NEW CIRQUE DU SOLEIL SHOW TO OPEN IN AUGUST
This August, Cirque du Soleil’s Toruk – The First Flight will debut in Beijing’s Cadillac Arena and Shanghai’s Mercedes-Benz Arena following its run from February to May in the Atlantis Resort in Sanya, Hainan province.
The show in Beijing will take place from Aug 1 to 12. The Shanghai leg runs from Aug 16 to 26.
Fosun International Ltd, a leading investment company in China which developed the resort, was responsible for bringing the show to the cities. The conglomerate also has its hands in the Montreal-based circus and entertainment company, having acquired a 20 percent stake in 2015.
Inspired by James Cameron’s movie Avatar,
Toruk – The First Flight premiered in December 2015. During the past two and half years, it has toured more than 60 cities in over 11 countries and regions, including New York, Los Angeles and Sydney. The production marks the first time that Cirque du Soleil has created a show based on a movie. The show also features a collaboration between Cirque du Soleil and Lightstorm Entertainment, which is Cameron’s production company.
Avatar grossed nearly $2.8 billion across box offices worldwide and won three Academy Awards, including Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects. When the movie was released on the Chinese mainland in 2010, it raked in 1.3 billion yuan.
According to Michael Veilleux, company manager of the show, Toruk – The First Flight is set 3,000 years before the events depicted in the movie, in a time when humans have yet to set foot on Pandora.
“Our relationship with James Cameron began with my visit to his Avatar cutting room,” said Daniel Lamarre, president and chief executive of Cirque du Soleil, in an early interview.
The company has collaborated with Cameron before on the 2012 movie Cirque du Soleil:
Worlds Away, a 3-D feature that included acts from some of the company’s most popular live productions. Toruk – The First Flight is considered one of the largest productions in the world. Veilleux says that four Boeing 747 planes are needed to transport the entire set of the show during its world tour.
Like the movie, which featured groundbreaking visual effects, the show offers a visual feast with a huge screen the size of five Imax screens, over 40 projectors, and large-scale puppets.
“He is so amazing and generous that he gave us access to documents of Avatar. This is very important because it allowed us to invent new creatures and characters,” says Veilleux of the partnership with Cameron.
“In Toruk – The First Flight, we’re telling that story and we’ve tied that into the movie. Our goal here is to tell a story, not just to present acrobatics. That’s why the acrobatics in the show is a supporting element linked with all the projection and puppetry that makes the show so unique.”
Lamarre notes that Fosun International Ltd’s entry as a shareholder of Cirque du Soleil has helped the company better engage Chinese spectators.
“Fosun acts as a ‘cultural translator’ to help us better understand the complex Chinese market, and as a facilitator that introduces us to the right people, opening doors and generally providing support to facilitate our growth in China,” says Lamarre, who was in Beijing last December when the company’s touring show Kooza was in town.
He also says that Cirque du Soleil plans to open a permanent show in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, its first on the Chinese mainland.
“We are building a state-of-the-art theater in Hangzhou, with the collaboration of our local Chinese partner XTD. Starting early 2019, the theater will present a spectacular resident show featuring a new technological concept never before seen anywhere in the world. With this show, we are looking at how we can marry the Cirque du Soleil signature with the Chinese culture. That show is being created specifically to cater to Chinese audiences,” says Lamarre.
Cirque du Soleil has worked with the Chinese Performing Arts Agency for 30 years to hire Chinese performers for its various shows around the globe. The company has also established its Asia headquarters in Shanghai.