Cirque du Soleil defies gravity
‘Saltimbanco’s’ acrobatic spectacle puts positive spin on busy urban lifestyle

BY HEATHER WARLICK

Published: November 17, 2008

"Saltimbanco” comes to Oklahoma City and Tulsa soon and promises to amaze audiences with color, pageantry and acrobatics. The Cirque du Soleil production explores the urban experience in all its manifestations — the people of the city, their idiosyncrasies and likenesses and the hustle and bustle of a busy urban lifestyle.

Performers’ costumes and makeup are colorfully eccentric. Photos provided

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"What we’re trying to do with the show is put a positive spin on that concept of urbanization,” said Richard Dagenais, "Saltimbanco’s” senior artistic director. "Instead of going for things like pollution, noise, crime, traffic, all those things that put stress on us, we put that aside and say, ‘OK, what’s positive about it?’”

"Saltimbanco’s” eclectic cast of 47 artists from 20 countries draws spectators into a characteristically Cirque du Soleil-style show full of fanciful, dreamlike imagery and unfathomable acrobatic prowess.

The colorfully eccentric costumes, creative makeup and choreography are decidedly baroque in their visual vocabulary. All the 1,200 Saltimbanco costumes and 250 pairs of shoes are made in Cirque du Soleil’s Montreal headquarters, where costume designers create new designs on molded busts of each cast member.

"Saltimbanco” acts include "Adagio,” the melding of several bodies to create visually startling figures; "Boleadoras,” two performers who twirl percussion instruments in the air making exploding sounds; "Chinese Poles,” a discipline in which 26 acrobats perform along 25-foot poles above the stage; and gravity-defying "Bungees,” "Trapeze” and other acts.

This is the second year the show has toured arenas — for the last 14 years, it was housed under the big top. From city to city, a dozen 53-foot trailers haul the show’s 360,000 pounds of sets, costumes and equipment, which take about nine hours to set up and less than three hours to break down.

Saltimbanco’s music, composed by Rene Dupere, is performed live by a five-piece band and two singers.

"At the beginning, I understood that the human voice should be part of the performance — in much the same way as the percussion,” Dupere said. "In addition, I realized that the soundscape of the city is not only the rumble of five o’clock traffic. In downtown New York, the sounds of dawn are the sounds of the countryside.”

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