Cirque du Soleil Unveils – ZAIA

Macau, China – August 28, 2008 – ZAIA, the very first permanent Cirque du Soleil production to open in Asia, celebrates its world premiere on August 28, 2008 at the Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel in Macau to coincide with the 1st Anniversary of its host resort-hotel.

PRESENTATION (ACTS)

Choreography I – City Scape
The dance troupe embraces social diversity through a series of choreographies. First, a couple performs a languorous tango to the sound of a bandoneon (a small accordion), the flexibility of the dancers sometimes evokes the movements of contortionists. Then, two other dancers perform a high-energy gypsy dance without any musical accompaniment, tapping out the rhythm on their bodies with their hands as other performers arrive on stage from everywhere. Finally, the entire troupe presents a rhythmic dance that merges styles.

Aerial Bamboo
Hanging from a pole, two artists perform a hand to hand act on a pole suspended in mid-air. They move up and down in unison, as if on a surface inclined at a 90-degree angle in the middle of the cosmos. From time to time, one of the artists grips the hand or foot of the other, creating acrobatic figures by executing fluid movements steeped in poetry.

Chinese Poles on Globes
As her earthly odyssey leads her to the Orient, Zaia discovers acrobats clinging to poles shaped like weathervanes symbolizing the points of the compass perform Chinese Poles act. What makes this act special is the fact that the poles are held by porters who are standing on globes.

Choreography II – Dance of the Automatons
Characters whose fanciful costumes are reminiscent of toys made from recycled objects perform modern dance and break dancing moves, sometimes as if their bodies were dismembered. One of the dancers rotates on his head like a spinning top at an amazing speed!

Rola Bola
A Charlie Chaplin-like character arrives from the sky on a big ladder, and finds bits and pieces of pipe and planks, which he uses to build a rickety structure at center stage. He balances precariously as he makes it climb higher and higher so he can rejoin his “celestial ladder.”

Aerial Frame
Under a panoply of ladders slung high above the stage, acrobats perform an act that merges aerial disciplines in a mixture of styles inspired by North Korean acts. To achieve this, four stations are equipped with suspended swivel chairs to hold porters who catch and release the artists flying in both directions. Timing is crucial when flyers perform pirouettes with spectacular spins from one station to the next.

Hand to Hand
Two acrobats evoke the love of the original couple by performing a hand to hand act full of sweetness and sensuality. The two artists create impressive figures and seemingly impossible feats of balance that require absolute mastery and control.

Aerial Straps Duo
A pair of artists uses aerial straps to evoke their nascent passion, sometimes using a single strap for synchronized movements, sometimes a double strap to perform an aerial ballet of seduction, finesse and elegance.

Choreography III – Fire Dance
After attending the union of Romeo and Zaia, the Sage, who incarnates an African shaman performs a dance in the dark, twirling a stick that is lit at both ends. Other dancers and acrobats join in. At the climax all them are dancing with incandescent objects and then they disappear into the entrails of the stage.

Trampoline and Double Teeterboard (X-Board)
In a veritable tribute to weightlessness, acrobats present an act combining two disciplines: Teeterboard and Trampoline. A flurry of criss-crossing flights, rebounds, daring leaps and jumps takes over the stage.

CHARACTERS

Zaia
Zaia is the name of the main character, a young girl who dreams of becoming an astronaut and discovering the mysteries of space. Her imaginary celestial journey will follow in the footsteps of her parents and she will encounter love. Her odyssey leads her to take a fresh look at the beauty of Earth and the humans who live there.

Romeo
Captivated by the innocence of Zaia, Romeo is a young spectator she meets at the beginning of her voyage. This character will search for her throughout the story. When they come together at last they will delight each other in a sensual straps duet.

The Sage
A mysterious ageless character, the Sage embodies the memory, knowledge and different eras of humanity. He is the archetype of the ancestor, the first of all ancestors, a kind of bright spot in the blackness of space. The Sage watches over Zaia.

Clowns
Sensitive and silly, the clowns are the companions of Zaia in this wonderful adventure. Although they become separated their friendship will reunite them in the end.

Parents
Zaia’s parents, itinerant acrobats on tour in space, passed on to her their wanderlust and desire for discovery.

The Handyman
A Charlie Chaplin-like character, the Handyman builds a precarious structure with planks and its pipes. When his shelter collapses, everyone bands together to save him.

Adam and Eve
This couple represents original, pure, mythical and eternal love. It is through them that Zaia herself discovers love, a feeling that she will later share with Romeo.

The Humans
These characters of all ages and all social strata represent the last people on Earth. Pressed and jostled in their daily lives, they are equally capable of humor and great impulses of unity.

The Aristos
Characters from another era, the Aristos represent high society and elegance as they participate in the aerial number.

The Weathervanes
These characters from the Chinese Poles on Globes number represent the points of the compass.

The Fossils
The ice-encrusted Fossils are silent witnesses to the union between Adam and Eve.

The Primitives
The Primitives represent the first men who tamed fire and learned to use it. They include us in their celebration of love and fire.

COSTUMES

A major influence on Dominique Lemieux’s costume designs for ZAIA came from the inventive ensembles and looks that young people are creating for themselves around the planet.

“In my visual research I was inspired by the urban dress of the world’s cities,” she explains. “A new culture has emerged from the ethnic mix that characterizes the modern city. There’s a spontaneous variety that is reflected in the way today’s young people dress. The ZAIA costumes refer to this eclectic merging of genres.”

The ZAIA costumes also reflect and represent the cultural diversity and differences between groups of characters within the show. For example, to emphasize the importance of show’s “urban” dancers and differentiate them from the other characters, they are all dressed in warm colors, while the acrobatic inhabitants of the world of ZAIA are in more reflective materials, whether they are darker or lighter colors.

In other scenes, the performers seem to have emerged from a toy box. Their costumes are decorated with accessories made from recycled objects: pieces of metal, newsprint, a piece of a fan, a rotary phone, a compass, a trumpet and so on. Some costumes evoke animals like coyotes or hyenas, while others recall boats, musical instruments or airplanes.

This show marks the first time Dominique Lemieux has worked with polyester fabrics. The light weight of polyester allows for a technique called sublimation, a technique that fixes designs in the fibers of the cloth and enables her to use a great diversity of colors.

The central character, the young girl called Zaia, who belongs to the “urban” world, is the focal point of the color red in the show. Her partner wears warm earth colors decorated with gold and copper.

Drawn from all cultures, the Sage is an almost god-like character, an archetype of a wise old ancestor with his long coat and long tresses, which have gold mixed in with the silver. He is source of shimmering light in the darkness of the night sky, and has the power to transform himself into the character of the Shaman, and his Shaman costume references that of the Sage.

While there is a poetic, allegorical aspect to much of the show, there is also an aspect of reality and that is reflected in the authenticity of the golden Astronaut costumes.

In the Adam and Eve hand-to-hand number, the performers wear costumes dyed in shades of turquoise and skin tones. The garments are like a second skin, giving the impression that the artists are dressed in leaves with a texture like ice and crystals.

The Fire Dancers wear skintight skin-colored costumes that are printed with tattoos, and adorned with leather and metal components.

In the globes and poles number, the costumes are inspired by weather vanes that indicate the direction of the wind and a variety of elements such as water, sun and ice.

The two Singers in the show wear spectacular flowing robes of velvet that have been distressed to reveal different colors of the layers of materials beneath and studded with bright LED “stars.” The singers also wear spectacular illuminated wigs.

The clowns’ costumes contrast with the other characters in the show. Their outfits are inspired by, among other sources, 18th century explorers. A patina of worn, patched fabrics gives them an old-fashioned appearance.

THE THEATRE

The ZAIA Theatre is reminiscent of ancient architectural telescopes such as Jaipur in India and the vast stone Mayan observatories of Central America. It is not a planetarium as such, however it contains many visual cues and references that add to the show’s underlying theme of cosmic exploration.

In keeping with the primary theme of a journey into space, verticality is an important component of the show and the theatre was designed with a higher than 80-ft/24-meter ceiling and the set elements are intended to recreate the experience of being in space – an experience that is both mysteriously alien and strangely familiar. This is a timeless journey from through the stratosphere and beyond, while keeping an eye on Earth.

THE SET

The proscenium is almost circular, like an oculus (a round window, sometimes called a “bulls eye”) made up of several layers that create a sense of depth through perspective lines and curves made of bronze that converge on the single focal point located at the centre of an enormous sun set against the backdrop, known as the “Star Drop,” which recreates the night sky with 3,000 fiber optic “stars.” Designer Guillaume Lord used a star map to give the Star Drop an accurate representation of the constellations at the exact location of the theatre.

When the audience enters the theatre, one of the main set elements, a gigantic Sphere, appears to be a chandelier and the walls are illuminated by light sources at ground level, creating the mysterious effect of a deep dark cavern. When the Sphere is revealed in all its constantly-changing glory following the opening number, its full scope and the effect of its trajectory over the heads of the audience is nothing less than stunning.

PROJECTIONS

The Sphere houses six projectors that beam images onto its six segments through a full 360 degrees. The individual projections take into account the curvature of the Sphere and are stitched together seamlessly to give the appearance of a series of single images. This sculptural mosaic transforms into a lantern, a hot air balloon, the earth and the moon, depending on the requirements of the show.

Some Figures:

• The theatre has a seating capacity of 1,852.
• The Proscenium is 88′ high and 97′ Wide.
• The 12,221 sq. ft. Star Drop measures 121′ x 101′.
• The polished bronze-plated Sun has a 20′ diameter.
• Above the audience the 48′ x 95′ Oval Track transports performers and set elements (such as the 600-lb “ice” blocks) on 5 chariots that weigh 800 lbs.
• It takes 30-40 backstage technicians to operate the set.
• The 25′-diameter Sphere has an aluminum exoskeleton, a projection surface, weighs 4,000 lbs and moves through three axes.

{SOURCE: Cirque du Soleil Press Room}