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Cirque de Soleil

January 24, 2008 · Written by Heather Juma

Cirque de Soleil Cirque du Soleil (French for “Circus of the Sun”) is an entertainment empire based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada founded  by two former street performers, Guy Laliberté and Daniel Gauthier in 1984.

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 that it is today.

Each show is a synthesis of circus styles from around the world and has its own central theme and storyline which brings the audience into the performance by having no curtains, continuous live music and performers change the props. After critical and financial successes (Los Angeles Arts Festival) and failures in the late 1980s, Nouvelle Expérience was created with the direction of Franco Dragone that not only made Cirque profitable by 1990, but allowed it to create new shows.

 Cirque’s creations have been awarded numerous prizes and distinctions, including Bambi, Rose d’Or, three Gemini Awards and four Primetime Emmy Awards.

Cortéo is a Cirque du Soleil touring production that premiered in North America in 2005. Cortéo, which means “cortège” in Italian, is a festive parade imagined by a clown.

The show brings together the passion of the actor with the grace and power of the acrobat to plunge the audience into a theatrical world of fun, comedy and spontaneity situated in a mysterious space between heaven and earth.

The clown pictures his own funeral taking place in a carnival atmosphere, watched over by quietly caring angels. Juxtaposing the large with the small, the ridiculous with the tragic and the magic of perfection with the charm of imperfection, the show highlights the strength and fragility of the clown, as well as his wisdom and kindness, to illustrate the portion of humanity that is within each of us. The music, by turns lyrical and playful, carries Corteo through a timeless celebration in which illusion teases reality.

In September of 2003, Cirque du Soleil unveiled Zumanity. This new production was a resident cabaret-style show at the New York-New York Hotel and Casino on Las Vegas Boulevard (The Strip). It is the first “adult-themed” Cirque du Soleil show, billed as “The Sensual Side of Cirque du Soleil”. Created by Dominic Champagne, Zumanity is a departure from the standard Cirque format. Intended to be for mature adult audiences only, this show is centered around erotic song, dance and acrobatics.

Laliberté admits that the biggest reason to produce this show was the chance to create something with riskier subject matter. He was interested in the idea of creating a show that explored human sexuality, something that was at complete odds from the other more family-oriented Cirque shows. “Our previous shows have all been family-oriented and ‘politically correct.’ Laliberté said, “which is great. But we’re human beings, we won’t hide it. We’re a bunch of happy campers. We like to live new experiences. Zumanity deals with some of those experiences.”

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