UNM freshman Gabi Rojas is running away with the circus.
In February, her hard work and dedication to dance won her a spot in the world-renowned Cirque du Soleil troupe.
She made her professional circus debut with Circus America in Puerto Rico at age 5. Rojas was raised most of her life in and around different circuses including the Big Apple Circus and the Pickle Family Circus in California.
Rojas' mother, Rosalinda, was also active as a circus performer and teacher. Having danced with the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Rosalinda taught her daughter the Russian ballet technique known as Vaganova, as well as other dance forms. Rojas was home-schooled throughout her circus travels so that she could seriously perform and study dance.
At the age of 12, Rojas and her mother moved to Albuquerque where they both joined Albuquerque Academy as student and teacher. Rosalinda runs the Albuquerque School for Circus Arts, where Gabi trains.
All of Rojas' hard work finally paid off after her audition for Cirque du Soleil in February. The audition was tedious and began with about 85 dancers auditioning for either a role as a modern or ballet dancer, or as a specialty performer.
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The auditions consisted of 16 hours of ballet, modern, specialty dance, improvisation, acting and singing.
Day one began with classical ballet where the directors pushed the dancers to their limits.
"They tired us out, but they wanted to see our endurance level," Rojas said.
Next the dancers were asked to improvise, without direction or music. They were filmed while they improvised and watched by at least 60 other dancers and judges.
They went on to learn "Zumanity," from Cirque's show, which they had to perform one at a time.
Most of the dancers who had not yet been cut took a lunch break after this portion of the audition. Rojas, however, had to run off to the specialty performers' audition. Here she demonstrated her abilities by performing Middle Eastern dance and freestyle break dancing.
After a 15-minute break, Rojas was back at the ballet and modern audition where she learned a 30-count combination and then demonstrated it alone.
On the final day there were only 10 dancers left. The dancers were asked to do partnering work with pointe shoes on, which Rojas had not worn in more than four years.
"I just kept thinking of American Ballet Theater and Dance Theatre Harlem dancers and gave it everything I had," Rojas said.
Rosalinda said she hardly recognized her daughter while watching through the one-way mirror.
Rojas was then asked to stay and do more improvisation with one other dancer. They were asked to interpret certain movements and words in their own way.
Rojas was still not done - she had one more audition with the specialty dance performers. Here the dancers were asked to interpret sensuality, then to act out certain characters moving across the floor.
The audition ended with a personal interview and a showing of flexibility.
After 16 emotionally and physically intense hours, Rojas signed a two-year contract with the company and will soon be moving to Montreal, Canada for a six-month training period.
Rojas said she knew Cirque du Soleil was where she belonged even before the auditions.
"Every time I see it on Bravo I know I have the same thing inside that those artists have - the passion to bring people to the edge of their seats and make people be inspired," she said.
