The circus is in town! Everything you have ever heard about Cirque du Soleil being the ultimate circus experience is true. The newest creation, “Ovo,” opens Feb. 4 in San Jose and runs there until March 7. On an enormously blunt level, you must go see it.
Cirque du Soleil was founded in 1984 in Quebec, Canada as a performing troupe, eventually evolving into what it is today – a contemporary circus. The company now has 25 different productions, both touring and permanent residency shows. Similar to the average circus, these spectacles showcase bizarre and unusual performers; however, Cirque pushes the envelope by not only displaying truly unfathomable feats, but also by creating an engaging story, with music, costumes and scenery.
The story for “Ovo” (Portuguese for “egg”) revolves around the life of insects, a theme that allows for a lot of creativity and fun. We are first introduced, through dance, to numerous different bugs as they carry out their daily routine. There are grasshoppers, beetles, spiders, butterflies, moths, a fly, a ladybug and many more. Eventually the bugs encounter an egg, and this discovery generates change in the insects’ perfunctory way of life – a metamorphosis, if you will. The story covers several moods; at times it’s romantic, sometimes it’s intense and often it is comical. There are certain recurring characters (the fly and the ladybug) that add humor to the performance, allowing for a perfect balance between stunts and narrative.
The costumes were incredible and extremely innovative, specifically the grasshoppers. They brought the bugs to life, adding color and form, which expressed the energy of the insects, and also somehow allowed for the stunts to be performed. The scenery also played into the theme, establishing an appropriate setting with leaves, flowers and rocks. The music was beautiful – classic, yet cheerful – and played live by a band of beetles. Although these elements are enough to amaze any audience member, they are not even the best part of the experience.
The tricks and talents you will see in this show are like nothing you have ever seen before. There are too many great acts to name them all, so let’s just touch on some of the favorites.
The show opens with six women performing tricks as they spin various items with their feet. Three women would flip and pass along the three other women as they continued to spin things with their feet. The precision and accuracy of these performers was beyond belief. Later in the show, a contortionist performs; not only is she incredibly flexible and limber, but she also pulls off stunts that showcase how she is unbelievably strong. In a different act, a man performs certain tricks on a tight rope, including riding a unicycle! The audience literally all had their jaws dropped, remembering to breathe only after applause for particularly incredible tricks.
Before the show even started, Intermission was given a backstage exclusive look behind the scenes of “Ovo.” Our first stop was the costume department, where we learned that the show has over 600 costumes, all of which get repaired and washed every night! We then made our way to the performers’ area. It was very interesting to see that most of the performers were practicing their routines; some were even watching videos of themselves to see how they could improve. It seems that when they are not in front of an audience, the performers are trying to fine-tune their acts, which means that most, if not all, of their time is spent doing their stunts. Entering the Big Top, we saw the crew putting the stage and props together.
We were even lucky enough to get an interview with a few people from the show. Two of the flyers we met talked about how honored they felt to be included in an original cast for a Cirque du Soleil show.
“I feel so lucky to participate in this show. Since we are the first cast, we created it,” said Sergei Philleppenko.
Fellow flyer Roman Kharyrullin agreed. “We have all gotten close,” he said. “When we started to learn the routines, all we knew was that we were going to be beetles. Now we have made it our own.”
They discussed how they were able to have some input and voice as to how the show should be created. They admitted that the majority of their life revolves around Cirque, but had no qualms because they loved to perform and are able to travel to new places because of the touring show. They claim that the cast is somewhat of a family because of all the time they spend together.
Their time, along with the rest of the cast and crew, is time well spent. Cirque du Soleil shows, in general, are always very professional, extreme, exciting and fun – all at the same time – and “Ovo” is no exception.
Andrew Corbett, assistant artistic director, said, “It had always been a dream of mine to work for Cirque du Soleil…After touring all over the world for over 15 years, I know there is nothing comparable to Cirque. Nothing else is on this level. I am so lucky to be a part of this.”
Now knowing how much effort is put into the show, and also how much time the performers spend perfecting their acts, it is perfectly clear why the shows are so incredible. With the amount of work executed to create this show, the audiences’ amazement is justified and well deserved, and “Ovo”‘s exploration of the creativity of insects is nothing short of astonishing, and as the French would say, merveilleux.