Find your thrills
at Cirque du Soleil

Kids Stuff
By William Feldman

Welcome to Kids Stuff. Today’s column includes a look at why you should not miss this amazing production of Kooza performed by the Cirque du Soleil artists.
Anyone who has driven along the southern portion of the Avenue of the Arts at Broad Street and Washington Avenue in the beginning of May may have noticed a large blue and yellow Grand Chapiteau — a large, two-color, old-fashioned circus tent that has been modernized for 21st century technology — being erected.
And on May 8, around 6:30 p.m., drivers and passers-by who went by this blue and yellow Grand Chapiteau experienced awesome, enthusiastic, spirited young people dressed up as mimes, clowns, jokers and nightingales dancing and repeating the word Kooza, for its premiere. You could not help but utilize all 17 of your facial muscles for that big smile. Cirque du Soleil brought to Philadelphia its production of Kooza, which will be here through June 15.
This amazing Grand Chapiteau stands 66 feet high, 167 feet in diameter and is supported by four masts, each 80 feet tall. It seats more than 2,500 people in a climate-controlled environment. Putting together this mini village — which consists of the Grand Chapiteau, installation of the Tapis Rouge VIP tent, entrance and rehearsal tents, box office, administrative offices, and a kitchen and dining area for cast and crew — is no easy task. It takes a team of approximately 80 people over a seven-day period.
This mini village is transported from city to city in 50 tractor-trailers. This Grand Chapiteau is a good example of the Roman amphitheater, where the seats fan out through 270 degrees around a central, circular revolving stage. We learned about this last year in English while studying various types of stages utilized during the centuries.
Cirque du Soleil’s accomplished mission is to be a Quebec-based organization providing high-quality artistic entertainment. The cirque itself began in 1984 as a group of 20 street performers. The company now has almost 4,000 employees from more than 40 different countries, which include 1,000 artists and approximately 25 different languages spoken.
Their press release stated it all started in Baie-Saint-Paul, a small town near Quebec City, in Canada. In the early ’80s, a band of colorful characters roamed the streets, striding on stilts, juggling, dancing, breathing fire and playing music.
They were Les Échassiers de Baie-Saint-Paul (the Baie-Saint-Paul Stiltwalkers), a street theater group founded by Gilles Ste-Croix. Already, the townsfolk were impressed and intrigued by the young performers — who included one Guy Laliberté, who became the founder of Cirque du Soleil.
In 1984, Quebec City was celebrating the 450th anniversary of Canada’s discovery by Jacques Cartier, and they needed a show that would carry the festivities out across the province. Guy Laliberté presented a proposal for a show called Cirque du Soleil (Circus of the Sun), and succeeded in convincing the organizers.
By now you are probably wondering where they came up with the name Kooza. Simple. The name was created by the Sanskrit word Kooza, which means box, chest or treasure. It makes sense when you see the opening of this cirque production.
They introduce this boy — the cirque calls him the Innocent — with him playing with a kite, and then the boy goes over to his jack-in-a-box, and, you guessed it — when it opens, a jester appeared, or as they named him, the trickster.
The theme of the show is "now up to your imagination." My interpretation is that the boy dreams of things he wants, and his wish is brought to life, along with much imagination, fun and maybe a consequence.
Kooza lasted two and a half hours, including a half-hour intermission. I also want to mention that some people avoid going to the circus because of the animal issues, but there are no animals used in this Cirque du Soleil production.
I think the easiest way to review this show, is to go by my notes that I took during the show. I can’t say one act was better than another. All of them were absolutely stellar and a must-see.
The show began at 8 p.m. with a clown performer telling us the cirque rules humorously, with mime body movements to a pre-taped voice.
The first act, The Contortion, consisted of three young girls, Julies Bergez, Natasha Patterson and Dasha Sovik. I am still baffled, as was most of the audience, about how one contortionist put her head resting on the ground and took her feet and ran around her head. Their costumes for this portion of the show were made with much thought. Their head cover and leotard is made in such a way that the audience basically forgets they are human. They just kind of flow as one entity, like a sculpture.
Other highlights:
• The Duo Unicycle: Riding a bicycle with no hands takes great balancing skills, but imagine riding a unicycle with no hands. The force hopefully will be with you, as concentration and balance combine forces here. Oh, I forgot to mention one little detail: While the cyclist is riding at a constant fast pace, he has an acrobat performing on top, bottom and around him.
• The Highwire: It consisted of two high wires, one about 15 feet high, the other about 25 feet high. Now think of the best high wire act you have ever seen, and multiply that by a million. Talk about placing your life in someone else’s hands, or in this case, balance.
• Wheel of Death: During this act, The Grim Reaper appeared, which foreshadowed that the next 15 minutes would be intense. Think of two circular mice cages connected to each other by a metal pole. The only difference here is that it was not mice running, it was two humans. Not only did they run in the inside of the cage, they ran and jumped rope on the outside while the cage was moving in a circular pattern about 40 feet high. Talk about vertigo and motion sickness! Also, they tried to give the audience the willies with these incredibly realistic looking rats running across the stage. I heard someone saying there were 150 of them with crystal eyes to attract the light. The running effect was inspired by the mechanism of vertical blinds, and several rats were fitted with wheels.
• The Pickpocketer: Fagan from Oliver could learn a thing or two from this act — "You have to pick a pocket or two." They pulled someone out from the audience wearing a suit and took his wallet and watch off twice without him even noticing.
• The Juggler: What can I say, he is probably the best juggler I’ve ever seen.
• The Chinese Chair Act: It is performed by Yao Deng Bo and will blow your mind. They have this 5-foot pedestal and Yao took eight wooden chairs and balanced them on one another to create a 20-foot tower to which he climbed performing acrobatics on the very top chair. Talk about acrophobia!
The bottom line is that you need to see this show before it leaves town. For more information, go to www.cirquedusoleil.com or call 1-800-678-5440. The box office opens two hours before the show. ••
Columnist William Feldman can be contacted by e-mail at wmkidscolumn@aol.com