Within the creation process of Varekai, artists prepare the first presentation of their acts to Guy Laliberté, President and CEO, Founder of Cirque du Soleil but who is also, more importantly, the Creative Guide for the show. Today, the triple trapeze act is the unfortunate focus of Guy's attention.

First Aired: September 22, 2002 (Global) January 13, 2003 (Bravo)

This installment of Fire Within centers around the first performance of the budding new show for Cirque du Soleil President and Co-founder, Guy Laliberté, who acts as a guide for the creators and cast. The episode mainly deals with the performers' anxiety leading up to, and the fallout from, Laliberté's visit.

The end of Episode 2 saw Gareth returning home in frustration after several grueling weeks at Cirque. Gareth surprises everybody (including himself) when he returns to Montreal and to Cirque du Soleil. The two weeks he spent at home with his ailing mother, his family and friends was the refresher he needed and he returns with a greater inner peace and a willingness to work to make it into the show. He credits his decision to "smart thinking", saying that if he had stayed home he probably would have eventually gotten into trouble and possibly ended up in prison. He now regards Cirque as his personal high road.

Oleg throws a party to celebrate Gareth's return. Darren flips through Oleg's photo albums and shows us pictures from Oleg's Quidam days, posing backstage with celebrities such as Pamela Anderson and Sharon Stone.

Meanwhile, the main buzz amongst the performers is their pending progress review by Guy Laliberté. We encounter the nervous performers on the day of the presentation. Oleg compares the stress and anxiety of being judged and having his performance evaluated to that he experienced as a competitive athlete.

As expected, the Atherton twins' Duo Aerial Straps number fares well in the evaluation. Although, unbeknownst to the twins, the creative team wants to change the number. Cirque's previous show, Dralion, was lambasted in the Canadian press for its lack of innovation and minimal originality, the local media fearing that Cirque may have reached the peak of its creative potential. This was no doubt a prevalent thought in the mind of Director of Creation, Andrew Watson, "If we could end up with a strap act that didn't look like the hundred strap acts that we've all seen then I'd be a happy man", he admits. The creators hope to give a new spin to Aerial Straps and decide to pair the twins with hip hop choreographer Bill Shannon.

Bill Shannon is an innovative dancer who turned his debilitative hip condition and his reliance on crutches into a new form of dance. He's taught this technique to cast members for a group dance act. Upon review, Bill is told by Guy Laliberté that what touched him most about the number in the first place was the "intimate moments" created by a solo crutch dancer. The act will be changed.

As for creating new choreography for the Aerial Straps, the twins have a hard time working with Bill since he is from the world of hip hop music and break dancing and they are from the conservative world of competitive gymnastics. Their working styles clash and the twins become increasingly agitated. Bill works with the reluctant brothers and reinvents the originally graceful and balletic strap act as a fast and furious powerhouse reminiscent of skateboarding tricks, break dance and extreme sports. The twins dislike the change and are uncomfortable presenting the act to the creative team, "We were told we have a presentation [for the creative team] and I'm embarrassed totally to go out there and present something that I don't like and I know we're not going to like it," one of the twins confesses. The Athertons are surprised when the creative team loves the new choreography. "It has good energy," said Director Dominic Champagne. Like it or not the twins will continue to work with the hip hop virtuoso.

Guy Laliberté's harshest criticism goes to the multiple-trapeze act featuring Stella, Raquel and four other girls performing slides and poses on the awkward cage structure. Upon first viewing it's obvious that Guy is beyond dissatisfied with how the act has progressed, "I don't like the act at all. We never see their full bodies. The structure looks like a pile of scrap metal." Then, semi- apologetically to André Simard the apparatus and act designer, "I'm sorry, sometimes you're brilliant but I'm not engaged by this at all. . .There are six people in the act, I won't have six people in an act unless it makes me go 'wow'." Ultimately, Guy lays down the law, "Do something fast or find another act," he tells the creators.

The girls are very dejected at Guy's comments. In a moment in Stella's bedroom, she sews a dress and shares with us, "I wanted to be a [fashion] designer before I wanted to become [a Cirque] artist. Now I think I want to be a designer again." She forces a chuckle.

Raquel's disappointment is compounded by feelings of longing for her boyfriend who is back home in Brazil. They've been apart for two months, causing Raquel much emotional strain. Her boyfriend flies to Montreal for a visit shown in a musical montage featuring the lovers sharing a touching and tearful reunion at Dorval Airport.

The multiple-trapeze act is reworked to become more acrobatic and at the same time more dramatic, we see the trapezists manipulating red balls and making figures in a swath of red fabric a-la-Quidam. The girls perform the modified act for Guy Laliberté once more, this time privately, hidden behind large black curtains. The camera manages to catch little peeks in the crack. The second review fails to impress and finally, the decision is made to axe the awkward rigid trapeze structure. The girls take it hard. After training for so long the structure itself became the seventh partner in the act. Stella even anthropomorphizes the trapeze, "I call her Midge 'cause she's rad. I figure if she's got my life in her hands she'd better have a name." "We fell in love with the multiple-trapeze. That's why everybody's suffering," explains Raquel. Although she can see the producers' point of view that having such a large and commanding apparatus for an act that's merely pretty and short of spectacular could be disappointing for the audience. Stella is having a harder time accepting the loss. She laments, "I don't necessarily think that three months on a brand new object that's never been used before is enough research time." She later adds with a slight twinge of bitterness, "We were hired because we were believed to possess strength and aggressiveness and we were qualified for it beyond our reach, all of us, and there's little faith in that, that's what I feel like."

At the end of the episode the multiple-trapeze is trucked away like a fallen comrade. Raquel, Stella and the other trapeze artists are right back where they started, three months of hard work reduced to a pile of scrap.