Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Cirque du Soleil ‘Toruk-The First Flight’ to descend on Las Vegas in limited run
AXS: Inspired by James Cameron’s “Avatar,” “Toruk–The First Flight” will land in the T-Mobile Arena Jan. 18-22. It is the first Cirque du Soleil touring show to come to Las Vegas.
The space will be transformed into the moon of Pandora as the audience is taken on an odyssey into world of discovery and imagination. The story takes place 3,000 years before the time of “Avatar” as narrated by Na’vi, who is also an integral part of the story. It is one of the first Cirque du Soleil shows to have a story line and dialog.
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3 comments:
This, like most Cirque shows, looks incredibly amazing in its technical elements if nothing else. What has always amazed me about Cirque is its amazingly well-integrated technical elements, from projection to lighting to flying. While to me the plot of the shows seems absurd and almost silly in some ways, the technical integration, and the massive technical budgets in general have always amazed me. This show in particular seems challenging for the reasons the author suggested--because of its 3D effects and its performance in a large scale arena. What also amazes me about this show is that its so much work for almost no performance time--obviously entertainment is always ephemeral, but it seems almost extra, considering this show is only running for five days. Overall, the production, while complex and short lived, seems like a fantastic piece, and I wish I could see it up and running.
I went to Vegas a few years ago, as was able to see two very different Cirque du Soleli shows while I was there. One was very traditional Cirque show and had many acrobatic acts with a common story, the other was Chris Angel performing a magic show. Both were incredible, and Vegas shows. I don't know how a touring Cirque is going to do selling in Vegas. They have so much competition, that it seems almost silly to go there. Why not go some place where a circus show would be unique and not competing with many other shows? The show itself sounds great. I remember watching Avatar when it came out, and seeing that world come to life would be incredible. I think that it has the perfect balance of story and atmosphere that translating it into a Cirque show could be very seemless. One thing that makes this show different from the rest of Cirque is that it is immersive and in the arena style.
Avatar is a movie which never ceases to inspire wonder in me and makes me get lost in a story and lore. I'm an absolute sucker for science fiction and fantasy, and while there have always been arguments for and against always lumping the two together, I think that Avatar is on those stories which blends so well the mysticality and otherworldliness of high fantasy, with the awesome ethical, moral underpinnings and technology of good sci fi.
And who better than cirque to capture that essence and transfer it to live performance. Cirque shows are so perfectly timed and run and balletic in their smoothness that I would absolutely love to work for them just to observe the crazy controls systems they must have developed. Their cue sheets must so thick.
With the closing of the Barnum and Bailey's conventional circus show, I also think it is up to cirque du soleil and other companies of that ilk to up the ante of live performance variety shows, an art form which is not often mentioned, but which should not be allowed to die, or be isolated to Vegas, which is almost the same.
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