She was the first French female gymnast to ever win a medal at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.
Philippe Decouflé is a French choreographer, dancer, mime artist, and theatre director. As a child he travelled extensively around Lebanon and Morocco before learning his skills as a teenager at the Annie Fratellini École du Cirque and the Marceau Mime School. While frequenting Parisienne nightclubs he discovered and was attracted to contemporary dance, and he eventually moved to the Centre National de la Danse Contemporaine in Angers to study under choreographer Alwin Nicolais. After briefly working as a solo dancer, he formed the Découflé Company of Arts in Bagnolet in 1983, moving it to a former electrical works in the Parisienne suburb of Saint-Denis in 1995.
Luc Lafortune is a Canadian lighting designer for the entertainment industry as well as one of the original designers of the Cirque du Soleil.
Olga Pikhienko is a circus performer who specializes in handbalancing and contortion. Pikhienko started in rhythmic gymnastics at the age of five. When she was eleven, she started performing with her father, Sasha Pikhienko, at the Nikulin Circus based in Moscow. Olga's act with her father won them a gold medal in 1992 at the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain in Paris. In 1993, they won a silver medal in Beijing, China at the World Festival.
Shenea Booth is an American acrobatic gymnast who represented the United States of America at the 2001 World Games, the 2002 World Championships and the 2004 World Championships in the Mixed Pair event, along with her partner, Arthur Davis.
Tuuli Pauliina Räsänen is a circus performer and actress from Finland. Her career jump-started when she was invited to perform as the first Fennoscandian soloist with Cirque du Soleil. She was awarded a five-year grant from Finland's Central Commission of Arts to pursuit artistic work. She has succeeded in establishing her career in the international market and at the moment performs with Komische Oper Berlin.
Koozå is a touring circus production by Cirque du Soleil which premiered in Montréal, Quebec, Canada, in 2007. The show was written and directed by David Shiner, who had previously worked as a clown in Cirque du Soleil's production of Nouvelle Expérience. His experience as a clown and his time with Switzerland's Circus Knie and Germany's Circus Roncalli informed his work on Koozå.
Iris was a resident Cirque du Soleil show based in Los Angeles, California. It premiered on September 25, 2011, after preview performances which began on July 21, 2011. The cost for production of the show was nearly $100 million, which included the cost of renovating the Dolby Theatre in which the show was housed. Iris was written and directed by French director-choreographer Philippe Decouflé. The show explored images from the history of cinema and featured elaborate choreography, acrobatics, and a variety of contemporary circus acts. The name of the show, Iris, comes from the camera diaphragm as well as from the colored iris of the human eye.
Olga Sidorova is a Russian-born trapezist.
Cirque du Soleil: Fire Within is a 2002 Canadian reality television mini-series. The series follows eight Cirque du Soleil performers during the creation and production of the Cirque's touring production, Varekai. Stress ensues as several newcomers try to learn new acrobatic acts for the show, while the subplot also follows the crew behind the show trying to cast new performers, advertise the production, create the stage set, costumes, and make-up, and manage the show under the direction of newcomer Dominic Champagne.
A Russian swing is a large, floor-mounted swing which is sometimes used in circus performances to make impressive high acrobatic jumps.
Volta is a touring circus show by the Cirque du Soleil. It is based on extreme sports; the principal character is a game-show contestant named Waz.
François Bergeron is a Canadian sound designer and co-founder of Thinkwell Group and was the former sound engineer for Cirque du Soleil for more than twenty years.
"Poesia fisica" – un'arte al confine tra contorsionismo, danza e teatro che lei stessa ha fondato a 19 anni quando ha lasciato le compagnie circensi per diventare freelance. Un'arte per cui è ricercata ovunque: dalla Mostra del Cinema di Venezia allo show di apertura delle Olimpiadi di Londra, a party privati per Madonna o i Clinton.
I was watching an episode the Norwegian TV series The Half Brother. She appeared in a short sequence as a "Chocolate Girl" and as an aerial acrobat.
(...) Satina (modeled after surrealist interpretations of Aphrodite and performed by Erika Lemay)
Edith has styled for the World Acclaimed Performer Erika Lemay nominated by Vanity Fair as "New Queen of Circus" at the Fine Art Photograpahy "Poetry in Motion" project.