Interview: Tawnya Sauer Says CIRQUE DREAMS HOLIDAZE at Wharton Center is a Broadway-Style Holiday Spectacular for the Whole Family

Happy holidays from the BWW Michigan team! This year, head over to Wharton Center from December 18-20 for the perfect way to celebrate the holiday season with your family – Cirque Dreams Holidaze. Every year around this time, Holidaze tours the country to bring joy and amazement to the masses, allowing more people outside of Las Vegas to experience the magic of a Cirque du Soleil show. 

BroadwayWorld Michigan had the pleasure of speaking with Cirque Dreams Holidaze’s company manager, Tawnya Sauer. Sauer has been in this industry for around 20 years and has been performing and teaching aerial hoop for about 12 years. Read our conversation below!

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BroadwayWorld Michigan: To start off, can you tell me a bit about your affiliation and career with the Cirque Dreams company? 

Tawnya Sauer: My role with Cirque Dreams is the company manager. I oversee all of the departments, including the cast and crew, and kind of get things prepared as we go down the road. It’s actually my first season with Cirque Dreams, but I’ve got other touring experience, so it’s a great fit.

The past Cirque shows I’ve been to have had some kind of story thread that ties each scene together. How would you describe Holidaze’s story? 

It’s a loose story somewhat based on The Nutcracker. There’s a main character who discovers this magical holiday world. Along her way she runs into all of these amazing characters and gets to have a transformation of her own. 

Do you have a favorite part of the show?

My favorite part is the hair-hanging act. I just don’t know how she does that – it’s really beautiful to watch. The musicality is really amazing and it’s kind of unfathomable to imagine hanging your entire body weight by your head. 

How does that stunt work?

So she’s on the rig point, which raises and lowers. Her hair is in a high, tight bun, she clips her hair right into the rig point and then she floats and dances and does all kinds of crazy flexible positions just all by her hair. 

What can audiences expect when they come to see this spectacle of a show at Wharton Center?

It’s a family-friendly, holiday spectacular and a really amazing feast for the senses. The costumes are so extravagant and the set is really fun. There is a big variety of acrobatics and aerial acts. There’s some of your favorite traditional holiday music but there’s also some catchy new music as well. This year we have another new original song, which is called “Count on Christmas.” It’s so catchy, we’re all singing it all the time.

Cirque shows involve a lot of difficult and impressive stunts. Is there anything you can tell us about the rehearsal or performance process that the general audience may not know?

Most of the performers come to us already skilled in their talents and the [acts] they’re doing. We spent (I think it was) 14 days in Lakeland, Florida for this tour in particular, and that was just learning all of the group choreography, integrating their skillsets into the storyline of the show and making it seamless and fun to watch. The people who are performing with us, some of them have been touring for 10 years. This is their life, this is what they do – train, perform, travel and bring joy to people. 

What do you think keeps bringing audiences back to Cirque shows nearly 40 years since its inception?

There’s something really magical about the holiday season [when] you want to get dressed up in your best clothes. It really has become a tradition for a lot of families to come and see [Holidaze]. [The show] does change year over year, [and while] there’s some of the same familiar music, there is new music and there are new acts and so it’s familiar and traditional but always new and fun. So, I think that always keeps people coming back. 

How does the magic of a Cirque show translate to a touring production like this one?

This is definitely more of a Broadway-style production. The music and the singing is really important. You still have all of the amazing acrobatic acts, but comparing it to Broadway-style is really accurate. You still have all the magic of Cirque, but it feels a lot closer and intimate. 

There’s [also] some skills you haven’t seen in other shows. There’s one in particular called sway pole, which is a pole that goes back and forth and bends to 90 degrees, and the performers are crawling all over it and hanging from it. It's one of my other favorite parts of the show because audiences are gasping the whole time. There isn’t really anything like it – it’s so rare to see that in a theatre. 

Do you travel around with the company?

Yes. All of the cast and crew and myself – the whole management team, we become a family over these 2 months when we travel from city to city together. 

What is a day in your life like as a company manager for Holidaze?

A lot of planning for the future. I’m always looking down the road at the other cities coming up and making sure we have everything we need like where we’re staying, transportation, food and schedules.

A normal day would be getting up with the cast, having breakfast, getting on a bus and driving to our next location, which can be anywhere from 2 to 8 hours. We usually go immediately to the theatre, get familiar with the theatre and then start running some blockings and rehearsals to make sure everyone feels confident with the new space and that we’re going to have a good, seamless show. We go right into the show call, which is when everyone has to be there and start getting ready. We run the show and then wrap it all up.

We then go back to the hotel at the end of the night to repeat it the next day. Sometimes we’re in places for 2 to 3 days – we’ll be in East Lansing for 3 days, which is really nice.

How does your team and the cast celebrate the holidays while touring?

The cast is really good about finding little adventures when they can. When we were in Detroit, they all went ice skating and did the holiday markets over there. As a group, we had a dinner for Thanksgiving and we’re planning a little outing to celebrate Christmas as a group, trying to do some traditions like Secret Santa, just so we still feel like we have that magic and warmth of the season even though we can’t be around our family and friends. We do little things like decorating the bus – we’re going to put stockings on the bus this year. 

Is there anything else you’d like audience members to know before coming to the show?

I really like to urge that it’s a great production for the entire family. There’s something for everyone. It’s such a great mix of ground and aerial skills and performances. It’s a really nice thing to go enjoy as a family. 

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Tickets for Cirque Dreams Holidaze are on sale now at Wharton Center's official ticketing outlets: online at whartoncenter.com, at the official Wharton Center Ticket
Office or by calling 1-800-WHARTON.

To keep updated with Cirque Dreams, visit their website at cirquedreams.com, and follow them on YouTube at @CirqueDreams, on Instagram at @cirquedreams and on Facebook at facebook.com/cirquedreams.

Note: This interview has been edited for clarity.

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