Cirque du Soleil review: Luzia a spellbinding “love letter to Mexican culture”
A tropical downpour drenches the stage, and highly skilled performers in Cirque du Soleil’s “love letter to Mexico”, Luzia. Go behind the scenes to see how they pull it off.
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Cirque du Soleil has built a reputation on creating spectacles. And, as you would expect with one of the world’s biggest entertainment brands, there is always a show behind the show.
“We are the show backstage, the show people don’t see,” Daniela Romero Pasin, assistant technical director of the Cirque du Soleil show, Luzia, tells V Weekend.
Pasin leads a team of 20 technicians, 12 of them backstage wearing black T-shirts, doing their thing incognito to keep the show rolling.
“We work in the dark,” she says, smiling. “There is a different show happening backstage, and up on the grid, all so we can deliver … an amazing show.”
Luzia, a journey through culture and nature, is set in an “imaginary Mexico” and features Cirque’s famous acrobatic performances, as well as hoop divers, jugglers, trapeze artists, contortionists, aerialists and stunning sets.
“It’s a love letter to the Mexican culture,” Luzia’s artistic director Gracie Valdez says.
In a Cirque first, Luzia also incorporates rain.
To achieve a tropical downpour during the show, a “rain curtain” in the ceiling of Cirque du Soleil’s Big Top sends 100,000 litres of water to the stage below.
The water is captured in tanks under the stage, then filtered, heated, and pumped back up to the ceiling to continue the rain cycle.
The wet stage – more specifically, drying it – falls into Pasin’s department.
“There is rain on the stage, and the challenge is drying it,” she says. “We need a dry stage for the following act.”
Her team, and the stage-drying machinery, swing into action during a transition routine, allowing for a smooth segue way to the next high-flying act.
The technical team also helps set up the Big Top, and raising the tent is an old school show in itself.
Amazingly, the massive undertaking does not involve machinery.
“It’s all done the old traditional way with the manpower of about 100 people,” Luzia site director, Raoul van Nistelrode, says.
The tent is raised in one day, however, the full set-up process takes seven days and involves 6000 hours of work.
The Luzia travelling roadshow consists of 124 people, including 47 performers, and there are 26 nationalities in the show.
The massive production is carted from city to city, and around the world, in 99 shipping containers. A smaller tent connected to the Big Top includes artist dressing rooms, a gym, training mats and equipment, and a wardrobe department.
Alex Surridge, head of wardrobe, oversees 1500 costumes, and an additional 1000 outfits as “future stock” in case of “wear and tear”.
Her team washes costumes after the show each night. The next day is spent drying, ironing, steaming and, if need be, mending. An in-house shoe technician also checks footwear and soles for damage and necessary repairs.
“It’s really important, with the acrobatics (performed in the show), that we check everything,” Surridge says.
“Safety is big for us. We are here to uphold the show, make sure it stays beautiful, and maintain the integrity.”
The most challenging costume in the show – “the one that gives us the most work” – is a dress with motorised flowers on it.
“As a singer performs, all the flowers (on the dress) open, which creates a big moment. But with all those electronics inside, it keeps us busy,” Surridge says.
Sarah Togni, a Cyr wheel performer, is drying off backstage after practising her discipline in the rain shower created on stage.
“The rain is beautiful. It’s warm, so we feel refreshed,” Togni says.
“After all the cardio and sweating, we get a little shower on stage. But the image the rain creates, with the lights and everything, it’s so beautiful.
“It’s a strange feeling to be on stage,” she adds.
“I enjoy every second; it feels like you’re in another dimension. Your emotions are 100 per cent there, your heart beats really fast, and you feel the adrenaline. I really hope everyone can see what we feel on stage.”
Togni, who is from a famous circus family in Italy, joined the Montreal-based Cirque du Soleil three years ago.
Initially, she was reticent to show her discipline, believing there were more skilled performers in Quebec, a world-renowned circus training hub.
Cyr wheel performers stand inside a hoop-like wheel, grasping its rim, while it rolls and spin gyroscopically. As it rotates, the performer’s acrobatics and skills are unleashed.
“I was always learning on my own,” Togni says.
“I thought I was never going to be like (the performers in Canada), because they had coaches; people who already knew how to do my discipline. I thought, ‘I’m zero’.
“But I started believing it more and more, and now here I am in Australia.”
She smiles brightly: “I’m so far from home. But I’m living my dream.”
Nui Te Koha’s review of Luzia
Cirque du Soleil contortionist Aleksei Goloborodko has extremely flexible work arrangements. “The secret to my flexibility is consistency,” the Russian performer told the Herald Sun. “There’s an expression — ‘use it or lose it’, and it applies to my discipline 100 per cent.”
Goloborodko is one of many highlights in Cirque du Soleil’s new show, Luzia, which had its Australian premiere at Flemington Racecourse on Wednesday.
Set in an ‘imaginary Mexico,’ Luzia is a delightful journey through culture and nature, showcasing Cirque’s famous acrobatic performers, including hoop divers, jugglers, trapeze artists, aerialists, breakdancers and footy.
“It’s a love letter to the Mexican culture,” Luzia’s artistic director Grace Valez says.
In a Cirque first, Luzia also incorporates rain.
To achieve a tropical downpour during the show, a ‘rain curtain’ in the ceiling of Cirque du Soleil’s Big Top sends 100,000 litres of water to the stage below.
The water is captured in tanks under the stage, then filtered, heated, and pumped back up to the ceiling to continue the rain cycle.
It marks a truly beautiful moment in the show as cyr wheel and trapeze artists flex their skill and athleticism in a tropical downpour.
Cyr wheel performer Sarah Togni, says: “The rain is beautiful. It’s warm, so we feel refreshed. After all the cardio and sweating, we get a little shower on stage.
“But the image the rain creates, with the lights and everything, it’s so beautiful.”
The Luzia travelling roadshow consists of 124 people, including 47 performers. There are 26 nationalities in the show.
Other standouts in the Luzia show included performers dressed as hummingbirds jumping and flipping through hoops — all while on a stage-length treadmill — and the lightning-quick moves of juggler Cyril Pytlak.
Jerome Sordillon was spellbinding as he ascended from a pool, spinning and twisting on aerial straps, with the water spray creating its own work of art.
Clown figure Eric Koller was the perfect ringmaster, and guide of the Luzia story, especially a segment where he used only a whistle to boss around a hapless stranger in the front row. On opening night, his ‘victim’ was singer Kate Ceberano.
Elsewhere, Luzia was a vibrant and colourful homage to magical Mexico. The sets and music are joyous and celebratory.
“The audience went crazy. It’s pure joy to perform for such people,” contortionist Goloborodko said.
“Sometimes, crowds are more calm, more classy. Here, in Melbourne, they exploded with applause.”
Cirque du Soleil’s Luzia deserves every ovation.
Originally published as Cirque du Soleil review: Luzia a spellbinding “love letter to Mexican culture”
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