My first and only experience of a Cirque du Soleil show was in Toronto in the late 1980s, not long after the famous circus had transformed from a group of street performers into a major international travelling circus. I remember being totally in awe of the superhuman acts from all the performers, especially the acrobats and the contortionists. Thirty years later, I attended the opening performance of Cirque’s TOTEM at the Royal Albert Hall, with a star-studded crowd that included Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Founder Guy Laliberté, who is on Forbes’ Billionaires list, aptly named his troupe Cirque du Soleil because “the sun symbolizes youth, energy, and strength.” TOTEM, which runs until the end of February 2019 at the Royal Albert Hall, certainly personifies all of those attributes. Last fall, I travelled to Cirque du Soleil’s international headquarters in Montreal to see how the world’s most famous circus produces shows like TOTEM as well as to find out more about Cirque’s new collaboration with MSC cruises.
There’s always a narrative of some kind in Cirque du Soleil shows but there’s little or no dialogue as the shows are aimed at global audiences ensuring language is no barrier to understanding the stories. Although the TOTEM story seemed somewhat convoluted at times, that didn’t matter as the audience was completely mesmerized by the various athletic feats and spectacular acts of the Cirque du Soleil artists.
TOTEM attempts to show the earth’s evolution, opening with amphibious life emerging from the swamps on a colorful, impressive stage set, with acrobats in bright green costumes swinging, jumping and flipping in the air. Later, monkeys, primitive man and Native Americans are all showcased. One of the most astonishing acts was five female unicyclists who seemed to effortlessly flip bowls onto their heads from their feet, never loosing their balance on top of the very tall unicycles. Another crowd pleaser were the acrobats bounding and flipping on narrow strips of rubber. The amazing feats were made even more dramatic by the strong original accompanying music.
I was already prepared to be amazed at the premiere of TOTEM this month because I’d recently seen the artists practising in the gyms at the Montreal headquarters of Cirque du Soleil. I had a behind the scenes look at Cirque international headquarters that employs 1,500, in a vast warehouse complex on the outskirts of the city. I was there for a sneak preview of the two new Cirque at Sea shows to launch this March on board MSC ships, in an exclusive partnership not available with any other cruise ship line. For 17 years Yasmin Khali has been the creative genius behind 45 DEGREES, the global events division of Cirque du Soleil, to create special projects like the shows for MSC. In Montreal, I also saw how TOTEM and other shows are produced, as well with almost every aspect of each show created in the Montreal warehouse.
I saw how the costumes and props are all designed and made in-house, the elaborate makeup routines and best of all, some of the acts that will be in the MSC shows. Everything in each show is made from scratch using 3D scanners are used to make props, the majority of the textiles are processed there and the prints on the costumes are printed in house of vast silk screen printers. Each costume is printed on white cotton or lycra in house so they can be replicated in perpetuity and this also keeps everything top secret before each new show is launched. They have a massive archive of costumes where every costume from every show is carefully catalogued.
The artists are painstakingly shown how to apply their own makeup. A makeup expert in Montreal devises the look for each character and then shows the artists how to apply it with the help of a detailed, step-by- step manual. I finished my tour by meeting some of Cirque du Soleil’s performers after a sneak preview of some of the acts they were working on for the MSC collaboration. Cirque works with all nationalities and have a casting bank of 55,000 performers. Scouts do casting calls looking for different types of performers. Most performers are gymnasts, often ex-Olympians, and many can sing and dance as well but sometimes they find undiscovered talent like an African dancer who is now performing at a Cirque show in Vegas.
TOTEM runs until 26 February 2019 at the Royal Albert Hall.
