Luzia (Cirque du Soleil)

Luzia
Logo for Cirque du Soleil's Luzia
Company	Cirque du Soleil
Genre	Contemporary circus
Show type	Touring show
Date of premiere	April 21, 2016 (Montreal)
Creative team
Conception and Director	Daniele Finzi Pasca
Associate Director	Brigitte Poupart
Director of Creation	Patricia Ruel
Playwright	Julie Hamelin Finzi
Set and Props Designer	Eugenio Caballero
Costume Designer	Giovanna Buzzi
Composer and Musical Director	Simon Carpentier
Acrobatic Choreographer	Edesia Moreno Barata Debra Brown Sylvia Gertrúdix González
Puppet Designer	Max Humphries
Lighting Designer	Martin Labrecque
Projection Designer	Johnny Ranger
Sound Designer	Jacques Boucher
Acrobatic Performance Designer	Philippe Aubertin
Acrobatic Equipment and Rigging Designer	Danny Zen
Makeup Designer	Maryse Gosselin
Other information
Preceded by	Paramour (2016)
Succeeded by	Sép7imo Día - No Descansaré (2017)
Official website

Luzia is a Cirque du Soleil show inspired by the richness of the Mexican culture. The name Luzia fuses the sound of luz (light in Spanish) and lluvia (rain), two elements at the core of the show’s creation.

Luzia has a cast of 44 artists from 15 countries and is Cirque du Soleil’s 38th production since 1984, and its 17th show presented under the Big Top. Its creative team comprises 16 creators under the artistic guidance of Guy Laliberté (Guide) and Jean-François Bouchard (Creative Guide).

Acts

Cyr Wheel

• Prologue: A parachutist lands in a field of cempasuchil flowers (yellow marigolds) surrounding a gigantic metallic key. As he turns the key by curiosity, the traveler gets taken away on a magical journey through time and place, somewhere between dreams and reality.
• The Running Woman: A representation of life and its cycle, a butterfly with long wings, and a horse riding in a beautiful garden in the desert.
• Hoop Diving on treadmills: For the depiction of life and color in the desert, merry birds run on the mat and leap between structures with round openings with large and small openings, the act becomes more and more difficult in its course.
• Adagio: Three men and one woman practice dangerous movements on stage, the presentation in the air.
• Cyr wheel and trapeze: Two young women dance on stage in large majestic hoops as in a dream. They are soon joined by a trapeze artist who performs a series of original figures.
• Beach clown: After riding his bicycle through the mountains in direction of the beach, the traveler stops to drink water out of his canteen…which is unfortunately empty.
• Handbalancing: This act is about a lifeguard struts about on a buoy among the waves in a tribute this time to mexican cinema of the 1920s
• Football Dance: Mexican tastes star in this soccer act exhibiting manipulation skills on the ball.
• Clown rain and percussions parade: With effects of rain, with images in it, the rotating stage, curtains with Mexican references, the act presents a new cycle of life in that magical desert.
• Masts & poles: Magical Beings show their skills at the pole in an enchanted desert forest that rain for the act "lluvia".
• 360 Swing: This is a small part of the show, but exciting, with a kind of swing that turns 360° reaching the top of the tent.
• Aerial Straps: An elastic and acrobatic rope is performed by a Tarzan-style man who shows a metaphor about the coexistence of man and animal.
• Juggling: A juggler features fast paced and difficult juggling with up to 6 keys.
• Contortion: Unlike all the contortionists, this one presents unknown and strange movements in the area of contortionism, surprising the whole audience.
• Contortion: The traveler takes a dive to explore the underwater world, which first looks peaceful until he disturbs three cacti relaxing on the ocean floor.
• Swing to swing: Two swinging species the artists fly and fall on another swing doing beautiful acrobatics in the air.
• Fiesta Finale: All the characters the traveler has met through his journey gather together for a festive celebration around a large dining table.

Acts in Rotation

• Slackwire: An artists balances on a loose wire combining it with rola bola.

Music

The music listed below is from the soundtrack released at the premier of the show, but does not represent the live music in the show. The soundtrack was recorded in partnership with 'Bostich + Fussible' (real names: Ramón Amezcua and Pepe Mogt) who remixed some of the Luzia songs composed by Simon Carpentier. In an interview with Billboard.com, Alain Vinet, Cirque's musical director the reason for the partnership was because "Normally, the albums come out six months down the road, or a year down the road [after the show opens], because when we are in creation, the musicians are really, really busy; it’s impossible for us to take them out of the creation. But the mandate was for us to have the CD for the opening of the show. The only way we could achieve this was to outsource the production of the CD, and that is why we went with Nortec." Rather than remixing all the songs from the show, 10 songs were chosen that represent 10 of the main themes in the show and although the melody is very similar to the live songs, the rhythm has been altered to achieve a more dance-orientated, pop-music style.

Track titles as they appear in order on the CD:

1. "Asi Es La Vida" (Hoop Diving on treadmills)
2. "Tiembla La Tierra" (Adagio)
3. "Flores En El Desierto" (Cyr wheel and trapeze)
4. "Pambolero" (Football Dance)
5. "Pez Volador" (Handbalancing)
6. "Los Mosquitos" (Masts & poles)
7. "Alebrijes" (Contortion)
8. "Tlaloc" (Aerial Straps)
9. "Cierra Los Ojos" (Water Curtain)
10. "Fiesta Finale" (Curtain Call)

Additional songs not included on the CD:

1. "Zambullida" (Prologue)
2. "Running Girl" (Opening)
3. "La Wrestla" (360 Swing)
4. "Llave Dorada" (Juggling)
5. "Frente De La Tormenta" (Swing to Swing)
6. "Tiempo De Fiesta" (Finale, part 1)
7. "Luz y Lluvia" (Finale, part 2)
8. "La Lucha" (Confetti)

Vocalists

The Crying Woman (female singer)

• Majo Cornejo: From 21 April 2016 (Montreal) to Present

Tour

The grand chapiteau for Luzia in Toronto, September 2016

Luzia began its Grand Chapiteau tour in North America in its specially designed white and yellow Big Top designed based on the solar system to reflect the importance of space and especially the moon in the Mexican culture which inspired the show. The main tent is white with yellow curves to represent the paths of the planets around the moon and the artistic tent is yellow to represent the sun. It also features a newly designed Tapis Rouge tent which was introduced from the start of the San Francisco run. LUZIA's stop in Orlando in spring 2019 will be historic as it marks the first time a big top show has ever been raised in the city.

The following colorboxes indicate the region of each performance:
 EU   Europe  NA   North America  SA   South and Central Americas  AP   Asia/Pacific  OC   Oceania  AF   Africa

Grand Chapiteau tour

2016 schedule

•  NA   Montreal, QC – 21 Apr to 10 Jul 2016 (show premiere)
•  NA   Toronto, ON – 28 Jul to 16 Oct 2016
•  NA   San Francisco, CA – 17 Nov 2016 to 22 Jan 2017

2017 schedule

•  NA   San Jose, CA – 9 Feb to 19 Mar 2017
•  NA   Seattle, WA – 30 Mar to 21 May 2017
•  NA   Denver, CO – 1 Jun to 9 Jul 2017
•  NA   Chicago, IL – 21 Jul to 3 Sep 2017
•  NA   Atlanta, GA – 14 Sep to 19 Nov 2017
•  NA   Los Angeles, CA – 8 Dec 2017 to 11 Feb 2018

2018 schedule

•  NA   Costa Mesa, CA – 21 Feb to 25 Mar 2018
•  NA   Washington, DC – 12 Apr to 17 Jun 2018
•  NA   Boston, MA – 27 Jun to 12 Aug 2018
•  NA   Guadalajara, MX – 30 Aug to 23 Sep 2018
•  NA   Monterrey, MX – 4 Oct to 28 Oct 2018
•  NA   Mexico City, MX – 8 Nov to 23 Dec 2018

2019 schedule

•  NA   Houston, TX - From 10 Jan to 24 Feb 2019
•  NA   Orlando, FL - From 7 Mar to 21 Apr 2019
•  NA   New York, NY - From 2 May to 9 Jun 2019
•  NA   Hartford, CT - From 19 Jun to 21 Jul 2019
•  NA   Calgary, AB - From 16 Aug to 15 Sep 2019
•  NA   Vancouver, BC - TBA

2020 schedule

(Luzia played at the Royal Albert Hall in London, UK during this time)

Arena tour

2020 schedule

•  EU   Royal Albert Hall, London, UK – From 12 Jan to 16 Feb 2020

External links

• Official site