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Tuesday, March 01, 2022
What the Creative Destruction at Cirque du Soleil Can Teach Your Company
Inc.com: Each time Cirque develops a new show, creative directors start with a blank sheet of paper. Their mandate is clear: Create the kind of magic that Cirque fans know and love. Surpass their expectations. And then do it again, and again. Several times every single year.
Something that stood out to me in this article is the process Cirque has while collaborating with artists. Often, these agreements end in one or both parties because partially not satisfied with the final product, however, Cirque “makes it clear that there is an underlying respect for the artist’s intellectual property”. There are many definitions of collaboration, but I believe what is described in this article to be something every industry strives for. It is important to respect your collaborator’s ideas and content as well as come from equal standing when making final decisions. This article also mentions the term intellectual curiosity, which I find to be important to apply to all aspects of life. When committed to a project or an experience, it is important for someone to want to be there and have a reason to stay once they are there. People should never be forced to collaborate on an idea that they are not fully optimistic about or fully support. This idea that “the CEO must set the creative tone at the top” is so important when trying to foster such new and inventive art because there are no boundaries for what you can create when you have the whole corporate team supporting your one idea.
As iconic as the company is, I have never gotten to see a Cirque de Solei show. I live in a place where circus is big, but never went to things like that growing up. I think Cirque de Solei creates beautiful and very interesting productions. The technical elements are truly over the top. The Video Media Design is particularly impressive, and after Kevin showed some of the productions to us I was enamored. I thought that it looked like something I may want to try one day. However, I am very unsure if I would enjoy the show in aspects other than spectacle. It seems very much like the productions exist solely to one up previous productions done by the company. On the other hand, I find the nature of their storytelling and twists on classic artists so interesting. I think I’d have to see something from Cirque de Solei to form a better opinion on the productions.
This article was a great look into how Cirque keeps its shows exciting and innovative. To no surprise, a common theme throughout was collaboration. One section details how Cirque works with its headlining stars, in a process that is star-driven and hinges around the spirit and message of the original music. Another shows that Cirque shows are neither internally nor externally directed, but rather a combination of both, in order to combine the integral spirit of cirque with fresh perspectives and out looks. But by far my favorite method listed in this article is creative destruction. Too often is art created to be like art that was made before, to do the things we know make money, break box offices, fit into a 2 hour (15 minute intermission) neatly packaged digestible work. In this way, ww ensure repeating visiots and uphold a unified look at what art is. Cirque throws this out the window. Every new show must destory previous shows. Nothing is sacred. What matters is making the best art possible, now.
3 comments:
Something that stood out to me in this article is the process Cirque has while collaborating with artists. Often, these agreements end in one or both parties because partially not satisfied with the final product, however, Cirque “makes it clear that there is an underlying respect for the artist’s intellectual property”. There are many definitions of collaboration, but I believe what is described in this article to be something every industry strives for. It is important to respect your collaborator’s ideas and content as well as come from equal standing when making final decisions. This article also mentions the term intellectual curiosity, which I find to be important to apply to all aspects of life. When committed to a project or an experience, it is important for someone to want to be there and have a reason to stay once they are there. People should never be forced to collaborate on an idea that they are not fully optimistic about or fully support. This idea that “the CEO must set the creative tone at the top” is so important when trying to foster such new and inventive art because there are no boundaries for what you can create when you have the whole corporate team supporting your one idea.
As iconic as the company is, I have never gotten to see a Cirque de Solei show. I live in a place where circus is big, but never went to things like that growing up. I think Cirque de Solei creates beautiful and very interesting productions. The technical elements are truly over the top. The Video Media Design is particularly impressive, and after Kevin showed some of the productions to us I was enamored. I thought that it looked like something I may want to try one day. However, I am very unsure if I would enjoy the show in aspects other than spectacle. It seems very much like the productions exist solely to one up previous productions done by the company. On the other hand, I find the nature of their storytelling and twists on classic artists so interesting. I think I’d have to see something from Cirque de Solei to form a better opinion on the productions.
This article was a great look into how Cirque keeps its shows exciting and innovative. To no surprise, a common theme throughout was collaboration. One section details how Cirque works with its headlining stars, in a process that is star-driven and hinges around the spirit and message of the original music. Another shows that Cirque shows are neither internally nor externally directed, but rather a combination of both, in order to combine the integral spirit of cirque with fresh perspectives and out looks. But by far my favorite method listed in this article is creative destruction. Too often is art created to be like art that was made before, to do the things we know make money, break box offices, fit into a 2 hour (15 minute intermission) neatly packaged digestible work. In this way, ww ensure repeating visiots and uphold a unified look at what art is. Cirque throws this out the window. Every new show must destory previous shows. Nothing is sacred. What matters is making the best art possible, now.
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