When Cirque du Soleil rolls into town on June 18 with its brand new show LUZIA, it’ll be taking the audience to a make-believe Mexico filled with old movie sets, beaches, deserts and plenty of colour. Although the show isn’t a love story, there’s actually a real one unfolding onstage — between pole dance and trapeze artist Morgane Tisserand and aerial artist Jérome Sordillon. They share the story of finding a match made in midair.
How they met
We met at École Nationale de Cirque de Montréal in 2010 when we were both studying circus there. Maybe it’s because we are both from France, but we quickly connected and became friends.
The relationship
One thing led to another, and before we knew it, we were spending all our time together and officially dating. We spent the first two years together in Montreal while studying circus. When we graduated, we both got contracts but on different circus shows. Between working in Germany, Las Vegas, Australia and more, we managed to see each other once every two to three months. This long-distance relationship lasted for about five years. We finally got to work together on a Cirque du Soleil show in 2017 and were able to travel together, just as we had always dreamed.
The proposal
For Jérome, marriage is for life, and he didn’t want to propose until we had shared the biggest life commitment of all: having a child. Sohan arrived in our lives on March 30, 2020. One month later, Jérome invited me to the beach for a family lunch. He proposed at the end of lunch with Sohan right beside us.
The wedding plans
We are constantly on the road for work, and we just haven’t found the time to make a wedding happen yet. We know for sure that it will be in Spain. We both love Greece, so it wouldn’t be surprising if that became our honeymoon destination.
The kids
Sohan is six years old, and he has been on tour with us since he was one, when we joined LUZIA. We love showing him the world and letting him discover different cultures. He currently speaks French, English and Spanish. A couple of weeks ago, he told us he would love to learn Russian because his best friend on tour is from Belarus.
The secret to success
It’s probably our communication. We likely wouldn’t have survived five years of a long-distance relationship without it. Also, the fact that we were friends first gave us a very solid foundation for our relationship.
Balancing careers and a relationship
When you live on the road together for work, it can be easy to lose the balance between your career and your relationship because everything blends together. We try as much as possible to create quality moments for ourselves and our family. Between cities, whenever we have time off, we love travelling somewhere else and disconnecting from the circus world. We also try to keep our days off dedicated to family time with our son.
The future together
We’d love to do this as long as we can, but we know there is an expiration date to our lives as circus performers. We would still love to stay in the arts industry. Maybe one day we’ll have our own creative company. We would still love to travel, but we hope to settle down in our home in Spain, enjoy being close to the beach and continue creating unforgettable memories for our son.
