THE BALLOON MAN

‘Kooza’ is part Cirque and part circus history

 

The cast of Cirque du Soleil’s “Kooza,” which will stop in St. Petersburg Nov. 8-Dec. 9.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY CIRQUE DU SOLEIL
By Jay Handelman, Herald-Tribune
from: heraldtribune.com
November 2, 2012
From its creation by a small group of street performers nearly 30 years ago, Cirque du Soleil boldly claimed that it would reinvent the circus.
It eliminated animal acts that have long been a circus staple, created overarching storylines for each production and made individual performers and troupes into characters that served that story.
Audiences responded. More than 100 million people have seen a Cirque show since 1984, and roughly 15 million people this year will see one of the company’s 20 shows that are touring the world or playing in Las Vegas, Walt Disney World and other permanent venues. More traditional circuses, including Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, have tried with varying degrees of success to emulate the Cirque style on occasion.
With so much reinvention and such odd titles as “La Nouba,” “Allegria,” “Saltimbanco,” “Dralion,” and “Quidam,” perhaps it was almost inevitable that Cirque would eventually circle back to tradition, as it does with “Kooza,” the touring production that first opened in 2007.
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http://arts.heraldtribune.com/2012-11-02/featured/kooza-is-part-cirque-and-part-circus-history/