When Cirque du Soleil returns in January with its incredible production Amaluna, it will mark the 20th anniversary of the association between the Royal Albert Hall and the Canadian circus troupe world-renowned for its slick and daring acrobatic shows. Before 1996, when Cirque brought its show to the domed Hall for the first time, its touring shows had been largely restricted to a travelling big top. Such a grand venue may seem like an unlikely upgrade from a tent, but performers and audiences immediately embraced the idea of transferring the dizzying spectacle into the Royal Albert Hall.
For such an extensive 5,000 capacity auditorium, the Hall has a unique feeling of intimacy, which has lent itself very well to Cirque shows. The tiered audience is never far from the action – if you’re perched in the higher seats, Cirque performers are at eye level or above rather than distant specks. Positioning shows within the incomparable space of the Hall means that Cirque tweaks its touring shows for up to nine months before their arrival – this can include fitting extra supports beneath the stage, reducing the size of some structures and finding new points of focus for the performers’ eyelines to execute moves with pin-sharp accuracy.
Since 1996, Cirque has staged 17 seasons at the Hall, totalling almost 850 performances. Each of its seven shows (the forthcoming Amaluna will be the eighth), has transformed the Hall with totally new feats, themes and sounds. These include the breathtaking spectacle of supple bodies contorting into unbelievable positions, the astounding precision of aerial performances and leaps, mind-boggling juggling and daredevil high-level moves on the spinning “wheel of death”.
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SALTIMBANCO – The relationship between the Royal Albert Hall and Cirque du Soleil began in 1996 with Saltimbanco, a show which brought together more than 50 performers from around the world. The cast performed in a set modelled on an urban environment, where they wowed audiences in the Hall for the first time with jawdropping skills, trapeze, pole-balancing, juggling and clowning. So popular was the show that it returned the following year, and was repeated in 2003.
ALEGRIA – Alegria has been the most frequently-staged Cirque show (performed in 1998, 1999, 2006 and 2007). The show takes its name from the Spanish word for joy, and it features performances from a palette of colourful characters around a theme of the delicate generational balance between the old order and the new order.
DRALION – The next show brought to the Royal Albert Hall was Dralion – a truncation of dragon and lion, symbolising a meeting of east and west (performed in 2004 and 2005). In this show the ancient elements of earth, air, fire and water were given human form and voyaged through a magical futuristic dimension.
VAREKAI – Varekai, staged in 2008 and 2010, imagined what would have happened if Icarus had not crashed not into the sea after flying too close to the sun, but had instead landed in a magical land of thick forests and fantastic creatures.
QUIDAM – Quidam, which was staged in 2009 and again in 2014, is a show seen through the eyes of a bored youngster, ignored by her parents, who seeks escape in an imaginary world. She meets a vivid cast who encourage her to free her soul. (FASCINATION NOTE: Quidam’s 1999 tour in London was performed under the big top at Battersea Power Station).
TOTEM – In Totem, performed in 2011 and 2012, the stage was constructed to resemble an island in the shape of a turtle shell and illustrated, through a visual and acrobatic language, the evolutionary progress of species.
KOOZA – Kooza, Cirque’s most recent London show (visiting in 2013 and 2015), let audiences follow the story of a naïve young clown trying to find his place in the world. The canopy above the stage’s centrepiece “Bataclan” took 60 projectors to illuminate in order to create the extraordinary lighting effects.
AMALUNA – The relationship shows no signs of ending, with Amaluna extending the association further when it arrives in the Hall in January.
{ SOURCE: Royal Albert Hall | http://goo.gl/d1tHJI }
