IMMORTALIZED - Michael Jackson The Immortal World Tour by Cirque Du Soleil

Chapter 20: Mexico, Restaging, Annual Leave and Training for Europe

August 23, 2012 - October 9, 2012
Mexico City, Shreveport, Orlando and Montreal

Mexico wasn’t the best stop. The arena was at high elevation so it was hard to breathe at times. It was hot most of the time and then a large percentage of the time, we spent in the hotel because Tara deemed it too dangerous to go outside. So we spent a lot of time playing video games, watching TV and playing with our computers in the hotel.
Some significant things that happened. On our first rehearsal day in Mexico City, we were given some rain Jackets that have the tour logo on the back and then the Bad25 logo on the front. It’s Michael’s Album ‘Bad’s 25th anniversary, so the Estate is making a big deal out of it. I’m cool with it. I got a free Jacket out of it.
We also visited some pyramids outside the city with some other members of the tour. Then on MJ’s birthday, we had a party, which was more of a party to celebrate the end of the tour. Many members, close to ten of them as well as many staff support members will be leaving the tour after Mexico and not continuing onto Europe. People such as dancer Yavuz, Swiss Rings/Acrobat, Thomas and Roadie: Ryan who happens to be Desi’s boyfriend. She’s not happy about that one bit. They also announced the tour plans for January through April which include Paris, Russia and some more stops in England. But after twelve shows in eight days, we were quite tired.
This morning, we fly to Shreveport, Louisiana for restaging rehearsals for Europe. Then this afternoon, we start school again. It seemed like a really short summer, but in reality, we did a lot and now will be doing our schoolwork all over Europe and Asia this year, which is pretty good. We got our textbooks, workbooks and supplied in the mail and our school road case was taken out during Mexico and now will travel with us. Even though we’re only together for less than two weeks before leave starts, we each have our own schoolwork to do.
On the plane, Tara handed out schedules to everyone on rehearsals. It was a sheet of paper which pretty much said that we had rehearsal every day from nine to six at night and then a few days where certain people don’t have to be there. The only things that really change for our parts of the show are Beat It and then we are being switched into Earth Song, so we need to be taught the choreography by Travis Payne. Tammy will also be in this scene, but she’s always been in it. We have five days off between our flight to Shevreport and starting rehearsals, and from looking online, it’s going to be a really boring couple of days.
Today is our last day working on the tour in North America. We’ve spent the last six days in an intense restage/rehearsal for the show and I can honestly say, it looks so much better and cooler. It feels so much more like a concert. Right now, we are beginning to start our final dress rehearsal before our three week break. Similar to a regular show, some of the audience will be people who helped set up the show, hired crew and then the production crew. All watching to make sure that this show is going to be just as good, even better than it was in October, almost a year ago, when we began touring.
After the end of the show, we all went out to get dinner together. It was our last night that most of us will see each other for the next three weeks. Of course, Adrian, Marcell, Leo and I live in the same town, I’m not sure how often I’ll be seeing them with our schedules so different. Plus Josh lives in Atlanta. Then the others on tour, including Tara, I probably won’t see until we get to London.
The follow morning, I woke Adrian and Marcell up after they refused to listen to their alarm. Leo was up since he was in the same room as me. I texted Josh to make sure he was up. We had an hour which gave us enough time to pack up our things, get dressed and head downstairs for some quick breakfast snacks before we are brought to the airport. Josh’s flight is before ours and then ours departs to JFK an hour later. We did our normal leaving routine. Except we didn’t have to pack our school road case. Anything we need that specifically per person, such as textbooks, workbooks and notebooks we had to pack in our suitcases to bring back to our specific houses. The road case was put into the trucks yesterday.
A large taxi was rented by the company to bring us to the airport. Usually, before we leave, Tara makes an appearance, but she took a flight last night to go to England to stay with family. She’s staying there for over the next month, on the break and our week and half there. Once we got to the airport, we all checked in to our first class (ish) seats. Once through security, Josh went a completely different way to his gate than us, who were on the other side of the airport. I hugged him and he gave the boys daps since we won’t be seeing each other for another few weeks.
The boys and I quickly bee-lined to our gate. The announcements, somehow made it aware to us that we were boarding now, and they paged us, which was odd. I thought something was wrong at first, but it turns out, we had priority seating and were to board the flight first. “Sweet!” Marcell said when we heard this.
Just a few hours later, a black SUV pulled up in front of Leo’s house. Adrian was asleep and Marcell was nearly there after the intense couple of days, so I was the one to get out of the car. It’s been just over a month, virtually no time on tour but still, his mother came out to hug him. Sorry, correction. Ran out and hugged him. After the waterworks and the feelings of being home for three entire weeks, I helped Leo get his things out of the car and gave him a high-five before leaving in the SUV.
About a road or two away from Adrian and Marcell’s house, I woke Adrian up and slightly shook Marcell to make sure he was up. The SUV pulled directly into their driveway and then the driver got out and started mistakenly unloading my stuff instead of there’s. I quickly corrected the man whom apologized. “Thanks for keeping them safe.” Angel said, hugging me. “No problem, have fun guys!” I said to them before getting back into the car. They were both tired and I could tell they’d be asleep real soon.
By the time I had arrived home, my tired spell had really hit and all I wanted to do was lay down and watch TV. I made the executive decision not to unpack any of my things for the three weeks since it wouldn’t be worth it.
The next morning, I woke up to nobody in the house. I had thought my Grandmother would be home but she was gone. Out in the kitchen, there was a note on the counter leaving me aware that she had gone out with Edith and would be back soon. I poured myself a bowl of cereal, laid back down in my bed and turned on the TV. This is where I spent the next six hours.
That night, I ended up going out with some of my family for dinner. We went to Outback Steakhouse with a large group of my family. Even those whom I haven’t talked to in a while showed up.
I really didn’t know what I was really going to do for three weeks. I know I could hang out with some of my friends, but being that they are in school and my school only happens for a couple of hours in the morning, they weren’t really around, especially with extra curriculars. Maybe I’ll go on vacation? Maybe I’ll blow a shitload of money in NYC? Maybe I’ll just adopt a child? The state should let me, even though I’m sixteen. I watch after three kids nearly 24/7. Then the following day, a miracle, an absolute miracle happened.
My phone rang. I’m on a three week Michael Jackson sabbatical, so my ringtone for now was changed from Smooth Criminal to the Minions from Despicable Me! “Hello?” I answered. I knew who it was. Caller ID. It was Leo’s Mom. “Hi Storm!” She said enthusiastically. “Hi Tammy!” I answered. “Listen, I have a question to ask you. One, we’re going on a vacation to Disney World with Leo, the family and such, and then Adrian and Marcell’s family are meeting us down there half way through the week for a few days on their trip to Florida. We paid for another person to go but he had to back out, would you like to come?” She asked. “Sure, when is this?” I asked her. “We leave this Sunday and get back the following Sunday.” She told me.
And with that, I found out about this free Disney Trip I’d be going on.
The rest of the week, I was quite scattered between spending the mornings doing schoolwork and then in the afternoons, going between visiting friends, spending time with my cousins and relaxing at home. I only talked to Ryan once.
On Saturday, I kinda-sorta repacked one of my suitcases. Of course I couldn’t bring both, so I emptied one out and packed what I needed for one week. While doing this, it hit me of how much i actually have in this suitcases and prompted me to assure myself that I would go through it when I come back, and re-organize it so I don’t bring an excess of things into Europe.
That night, Tammy, Leo’s Mom picked me up. I was going to spend the night at their house because we were leaving for the airport so early in the morning. With that, she made us all go to bed early. She damn well knows that Leo and I will get up, but it was mainly for his sister and cousin whom are coming.
The next morning, someone turned the lights on around 3:30 in the morning and I shot up. So did Leo. Usually, the only time the lights turn on without myself turning them on is either when Tara comes in and turns it on because we’re late or when some idiot in Indianapolis, Las Vegas or Houston pulls the fucking fire alarm because he’s drunk. So immediately, we thought something was up. It took us both about ten seconds to realize that there was no emergency and that we were in Leo’s room. I think the funniest part about that is when he woke up, I was the first thing he saw, which is normal because we share hotel rooms. So he thought for a second we were on tour and were late and said “Oh shit, Tara’s gonna be pissed”. “Dude, Tara’s not even here. We’re at your house, calm down.” I said after making sense of where I was. Chase, who was sleeping on the floor a few feet away from me gave us the weirdest looks. “Sorry, force of habit.” Then we all looked up and Tammy was right there in the doorway laughing her ass off.
It was a light breakfast of Frosted Flakes amidst people taking showers, doing final packing and more. I definitely wanted to shower. Once everyone was fully ready, surprisingly within forty-five minutes, we were out in two cars with out bags and ourselves. I was back asleep, willingly before we left the town of Bethel.
When I awoke, it was Leo who was sitting next to me. He was tapping on my shoulder. I saw a lot of glowing lights for nearly five in the morning and I assumed we were in the airport. Within a few minutes, we were parked and checking into our flight. “Haven’t I seen you guys before?” The woman asked. She did look familiar. “Wait, aren’t you the lady who checks us in every time we leave JFK?” I asked. “I think so..... umm, you work for that tour don’t you?” She asked. “Michael Jackson The Immortal World Tour” Leo answered. “We were joking that we see you all the time just a few days ago.” Leo mentioned. “Well, welcome back to JFK. You heading back out on tour?” She asked. “Nope, just goin to Disney.” I answered. “Well, have a blast.” She said, before completing the check in process for the group. While walking away, I mentioned that she must be stalking us, because she’s checked us in almost every time we’re here.
Once we got to the gate, we sat in the seats and I kept an eye on the TV, looking at the weather. I was really hoping that Florida would have good weather so we could go swimming. Normally, European hotels don’t have indoor pools and we’ll be travelling during the winter, so beaching or swimming is really out of the question.
I was so happy that when we landed, I could feel an awesome amount of heat, but I guess that was the peak of the day, because that was hottest I felt it. I’ve been to Disney twice before for an actual legit vacation, not counting our visit here while on tour. So we had to use the Disney Magical Express to get to the hotel.
I was really happy to be on vacation. Being home just didn’t feel like a vacation. It was actually kind of not relaxing just sitting at home since I’m so used to being on the road. But travelling, and knowing that each day will be a new day at Disney World excited me. I love this place and could spend probably more than a week here.
Disney was a really, really exciting week, both for a vacation and both for work. I had found out a lot of information, good information about when we return to work, but it also shortens my vacation. And it also increases my paycheck.
On the last day of my Disney trip, I was called by my boss, Cherylie. I was actually bombarded by a bunch of texts at the same time. Of course, I took my Bosses call, hierarchy. She told me that two people had been rehired and she wanted Josh and I to go up to Montreal to train them with Travis Payne. “Guess who?” She asked me. “Ryan?” I asked. “Yup.” She said. This made me so happy. He was one of the texts I had yet to read. “Then who’s the other?” I asked. I had a feeling but wasn’t sure. “Elliot.” She said. I was ecstatic about this. This was seriously going to be awesome. “Now, I need you up in Montreal on Monday to train with Travis. Ryan and Elliot are up there as of tomorrow for fittings and a physical test, and then we’re good to go Monday afternoon for rehearsals.” She explained to me.
On this certain day at Disney, I was with Adrian and Marcell as well as Leo, so I was able to tell them all. Similar to I, they were highly excited now too. Now, every child who’s worked on the tour is officially on the tour. Another thing that Cherylie told me about is that I now have another job besides a dancer. I am tasked with ‘choreographing’ the kids, which I thought I was doing this entire time. But this will include working with lodging, travelling and other logistics that I must review and give input in on to make sure we’re all comfortable.
When I got into Montreal, I met Josh at the airport and we shared a taxi to get to the HQ. It was such a reunion to see the extra two people that were being added to the tour. Everyone was reunited and happy. It was a bit awkward for Ryan because the person training him took over his original job, but he was just really happy to be back on tour. Elliot on the other hand, was just really happy to be back.
In addition to training them on all the new works of the show that we only learned back in Shreveport, I also was constantly skyping and talking to other people about my new job, to make sure all of the youth on the tour are properly cared for and accustomed. Which means I got my own letterhead, my own business email and was able to send out mass emails to the parents of these kids, introducing myself, my job and what I would be doing, even though they already know who I am.
The week was intense, but it reminded my body after two weeks that ‘oh yeah, tour. Forgot about that’. Also in the week, we had to also get Elliot and Ryan accustomed with the schooling system, even though they know all about that, and then some of my classes were changed so I would have more time to work. I couldn’t imagine how hectic of a change it was for Ryan. His Mom got the call on Friday morning, went to his school and apparently got him out of class and told him in the office. Within fifteen minutes, he was, once again, unenrolled from Bethel High School. He told me how he went back to Math and Morgan, a friend of both of ours asked “Where you going?” “Montreal. Gonna go back on tour now.” Then he went home, packed and was on a flight here that night. Of course for Elliot, it was a little bit easier, already being in Montreal. And he never really needed to unenroll from school. But he was very confused when he learned Ryan had to go through training.
Now, I sit outside the Montreal HQ’s, in the shade, waiting for what I assume, two cars to pull up. It ended up just being one. Instead of spending the money flying up, Adrian, Marcell and Leo just carpooled up in Adrian and Marcell’s parents car. The only adult who escorted them was Adrian and Marcell’s mom. She was allowed to stay the night in the Cirque Residence with us before driving back in the morning.
Elliot was very excited to see all of them, and as much as they were excited to see him, they were excited to see Ryan as well. They haven’t seen him since Boston. So all around, it was a nice reunion. During the night, we were and ate dinner within the CDS HQ, since we can eat cheaply and it’s really healthy. More of, Angella wanted to see what was inside of these secret walls.