Heim does Vegas.

WHEN ASKED WHY the world would want another Cirque du Soleil show, Jacques Heim, choreographer and founder of Los Angeles-based Diavolo Dance Theater, staunchly replies: "Because the world needs to not be surrounded by bad television, bad movies, and bad news all the time. We should be able to dream and experience the best visceral entertainment you can ever have, besides making love." Paris-born Heim, 40, has choreographed Cirque's latest extravaganza, KA, a permanent show that opened in November at Las Vegas' MGM Grand Hotel. Directed by avant-garde theater icon Robert Lepage, KA was three years in the making, with Heim splitting his time between his hyperphysical dance troupe and shuttling between Vegas and Cirque's headquarters in Montreal.

Once a street performer in France, Heim founded Diavolo in 1992, a year after earning a master's in choreography from CalArts. By then he'd already established his signature style, one part modern movement, one part acrobatics, all fused by making use of structural props.

This combination earned Diavolo rave notices, fistfuls of awards, and international bookings. It's also what brought Heim to the attention of the Cirque's creative director, Guy Caron.

"Before he choreographs anything, Jacques creates an aerobatic structure," says Caron. "His research for movement starts there. This is what made him the right person for KA. The acrobatic material has been designed to give a whole new meaning to the movement of bodies."

Adds Heim: "Because this show is unconventional, they needed someone to work with structures that mix with the human body, that mix with stories. The process was the same as working with Diavolo. I'm not someone who comes in and does a little transitioning," he adds. "Give me a trapeze act, it's not going to look like a trapeze. I will distort it, change it."

The story of separated twins (ka means double in Egyptian, fire in Japanese), it also explores the duality of mankind and differs from Cirque's nine previous shows in that it's narrative-driven. The results, says Heim, are images unlike any seen in theater, opera, or dance. With a budget of $165 million, the 90-minute intermissionless show boasts 70 artists (Heim worked with a core group of 30) and six epic scenes. Fire, fog, elaborate fireworks, and the shooting of live arrows also up the dazzle ante.

Heim's handiwork can be seen throughout, as the twins journey through all manner of environments--water, forests, cliffs (an episode the choreographer expanded from a Diavolo work, where performers shimmy up rotating pegs that are 50 feet high)--in order to reunite.

Like twins, the notion of duality applies to Heim, who hasn't forsaken Diavolo, and, in fact, cast two troupe members in KA. Though the choreographer has been asked to work on another new Cirque show, Heim also plans to create a new Diavolo opus based on Charles Chaplin's film, The Gold Rush.

In the interim, Heim's right brain is still operating overtime. "Because of what I did in Diavolo, I can do this, which is like getting my Ph.D. I knew if I could learn and still be challenged, this was going to be a great adventure. I wake up every morning with a smile because I'm allowed to dream and create."