Victoria Webb, Assistant Company Manager at KA
'89 BFA Dance

Cirque du Soleil shows are known for their gifted performers. Dancers, acrobats, clowns, and martial artists -- all possessed of physical skills that can make them seem not quite human -- soar through the air and climb to dizzying heights. Offstage, though, they sometimes need a little help keeping their feet on the ground.

As assistant company manager for the KA production, Victoria Webb does quite a juggling act to make sure 300 artists are ready to perform. The former dancer's job is to "take their minds off of all of that stress so they can focus on what they're doing in the show." Thus, she organizes visas, apartments, and driver's licenses for her multinational performers.

Webb tends to these problems not only with the practical information on who to e-mail, when to call, and how to file paperwork, but also with unshakeable calm and genuine sympathy. At times, there's as much drama backstage as onstage. "If somebody gets hurt, you have to take them down to the emergency room and make sure they're OK." Webb explains. "If they have a situation at home or their boyfriend broke up with them, it's 'Hold my hand, I need to talk.'"

Her small office is hung with colorful art made by fellow Cirque workers and crammed with boxes containing the favors for next week's company party. Performers in street clothes and stage makeup flit in and out. She consults a poster-sized list of names and numbers as she tries to solve the problem-ofthe- moment, knowing full well another crisis is close at hand. "When you have 300 people coming at you, you have to take care of them," she says. But sometimes, she admits, "it's like 'Take a number and I'll get to that.'"

Now in her ninth year with Cirque du Soleil, Webb came to her backstage career after dancing professionally on several continents. "When I quit dancing, I was just ready," she recalls. "I knew that job was not going to be long-term." She then spent time working her way up the production ladder on stage and film before landing a job with Ice Capades. Her career with Cirque started with its Biloxi, Miss., production of Alegr?a. Before moving on to Las Vegas' Myst?re and KA, she took a year to learn more about immigration issues.

Family Ties

Webb has both family and university roots in Las Vegas -- her father is UNLV Distinguished Professor of English Joe McCullough, which made choosing a college easier. "I took a couple of his classes, which was kind of fun," she says. "I didn't ace them, but I passed." McCullough remembers it this way: "She would sort of do her own thing and I would stay out of her way."

Webb's exploration of classes beyond dance has proved helpful in her career. As a student she considered a future career in counseling and minored in sociology. "That helped a lot because counseling people is basically what I do."

UNLV also provided her with her first production management experience when jazz studies students traveled to Japan. "Someone in the jazz department was looking for anyone interested in helping organize the trip, she recalls. She leapt at the chance to travel and work. "That was the first job I ever had, and now I'm here taking care of dancers."

While many dancers find themselves eventually pushed out of their careers by injury or age, Webb has easily made the transition into another facet of the world she loves. "I'm used to not being on stage," she says, "but I'm glad to still be part of it."