{"id":20768,"date":"2016-09-09T00:33:01","date_gmt":"2016-09-09T07:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=20768"},"modified":"2016-09-07T13:08:25","modified_gmt":"2016-09-07T20:08:25","slug":"khalifa-joins-the-circus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2016\/09\/09\/khalifa-joins-the-circus\/","title":{"rendered":"Khalifa joins the circus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jared Khalifa toured with Cirque de Soleil this year. (photo from Jared Khalifa)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Last November, Jared Khalifa\u2019s career was at a low point. He had just come back from Denmark, where injuries in both ankles and one knee had limited his performance representing Canada at an international competition for tumbling, a high-intensity form of gymnastics where, after a running start, one tumbles, cartwheels and twirls at high speed down a course before coming to an artful landing at the end of the track. He was having a hard time getting motivated to get back up on his feet when he was contacted by a talent scout who had first spoken to him months before \u2013 a scout for the internationally renowned Cirque de Soleil.<\/p>\n

Montreal-based Cirque de Soleil, famous for its innovative blend of music, narrative, dance and acrobatics, is now the largest theatrical producer in the world. The scout had expressed interest in Khalifa after seeing him perform previously but had told Khalifa, then 17, that he was too young. But, at 18, only weeks after his time in Denmark, Cirque wanted Khalifa to submit a demo.<\/p>\n

Khalifa submitted a mixed demo reflecting his broad mix of skills \u2013 singing, dancing, martial arts and gymnastics \u2013 and was told he had made it into the final selection for singers. He would be invited to make a live audition when the circus was next in town.<\/p>\n

\"photo
Jared Khalifa\u2019s two-month tour with Cirque de Soleil tool him from Louisiana to New York. (photo from Jared Khalifa)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A month later, he was contacted by another branch of Cirque\u2019s talent scouts who were unaware of his possible selection as a singer \u2013 they were interested in offering him a training contract doing teeterboard. Teeterboard is a circus mainstay, where two performers collaborate on different ends of a giant teeter-totter, propelling each other into the sky to twirl and tumble in the air. The circus was coming for Khalifa from multiple angles, and soon he was signed to do a show. He joined Cirque de Soleil for a two-month American tour, traveling from Louisiana to New York. With between five and eight shows a week, he did around 50 shows in those eight weeks.<\/p>\n

Khalifa said he has had \u201ca thrilling year,\u201d which is surely putting it mildly. He said he learned a tremendous amount on the road with the troupe of perhaps 40 performers and 100 support staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe troupe became very close,\u201d said Khalifa, who is still friends with many of the performers he met. \u201cDespite the exhaustion, I was exhilarated every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did Khalifa \u2013 who went to Vancouver Talmud Torah and King David High School \u2013 get to Cirque de Soleil?<\/p>\n

He began studying capoeira, the Brazilian martial art that integrates acrobatic and dance elements, at 3 years old. That led to an interest in gymnastics and dance and, when he was 8, he also began studying musical theatre. He attended the summer musical theatre program at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver, Gotta Sing! Gotta Dance! And, by his teen years, he was training in competitive tumbling. \u201cIt\u2019s all about the elegance you bring to it,\u201d said Khalifa, whose Instagram feed is a study in bending the laws of physics.<\/p>\n

Since his return to Vancouver, Khalifa has signed with a film and television acting agency. He is part of the local troupe ShowStoppers and has also started studying hip-hop and urban street-style dancing. Khalifa \u2013 whose skills, as has been mentioned, include capoeira, musical theatre, dancing, singing, gymnastics, tumbling and circus performance \u2013 said, without a hint of irony, that his focus now is to become \u201cmore well-rounded,\u201d an athlete and artist.<\/p>\n

Matthew Gindin<\/strong> is a Vancouver freelance writer and journalist. He blogs on spirituality and social justice at <\/em>seeking her voice (hashkata.com<\/a>) and has been published in the <\/em>Forward, Tikkun, <\/em>Elephant Journal and elsewhere.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jared Khalifa toured with Cirque de Soleil this year. (photo from Jared Khalifa) Last November, Jared Khalifa\u2019s career was at a low point. He had just come back from Denmark, where injuries in both ankles and one knee had limited his performance representing Canada at an international competition for tumbling, a high-intensity form of gymnastics […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[785],"tags":[6295,6292,6290,6294,6291,6296,6293],"class_list":["post-20768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performing-arts","tag-capoeira","tag-circus","tag-cirque-de-soleil","tag-gymnastics","tag-khalifa","tag-musical-theatre","tag-tumbling"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}