Cirque Du Soleil

My first official Cirque Du Soleil post in plain english (I’ve done several posts in binary code, much to the delight of my fellow geek friends). So here’s the quick run down. Yes, I will be joining Cirque Du Soleil to open their new resident show in Macau, China at the Sands Venetian (Macao I) . I leave in January 2008. Scheduled opening for the show is May 2008.

Many people have trouble enunciating the company name – it’s “SIHRK DOO SOHLAY”, for regular English speaking folk. In French it means Circus of the Sun. There are a lot of knock-off companies that have chosen similiar sounding names – Cirque Du Soleil is the “real” one.

When people find out I’m joining CDS, I know immediately if they have seen a Cirque show before or not. The ones that haven’t seen CDS say something like “Oh, that’s cool”. The ones that HAVE seen a Cirque show before go into an uncontrolled frenzy and froth at the mouth, they go crazy. I’m not joking. I’ll tell you why: Cirque Du Soleil is the absolute coolest thing in the whole entire world. In this great wild world, there is nothing I would rather do more than work on one of their resident shows. To me, it is also the best music in the world – period.

Cirque Du Soleil is absolutely intense and ultimately demanding. It is the one thing I have seen in performance that eliminates all cultural boundaries and expresses takes on the human condition like no other art can. It is the ultimate voice of the artist demanding sense in the midst of insanity.

I have always loved the CDS music, and in the studio often used elements of their production styles in my work. But several years ago I saw Mystere and “O” live in Las Vegas with my mother and sister. After the Mystere show my mother asked me what I thought – I paused for a good while and said “I feel like my life has been changed, but I don’t know how.” I have never said anything like that about any other show. It woke me up. And since then it raised my bar of expectation for what can be.

So how did I get the gig? I auditioned in Las Vegas back when I was touring with Freddy Fender and producing for Road Records. We’ve gone back and forth on several different shows and productions, but nothing was quite the right timing or fit. This show is the perfect timing and the perfect fit.

I’ll tell you how perfect it is for me. My preference is to work for a resident show, meaning it has a theater built for it and stays in one place. My preference is also to work overseas (I spent MANY years playing in Vegas, it was fun but I already did that). The other great element is I get to experience the show in development from the beginning – to me that is the greatest part of it all – to see the Cirque magic unfold.

Theology aside – I think Cirque Du Soleil is the greatest thing this world has to offer. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.

CHECK OUT INFO ABOUT CIRQUE DU SOLEIL

CIRQUE DU SOLEIL OVERVIEW

Cirque du Soleil (French for “Circus of the Sun”) is an entertainment empire based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former street performers, Guy Laliberté and Daniel Gauthier. The current head choreographer is Debra Brown.

Initially named Les Échassiers they toured Quebec in 1980 as a performing troupe and encountered financial hardship that was relieved by a government grant in 1983 as part of 450th celebrations of Jacques Cartier’s discovery of Canada. 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. 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/sets. 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.

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’s creations have been awarded numerous prizes and distinctions, including Bambi, Rose d’Or, three Gemini Awards and four Primetime Emmy Awards In 2004, Interbrand’s poll of brand names with the highest global impact ranked Cirque du Soleil as number 22.

One thought on “Cirque Du Soleil

  1. Omg, it’s so great that you’ll be playing in a CdS show!
    Wow, I wish you the best of luck!
    Violaine’s writing the story, so you’ll probably be playing some amazing music, enjoy Macao and congrats again!

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