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Brandon Birchak and Melissa James have created Chimera together. An amazing aquatic act which in this form has never been performed before. Their love for performing, the aquatic environment, and our planet has then led them to founding Six Foot Creations as well, under the umbrella of which they will next year perform in the Chimera Gala, an event to raise awareness for our planet and celebrate the arts at the same time. In this interview Melissa and Brandon tell us how Chimera came into existence.
Brandon: Mel and I first worked together about 13 years ago on the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Oasis of the Seas.
Then we went on to have our respective careers.
I am a high diver, hand to hand acrobat, juggler, and Russian Swing acrobat, amongst other things.
And, a few years ago, my career path as a performer brought me to the Dragone Entertainment Han Show in Wuhan, China.
Over time, Mel and I brainstormed on our idea for Chimera, a performance art piece which includes counterweight aerial ballet and a fully active world’s first 10 minute breath hold.
Finally, when we decided this was too good not to pursue, we moved to Las Vegas and immediately started going into research and development for this act.
A couple months later, we also got married.
Melissa: We met years earlier when I was still on my musical theatre career.
Then I took a trip to Vegas and saw the aquatic circus show Le Reve. I began dreaming of working together with the creator Franco Dragone one day. So, over the years, I transitioned to circus.
With our act Chimera, Brandon and I want to do something that hasn’t been done before.
Apart from the incredible artistic side of it, there is also a lot of athletics and science behind our act. We didn’t want this to be a gimmick or magic thing. It had to be performance art. Authentic through and through.
So that, in a way, the audience is stunned by what they are seeing. And it is all happening very much in real time, without any tricks.
We really connected over this project. Brandon was in O at the time. And I was in another extravaganza in Vegas.
Then, at some point, we began collaborating with Cecilia Arnould Rachner who is now the Creative Live Entertainment Director of Chimera. She is also one of the co-founders of our production company Six Foot Creations.
At the moment we are all working hard towards the Chimera Gala which is scheduled for next year. Watch this space since we’ll reveal more and more about this exciting event over the coming months.
Amazingly, the pandemic was ok for us. We had time to do a big brunt of Brandon’s training, research, and development.
It was great to have all that time to commit to our project.
We were also able to design the specific tank we need.
All expenses came mostly out of our pocket. We had to self-fund. Produce directly. Do everything ourselves.
Sometimes, through the months and years of creating Chimera we got laughed out the door when we said what we wanted to do.
We prevailed. And in June 2021, Chimera premiered in Las Vegas.
Brandon: In Vegas we have such great resources for everything. We can use the warehouse of a good friend. The technical director, our riggers, they are all good friends of ours.
Regarding the water, however, all of our consultants were from very far away, outside the US.
We had to bring in a unique medical team. That aspect of our show is now already 10 years in development.
Chimera turned out to be a very interesting collaboration of sports, medical research in general, nervous system research, and performance art.
The specialists we are working with are from all those disciplines. One is a trainer for professional fighters, another a world record freediver. We have a pulmonary cardiologist, a cycling specialist, a neuroscientist, etc.
What we are doing is pretty cutting edge.
We are still working on ways to make our act Chimera sustainable beyond a once in a while act. If it were 3 shows in a row or 10 shows a week, how do we need to design the act to make that happen?
We are working on the filtration system as well. Is the tank safe enough, clean enough?
We’ve learned a lot in this ongoing process. And are still learning more every single day.
We are producing, directing, choreographing, artistically coordinating, and safety advising.
Melissa: A lot of the times, I’m Brandon’s safety advisor. I watch his breath hold, make sure every moment of trainings, rehearsals, and performance are safe for him.
Cecilia and Brandon worked on the same TV show in Belgium for a few years.
In the end, they worked together for the Han Show and became very good friends.
Then Brandon and I started working on Chimera together and then we brought Cecilia on board. For a long time, we had regular virtual meetings.
This year, for the closing of the EXPO in Dubai in March, we flew through Paris and had a quick team day. Finally brainstorming in person together.
Brandon: Something that’s amazing is that both of us have ended up where we are now in part through Franco Dragone who greatly inspired us.
The Han Show had a life changing effect on me.
Mel and I had separate careers yet both of us worked for Franco’s shows at some point.
Now we are here in Vegas which has one of the greatest arts communities of the planet. It’s like an underground arts city. We couldn’t have done what we have achieved thus far without the support of our Vegas arts community.
Melissa: I worked for Franco Dragone’s show La Perle in Dubai. First as an artistic coordinator, then as an artist.
Working with Franco was fascinating. He was always so true to his art. We have to create art in his honor. Art that is true in his honor. Full of creativity, vision, love, and beauty.
Apart from all of our artistic motivations and inspirations for creating Chimera, we also want to have an impact on sensitizing our audiences to what is happening to our planet.
We use our act to create some awareness. Art is a unifying thing globally.
I will die happily knowing that through my creativity and artistic skills I was able to do my small part for saving our environment through hopefully encouraging people to be more aware and responsible.
We are now in the middle of our creation process for the Chimera Gala next year.
An event which will be as one-of-a-kind as Chimera itself.
The Six Foot Creations Foundation Presents the Chimera Gala
Cecilia Arnould Rachner – a Life Aquatic: An Interview (1/2)
Liam Klenk was born in Central Europe and has since lived on four continents. Liam has always been engaged in creative pursuits, ranging from photography and graphic design, to writing short stories and poetry, to working in theatre and shows. In 2016, Liam published his first book and memoir, 'Paralian'.
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