10TH ANNIVERSARY CIRQUE DU SOLEIL
CONTINUED

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    I pass through your life like a wind in your city, a cry in your ear, laughter in your throat - I fly through the night and loosens the links which retain us on the ground and dare to feel, seize the ephemera.
    No, the excuses this time let us light a large fire in our spirits where we will howl with the sun and dance in the lunar night. I am a provocation; a celebration looks at me and sees the child whom you had forgotten (or,
however, prudently buried). This child is a king and me, the insane one, capers on the ground and keep you silent before the moment turns to dust.
    Disguised, we enter the round of the capital that is our kingdom and the Cirque du Soleil our scene - do you remember the pleasure of innocence? Let us survey the tightrope tended between challenge and danger - do you remember the innocence or the pleasure? The soft shiver to do what you like and do it better than anybody.     Remember passion and a vision of thanks to the heart of chaos that fervently bites into. Chaos is here now to evade already as youth is defiled under your feet. You're thrown and then TOSS! pirouette above conventions because you then realize youth has no restrictions. Focus your eyes to see the rising visionary of your intuitions running through you like an underground river. However, a long time blocks, dams up and detours the water. It stops; let the torrent carry you in his fury until
the ecstasy and euphoria breaks into a geyser. A long-time door frame of your emotions finally wakes up.
    I am wandering the forbidden road as the acrobat defies death to touch the eternal, igniting special moments with the light I possess.

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    Fields engraved with veils of colorful light pass quickly before my eyes. Maturity is a fatal disease; pay attention to the flow of time which carries us downstream.
    But our ritual is an eternal spiral of energy. We are the energy and we will be the child-clowns of Cirque du Soleil. We will become men but when the
fine one approaches and the obscure tightens itself around our childhood, the light will die out... - V.R.

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    " Like a river traveling a long course to the sea. It would give itself up at the banks. And this source, the sea, would offer out a mirror...Shimmering with watery, silvery stories. "
- Franco Dragone

    All of it starts a long time before you arrive. Imagine the scene: a vibrating room of work and scents, a table hidden under the drafts, of the blackened shelves of ideas. They all are there: Franco, Gilles, Dominique Rene and Michel; the conceptual core of Cirque du Soleil. They create more than speak; they reinvent with a high voice, evoking the collective dream of their next spectacle. Making it possible, the current comes to bring them and then out the current goes. Letting itself transform by the ideas that they reconstruct, so that their prospect can enrich later, to explode the same way in which we contemplate ourselves. Forgetting the world such as we all see it, they discover the secret World which pushes between the bricks imprisoning our perceptions.
    Underneath the intricate hands of Michel, trinkets, objects, and odds and ends of toys are transformed into a model for the scene, the future scene of the artists. Gilles discovers and polishes new talents, traversing the sphere like a pilgrim. The pencil of Dominique dances across paper to create drafts of images Franco tries to capture, rather than to manufacture, and turn theatrical. Guy, the agent instinctive provocateur of Cirque du Soleil,
issues a challenge: " Make the hair on my arms stand on end! "
    Their courage is to plunge in the moment without hesitation. Temptation is great to connect the points and to be satisfied with responses that reassure everyone. But the creed of Franco, accepted by all, is that doubt is an essential creative force and must survive until it is dissolved by the response of the public. Meanwhile, all continue to seek. And, little by little, things start to fall in place. The spectacle, such a wild spirit tracking by a pack of mediums, revels.

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    An organic resonance emerges: each number becomes relevant, a succession of moments sagacious and eternal.
     But all these notes, drawings and ideas are yet only puppets without life. Somebody must now instill a breath of life into them. This strange osmotic dance of the artist and the character, if characteristic of the Cirque, is where alchemy debuts - and it is here that you intervene.

    Words that no one has ever heard slips past your ear. You sing them with courage - the rage of the heart. Your voice allows you to not hide for the moment.
    Work. Repeat. New tests. Become frustrated. Become furious! But never give up. Be concerned with nor of the ethereal: the more you try to gain control, the more you lose it, whereas worms from unknown territories invade your art. All the old fears of which you have inherited return to corrode
you: Are you really able to cope? What will you make when you grow up?
    Little by little, the realization appears to you: you must give up your fears and give up control, as such the acrobat leaves his platform and embraces the higher to take his rise. But you cannot only arrive there. Confide your confidence in Franco for he is your mirror and your guide. Debra is your pulse and Dominique your mask. Have confidence...

    " One begins again at the beginning! Once again! " Debra cajoles, exhorts, launches out on the ground to illustrate a movement: Franco studies the scene with the eye of painter: the technicians run out all dimensions: it is the repetition! It is necessary to create moves!
    Crawl, change, climb and pirouette! Stop! " One must smell the urgency here! " the enclosures spit a command: " Jocelyn, can you send a spot to me?
" the kaleidoscopic matrix of the decor stimulates you; the identical deliriousness of your costume has started to invade you. You plus this character - it is him who plays you.
    The double bass thunders, the voice sends you flying away. You turn dervish while the melodies of Rene weave their fabrics around you. Drive out, run, slip, do variations! " It is good, it is better!! " Musicians with their instruments, the technicians anticipate each one of your moves. " Cut the
green! " the projectors sweep the scene; your silhouette gently slips onto the walls of the tent and measures you like the spectrum of the Premiere. Gilles takes notes on the steps while Franco tweaks the scenic presentation. Dominique and Luc consult with each other - how will this fabric look under this light?  
    Debra more quickly beats the rate/rhythm on the ground, " Everyone! "With the hands, clutches the Chinese checkmates; bodies intertwine and separate; you draw away, spin, caress and... " More quickly! Out! " Is this Cirque du Soleil or Cirque Interuptus?! There is no difference, as in on this note in the Artistic Tent, it feels like Las Vegas: " Sexual Energy! " the true charisma comes from the contact with your sexual center; the sensuality
of Cirque du Soleil the Sun reclaims you entirely. " Three couples here! All others, on the mattress! " 
    Contract, explode, relatch! Franco calls Debra: " Come see this little dimension! " Juggling with light, color and movement so that each second captures the impact of the spectacle, they carve the imperceptible whole. How to try to capture the wind in a moment: " One still begins again! "

    Premiere. Everyone is bursting with adrenaline. " Red Carpet! " Franco gathers the troops for the last rehearsal. " You each possess the will to assist in releasing the mooring ropes of your fears. Time has just discovered how much you have grown. "
    You feel the anticipation of the public which awaits you: the pulse of the music competes with the time. A labyrinth of curtains you see slope, the slope has the scene, a vast threshold whose radiant light engulfs you. In this moment you know yourself irreducible and irrefutably alive. In this moment, each part of you, same as your fear, is trivial. And there is nothing
else to du but give up to it. The problems of your life remain dormant; you don't know who you really are until you lose you lose yourself in the spectacle. Leave the act into your mind, until the orchestra sounds the final note and you find yourself stripped to the core by the exciting gleam of the projectors. The audience offers their opened arms to you. The irony of thesis that you have desired this all your life and that it not just maintains but also nourishes you. To touch hearts and to enrich them - here is the path to which you are tied. You are here now, but your voice is eternal. Gray is the color of the echo. - V.R.

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    But this < < Reinvente the Circus > >, what is it exactly? Precisely that: a circus that came from nowhere, which sought its roots. Then, they chose the old shape of the public spectacle, a style of play which came from the traveling acrobats of the Old Age, and decided to renew it.
    " We haven't really reinvented anything, " Guy Carron, artistic director of Cirque du Soleil at this time, didn't say. " We have reutilized history, that is all. We had large pretensions, we wanted to change the circus. But we were aware of the usefulness of ourselves and of all that existed everywhere else. "
    " The Twenties have were a climax for the arts of the circus in Europe, same as that for the mime and the use of the masks. The Chinese taught us the unit from presentation, music and choreography, and especially the grace and the beauty of the gesture in a smile. All this caused the inspiration. We hadean impressionist sensitivity, we ourselves were useful in all that existed and that has brought us up to date in 1987. "
    " We did not have money. It was then necessary for us to be ingenious. Instead of trumpets, we had a saxophone and synthesizers. We have employed all the modern technology which was our porte and, because we were poor, we became ingenious. "
    To find the artists we needed for < < Le Cirque Reinvente > >, Charon traveled all of Europe and Asia. Franco Dragone made the setting in scene, seeking to invent new modes, new ways of creation. The mandate was precise: to produce a professional spectacle like the European one that melts on the acrobatic, with an original musical score and without animals.
    " There was an insane energy, " Charon says, " an extraordinary dynamism. The artists were given 150%. It was known that the spectacle was good, that there was everything, but one did not know that there was as much as that. Because it was very fragile. "

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    The initial dash of Cirque du Soleil has been nourished mainly by the National Circus Knie of Switzerland, a circus whose family foundation, thence family, of Austrian origin, is considered the nobility among the European circuses.
    Marcel Rossel, magician of the capital at Knie, is the only person who took time to listen to Guy Laliberte, in Europe of 1983 when asked for consultation. Rossel saw there was something special in this inexperienced 23year old Canadian who wanted to create a new circus. He recognized the fiery passion and insane desire to recreate.
    Rossel invited Laliberte for a visit to acquire information, providing all the possible details. Laliberte was very impressed, by the circus itself, but especially by the fact that he had finally taken on a serious conversation with one of the best about it. The speed and the effectiveness with which the Knie Circus enriched to the city, the sorcery with which it assembled and demonstrated magic to the capital, became for him models of technical skill and prowess.
    There exists between the two circuses a free and nonofficial alliance, which continues with the length of the years, fruitful with reciprocated respect and faithful friendship - a collusion enriched by generations, sensibilities and different styles.
    In 1992, the Knie Circus produced, with the support of Cirque du Soleil modified version of < < Le Cirque Reinvente > >. This spectacle made the usual tour of the Swiss cities. The presence of Guy Charon, artistic director of < < Le Cirque Reinvente > >, ensured that the production would be faithful to that which Franco Dragone created in 1987. Charon combined< < Reinvente > > with the traditional and adapted the spectacle to make palace with the animals.
    Of its dimension, eager to respect the new music and this new structure, the Knie Circus acquired a new sound system and gave up its usual Polish orchestra, in favor of Quebecois musicians come to play the music of Reedier and Benoit Jutras.
    So that the animals are not frightened, it had to request the artists of Cirque du Soleil, in costume, to help nourish them. But finally, one never knew which was tamer... - S.D.

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    An Anecdote
    Los Angeles, September 3, 1987. The audience of the evening, competing of beauty and style with the artists, awaits the premiere of Cirque du Soleil in the Los Angeles Arts Festival patiently. The Mayor, the organizers of the Festival, the teams of television crewmen, the directors of the studios, the stars and the starlets, notables and most-notables of South California, all heard that this is a must-see spectacle, and are there with given
appointment. Inside, the artists burn with anxiety and nervousness.
    Benny Le Grande is not impressed. Whereas the Master of Ceremonies Michel Barrette begins his opening speech. Benny wreaks havoc in the steps, tormenting all of this beautiful world with delectation. Michel makes thousand excuses and tries to bring back the command of the clown.

    Michel: Please, enough! These people came to see the spectacle!
     Benny: Is there one of them among them which can PAY?!

    A pause generally follows, whereas everyone digests the comment. Then laughter breaks forth. Embarrassment, flusterment, becomes a marvelous laughter that only the throat can deploy: all these rich knacks are looked attend are realized that this evening they are all freeloaders for the night. The tension evaporates and the spectacle fills the tent with a
wave of joy - A.B.

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To want;
to be able to
move

The dream drives you
until the dream
moves you
Move till the movement makes you dream

Leap,
perform stunt-flying acts and tumble;
with a wink at destiny
and a kiss

With the momentum of the danger,
Soar!
Towards a sky without limitation;
because gravity;
is only another law made to
be broken.

Intrepid;
Tormented;
Beheld but never captured
Beheld yet you
Spin out of arm's reach
until the dream
moves us.

--V.R.
In homage to the King of Fools who died in Switzerland. 1992.