Cirque du Soleil

Quidam was the name of the most recent Cirque du Soleil production. I went to watch it in Spore together with Marido. He was planning to surprise me but I was not surprised.. much to his disappointment.

For the uninitiated, in the early 1980s, a group of young street performers, dreamers and self-taught entrepreneurs had the vision and drive to create Cirque du Soleil. Long before the days when they would stimulate the imaginations of audiences, the first Cirque du Soleil Artists performed their shows in the street. If their dream eventually came true—a dream built on boldness, risk and imagination—it was partly because there were older people who believed in them, regardless of their age, image or status as street performers.

Quidam: a nameless passer-by, a solitary figure lingering on a street corner, a person rushing past. It could be anyone, anybody. Someone coming, going, living in our anonymous society. A member of the crowd, one of the silent majority. The one who cries out, sings and dreams within us all. This is the "quidam" that Cirque du Soleil is celebrating. A young girl fumes; she has already seen everything there is to see, and her world has lost all meaning. Her anger shatters her little world, and she finds herself in the universe of Quidam. She is joined by a joyful companion as well as another character, more mysterious, who will attempt to seduce her with the marvelous, the unsettling, and the terrifying.

The movements of the performers were reverting! I could not take my eyes of them and yet I feel somewhat uneasy watching the manipulations of the body and the different contortions that seems so unachievable. And the wonderful synergy between circus and theatre.

There were a few highlights:
1) A man spinning in a large wheel making it go faster and faster
2) 4 little asian women doing the spinning gasing like things and acrobatics whilst at it
3) A woman lifting a rather large man by him holding on to her ankle while she was supported only by her waist on a thin rod. Brrr... so scary
4) a man and a woman doing the most incredible contortions and yet making it look so graceful and looking like plants growing...