CIRQUE DU SOLEIL NEW SHOW, TOTEM

Cirque du Soleil is back in New York City with their latest show, Totem that premiered April of 2010 in Montreal. Written and directed by artist Robert Legpage, Totem traces one fascinating journey of the human species from its original amphibian stage to its desire to fly.  The characters evolve on the stage with what symbolizes a giant turtle, something that is behind many ancient civilizations. 

The visual background is a swamp with video images that become a river source, a marsh, a lake, an ocean, a volcanic island, a pond, and a starry sky.   As the show commences we see the main character, The Crystal Man, as he descends the sky animating the turtle’s skeleton.

What are the acts? Here are just some of them.  Bars - The Giant Turtle shell is whisked away to reveal a community of amphibians and fish that lives beneath its carapace. They burst into a playful parallel bars number, leaping from one bar to the next, criss-crossing in mid-air with inches to spare.

Rings Trio -Bollywood-inspired music accompanies two men as they compete against each other on the rings, until a woman arrives and shows them how it’s done. With her graceful movements and physical strength she takes to the skies above a summer beach.

Foot Juggling- Two Crystal Ladies emerge from the fiery bowels of the earth to evoke the creation of the world and the beauty of minerals. Wearing sparkling costumes that mirror the Crystal Man, the artists spin squares of glittering material on their hands and feet.  It was like watching winners of a pizza pie toss.

Fixed Trapeze Duo - Like two lovebirds, a young man and woman tease, play and sulk in an innocent game of seduction and eventually intertwine their bodies in a lighthearted vertical dance of fresh, unusual movements and lifts.

Manipulation - The Scientist features an orchestra of glass containers filled with mysterious fluorescent fluids as he steps into a transparent cone and juggles with luminous balls that might represent planets or molecules, making them chase after each other in spiral orbits.

Roller Skaters - In a scene that evokes a wedding ceremony, a pair of roller skaters spin and whirl at heart-stopping speeds atop a tiny platform, 1.8 meters in diameter and shaped like a drum.

Russian Bars – What would we do without them? The jumpers are launched into the air and fly weightlessly across the sky leaping from one bar to the next with astonishing agility that represents the escape from gravity.

No Cirque du Soleil is complete without its comic characters and Totem does lend itself to physical amusement. I have seen Cirque du Soleil since 1984 when they performed in Quebec.  Great show. Many times I felt as if I were watching the winning acts of America's Got Talent. Excellent musical score, but not much vocals.   Performance is at Citifield.   Best to go when there is no Mets home game. 

ZARKANA: IT’S SURREAL THING

I love experiencing Cirque du Soleil for the “circus” of it as well as the humor and music.   Presently, the show Zarkana, created by Francois Girard, is being performed at Radio City Music Hall and for their final season in NYC.  After their limited engagement through September 2 they will take up permanent residency at ARIA Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.  

A permanent home lends for not thinking about limitations on height are other temporary aspects.  When I called Radio City to ask for the running time I was told that it would be 2 hours and 15 minutes with one 15 minute intermission.   Yet, it was about an hour and a half with no intermission.   I think that the information was about last year’s show.    

Back to the performance.  They describe it as “an acrobatic spectacle that blends circus arts with the surreal to create a world where physical virtuosity rubs shoulders with the bizarre.  Zarkana is a visual vortex set in a slightly twisted fantasy universe where in which a cast of more than 75 international artists transports the audience into a fantastical and suspenseful world, blurring the boundaries between the real and imaginary.”

Within Cirque du Soleil you will find that there are two “casts”.  One is the actual circus performers and the other is the “clowns” that first walk about the audience and do their thing in between the acts.   There are times that they will do “circus moves” and even a magic act as well. Zarkana’s “clowns” were dressed in some bizarre outfits. 

Now, aside from the acts, clowns and what appeared to be live music and singing throughout (I’m not sure about some of the times), there was the background digital (shows are going for digital these days…probably easier than painting backdrops).   One time there was a background of snakes and another, a background of eye balls. 

Onto the show.  The stars, or master and mistress of ceremony were Christian Goguen and Meetu Chilana.   I wish the songs were in English. As good as their singing was I had absolutely no idea what they were singing about.

  

Maria Choodu juggled her balls…lots of them.  Victoria Dvoretskaya and Dmitry Dvoretskiy did this thing was ladders…like a “look what I can do in balancing and strength”.  Flags followed…Frederico Pisapia Giuseppe Schiavo, Vincenzo Schiavo and Marco Senatore…tossing.  Russian Bar spotlighted Carole Demers’s acrobatics on a flexible bar held by Johnny Gasser and Yuri Kreer.   There’s always a high wire act and this one featured Pedro Carillo and Luis Acosta.   That was followed by Cyr Wheel and Aerial Hoops.  Hanging from the rafters.  One thing that was employed in the background were images of the acts as if there were more artists doing the same thing. 

Sand Painting by Erika Chen…now that was impressive with wonderful images.  Funny…I just saw someone on America’s Got Talent do that.   Trapeze was next…it’s all about timing!  Carlos Marin and Junior Delgado performed “The Wheel of Death”.   One of the two seemed to have some problems.

Anatoly Zalevskiy  did a bit of contorting hand balancing and the show ended with “Banquine” artists lifting one another on their shoulders and throwing the female acrobats into the air.

There was a writer sitting next to that had not seen a Cirque Du Soleil live performance.  He was totally impressed and one of the better ones if you’re a “virgin” at this.   I don’t feel that it’s a “must see” but if you can get half price tix then it’s fine.   Check it out on www.cirquedusoleil .com/zarkana.