A CIRQUE-ULAR JOURNEY IN 'VAREKAI'.Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer We could try to explain Cirque du Soleil's ``Varekai'' ... but then we'd have to bewilder you. Still, if you insist ... ``It's about brotherhood and, I would say, transmutation transmutation /trans·mu·ta·tion/ (trans?mu-ta´shun) 1. evolutionary change of one species into another. 2. the change of one chemical element into another. ,'' says composer Violaine Corradi. ``You will see there is a love story between the myth of Icarus - our Icarus - and a caterpillar.'' Uh-huh, OK. Would-be aviators Well-known aviators People largely known for their contributions to the history of aviation While all of these people were pilots (and some still are), many are also noted for contributions in areas such as aircraft design and manufacturing, navigation or of Greek mythology Greek mythology Oral and literary traditions of the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes and the nature and history of the cosmos. The Greek myths and legends are known today primarily from Greek literature, including such classic works as Homer's Iliad and and insects. Got it. How about you, Dominic Champagne. You're the director - perhaps you can enlighten us further? There's this blue and yellow big top outside that arena where the Lakers play their home games. What precisely is going on inside? ``The fall of Icarus is the starting inspiration,'' says Champagne, referring to the myth of the young boy who fashioned a pair of wax wings and then flew too close to the sun. ``It's quite beautiful, the idea that the closer you get to the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden Garden of Eden n. See Eden. Noun 1. Garden of Eden - a beautiful garden where Adam and Eve were placed at the Creation; when they disobeyed and ate the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil they were , the closer you get to the light, you're facing also the danger of being burned. That type of lesson you can apply to many different levels of your personal experience. ``I don't think we can explain everything or keep the knowledge of things in little drawers or cans where everything is totally understandable.'' That's Cirque du Soleil Cirque du Soleil (French for "Circus of the Sun") is an entertainment empire based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former street performers, Guy Laliberté and Daniel Gauthier. for you. Try a little surrealism with your gravity-defying acrobatics acrobatics Art of jumping, tumbling, and balancing. The art is of ancient origin; acrobats performed leaps, somersaults, and vaults at Egyptian and Greek events. Acrobatic feats were featured in the commedia dell'arte theatre in Europe and in jingxi (“Peking . And bring the kids. By now, nobody should expect lion-taming, trick horses or human cannonballs from Cirque du Soleil, the Montreal-based company whose product - many would argue - is a circus in name only. More than 15 years after the company opened the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Festival - and with eight Cirque shows in circulation around the globe from Japan to Las Vegas Las Vegas (läs vā`gəs), city (1990 pop. 258,295), seat of Clark co., S Nev.; inc. 1911. It is the largest city in Nevada and the center of one of the fastest-growing urban areas in the United States. - the Cirque is back in Los Angeles. Featuring more than 50 nationalities from more than a dozen countries, ``Varekai'' opens Friday at Staples before moving on to the Pomona Fairplex and the Orange County Fair Orange County Fair may refer to any of several large fairs throughout the United States.
Expect no animals in ``Varekai,'' which premiered in April 2002. Several acts are inspired by traditional elements of circus performance, including juggling, trapeze artistry and the Icarian games (aka humans beings juggling other humans on their feet). Yes, there are clowns: Claudio Carneiro and Kathleen ``Mookie'' Cornish playing a pair of hopeful ushers who desperately want to join the act, performing every cliched cli·chéd also cliched adj. Having become stale or commonplace through overuse; hackneyed: "In the States, it might seem a little clichéd; in Paris, it seems fresh and original" possible circus act ... badly. For ``Varekai'' (pronounced Veray-kie, the word means ``wherever'' in the Romany language Romany language Indo-Aryan language of the Roma (see Rom), spoken in many countries of the world, with its greatest concentration of speakers in eastern Europe. Romany is believed to have separated from the northern Indian languages c. AD 1000. of the Gypsies), Champagne and director of creation Andrew Watson Andrew Watson (born May 1857, Demerara, British Guiana; died in Sydney, Australia, date unknown) was the world's first black international football player, capped three times for Scotland between 1881 and 1882 and considered one of the top ten most important players of the 19th assembled an entirely new creative team. Champagne hails from the world of theater, costume designer Eiko Ishioka is an Oscar-winning film costumer. Corradi has scored films and set the works of several Quebec poets to music. ``There's an inherent risk-taking in bringing in a different creative team. That's huge,'' says Watson, who was a trapeze acrobat with Cirque du Soleil before moving behind the scenes. ``When you're working with a lot of people, some of whom you don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. , some of whom have never been in Cirque before, you have to be very accepting of other people's processes. ``It's a circus show, and we never pretend it's not a circus show,'' he continues. ``The most important thing is to create a show that has its own identity.'' And precisely what kind of an identity will ``Varekai'' have? Well, the show is set within a forest at the summit of a volcano - in a realm of infinite possibility. A young man - our modern Icarus - parachutes in and begins a fantastical journey. In no particular order, those acts include: --Acrobats balancing by hand on canes and a solo dance performed on crutches. --Acrobats twirling Twirling is any of several artforms, hobbies, or sport and recreational activities accomplished by spinning or rotating the twirled object either for exercise, or in a rhythmic, or otherwise artful manner. ropes with ``water meteors'' attached to the ends. --The flight of Icarus, performed in a net by contortionist Anton Chelnokov. --Body skating and Georgian dancing. To a person, the members of Cirque's creative team maintain that the company's avant-garde weirdness is like catnip to artists looking to flex their creative muscles. And it's not easy. ``As a spectator and a professional playwright, I wondered if it was possible to tell a story in an acrobatic circus show,'' says Champagne. ``I had to go through the experience, and I realized it was quite difficult to tell a story out of a circus. The dramatic and poetic source of inspiration helped me to create the universe that is now 'Varekai.' '' Put another way, the appeal of jumping out of a familiar realm to work Cirque is a kind of ... ``Freedom!'' sings Corradi, who is scoring her second Cirque du Soleil show. ``A show like 'Phantom of the Opera' - and I'm not judging - you can see the same show in London or New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of . When you see a show like what Cirque does, you feel this very dynamic and organic body moving. It's more demanding to the artist and creator. As an artist, you have to want to always challenge yourself.'' Evan Henerson, (818) 713-3651 evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com VAREKAI What: The latest creation from Cirque du Soleil. Where: Staples Center (Parking Lot No. 2). When: Opens Friday. Showtimes 8 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday; 4 and 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday; 1 and 5 p.m. Sunday. Through Oct. 19. (No performance Oct. 7. 8 p.m. show only Oct. 16.) Tickets: Adults $60-$80; children 2-12 $42-56; students 13-17 and seniors 65 and older $54-$72 (student and senior prices good Tuesdays through Thursdays and 4 p.m. Fridays only). (800) 678-5440 or www.cirquedusoleil.com. CAPTION(S): 3 photos Photo: (1 -- cover -- color) REACH FOR THE SKY Cirque de Soleil reinvents the Icarus myth as `Varekai' soars into L.A. (2) no caption (CIRQUE DU SOLEIL VAREKAI) Barry King/WireImage.com (3) no caption (Varekai) |
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