“Cavalia Continues its ‘Odysseo'”

Back in our April, 2007 issue, we reviewed “Cavalia,” a horse/circus arts performance spectacle. Now their second show, entitled “Odysseo” (pronounced ODD-ess-AY-oh) has returned with more beautiful horses and exciting circus acts, so my lovely wife and I went to check it out when it visited Seattle, though we waited until the price was right. More on that in a moment.

Created and produced by Normand Latourelle, one of the founders of Cirque du Soleil (and with them up to 1990), it is a show described by Mr. Latourelle himself as, “Cirque du Soleil with horses.” Their first show, simply called Cavalia, has been on the road touring for about 10 years. Their ticketing strategy is to announce only a couple of weeks of dates initially and announce date extensions as tickets are sold. Kind of like Cirque in that way, but while Cirque might initially announce three weeks of dates Cavalia initially announced only two.

They plopped their tent into the same huge cement slab our park systems Marymoor Park built to Cirque’s specifications, in the Seattle suburb of Redmond. Needing to house some 60 horses on-site, along with the huge performance tent, means the site is much more crowded with tents and infrastructure than a Cirque site. And not only that – the all-white four-spire tent is North America’s largest, a 26,624 square foot behemoth standing more than 100 feet high, taller and wider in diameter than a typical Cirque tent.

Ticket prices also took a bit of a leap. Whereas Cirque’s tent show prices top out in the $125.00 range, Odysseo tops out at $150 before graduating to the VIP packages (which Odysseo calls “Rendez-Vous” and start at $200 topping out at $260). Generally Odysseo’s tickets are $10-20 dollars more each than equivalent Cirque seats.

When we heard that Odysseo would be plopping its tent in Marymoor Park we were excited to revisit this creative hybrid. But we were put off when we found the tickets in sections we wanted to be in the range of $150 dollars each, and those weren’t for any sort of “VIP experience.” So we decided to wait and see if the show eventually did a Groupon (or some similar “coupon value” service) type of special.

It was quite late in the run when a special finally did appear, and we decided to take advantage of the special pricing to avail ourselves of one of their Rendez-vous VIP experiences. We ended up getting tickets to a Saturday evening show for a little more than $300, about $100 off their normal price. The Rendes-vous experience includes free parking, free food, soft drinks, beer and wine, desserts during intermission, a post-show visit to the horses stable, and a souvenir. We figured the free parking, souvenir (which we assumed to be a program that we would buy anyway – and we were right!) and food came pretty close to the amount we would be spending if we had to provide those things for ourselves.

Arriving at the site that evening we were pleased to find the parking lot in front of the site was being used for VIP parking, which meant only a short walk to the VIP tent. After picking up our tickets from the tickets trailer (which had customer waiting areas inside the trailer instead of the Cirque-type ticket trailer where a customer stands outside) we made our way down a blue-carpeted walking platform to the VIP tent, again impressed by the size of Odysseo’s tent, which is quite imposing as you come up on it.

The VIP tent was also quite large, half again larger than Cirques Tapis Rouge tent. The room was full of high barstools surrounding high tables, lower small dinner tables with chairs, and several couches placed in a U shape surrounding central tables that rimmed the perimeter of the tent. Two beverage stations dispensing soft drinks, wine, beer, and small containers of ice cream(!) were set at opposite sides of the tent. There was also a small table dispensing free popcorn that could be taken into the tent, as well as a fully stocked souvenir boutique.

But what impressed us most was the food spread; three full tables of various foods, some appetizer-like and some more filling. This was a full-on buffet! Brie, salmon, chips and bean dip, deviled eggs, tasty small mushrooms, as well as cheeseburgers and chicken nuggets. While the food was not the upscale appetizers that Cirque might serve in its Tapis Rouge tent, this was presented as a full meal you could consume before the show. And many people did! The VIP tent opens 90 min. before show time, and when we arrived about 15 min. in the tent looked to be full. Most of the sitting chairs and tables were already taken with patrons consuming the free food, so word must’ve gotten around. Though some of the offerings were more pedestrian, their quality was high and we had our fill.

Cavalia has had quite an evolution in their souvenirs and their presentation since the last time we saw the show. Back then it was very basic merchandising much like a concert, with goods that you could not touch behind a set of tables, with pricing just as mysterious. This new presentation was much more like Cirques with goods out and available for people to touch, with pricing signs next to everything. They had many of the same types of things that Cirque offers; shirts, caps, mugs, even a calendar (which Cirque decided not to produce this year). But they also had some unique items, including a number of horse grooming tools and other horse paraphernalia emblazoned with the Cavalia name. The shirts available were mostly for women, there were very few men’s shirts available. They also had jackets and vests at various price points, all the way up to a very deluxe equestrian women’s jacket that went for $320. This time they also had DVDs of both their shows selling for around $35 apiece. Postcards, notecards, and a program rounded out the selection. This was a much better presentation than last time, and we soon found ourselves with a full bag. Added to it were the programs, which turned out to be the special souvenir.

As we made our way from the VIP tent to the show tent we availed ourselves of the restroom, which was also different from the Cirque norm. A full-size trailer was divided into male and female restrooms which were entered through a main door leading into a room with stalls and separate sinks. This was not the type of bathroom Cirque uses which is much more open to the outside world and unisex.

The tent interior was much like we remembered from the prior show. A huge metal structure of ascending stairs and seats ascended to the top of the tent. Having bought VIP packages we thought our tickets would be quite close to the front of the stage, but it turned out we sat at the upper edge of the VIP seating (something to consider when you look at the value of a coupon package). The steep raking of the seats meant that everyone got a good view; even a tall person sitting in front of you wouldn’t affect your view as much as they would if you were sitting in a Cirque tent with its gentler raking. Though climbing the structure to get to our seats felt like climbing up stairs in an athletic stadium.

What surprised us most about the seating were the number of people actually sitting in those seats. This evening performance on a Saturday was only about 60% full, the upper areas of seating nearly totally devoid of customers. This was disappointing, but could perhaps be accounted for by the fact that the original show, simply titled Cavalia, had re-visited the Seattle area only two years before.

In front of us, the stage was much like the prior Cavalia show. A wide performance space, its surface lightly packed with dirt, and a tall closed curtain that hid the rest of the stage from us. The musicians were to our left and right, in glass-enclosed rooms above the main entrances. Their isolation, like in “O” and La Nouba, helped ensure an excellent studio quality sound mix.

Before the show started we were treated to a quiz in the form of slides projected on the front curtains. How many stallions in the show? 24. No mares, only boys in this troop, with an average age of 10 years. It was an interesting way to get patrons into the show before the curtains opened. And they needed to do something because there was no live-action pre-show entertainment. As with their original show, Odysseo was absent of the clowns which are so much a part (for better or worse) of the Cirque experience. However the show did start on time with the lights dimming just shortly after 7:30pm.

The show begins with pairs of horses who run so close together in tandem that their rider can stand atop their bare backs at full gallop, 1 foot on each horse. This soon gives way to the main acrobats of the evening, a group of toned African drummer/acrobats that formed a large part of the human cast of the show. They seemed to be used as a buffer between horse and cirque acts, though they could be a bit show-offey. They were followed by three men who walked with flexible stilt-type attachments to their feet which allowed them to bounce and jump, in some cases quite high. They performed with the horses, jumping over poles held by the African troop.

When the next act – five white horses running freely – began, the curtains opened completely, revealing an enormous oval dirt track, the back half tilted at such an angle that at its furthest point it rose halfway to the top of the tent, and where there was a rear entrance for horses to enter. Framing the back of the stage was a wide projection screen spanning the stages entire stage width that featured projections meant to invoke a place or time.

After the white horses, a large carousel lowered from the ceiling. It featured wooden carousel horses interspersed with poles, like Chinese poles, and while it slowly rotated male and female acrobats played on it in a Chinese pole routine. It was one of the more creative acts in the show.

After an act of trick writers performing tricks on galloping horses that zipped back and forth full-speed across the front of the stage, the first act ended after 50 minutes. For us and our other Rendez-vous brethren that meant back to the VIP tent for dessert! The dessert spread was every bit as plentiful as the dinner spread with cookies, brownies, candy, cheesecake, and small plastic cups of chocolate mousse, along with other delicacies. The lines to the dessert tables were long but moved quickly and people ate fast, as the second act started shortly thereafter.

The second act began with several horses lying on the dirt floor of the stage as though they were sleeping or resting. This was followed by an aerial hoops act involving several artists. At the end of it came another surprise – sprinklers made it rain upon the stage! Then a large circus ring (such as you would see in a Ringling Brothers circus show) descended from the rafters, for several horses and riders to do tricks inside of. There were also five white horses that ran at liberty inside the ring under the tutelage of a lady trainer, who encouraged her charges to trot and turn in unison using only subtle hand signals.

Then came the biggest surprise of the night. With the stage totally empty water trickled onto the front of the stage from spigots under the stage divider. They flooded the entire front section! What had been a round track of desert was now the shore of an oasis. Through it several horses ran. You could see the personalities of some of the horses surfacing, as some would run in the middle of the track while others would run more slowly closer to the stage edge, showing off for the crowd. The flooding is quite a feat, as the water needs to be pumped out and the dirt dried and ready for the next show, a complicated procedure that must be done in a short amount of time.

The final act was a single horse silhouetted at the top of the stage, doing parade prancing and other showy moves absent of any obvious signal from the rider, and lit from behind. This horse was very impressive, a star performer in a large cast of impressive horses. As that was the final performance of the 55 min. second act, the stage was soon populated with several dozen horses, riders and acrobats walking across the flooded stage and taking their bows. It was hard to raise the crowd into a standing ovation but eventually they did get it. The less than capacity crowd then proceeded down the stairs (a noisy process on the metal structure) to exit the tent.

The show was presented with every bit of the technical brilliance you see in a Cirque show though presented on a somewhat larger scale, as the sound and lights had to fill a larger performance space. Overall we felt the show was a good show, though without the surprise and novelty of the first of Cavalia’s shows that we had seen. Because we had already seen what these impressive animals could do when we saw the first show, this show became an exercise in variation. Though the carousel and flooding of the stage were innovative variations on the theme.

Making our way again back to the VIP tent we waited a few minutes for the horses to be returned to their stables, as we were to be treated to a stable visit as part of our VIP evening. Meanwhile three cast members stayed in the VIP tent signing autographs and taking pictures. After a few minutes we were escorted back into the tent stable. Every horse had his own paddock space with a card in front stating the horses name and specialty. They didn’t look winded or tired, just relaxing with fresh hay and water. And there was one final opportunity for the show to make money, as there was a photo opportunity with a horse and cast member for $20. Once we had toured the horse tent we were free to leave exiting through the VIP tent and out the front.

The next stops for Odysseo are Calgary and Edmonton in Canada, where they will stay about two months each. The original unit, Cavalia, is next headed for Belgium. Their website is www.cavalia.net, where you can sign up to be notified of future engagements. We found Odysseo a beautiful show, spotlighting the majesty of horses and the power of the bond between horse and rider. Should it come to your area, we recommend every Cirque fan think about seeing it. Decide for yourself if you want to wait for a special or not.