United We Stand

By IWC

They said Dailier Vives Robles was not very talkative, that it was going to be difficult to interview this young circus artist that attends his last year in the National School of Circus, of the Art National School ( ENA in Spanish), and who was chosen by his classmates as the best student in his promotion.

Although he is a man of few words, it is enough to ask on his passion (the circus) and sentences — even whole paragraphs—come to his mouth quickly.

“The circus is everything. My life is in the ring. I have spent wonderful years in this school. I have made an effort because I want to be a good artist, the best one, the best person I can be. I am of few words and believe more in actions. Perhaps for that reason my comrades chose me as the best student of our graduation, because I always like to take a step forward if it is necessary or there is some task to fulfill.

”My specialty is acrobatics in wicker and there if there is no team work, there is nothing. You must sacrifice individuality for the performance of the group and that is what I have tried arises in my life; and so you see, there are the results, the prize to effort for all these years I would not change for anything.

”This school, the friends I have made, what I have learned is the best thing that has happened to me until now”.

To arrive where he is, there was a lot of dedication and a good dose of attraction for circus. A visit to the big top opened to him the doors to admiration and desire.

“Since the second degree in elementary school I began to take my first steps in gymnastics. I was an athlete who practiced on a daily basis and that helped me to find my true vocation. I was 13 when I visited the big top  of a circus who visited my. It was fascinating, in a moment I knew that was what I wanted to be.

”I told my interest to my gymnastics professor and he said me we were going to try, if I was sure. So we staged the first force number with a friend of mine.

“You can imagine, we had the force, the training, something of balance, but it was not the same. The work in pair demands a lot of mutual understanding and gymnastics helped us, mainly in training. Then I had to learn to work as a team. And so we did.

“It looked for some videos, I searched on TV every circus show to nourish us with ideas and to try to make our numbers more complex. That is passion: when you discover it you spend all the time arousing it.

” We acted in any place that gave us some opportunity: houses of Culture, hotels, in some Committees for the Defense of the Revolution … and in that way I learned about the entry exams for the National School of Circus. I had to make it. I knew there was a great demand in all the country and that the positions were not enough for all.

 ”I went there with my heart in my mouth and when the results arrived I could not believe it. I had passed. I was going to be part of a specialized school that was famous by its strictness and the amount of artists of quality who had graduated in it”.

The family has also contributed, with its support, to the possibility that Dailier stands out not only as an artist, but as a student too.

“You can imagine, I live with my parents in the city of Holguín (Eastern part of Cuba) and we have a very strong relationship. Everything has been always shared in a familiar way. So when I told them

I was entering the National School of Circus, they raised hell.

 ”One of the most important things for a parent is that his/her son fulfills and fights by his dreams. They were extremely glad, but when they knew we were going to spend most of the year without seeing each other —I am telling you of being able to go to my  province every six months approximately—, it was a very hard decision to make.

“When you find out what you want to be, what you feel that is your vocation, you must fight for it. There will always be obstacles or difficult decisions and that was one of them. To see my family only some times… you cannot imagine… that is part of what you must sacrifice to be what you feel that is your vocation.

“For that reason in these four years I have made such a great effort. With each step I take, with each exercise I improve, I show myself I have not made the wrong decision. That all along living far away from my beloved ones, it has not been in vain. I want my parents feel proud of me. I want to feel proud of myself. To be the best circus artist I can be. To give myself in body and soul to every coming out to scene. The sacrifice, the training, the pains, all that is forgotten when they applaud you at the end of the performance.

For Dailier it is clear: improvement is something that is obtained daily, very small grain you learn contribute to all his personality:

“I try to learn something every day. Free time is quite little, mainly because you finishes training really tired and, in addition, you must study for the tests, the course papers, the homeworks.

“Sometimes there is time only to sleep and to replenish forces for the following day, but I try to find a space every day for, if I am exhausted, to listen to some music and if I have a little more spirit, to do some reading. History books fascinate me, to a large extent. I am attracted  by those about the history of circus, but I do not fail to read others that are instructive or amusing.

“I believe that to a large extent, being or not  a good person depends on excel every day. The team work has taught me I cannot be selfish or individualistic, in the case of our specialty that can be fatal.

”I want to be a good artist and to understand all these things, besides of being disciplined and self-sacrificing if necessary. Not to forget that proverb that says, and that for our group it would have to be as our motto, united we stand”.