Cirque du Soleil

(French for "Circus of the Sun", in English pronounced /sɜrk duː soʊˈleɪ/) is an entertainment empire based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada located in Saint-Michel, and founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former street performers, Guy Laliberté and Daniel Gauthier.

Initially named Les Échassiers they toured Quebec in 1980 as a performing troupe and encountered financial hardship that was relieved by a government grant in 1983 as part of 450th celebrations of Jacques Cartier's discovery of Canada. Le Grand Tour du Cirque du Soleil was a success in 1984 and after securing a second year of funding Laliberté hired Guy Caron from the National Circus School to recreate it as a "proper circus". No ring and no animals helped make Cirque du Soleil the modern circus ("Cirque Nouveau" / New Circus) that it is today. Each show is a synthesis of circus styles from around the world and has its own central theme and storyline which brings the audience into the performance by having no curtains, continuous live music and performers change the props. After critical and financial successes (Los Angeles Arts Festival) and failures in the late 1980s, Nouvelle Expérience was created with the direction of Franco Dragone that not only made Cirque profitable by 1990 but allowed it to create new shows.

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s Cirque expanded rapidly and went from one show with 73 employees in 1984 to currently 3,500 employees from over 40 countries doing fifteen shows touring every continent and have an estimated annual revenue exceeding US$600 million. The multiple permanent Las Vegas shows alone play to more than 9,000 people a night—5% of the city's visitors—adding to the 70+ million people who have experienced Cirque. In 2000, Laliberté bought out Gauthier and with 95% ownership has continued to expand the brand. Several more shows are in development around the world, along with a television deal, women's clothing line and perhaps in other mediums such as spas, restaurants and nightclubs. Cirque's creations have been awarded numerous prizes and distinctions, including Bambi, Rose d'Or, three Gemini Awards and four Primetime Emmy Awards. In 2004, Interbrand's poll of brand names with the highest global impact ranked Cirque du Soleil as number 22.

Cirque du Soleil History

Seeking a career in the performing arts, Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte toured Europe as a folk musician and busker after quitting college. By the time he returned back home to Canada in 1979, he had learned the art of fire breathing. Although he became "employed" at a hydroelectric power plant in James Bay, his job ended after only three days due to a labour strike. He decided not to look for another job, instead supporting himself on his unemployment insurance. He helped to organize a summer fair in Baie-Saint-Paul with the help of a pair of friends named Daniel Gauthier and Gilles Ste-Croix.

Gauthier and Ste-Croix were managing a performing artist's youth hostel named Le Balcon Vert at that time. By the summer of 1979, Ste-Croix had been developing the idea of turning the Balcon Vert, and the talented performers that lived there, into an organized performing troupe. Although the talent was plentiful, they lacked the funding to make their idea a reality. As part of a publicity stunt to convince the Quebec government to help fund his production, Ste-Croix walked the fifty-six miles from Baie-Saint-Paul to Quebec City on stilts. The ploy worked, giving the three men the money to create Les Echassiers de Baie-Saint-Paul. Employing many of the people that would later make up Cirque, Les Echassiers toured Quebec during the summer of 1980.

Although well received by audiences and critics alike, Les Echassiers was a financial failure. Laliberte spent that winter in Hawaii plying his trade while Ste-Croix stayed in Quebec to set up a nonprofit holding company named "The High-Heeled Club" to mitigate the losses of the previous summer. In 1981 they met with better results. By the fall of 1981, Les Echassiers de Baie-Saint-Paul had broken even. The success inspired Laliberte and Ste-Croix to organize a summer fair in their hometown of Baie-Saint-Paul.

This touring festival, called "La Fete Foraine", first took place in July of 1982. La Fete Foraine featured workshops to teach the circus arts to the public, after which those who participated could take part in a performance. Ironically, the festival was barred from its own hosting town after complaints from local citizens.Laliberte managed and produced the fair over the next couple years, nurturing it into a moderate financial success. But it was during 1983 that the government of Quebec gave him a 1.5 million dollar grant to host a production the following year as part of Quebec's 450th anniversary celebration of the French explorer Jacques Cartier's discovery of Canada. Laliberte named his creation "Le Grand Tour du Cirque du Soleil."

Retired big top touring shows 

Le Grand Tour du Cirque du Soleil

Originally intended to only be a one-year project, Cirque du Soleil was scheduled to perform in eleven towns in Quebec over the course of thirteen weeks running concurrent with the third La Fete Foraine. The first shows were riddled with difficulty, starting with the collapse of the big top after the increased weight of rainwater cause the central mast to snap. Working with a borrowed tent, Laliberté then had to contend with difficulties with the European performers who were so unhappy with the Quebec circus' inexperience, that they had at one point sent a letter to the media complaining about how they were being treated.

The problems were only transient, however, and by the time 1984 had come to a close, Le Grand Tour du Cirque Du Soleil was a success. Having only sixty-thousand dollars left in the bank, Laliberte went back to the Canadian government to secure funding for a second year. Unfortunately, while the Canadian federal government was enthusiastic, the Quebec provincial government was resistant to the idea. It was not until Quebec's Premier, Rene Levesque intervened on their behalf that the provincial government relented.

Le Magie Continues

After securing funding from the Canadian government for a second year, Laliberte took steps to renovate Cirque from a group of street performers into a "proper circus". To accomplish this he hired the head of the National Circus School, Guy Caron, as Cirque Du Soleil's artistic director. The influences that Laliberte and Caron had in reshaping their circus were extensive. They wanted strong emotional music that was played from the beginning to end by musicians. They wanted to emulate the Moscow Circus' method of having the acts tell a story. Performers, rather than a technical crew, move equipment and props on and off stage so that it did not disrupt the momentum of the "storyline". Most importantly, their vision was to create a circus with neither a ring nor animals. The rationale was that the lack of both of these things draws the audience more into the performance.

To help design the next major show, Laliberte and Caron hired Franco Dragone, another instructor from the National Circus School who had been working in Belgium. When he joined the troupe in 1985, he brought with him his experience in commedia dell'arte techniques which he imparted on the performers. Although his experience would be limited in the next show due to budget restraints, he would go on to direct every show up to, but not including Dralion.

By 1986, the company was once again in serious financial trouble. During 1985 they had taken the show outside Quebec to a lukewarm response. In Toronto they performed in front of a twenty-five percent capacity crowd after not having enough money to properly market the show. Gilles Ste-Croix, dressed in a monkey suit, walked through downtown Toronto as a desperate publicity stunt. A later stop in Niagara Falls turned out to be equally problematic. Despite critical praise, both shows were a failure which put Cirque du Soleil 750 thousand dollars in debt.

Several factors prevented Cirque from going bankrupt that year. The Desjardins Group, which was Cirque du Soleil's financial institution at the time, covered about two-hundred thousand dollars of bad checks. Also, a financier named Daniel Lamarre who worked for one of the largest public relations firms in Quebec represented the company for free, knowing that they didn't have the money to pay his fee. The Quebec government itself also came through again, granting Laliberte enough money to stay solvent for another year.

We Reinvent the Circus

In 1987, after Laliberte re-privatized Cirque du Soleil, it was invited to perform at the Los Angeles Arts Festival. However, they continued to be plagued by financial difficulties. Laliberte and Gauthier took a gamble and went to Los Angeles, despite only having enough money to make a one-way trip. Had the show been a failure, Cirque would not have had enough money to get their performers and equipment back to Montreal.

The festival turned out to be a huge success, critically and financially. The show attracted the attention of entertainment executives including Columbia Pictures, which met with Laliberte and Gauthier under the pretense of wanting to make a movie about Cirque du Soleil. Laliberte was unhappy with the deal, claiming that it gave too many rights to Columbia who was only attempting to secure all rights to the production. He pulled out of the deal before it could be concluded and the experience stands out as a key reason why Cirque du Soleil remains independent and privately owned today.

An artistic difference caused Guy Caron to leave the company in 1988. The disagreement was over what to do with the money generated by Cirque du Soleil's first financially successful tour. Laliberte wanted to use it to expand and start a second show while Caron wanted the money to be saved, with a portion going back to the National Circus School. An agreement was never met and Caron, along with a large number of artists loyal to him, departed. This stalled plans that year to start a new touring show.

Laliberté sought out Gilles Ste-Croix as replacement for the artistic director position. Ste-Croix, who had been away from Cirque since 1985, agreed to return. The company went through more internal troubles, including a failed attempt to add a third man to the partnership, Normand Latourelle. This triumvirate lasted only six months before internal disagreements prompted Gauthier and Laliberté to buy out Latourelle. By the end of 1989, Cirque du Soleil was once again in a deficit.

Nouvelle Expérience

In that same year, Cirque attempted to revive one of their previous shows, Le Cirque Reinvente. The attempt was abandoned after a weak critical reception. Laliberte and Ste-Croix instead created a new show based on the plans that had originally been drawn up by Caron before his departure. Originally intended to be called Eclipse, they renamed the show Nouvelle Expérience.

Franco Dragone returned, albeit reluctantly. He was willing to return only if he had full creative control of the show's environment. One of the first things that he did was to remove the curtain that separates the artist from the audience. His reasoning was that this would make the artists and the audience both feel part of a larger show. Whereas in a traditional circus the artist could go past the curtain and drop his role, Dragone had created an environment where the artist had to remain in character for the full length of the production.

Although Dragone was given full control over the show, Laliberté oversaw the entire production. He was in favor of Dragone's new ideas. Inspired by Jules Verne's "La Chasse au Meteore", Dragone's concept for the show was that each of the performers were playing the parts of jewels spread around the Earth.

Nouvelle Expérience turned out to be Cirque du Soleil's most popular show up to that point and would continue running until 1993. It spent one of those years at The Mirage Resort and Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. By the end of 1990, Cirque was profitable again and was prepared to start a new show.

Saltimbanco

Created in 1992, Saltimbanco (big top version) was the first show in which Cirque du Soleil would narrow its focus to tell a very specific and themed story. Dragone was inspired by the way multiculturalism shaped the nature and direction of Cirque du Soleil and wanted the theme of this new show to be one of "cosmopolitan urbanism." Laiberté stated that, "For me, Saltimbanco is a message of peace. In the 1990s, immigration was an issue, the mixing of cultures in cities, and Saltimbanco reflects that mix, with all of its personalities and colours. It's the challenge we have in today's world: respecting each other, living and working together, despite our differences."

Idealistic or not, Saltimbanco, which come from the Italian saltare in banco, meaning literally "to jump on a bench", was well received. Featuring 47 artists, the cast has been assembled from the citizens of fifteen different countries. This is, to date, the longest running show that Cirque du Soleil has ever produced. It has run for fifteen years and has toured North and South America, Europe, Japan and the Asia-Pacific Rim.

With Saltimbanco finished and touring in the United States and Canada, Cirque du Soleil toured Japan in the summer of 1992 at the behest of the Fuji Television Network. Taking acts from Nouvelle Expěrience and Cirque Réinvénte they created a show for this tour entitled "Fascination". Although Fascination was never seen outside of Japan, it represented the first time that Cirque had produced a show that took place in an arena rather than a big top. It was also the first that Cirque du Soleil performed outside of North America.

On the first of February in 1997, Saltimbanco played its final show at London's Royal Albert Hall. However, the following year, the show was restaged and started a new three year tour throughout Asia and the Pacific.