Sunday, June 6, 2010

CAVALIA AT THE MEADOWLANDS

'Cavalia' is a 'poem for the ears and eyes'
By Vicki Hyman/The Star-Ledger, June 06, 2010
LYNNE GLAZERA trick rider performs in Cavalia. The spectacle’s creator, Normand Latourelle, says riders must put themselves “into the mind of the horse.”Normand Latourelle, a co-founder of Cirque du Soleil, spent the early years of his career explaining what cirque is and is not: a circus without the animals, a theater piece but wordless, with modern music that’s not rock ’n’ roll.
His newest brainchild, the multimedia spectacle Cavalia, arrives at the Meadowlands on Wednesday. Though it’s been dubbed cirque with horses, he has similar difficulty summing up the production.
"It’s a show about horses, but it’s not a horse show," Latourelle says in a phone interview from his native Quebec. "The show is built like a poem for the ears and the eyes. I often say that because it’s very hard to describe. It’s more like you enter a dream."
Latourelle left Cirque du Soleil in 1990 because he wanted to remain home in Quebec with his children. On his home turf, he orchestrated shows and celebrations such as the 350th anniversary of the founding of Montreal, but as his children got older, he wanted to return to the touring life, he explains in his thick French accent.
He conceived of Cavalia after putting on a show that included a single horse. Whenever the horse was onstage, he realized, audience members couldn’t take their eyes off it. So why not add another horse? So he did, and then another, and another.
Today, there are more than 60 horses performing in Cavalia, on an enormous stage more than half the length of a football field, under the largest touring big top in the world. Acknowledging the less-than-stellar reputation traveling circuses have for humane animal care, Latourelle boasts that Cavalia is a "Club Med for horses," with a team of 20 people caring for the animals, none of which are on stage for more than three minutes during any given show.
Cavalia Where: White Big Top at the Meadowlands, next to the Izod Center When: Wednesday-Saturday, June 15 to 19 at 8 p.m.; matinees June 13 and 20 at 2 p.m., and June 12 and 19 at 3 p.m. How much: $56 to $126. Call (866) 999-8111 or visit cavalia.net.
read more at:http://www.nj.com/entertainment/arts/index.ssf/2010/06/cavalia_is_a_poem_for_the_ears.html

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