Issue #132: JAN 2015 – Released!

www.cirquefascination.com: A new year brings new challenges, excitement, and possibilities, but it also brings the closure of one of Cirque du Soleil’s most prolific and highly-polarizing shows: Dralion. On January 18th, Dralion will bid us adieu after touring for fifteen years throughout the world under the Grand Chapiteau and in Arenas for the final time. It’s strange to think how far Dralion has come in those fifteen years. When the show was first launched in Montreal in 1999, the internal reaction to the creation was, as Cirque has put it before, “less than generous” – this was their follow-up to Saltimbanco, Alegria, and Quidam? – But despite the internal opposition, Dralion quickly found its audience and became one of Cirque’s top-grossing touring shows in many of its markets. Even the filming of Dralion became the recipient of three Primetime Emmy Awards! Of course, today’s Dralion bears little resemblance to the show we were first introduced to, but many fans fell in love with its East meets West mentality – its fusion of ancient Chinese acrobatic traditions with the avant-garde approach of Cirque du Soleil, and it will be missed!