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The circus business
馬戲團商業
Sunstroke
日射熱
Cirque du Soleil may be struggling, but the cluster around it is thriving
太陽馬戲團或許正處于苦斗之中，但圍繞其四周的星團正熠熠發光。
No lions, no bearded ladies
沒有獅子，沒有胡子的女士
IN THE deconsecrated church of Saint-Esprit, jugglers toss fluorescent orange clubs in front of the former altar, trapeze artists soar under the gaze of stone saints and wobbly unicyclists use two lines of repurposed pews as handrails.
在蓬圣埃斯普里神圣的教堂里，雜耍藝人們在從前的祭壇前拋擲橙色熒光棒，高空表演者在石像圣人的凝視下飛來飛去，搖擺的騎獨輪自行車表演者用兩條賦予了新用途的教堂長凳作為扶手。
Declared surplus to requirements after Quebeckers deserted Catholicism in droves, the church is now the ecole de Cirque de Quebec, through which 20,000 aspiring entertainers pass each year.
在魁比克人成群結隊地公然宣布放棄天主教后，教堂被余下來，通過每年錄取20000多個有抱負的藝人，成為了現在的魁比克馬戲團學校。
The school's director, Yves Neveu, says only half-jokingly, Someone said the archbishop should be jealous because I'm filling my church.
學校的主任，伊夫?奈芙，半開玩笑地表示，有人說大主教應該嫉妒，因為我正填滿我的教會。
Nearby Montreal boasts an even bigger school for circus performers.
而在不遠的蒙特利爾，還有一間更大的雜技表演學校。
Although only a handful of students go on to a career in the circus, the popularity of the programmes offered to would-be acrobats,
盡管僅有少數學生會繼續在馬戲團的職業生涯，但為想要成為雜技演員的人提供了普及課程，
local children and even tourists off cruise ships is the visible manifestation of the circus craze that has gripped Quebec.
當地的孩子，甚至游輪中游客的狂熱程度都明顯表示馬戲團的熱潮已經席卷整個魁北克。
At its heart is the privately owned Cirque du Soleil, started in 1984 by a troupe of stilt-walkers from nearby Baie-Saint-Paul.
浪潮的核心正是由圣保羅灣附近的一個踩高蹺戲班子1984年開創的太陽馬戲團。
It is now one of Canada's most important cultural exports, employing 5,000 people at eight permanent shows in Las Vegas and at 12 others that tour the world.
現在，太陽馬戲團是加拿大最重要的文化輸出產業之一，員工達5000人，有八場在拉斯維加斯的固定演出和十二場世界巡演。
In 2012 its turnover was about C1 billion—it does not reveal its profits.
2012年其營業額約1000000000加元-其利潤并未透露。
In 2005 this newspaper asked whether Guy Laliberte, majority owner of the circus, could keep it flying.
2005年雜志向馬戲團創始人蓋?拉利伯特問道，能否保持馬戲團風光下去。
That question was raised again early last year when the company laid off 400 employees, mainly at its head office in Montreal.
去年年初，蒙特利爾公司總部裁員400人時，這個問題再次被提出。
The company has blamed the strong Canadian dollar and the after-effects of the global recession, which hit sponsorship income.
太陽劇團將此歸咎于加幣走強和全球經濟衰退的后續效應，削弱了贊助收入。
It has launched a cost-cutting drive but insists it is not in crisis
雖然劇團開始削減成本，但堅稱并未面臨危機。.
However, the company that reinvented the circus by eschewing traditional acts such as lion tamers and bearded ladies, and by targeting adults rather than children, is certainly finding it tougher going these days.
然而，避開馬戲團的獅子馴獸師、大胡子女士們等傳統表演方式，將目標人群定位在成年人而非兒童，重新改造了的馬戲團，現在的處境一定是艱難的。
It enjoyed early and rapid success because it had created an uncontested blue ocean in which to swim, according to two management strategists from INSEAD business school in France.
兩位法國INSEAD商學院的戰略管理專家表示，劇團能夠享受到早期快速的成功，是因為其建立了一個沒有競爭的藍海。
That ocean is now full of sharks, says Gilles Ste-Croix, one of the original stilt-walkers, who is now the company's artistic guide.
現如今那片海滿是鯊魚。最初的高蹺步行者之一,現公司年代藝術指導，吉爾斯圣克魯瓦如是說。
Competition comes not just from older circuses that have updated their acts, such as Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, but also from a trend in the arts to merge various disciplines, for instance by bringing acrobats into operas.
劇團的競爭壓力不僅來源于更新表演內容的舊有馬戲團,如林林兄弟巴納姆貝利馬戲團,而且也來自于在多種學科融合的一個藝術趨勢，比如讓雜技走進歌劇。
Smaller rivals have also emerged from the large shadow Cirque du Soleil casts in Quebec.
小型競爭競爭者也在太陽馬戲團投射在魁北克巨大的陰影下崛起。
A troupe called Les 7 doigts de la main set a box-office record at the Broadway theatre where they performed a show called Pippin.
劇團七指馬戲團在百老匯劇院表演彼平正傳，創造了票房紀錄。
Flip FabriQue, formed by a group of friends just two years ago, is now travelling the world.
由一群朋友就在兩年前創立的FabriQue也開始世界巡回。
And Cirque Alfonse toured Europe, Asia and America in 2013 with a truly Canadian spectacle called Timber!, which features chainsaw-juggling lumberjacks.
阿爾馮斯馬戲團2013年帶著真正的加拿大表演伐木樂園游歷了歐洲、亞洲和美國，該劇充分展現電鋸雜耍伐木工人的特點。
These newer outfits are both a source of competition and collaboration for Cirque du Soleil, with performers moving back and forth.
表演者來來去去，這些新的組織既是太陽馬戲團的競爭者也是合作對象。
It also collaborates with notable local talents, such as Robert LePage, a director, playwright and actor whose company Ex Machina is based in Quebec City.
此外，馬戲團與當地的知名人才合作，如羅伯特-勒帕熱，一位公司總部位于魁北克市的導演，演員和劇作家。
This has reinforced what has become a Quebec entertainment cluster.
強化魁北克的娛樂產業。
Mr Neveu, a Cirque du Soleil alumnus, thinks that rather than serving a spell with his former employer, many of the students at his school will go straight to work in one of the many smaller troupes, which he sees as a healthy trend.
太陽馬戲團的校友奈芙先生認為，學校的很多學生將直接在新的小團中工作而不是為其前雇主輪流演出，他也相信這是一個好的趨勢。
Even so, Cirque du Soleil remains the sun around which all the others are orbiting.
即便如此，太陽馬戲團仍是其他團體圍繞旋轉的太陽。
