Next stop: Cirque du Soleil headquarters that employs about 4,000 people from 40 different countries.  We got an amazing behind-the-scenes tour of the various gyms, training rooms, make up room, costume department (wigs, shoes, headdresses, outfits) and the scheduling department (just the interpreters' schedules alone were overwhelming).  About 30 different people work with each circus artist, including a massage therapist, nutritionist, interpreter, coach, physical therapist, etc.  Each performer is responsible for learning how to do his/her own make up.  They also have three full sets of costumes for each performer.  Cirque has 400 costume artists, produce each wig hair-by-hair and order 80% of their fabric in white (which means they custom dye most of the costumes you see on stage).  This company is like nothing I have seen before!!!