I recently made a purchase that was a little outside my budget, but turned out to be worth every penny and then some. I got tickets for my wife and I to see Cirque De Soleil’s “Kurios”. Bear with me, this is yoyo related. If you have never heard of Cirque De Soleil, give this a read (link). It’s an organization based out of Montreal, Canada that started with two of your stereotypical “starving artist” performers and has grown into the largest theatrical producer in the world. They are currently running nineteen different shows in two hundered and seventy one countries around the world. Click one of the pictures below to go to the website for Kurios which will give you at least a superficial idea of what the costumes, characters and sets look like. Picture links https://static01.cirquedusoleil.com/nl/~/media/press/PDF/kurios/kurios-presskit.pdf
Photo Credit: https://www.cirquedusoleil.com/kurios Chin-min managed to find some time in his busy performance schedule to make an appearance at the Vancouver Yoyo club meet, a major highlight that was really exciting for the kids (of all ages!). He demonstrated his skills in a variety of yoyo styles. It's no surprise that he was chosen by Cirque Du Soleil, he is very skilled.
There is no way to do justice to the amazing work of individual prowess and spectacular choreography. One of the really neat things about Cirque Du Soleil is that the entertainment never stops. When you enter the tent and take your seat prior to the show start, there are already performers on stage moving around and doing things. The steampunk theme facilitated constant movement of equipment and people. There was even an audience participation bit before the show! Once the show began you needed to be sharp to catch everything that was going on. When there was a solo performer front and center, there was also always a background mood being set, from ‘characters’ observing the act, to live musicians roving around. Performers moved around, contributing little bits to the overall mood, musicians, props and more. The show opened with what must have been the entire cast onstage. It featured a drum performance, but the background was constantly changing, tables and chairs being moved, objects being passed, dancers moving around all in perfect step!
The thing that was most striking to me was how many roles each performer played, and the fact that very little of the show was remotely controlled. Quite often the props on stage were operated by hidden performers moving levers. Chin-min, aside from being the yoyo star, also wore a number of costumes as background cast, moving props in and out. One of the more interesting props was a giant hand (the size of a car) that crept out at one point (as it turns out it was pedal powered from inside) with moving fingers. The act it was used for was a quartet of contortionists that were indescribable. The four did their entire act on top of the hand. The feats of flexibility and coordination were indescribable. As with every other aspect of the show, their routine was impeccably choreographed with lighting and music. What was interesting to find out after the fact was that while their act was going on the fingers of the giant hand were moving, and as we found out, Chih-min was the one inside operating them! This was one of the many roles he performed during every single show! Photo Credit - http://bluebesos.com/tag/kurios/
The show travels all over the world, and the actors and a lot of the behind the stage people all travel together. Backstage there is a training area for the performers, a first aid space, a large costume repair shop, a kitchen and just about everything else they need. Actors are responsible for their own hair and makeup and are trained by experts before the touring show launches. I can only imagine the volume of laundry that is done each day! The cast signs up for a two year stint with the show, travelling the whole time. They get one week vacation in each city (which could mean one week out of eight) and most weeks they only get one day off per week. The rest of the time they are performing two to threeshows per day. It is not a job for the faint of heart, you have to be dedicated and passionate about your art to keep up that kind of intensity. There are perks. The performers are put up in good hotels. They even have their own laundry machines backstage! The show travels with it’s own kitchen with a variety of healthy meals offered. I was amused when he pointed out that healthy drinks were free for performers, but if you wanted anything sugary you had to pay for it out of a vending machine! It makes sense, these performers are some of the most finely tuned athletes I’ve seen. They need to stay in top shape. I imagine the biggest challenges the performers face are exhaustion and loneliness. Working six days a week at that level of intensity would be very taxing. The show accounts for illness and injury, the cast has more available solo acts than are needed on any night and can be slotted in, but if Chih-Min is sick, there isn’t another yoyoer! Most of the cast is French-Canadian, but also includes performers from around the world. While English is the common language, Chih-Min is the only Chinese speaker, and he told me it can be hard at times to connect with others for whom English is not their preferred language. All in all I’m really glad he reached out and could at least come visit the yoyo club! Of course for me the best part of the whole experience was the giant smile on my wife’s face at the end of the night (and throughout it). She’s been a performer her whole life and has seen a number of Cirque Du Soleil shows (including a brief stint waitressing at one of them), but she was still so excited to see this one. I wholeheartedly suggest you save your pennies and the next time one comes to town you check it out! Vancouver is the last North American stop for Kurios, next it heads to Japan but it’ll come back around I’m sure.
If you can’t get out to see Cirque Du Soleil, look into what else is happening locally. There are some amazing local artistic performances in any city that need your support. Don’t forget to bring a yoyo or two, you never know when you might make a new friend!
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Canadian Nationals 2013 Some highlights:
For me personally the best part of the contest was watching John Higby in action. He is an extraordinary performer and if you get the chance to see his show, jump on it. He did a number of acts through the day, and was a huge audience pleaser. He really knows how to hook a crowd and get them excited about yo-yoing. We saw great performances from most of Canada's top yoyoers, including a crowd pleasing entry from former champion Charles Haycock landing him second place. Harrison Lee stole the show with a nearly flawless and professional routine in his usual blindingly fast and complicated style. We had a number of out of town guests attend, enough to make an international division for the contest. Daniel Deitz who had been in town demoing for Yomega and working the judges table took first. Ki Zizan did a Double Dragon demo that had the crowd roaring. Ann Connolly of Yoyo Factory did a demo at a local toy store the day before, and was a crowd pleaser competing in both 1a international division and 3a in the open division. One bit I hadn't seen at a contest before that was highly entertaining was the trivia questions. Due to the venue rules there wasn't a raffle. Instead, yoyoers were called upon to answer questions like "what was the first aluminum ball bearing yoyo" and "what was another business that Donald Duncan was famous for". "Harvey Lowe" was an answer to one question, and it took a few guesses! Kids these days...not up on their history! Overall this was hands down the best Canadian contest in memory. I think everyone had a blast and can agree it was a huge success. Vancouver BC will be hosting in 2014, and they will have some big shoes to fill! How many of you know the history of your city? The neighboring ones? Who has time and where would you start? How about a cultural festival? Most city governments will run or finance festivals at historic sites. Yesterday I went to the Richmond Maritime Festival in Richmond, BC. The site is a piece of history. It is on the site of a 1930's cannery and fishing village. Small homes and warehouses have been restored and filled with information and relics if this key piece of BC history. The festival brought in a wealth of knowledge about the era. They had actors in boats singing songs from the 30's. Scattered around were actors sitting frozen as statues until you ring a bell, at which point they come to life and share a fact about life in the early 20th century. The festival organizers planned something for everyone. There were stilt walking mermaids, fish, fisherman and more. There were more crafts than I can remember. A variety of music performers from stage acts to an accordionist in a tree. The dock was full of boats you could board and walk around. Including one that was used in the pirates of the Caribbean movie. It shouldn't come as a surprise that I was drawn by the juggler and his pile of circus equipment people could use. I finally got the hang of the diabolo, and taught a very excited kid to yoyo. All in all this was the best festival of it's sort I've been to and I'm looking forward to next year. |
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