Cirque du Soleil, a Magical Experience

In the early 1980’s, in a small village near Quebec City, there was a band of colourful street entertainers who would juggle, dance, play music, breath fire and walk on stilts. They were called Les Echassiers de Baie-Saint-Paul (the Baie-Saint-Paul Stiltwalkers). The troupe was founded by Gilles Ste-Crois. In 1984 members Guy Laliberte and Daniel Gauthier proposed a show called Cirque du Soleil (Circus of the Sun) for Quebec City’s celebration of the 450th anniversary of Canada’s Discovery by Jacques Cartier. The Le Grand Tour du Cirque du Soleil was a success in 1984 and after securing a second year of funding Laliberté hired Guy Caron from the National Circus School to recreate it as a “proper circus”. No ring and no animals helped make Cirque du Soleil the modern circus (”Cirque Nouveau” / New Circus) it is described as today. The company reinvented the circus incorporating acrobatics, theatre, music, comedy and a little mystery. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s Cirque expanded rapidly and went from one show with 73 employees in 1984 to currently 3,500 employees from over 40 countries doing fifteen shows touring every continent and have an estimated annual revenue exceeding $600 million USD. The multiple permanent Las Vegas shows alone play to more than 9,000 people a night – 5% of the city’s visitors – adding to the 70+ million people who have experienced Cirque. In 2000, Laliberté bought out Gauthier and with 95% ownership has continued to expand the brand. Several more shows are in development around the world, along with a television deal, women’s clothing line and perhaps in other mediums such as spas, restaurants and nightclubs.

cirque du soleil

Some of Cirque’s Successful Shows

Saltimbanco

Created in 1992, Saltimbanco (big top version) was the first show in which Cirque du Soleil would narrow its focus to tell a very specific and themed story. Dragone was inspired by the way multiculturalism shaped the nature and direction of Cirque du Soleil and wanted the theme of this new show to be one of “cosmopolitan urbanism.” Laiberté stated that, “For me, Saltimbanco is a message of peace. In the 1990s, immigration was an issue, the mixing of cultures in cities, and Saltimbanco reflects that mix, with all of its personalities and colours. It’s the challenge we have in today’s world: respecting each other, living and working together, despite our differences.”
Idealistic or not, Saltimbanco, which come from the Italian saltare in banco, meaning literally “to jump on a bench”, was well received. Featuring 47 artists, the cast has been assembled from the citizens of fifteen different countries. This is, to date, the longest running show that Cirque du Soleil has ever produced. It has run for fifteen years and has toured North and South America, Europe, Japan and the Asia-Pacific Rim.
With Saltimbanco finished and touring in the United States and Canada, Cirque du Soleil toured Japan in the summer of 1992 at the behest of the Fuji Television Network. Taking acts from Nouvelle Expěrience and Cirque Réinvénte they created a show for this tour entitled “Fascination”. Although Fascination was never seen outside of Japan, it represented the first time that Cirque had produced a show that took place in an arena rather than a big top. It was also the first that Cirque du Soleil performed outside of North America.
On the first of February in 1997, Saltimbanco played its final show at London’s Royal Albert Hall. However, the following year, the show was restaged and started a new three year tour throughout Asia and the Pacific.

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Alegría (joy)

Alegría was a departure from the bright circus atmosphere seen previously in productions like Saltimbanco. Created for Cirque du Soleil’s 10th anniversary, the concept for the show came to life over a dinner conversation between Franco Dragone and Guy Laliberté. Dragone wanted this show to be dark and heavy; “At one point,” Dragone said “I was with Guy Laliberté at a restaurant in one of the Las Vegas casinos, and I told him the next show would be sad, heavy, really hard: ‘ Alegría! Alegría! Alegría!’ It’s Italian (and spanish) for ‘Joy! Joy! Joy!’ Where I come from, it’s what you say when you’re in pain. It means life goes on.” Costing more than three million dollars to produce, Alegría’s main theme is about the abuse of power and the subsequent struggle for freedom. Alegría makes use of darker lighting and music than previous Cirque productions have. The stage and the props make use of gothic arches and harsh angular designs to attempt to invoke a feeling of oppressiveness.
Since its inception, Alegría has toured North America twice, Japan and Hong Kong, Europe, Asia and spent a year in residency at the Beau Rivage resort in Biloxi, Mississippi. Alegría’s primary singer, Francesca Gagnon, has twice been invited to reprise the productions title song by the same name at the Montreal Jazz Festival in Montreal, Quebec.

Quidam

Premiering in 1996, Quidam adhered to the trend of bringing darker shows to the big top, previously established by Alegría the year before. Derived from the Latin word for “a nameless passerby”, Quidam was Cirque du Soleil’s ninth production and premiered in Montreal on April 23rd, 1996. Dragone’s concept for this show is the imagination of a young and jaded girl named Zoe. Drawing heavily from surrealistic artwork, the performers in the show are the manifestations of her own daydreams.
Show designers Michel Crête and Franco Dragone wanted to find a new way of incorporating the acrobatic equipment onstage. One of the ways they did this in Quidam was to design an overhead rigging system that would allow the performers to enter and exit from above and across the stage. The system also allowed the ability to suspend cast members in the air using harnesses safely for extended periods of time.
The show premiered in Montreal as Cirque du Soleil’s new head office and training center was being inaugurated. Initial reviews were critical of Quidam, some suggesting that it “did not feel like Cirque du Soleil”. Still, the production scheduled a three year tour of North America. By the time the one-thousand performance tour was finished, Denver, Houston and Dallas were added to the schedule and more than 2.5 million people watched Quidam.

cirque du soleil

Dralion

The years of work had taken their toll on Cirque du Soleil’s creative team. After La Nouba, Franco Dragone and Michel Crête parted ways from the company. To fill the void they left for the creation of the next show, Guy Laliberté turned to his former artistic director, Guy Caron. Since his departure in 1988, Caron and Laliberté had remained friends and Caron was persuaded to leave the National Circus School to return to work with Cirque du Soleil on a new oriental-themed show.
Rather than attempt to mimic Dragone’s style, Caron decided to revisit the themes of Le Cirque réinventé. “I like a show that’s full of energy, without gaps, that’s full of strong acts, funny, with a big punch at the end” Caron explained. One of his obstacles was working with a team of performers that were almost entirely new to Cirque du Soleil, including a new set designer named Stéphane Roy who had worked with Laliberté and Gauthier back in Baie-Saint-Paul at the Balcon Vert youth hostel. Despite the new team, many people within the company were unenthusiastic about Dralion, alarmed at how much the atmosphere and style differed from Dragone’s productions. Despite any misgivings, Dralion went on to be Cirque du Soleil’s top-grossing touring show. The television filming of the show received a Primetime Emmy Award.

Varekai

In 2002, Cirque du Soleil premiered Varekai, its first touring show in three years. Laliberté brought in fresh talent to direct this new show, a theater director named Dominic Champagne. Much like Caron directing Dralion three years earlier, Champagne found himself working with a fresh group of performers that had never worked for him before. Unlike Dragone’s and Caron’s intuitive approach to writing productions, Champagne scripted Varekai from start to finish.
Varekai, which is a word from the Romany language which means “wherever”, was conceptualized on the basis of mythology like many of the previous productions. The story is about the Greek myth of Icarus. The story picks up where the myth leaves off, it tells the story of what happened to Icarus after he fell from the sky. He lands in the middle of a jungle at the base of a volcano where he must learn to fly again.

Corteo

Cortéo is a Cirque du Soleil touring production that premiered in North America in 2005. Cortéo, which means “a celebratory procession” in Italian, the show is about a clown who watches his own funeral taking place in a carnival-like atmosphere. Inspired by “The Grand Parade: Portrait of the Artist as Clown” on display at the National Gallery of Canada, in many ways Cortéo is a throwback to the older and more lighthearted Cirque productions like Saltimbanco.
Directed by Daniele Finzi Pasca, the founder of the Swiss clown troupe Teatro Sunil, Cortéo takes place on a pair of large divided and moving stages, each comprised of a large turntable which is 104 feet in diameter. Each of these two stages is covered by a large curtain with a painting on it called the “Cortéo Procession”.

Kooza

Like Cortéo, Kooza is another show that goes back to Cirque du Soleil’s older styles. Premiering in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on April 19, 2007, the show is heavily inspired by Middle Eastern culture and makes use of a large traveling tower on the stage called a “bataclan.” The bataclan moves over the course of the show and reconfigures the performing space.
This show was directed by David Shiner, who had previously worked as a clown in Cirque’s production of Nouvelle Experíence. He was another example of Cirque’s trend of using new directors for each new performance. His past experience being a clown and working with the Swiss Circus are an influence on the lighthearted and whimsical nature of the Kooza production.

Sources: Wikipedia, Canadacool