A bit of history

Famous Cirque du Soleil was founded by guy Laliberte and Daniel Gauthier in 1984 in the bay St-Paul area in Canada. One of the first-ever show to be produced was Saltimbanco and counted over 9000 representations and it put their genius on the map. What really makes Cirque du Soleil stand out from its competitors is the modern approach that is negotiated on stage.

The focus of the artistry is on the costumes and the ambiance and the physical performances, and the fact that to this day, Cirque du Soleil has never and does not plan to include animals to their programs.

From there, Guy Laliberté, in partnership with Franco Dragone, produced yet another spectacular show called Alegria. The scenery was said to be marvelous. Pushing the limits, the Alegria story showcased a theme of duality, hierarchy in a parallel universe where exotic creatures meet kings and mythical beings.

To this day, Cirque du Soleil has seen over 47 productions come and go through the decades and is now said to be worth over 1,37 Billion dollars. An amount that speaks loads to the quality and mastery behind

the giant that is the circus.



Enough about the past

The circus raised the bar by its quality of his genre, but this year, it is getting a big makeover and streamlining 5 new spectacles that will air as soon as June 29th if everything runs smoothly.

The first show Rebel will be performed in Andorra, Cirque du Soleil usual. Followed up by A fantastical world in China and Messi10 in Barcelona, it seems that Europe and Asia are the places to travel this year. Closer to home, a show with no name is to be up and running at Orlando’s one and only Walt Disney World resort.

But fear not, the Axel show, to be staged in an arena and performed on ice will be out on December 19th of this year in Montreal at the Bell Center only a few days to Christmas. The circus is presenting its performance on ice for the second time only. The first show produced on ice was Crystal, that premiered in December of 2017 featured four-time world champion Canadian figure skater Kurt Browning and four-time world medalist American ice dancer Benjamin Agosto.

Although Crystal is a touring show performed in over 80 different cities in Canada, the United-States and South America, it is still on and will be available in Latvia, Russia, Poland, Belarus and Ukraine in 10 cities. There is no confirmation that athletes before named Kurt Browning and Benjamin Agosto will be performing on Axel, the story of a young man who is passionate about arts and music. There is no doubt that the rendition of this particular spectacle will be whimsical as it is the 48th production given by Cirque du Soleil.

If you are more of a traditionalist, the circus as aired a vamped-up version of its beloved Alegria that you can see in Gatineau from August 1rst to September 1rst of 2019. And last but not least, an homage to a french spoken Quebecor band Les Cowboys Fringants is taking place in Trois-Rivière under the name Joyeux Calvaire which translates to a merry mess.