“新時代のサーカス”のパイオニア的存在として、大道芸やサーカス芸術、ダンス、音楽、歌にいたるまでを融合しパフォーミング・アートの世界に独自の世界観を確立したスーパーチーム「シルク・ドゥ・ソレイユ」。現在は、カナダ・モントリオールを拠点に元オリンピックメダリストなど、800名のアーティストを含む3500人が在籍。全世界から集まったスタッフの出身地は40カ国、使用する言語は、25ヶ国語にも及びます。年間のチケット売り上げは4億5000万ドルを超え、全世界で4000万人が少なくとも1回は観たと言われています。そんな「シルクドソレイユ」において、エンターテインメントの街、ラスベガスで行われている世界No.1のショーに出演し、しかも主役級の役を演じる日本人女性がいるのです。高橋典子さんです。

「シルク・ドゥ・ソレイユ」始まって以来、最大規模といわれるショー「KA(カー)」。制作費187億円。豪華絢爛で、様々な細工を仕組んだステージと総客席数は、1951席とラスベガス一の広さを誇るそんな舞台で、華麗な演技を披露する高橋さんは、6歳からバトンを始め、世界選手権に通算15回出場、7個の金メダルを獲得した世界に名の知れたバトントワラーなのです。そんな実績を評価されて、「シルク・ドゥ・ソレイユ」では一年に数人しかいないというオーディション免除で抜擢されたのが高橋さんです。彼女が出演する「KA」は、週5日公演があり、しかも、勿論常に満席という人気の作品。世界最高の舞台に、緊張の連続だといいます。

高橋典子

◆プロフィール◆

たかはし・のりこ?1970年、横浜に生まれる。６歳の時にバトンを始め、小学校３年で全日本バトントワリング選手権に初出場、５位入賞。以後、2004年度の大会まで25回連続出場。個人種目では17回のグランドチャンピオンに輝く。海外でも、６年生で世界バトントワリング選手権大会日本代表選手に選ばれ、91年に個人シニア部門で金メダルを獲得。世界選手権には通算15回出場し、７個の金メダル。2004年シルク・ド・ソレイユに入団。『K遵･』ではソロパートでバ

A Dream Come True
Noriko Takahashi Plays Las Vegas with Cirque du Soleil

If you think your young daughter is shy and you want to encourage her to be more confident in public, slip a twirling baton into her little hand. You may be surprised.

Hiroshi and Hideko Takahashi of Yokohama did that for their daughter, Noriko, in 1976. Today, Noriko performs solo in KA, an internationally acclaimed Cirque du Soleil production at the MGM Grand Theatre in Las Vegas. The multi-media show of acrobatics, puppetry, martial arts and pyrotechnics was described by Time magazine as “…jaw-dropping visual grandeur.”

Takahashi first wrapped her fingers around a baton at age 6 and never let go, climbing her way to 15 world competitions, of which she won six. In 1992, she attended Fascination, Cirque du Soleil’s first show in Japan. She was immediately enthralled and “dreamed” of joining this Canadian circus.

Eventually Takahashi caught the eye of the Cirque casting staff. Early discussions came to nothing, but she relentlessly followed up by sending videos of her best performances. In 2004, at age 33, Takahashi accepted a Cirque offer to perform in its new production, KA. “I was honored to join them, but felt a great responsibility to perform my very best,” she says.

KA, Cirque’s fourth Las Vegas show, cost $165 million?a budget equal to the blockbuster movie Titanic. Cirque groomed Takahashi for the Asian-themed show, developed by Canada’s Robert Lepage, an innovative director whose credits include plays such as Macbeth and The Tempest in Japanese at Tokyo’s Globe Theatre. Takahashi describes him as “a gentle man, very easy to work with… I learned a lot from him.”

KA was Cirque’s first production featuring a strong storyline and with not a word of dialogue. There is no conventional stage in front of the theater’s 1,950 seats. The audience sees only a pit out of which comes smoke, fire and other surprises, as well as two large moving performance decks, the Sand Deck and the Tatami Deck. Each deck moves in various directions independently of the other and carries the performers on stage. “One of the first things Cirque trainers taught me was how to fall,” Takahashi says.

The word “ka” represents the Egyptian concept of duality, the basic theme underscored by the opposing powers of fire to create and destroy; thus Lepage’s use of pyrotechnics. KA is an epic tale of twin brothers on a perilous journey to fulfill their shared destiny. Takahashi, the Archer’s Daughter, plays a beautiful, brave woman who falls in love with one of the twins who is later captured by her doting father. She must engage in a battle of wits to resolve the conflict of her passion for the twin and loyalty to her father.

Takahashi has kept up with her dance and baton training. New to her, however, was strength-training with weights. “Today, I’m stronger. I do two 90-minute performances daily plus cooling down exercises between shows.” That’s an astonishing 470 shows per year. To stay in shape, she eats “lots of vegetables and not much fat,” but confesses, “I love to eat poutine at Cirque parties,” referring to the French-Canadian fad food of french fries, gravy and cheese.

Even though KA may run for 10 or 15 years, Takahashi has no plans to leave. Happy right now, marriage is not in the near future. As for training or coaching young twirlers, she demurred. One of those young twirlers is Tokyo’s Keisuke Komada, World Junior Baton Twirling Champion in 2005 and 2006. Komada met Takahashi in Las Vegas and thinks “she’s cool,” and, as a Japanese athlete, is “proud” of her achievements.

Asked if she would like to perform in Tokyo with Cirque, she hesitates, saying only, “I’m enjoying my career in North America.” Cirque will return to Tokyo in 2007, and plans to open a permanent show at Tokyo Disneyland in 2008.