Even A Clown Can Do It: Cirque du Soleil Recreates Live Entertainment
Cirque du Soleil is a Canadian entertainment company which was created in 1984 by a group of young street performers. Daniel Gauthier and Guy LaLiberte are the founding Co-Presidents of Cirque du Soleil who self-described the company as a mix of circus arts and street entertainment and reinvent the circus industry from then on.
1. What are the key factors kept by Le Cirque? Which ones are downplayed and which ones were played up?
Since Le Cirque is a circus company, it kept existing traditions of the circus such as the circus arts, featuring jugglers, trampolinists, trapeze artists, teeterboard virtuosos and, of course, clowns. Soleil combined elements of dance, circus and opera to keep its artistry, but the proportion of fun and humor in the whole show was decreased. Further, due to the increase of thematic line and the lack of a ringmaster announcing the acts, the individual performers are downplayed. Each of them now acts one of the roles to develop the overall thematic element and their names are not showed in the cast list. In other words, big name acts have no place in Cirque du Soleil. Soleil keeps tents and concessions. As a traditionally large source of circus revenues which around 20% at the Ringling Brothers& Co. shows, Soleil only gains less than 10% of revenues from it. Compare with earning some of money from selling food and toys during the performance or inside the tent, Soleil preferred the performance-centered ethic of the troupe since the performances and themes are utterly unique. Sponsorships are an important source of revenue for Soleil. Soleil can mention the sponsors in the playbill, advertising and banners around the tent. The last key factor kept by Le Cirque is retaining the show on tour. Soleil plays it up by permanently perform three shows in Las Vegas and Disney World.
2. Which factors were totally eliminated by Le Cirque and what are the