“Kooza” in Gatineau
“Kooza” is one of the best shows by Cirque du Soleil and is performing in Gatineau/Ottawa now. This is an amazing opportunity for the whole family to watch this stunning show. Thanks to the amazing performer and my good friend Francois Guillaume Leblanc, Capital Circus school was able to have a tour backstage with our circus kids group, and later next week we watched the show from the audience. This show in the best traditions of the good old Cirque du Soleil: loud, spectacular, upscale and for the whole family. Loud live music will have athletes flying in the air, clowns fooling around, gymnasts bending in all directions, and so on. The acts are combined into a through plot, as they should be.In this case, it’s about a mad king and his wacky entourage. Though the plot in such spectacles is a conventional thing, the artists in extravagant costumes are at the head of the show.
Cirque du Soleil presented the show Kooza in Ottawa, featuring dangerous acrobatic tricks, a seductive Trickster, a funny Simpleton and mischievous clown jokes.
Michael Smith, Kooza’s artistic director, warned that it is Cirque du Soleil’s most hooligan, even indecent, and a little bit nerve-racking production ever.
No room for scoundrels.
The clowns unceremoniously, but very cheerfully, flirted with the audience even before the performance started-some of them took off their shoes and threw them on the stage, some of them were dragged through the audience, throwing them over their shoulders, and many of them had their hair done with a powerful jet of air coming from the garbage disposal machine. Confetti and streamers were shot at the audience from a cannon. At the beginning of the show, one of the clowns said that there are actions in the show that will be incomprehensible to children under 12 years old and people without a sense of humor. 🙂 Clowns were one of the most interactive parts of this show and kids from Capital Circus school really enjoyed it! One of the main characters Francois Guillaume Leblanc was the funniest for Capital circus kids. This highly professional and very creative artist is well known in the artistic community and one of the best clowns we ever met.
Creation
Through mischief and dangerous adrenaline stunts, Kooza talks about deep philosophical things. For example, that only a simpleton, with his open world and kind heart, can see the magic of life around him. That is exactly how funny and ridiculous the main character of the production is. At the beginning of the show, he appears with a flying kite, which he never manages to launch into the sky. The simpleton receives a parcel—a mysterious box, which, of course, he immediately opens. Out of it, like a devil out of a snuffbox, jumps the Obnoxious Tourist, a classic trickster who became a character in circus performances hundreds of years ago. The Obnoxious Tourist is a trickster, a magician, and a humanoid creature capable of creating his own reality, shuffling through various life situations like a deck of cards.
In some inconceivable way, in the blink of an eye, he changes the Simpleton’s clothes with a simple wave of his magic wand. The magic continues as the Trickster raises his hands, and simultaneously, like the petals of an outlandish flower, a huge canvas at the back of the stage rises, revealing a tower called the Bataclan. The draperies of the tower are coloured in emerald and ruby, the colours of vitality and oriental luxury. The top stage of the Bataclan houses an orchestra and two singers. The simple and exquisite scenography by StĂ©phane Roy (who also worked on the Varekai and Zarkana shows) is mesmerizing—a minimum of scenery, every detail has been thought out, and the lighting design is unusual.
The Obnoxious Tourist creates a new world before the eyes of the Loner and the audience. It is filled with people dressed in red, white, and gold. The “Shariwari” act begins.
Then, a wave of the Trickster’s magic wand and a round platform with a treasure-a golden ingot-appears in the middle of the stage from the Bataclave, which turns out to be three girls. In the contortion act, performers from Mongolia demonstrate the incredible flexibility of the body.
The Jester King and romance on a bicycle
When an Obnoxious Tourist wants to play a prank, he calls in clowns. Moreover, in his world, the leader of the jesters turns out to be the King, who tries to command the two assistants. The clowns drag the audience into interacting and moving the crowd away from their seats and laugh was all over the tent.
The Trickster wanted more romance in his world, and a “Duo on a Bicycle” appeared on the scene. The pair, masterfully operating a unicycle, a unicycle, depicted all stages of love, from romantic courtship to violent passion. Here in Ottawa, Kanata, you can also join unicycle classes for kids and adults at Capital Circus school. A funny detail of the young man’s costume is that he has a red flower sewn into his transparent, tight sweater in the heart area, but it looks like it bloomed on his naked body.
The Rope, the Wheel of Death, and the Prayer
At some point, Obnoxious Tourist’s magic wand falls into the hands of Simpleton, who, not knowing how to use it, summons the inhabitants of the Underworld to Kooza’s world. It is in these hellish surroundings—red light, smoke, surrounded by skeletons with scythes—that the most spectacular act of the show “The Wheel of Death” is made. And its performers, two Colombian acrobats, appear as devils. One of them spins the 730-kilogram structure, and the second jumps into the wheel when it is already spinning at a very fast speed. The acrobat flies for a while, gripping the wheel with one hand, and then jumps into it. The audience gasps. And the “devils” continue to play on the audience’s nerves. They get on the outside of spinning wheels and jump over ropes. And not just like that, but by folding them in two, then – crosswise, jumping up and doing two revolutions.
No less adrenaline from the act of tightrope walkers who dance and fence on the rope, ride bicycles and jump over each other’s heads.
A calmer, but still dangerous, act is Handbalancing on chairs An acrobat enters wearing a thin white cloak. With a graceful gesture, he throws it off his shoulders and, balancing, begins to climb up the swaying structure of chairs.
You can improve your handstand techniques by starting to train with Cirque du Soleil performer here in Ottawa taking handbalancing classes at Capital Circus School. When it grows to seven meters, he is held on the back of the chair with one arm. In general, the stylistics of this act—the white suit of the artist, his concentrated, distraught face, the singer’s delicate pink sari against the dark green cloth on the back of the stage, the calm melody—make one think of meditation or prayer. It is the image of a person who rises up, overcoming their fear and discovering new possibilities in body and spirit.
The serpent is launched-the performance is over.
The charming, enigmatic Trickster is also a very seductive character. He has an amazing range of movements and a peculiar manner of fixing his costume. He is handsome and self-confident. His seductiveness is especially evident in the Cyr wheel act. The Obnoxious Tourist assists a gymnast with Cyr wheel, while the Loner, fascinated by the beauty and very frank costume of the girl, has no hesitation in handing her a hoop.
But Kooza is a play full of surprises, and everyone understands it in their own way. Perhaps the Obnoxious Tourist is the alter ego of the Simpleton, who simply falls into the world of his most daring and vivid fantasies.
At the end of the show, the Obnoxious Tourist disappears, leaving the Simpleton a piece of his magic and dexterity. And Loner finally launches a flying kite.
Kooza’s first audience clearly appreciated the show—there was a lot of laughter and applause—and when the show was over, the whole hall gave a standing ovation.
