Welcome to the latest edition of Fascination, the Unofficial Cirque du Soleil Newsletter.
“We are all born from the sun. We reach beyond. Beyond the expected. Beyond the infinite. Beyond, beyond. Cirque du Soleil is renewing its commitment to take audiences beyond expectations, to the outer limits of imagination, color, and to feel the deepest emotions. A commitment to the extraordinary we made four decades ago and continue to uphold to this day. The experience of a Cirque du Soleil show goes beyond the expected and transcends languages, countries, and cultures. Why should we bend to boundaries when we can challenge ourselves to disrupt what’s rational, practical, or expected? Beyond is where our future lies. For those who’ve just now been introduced to Cirque du Soleil: welcome to the show, we are thrilled that you’re finally joining us! As our fans know well, we are so much more than just a troupe of acrobats. We travel the world to do outrageous things, subversive things, wildly artistic things. Things other people haven’t. And when we are ready to set sail towards tomorrow, we leave everywhere better than we found it. Where others can only imagine a better world, we bring it forth for all to see. Our creative spirit pushes us further, beyond, so our people can radiate brightly all over the globe. It takes a lot of moxie to reinvent creativity, and it takes the outlook of many different voices to do so. At Cirque du Soleil, we’re firm believers that our strength resides in the natural diversity, equality, and inclusivity we’ve nurtured over the course of our long history. As a superhuman family, it is our responsibility to those within our community and surrounding it to be daring and spearhead the era of change that’s upon us. Endless optimists that we are, we take pride in celebrating this diversity and lead by example.”
Cirque du Soleil’s got a new vibe… learn all about their new brand campaign within!
If you’ve had the good fortune of seeing Corteo live, then you know just how moving and awe-inspiring this spectacle truly is. For that reason, the editorial team of Cirque du Soleil’s official blog decided to do some digging through the vault to see if they could uncover anything about Corteo that never saw the light of day in celebration of this magnificent show. And they did…
For example, those with a keen eye may recognize a familiar maze-like pattern painted on the Corteo stage floor. This is a reference to the same pattern found on the floor of the Chartres Cathedral, located in Chartres, France. Tidbits of background information like this are what made our find feel like an archaeological dig. What was even more interesting was the wealth of personal anecdotes directed at the performers, the staff, and the audience at large, explaining the vision, motivation, and goal for what was to become Corteo. The following is the very first paragraph ever produced regarding Corteo for Cirque du Soleil’s team all the way back in 2004, which would eventually become the sensational, colorful, and emotional show that we have come to know and love: “We start from the idea that acrobats are to humans what angels are to gods. From that idea, we divide the space between the ground and the air, and then we invent a middle point which we will call the space of dreams. The artists on the ground will be looking up towards the mystery, the unknown, the depths of the sky, of the heavens. The artists will dance the three eternal questions: Where do we come from? Where are we going? What’s for dinner tonight?” It’s incredibly fulfilling to see the end result of all the hard work that goes into these monumental performances. Sitting in the seats next to our fans on premiere night and watching the fruits of our labor alongside you is an indescribable feeling. Having the opportunity to read through Cirque du Soleil’s history and understanding how these shows started out is almost unbelievable. We hope you’ll embark on that journey for yourselves and learn a little something about Cirque du Soleil’s history, it’s a remarkable one to say the least.
See more posts from the Blog in our FEATURES section this month.
There are multiple Cirque du Soleil productions in Las Vegas, which leads novices with limited time during their stay to struggle with the issue of which one to start with. Cirque audience veterans know the answer: begin with la première, Mystère. When Mystère debuted at Treasure Island 30 years ago, the Vegas entertainment landscape was vastly different. Variety shows existed, but nothing like the omnibus of acrobats, dancers, comics, costumes and pageantry presented as a fantasy circus. Mystère celebrated its 13,000th performance in August [“O” just celebrated its 10,000th show on January 11th!] with a special show and will observe its 30th anniversary this year. There are cast and crew members still with the Strip’s original Cirque production three decades after its debut, as well as a 2,000-pound snail named Alice. Daredevils fly through air with the greatest of ease via trapeze, teeterboard and Chinese poles. Avant-garde clowns match wits with puppet counterparts. Seventy performers from two dozen countries wear 10,000 pieces of costume during a show, while makeup designs evolved from groundbreaking to influential. Mystère satisfies appetites for both traditional circus fare and state-of-the-art spectacle, allowing children of all ages to escape into a dimension of delightful distractions and twisted whimsy. It’s what the world needs right now.
The Las Vegas Magazine voted Mystère into their Hall of Fame for 2023. They also recently took in all 6 Cirque shows in Las Vegas in quick succession. Read “Watching All Six Las Vegas Cirque Shows in Five Nights” in our FEATURES section this month!
So, shall we get into it?
TEXT FILE — https://www.cirquefascination.com/Issues/Issue216.txt
