Interview: Welcome to Can Can, Travis Guerin

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we must have been good this year because at Can Can, Christmas came early and Santa left us something — rather, someone — we can’t wait to unwrap.

Travis Guerin, we welcome you to Can Can. 

We can see no better time to make an entrance than to debut in this year’s whimsical winter chalet, Wonderland. But this is more than just Guerin’s debut at Can Can. This is his coming back out of retirement party. 

In between tutu fittings and passing out candy canes, Guerin opens up to us about his journey to falling back in love with dance after a cut-throat career in ballet and a grueling hip injury. 

“Things might be falling down around us, but we're still going to be here afterward. We can still put on great shows and be transported somewhere. We can forget about it all for at least a few hours.”

Read on to learn more about Guerin’s experience preparing for Wonderland, and his hopes to help transport the audience into our world of winter wonder and holiday cheer. 

Travis Guerin in Wonderland (2022) | Photo by Nate Watters

THECANCAN.COM: Travis, first things first. WELCOME! I know I’m speaking for the whole gang when I say that we’re so excited to have you. Let’s dive right in! How did you find yourself in the glamorous world of cabaret and burlesque?

Travis Guerin: For many years, I was working my way up with a ballet company. I was doing principal roles for classical and contemporary things, but then I got a hip injury. I tore my labrum, and they had to shave down a part of my femur to get to it. It was a pretty heavy surgery. I was out for about six months before I came back, but after all of that, it was challenging. Every day I was in pain, and it just wasn't fun anymore. So, I retired, and I gave up dancing completely. 

I was bitter about it, to be honest. I moved to Seattle and got a different job. I went to Cornish for a little bit and worked at the Metropolitan Market. I did that for several years before realizing that I wasn't really done with dancing. I didn't hate it, I was just upset that I couldn't do it anymore. 

I started taking classes again. I knew it would be very difficult to get back into a full-on, hardcore ballet company, but I also didn't really want that life again. It's very stressful at all times, in every direction. It's physically stressful. It's emotionally stressful. It's a really hard life, and you really don't make a lot of money. I checked out my options and realized that there was this thriving burlesque cabaret community in Seattle. I'd been to Can Can before many, many times as an audience member and loved every show. I always felt a pull of like, “I could do this, I could be a part of this.” But I never pursued that, until recently. I'm very glad I did. I randomly emailed Can Can and asked for an audition, and Shadou very graciously gave me one. Now here I am, and I'm so excited to return to performing in a different culture. At this point in my lifetime, I'm thrilled.

THECANCAN.COM: Did you always know you wanted to perform? When was that “A-ha!” moment for you?

Travis Guerin: Honestly, there was not really a singular moment. It almost felt inevitable, in a way, because I wasn't interested in anything else. 

When I was really young, my older sister was a competitive dancer, like “Dance Moms” style. We would go to her competitions, and I would watch all the dances and just loved it. I would come home and dance around in the living room and break furniture. My parents always wanted me to do sports because I was a boy, but I just hated it. Eventually, they gave in and let me take competition dance classes. That's how it all started. My younger sister started dancing too, and our whole family was involved in it. We had competitions every weekend, and my parents were driving me to and from the ballet studio literally every day. There’s a popular saying among dancers, “I can't. I have dance.” That was my life, and I loved it. 

Being gay, and growing up in Spokane, I was made fun of all the time at school. It was a bad bullying situation. But then, I would go to these dance competitions – and I was good. I would win, and everybody would cheer for me. I got so much validation out of that. It felt like a safe world where I was celebrated. I didn't really want to go anywhere else or try anything different. As I got older, like mid to late teens, I realized that it's hard to make a career out of competition-style dance. You can do background dancing for pop stars and do concerts and tours, which is amazing, but it's a hard life as well. It's all freelance, and you have to hustle. That wasn't really my personality. At the competitions, judges would always say I should take ballet because it would improve my technique. So, as I got older, I started taking more ballet classes. Then, I got more and more into the ballet world and learned about different companies. Seeing professional ballet shows, I realized that's where I wanted to go. 

So, I wouldn’t say I had that “A-ha!” moment; it was more like a slow, inexorable march.

The Cast of Wonderland (2022) | Photo by Nate Watters

THECANCAN.COM: One of Can Can’s best attributes is the chemistry among the performers onstage. Audience members rave about being drawn into their world and feeling right at home. How has the transition been for you joining such a tight-knit team?

Travis Guerin: It has been absolutely incredible. Every single person has been so welcoming and made me feel truly a part of Can Can, which I was nervous about and also not expecting. Ballet can be very cold. I don't want to speak poorly of it because I loved it. It was part of my life for most of my life. But the people are very self-focused, and you're competing against everybody in the company for these specific roles. It's hard to break in when you first get hired into a ballet company and figure out who you jive with, and everyone's sizing each other up. It takes a while to get integrated into the group. I was nervous coming into Can Can because that had always been my experience. I was used to having to prove myself and wedge myself in. But it is not like that at all here. Everyone has been so supportive and excited to work with me. It's been fantastic. I couldn't have asked for a better group of people, both castmates and the leadership team. I'm very excited to be part of this group.

THECANCAN.COM: Can you walk me through a day in the life as a Can Can performer? I’d love to know more about how the magic happens. 

Travis Guerin: Recently, we've been rehearsing for Wonderland during the day. One night I came back to see Hitchcock Hotel and the transformation that the space goes through… it’s suddenly this speakeasy atmosphere. With the glittering costumes and the lighting, it’s so incredible to see the difference from day to night. When we go in for rehearsals, it's the middle of the day. All the lights are on, the curtains are drawn, we have sunlight coming in, and you have the beautiful Puget Sound right in front of you as you're rehearsing, which is fantastic. But it’s also like when they turn the lights on at the club at 3 am. Everything is not quite as moody or magical of a place as it is when you go and see the show. We’re all standing around in sweatpants, it’s kind of funny.

Now that we’re getting closer to the opening of Wonderland, there are more technical rehearsals with setting up the lighting, doing the quick changes, and working with the microphones. It's been mostly learning choreography and blocking scenes, but that will ramp up here soon. It's going to be a pretty full schedule right before we open the show.

Travis Guerin in Wonderland (2022) | Photo by Nate Watters

THECANCAN.COM: Speaking of which, it’s finally the most wonderful time of the year...and just as importantly, it’s your debut performance! With opening day right around the corner, how has working with Can Can stood out among other shows you’ve done? 

Travis Guerin: I would say the biggest difference is the stress level. It’s the most positive thing in the world to go from feeling so worried about how your performance is going to go and knowing it can really impact your career in either direction. In ballet, everything is so dependent on you being as perfect as you possibly can. It's very stressful and you have to put up with a lot of  emotional challenges to make it through a show. Being at Can Can now, I'm not worried about the shows in the same way; I'm not afraid of what the directors are going to say, I'm not worried if my castmate is gunning for my position. It's so much more enjoyable — it feels like a breath of fresh air. This is supposed to be fun, and I'm actually feeling that now. It's very fulfilling, and it's just so different from any of the ballet shows because of that. 

I will say that ballet can be very rewarding because there is a lot of overcoming challenges, facing your fears, and all that. Being at Can Can is performing for the joy of performing, and that feels just as spectacular. 

Also, the audience interaction is so much different. In ballet, you’re way up on stage and so far removed. The audience looks, but they don't touch. They don't engage, they’re not a part of it. They're just watching something that you've practiced. Whereas this is so completely different. We get to talk to people, we pull people on stage, and we dance with them. We’re trying to pull them out of their reality and into our world for a night. At this point in my life, this is so much more of what I'm looking for in terms of performance.

THECANCAN.COM: Do you have a favorite scene or performance our audience should be looking out for?

Travis Guerin: The whole show is spectacular. I can't wait for when we're performing it with all the bells and whistles added on. I'm really excited because I have a little ballet part towards the end to show some of my technique. That might be a pleasant little surprise to show something different that the audience hasn’t seen in other performances. 

The Cast of Wonderland (2022) | Photo by Nate Watters

THECANCAN.COM: What do you hope the audience takes away from this year’s production of Wonderland?

Travis Guerin: Because it's what I have already gotten from my experiences, I would say hope. It's been a really, really awful couple of years for the entire world. Honestly, I've gone through phases of seriously losing hope, and that is no way to live. With me coming into this new experience, my whole life has changed. I was doing a job that was unfulfilling, I didn't really feel like I had left my lifelong career of ballet on a good note. I don't know — I just didn't see much of an exciting future. But now, literally, everything has changed. I just really hope that we as a community and as a people can move forward and see that, yes, things might be falling down around us, but we're still going to be here afterward. We can still put on great shows and be transported somewhere. We can forget about all of that for at least a few hours.

THECANCAN.COM: Okay Travis, final question, and then I’ll let you get back to candy caning with Sparkles. Just for fun, I’d love to know, if you could switch roles with a castmate for a day, who would it be?

Travis Guerin: If it were only roles that were switching, I don't think I would want to because the role that I have is very suited to my abilities. It was a great experience going through the rehearsal process with everybody collaborating and putting forward what they really specialize in. That was celebrated for each person. So, I feel like if I swapped roles with anybody, I would be doing myself and the role and the other person a disservice. 

But, if I could trade talents with somebody, I would definitely say Jasmine or Tori because their voices are just incredible. They blow me away every single time. They sing such beautiful songs in Wonderland, and I sing exclusively in the car and in the shower. I have no idea what it feels like to sound that beautiful. I would like to experience that just to know, you know?

Ready to settle into our world of merriment and wonder? You can see Travis on stage with the rest of your favorite sugarplums in Wonderland, now through January 8th.