Luzia (Cirque du Soleil)

Luzia
Logo for Cirque du Soleil's Luzia
Company	Cirque du Soleil
Genre	Contemporary circus
Show type	Touring show
Date of premiere	April 21, 2016 (Montreal)
Creative team
Conception and Director	Daniele Finzi Pasca
Associate Director	Brigitte Poupart
Director of Creation	Patricia Ruel
Playwright	Julie Hamelin Finzi
Set and Props Designer	Eugenio Caballero
Costume Designer	Giovanna Buzzi
Composer and Musical Director	Simon Carpentier
Acrobatic Choreographer	Edesia Moreno Barata Debra Brown Sylvia Gertrúdix González
Puppet Designer	Max Humphries
Lighting Designer	Martin Labrecque
Projection Designer	Johnny Ranger
Sound Designer	Jacques Boucher
Acrobatic Performance Designer	Philippe Aubertin
Acrobatic Equipment and Rigging Designer	Danny Zen
Makeup Designer	Maryse Gosselin
Other information
Preceded by	Paramour (2016)
Succeeded by	Sép7imo Día - No Descansaré (2017)
[www.cirquedusoleil.com/luzia Official website]

Luzia is a Cirque du Soleil show inspired by the richness of the Mexican culture. The name Luzia fuses the sound of luz (light in Spanish) and lluvia (rain), two elements at the core of the show’s creation.

Luzia has a cast of 44 artists from 15 countries and is Cirque du Soleil’s 38th production since 1984, and its 17th show presented under the Big Top. Its creative team comprises 16 creators under the artistic guidance of Guy Laliberté (Guide) and Jean-François Bouchard (Creative Guide).

Acts

Cyr Wheel

• The Butterfly: A representation of life and its cycle, a butterfly with long wings, and a horse riding in a beautiful garden in the desert

• Hoop Diving: For the depiction of life and color in the desert, merry birds run on the mat and leap between structures with round openings with large and small openings, the act becomes more and more difficult in its course.

• Adagio: Three men and one woman practice dangerous movements on stage, the presentation in the air.

• Cyr Wheel: Made together with the "trapeze" act two women rotate in a round structure, enabling movements of strength, and flexibility

• Dance Trapeze: A woman in a soft trapeze, with a cord and two strings at her tips suspended in the air, presents with agility and beauty representing the transformation of a common cycle

• Handbalancing: a lifeguard exposes himself to the beings and girls in the sea, shows his strength and balance in basements one on top of the other

• Football Freestyle: Mexican tastes star in this soccer act exhibiting manipulation skills on the ball

• The lluvia: With effects of rain, with images in it, the rotating stage, curtains with Mexican references, the act presents a new cycle of life in that magical desert

• Pole Dance: Magical Beings show their skills at the pole in an enchanted desert forest that rain for the act "lluvia"

• 360 Swing: This is a small part of the show, but exciting, with a kind of swing that turns 360° reaching the top of the tent.

• Aerial Straps: An elastic and acrobatic rope is performed by a Tarzan-style man who shows a metaphor about the coexistence of man and animal.

• Juggling: A juggler features fast paced and difficult juggling with up to 6 keys

• Contortion: Unlike all the contortionists, this one presents unknown and strange movements in the area of contortionism, surprising the whole audience.

• Russian Swings: Two swinging species the artists fly and fall on another swing doing beautiful acrobatics in the air.

Music

The music listed below is from the soundtrack released at the premier of the show, but does not represent the live music in the show. The soundtrack was recorded in partnership with 'Bostich + Fussible' (real names: Ramón Amezcua and Pepe Mogt) who remixed some of the Luzia songs composed by Simon Carpentier. In an interview with Billboard.com, Alain Vinet, Cirque's musical director the reason for the partnership was because "Normally, the albums come out six months down the road, or a year down the road [after the show opens], because when we are in creation, the musicians are really, really busy; it’s impossible for us to take them out of the creation. But the mandate was for us to have the CD for the opening of the show. The only way we could achieve this was to outsource the production of the CD, and that is why we went with Nortec."^[1] Rather than remixing all the songs from the show, 10 songs were chosen that represent 10 of the main themes in the show and although the melody is very similar to the live songs, the rhythm has been altered to achieve a more dance-orientated, pop-music style.

Track titles as they appear in order on the CD:

1. "Asi Es La Vida" (Hoop Diving)
2. "Tiembla La Tierra" (Adagio)
3. "Flores En El Desierto" (Cyr Wheel & Trapeze)
4. "Pambolero" (Football Freestyle)
5. "Pez Volador" (Handbalancing)
6. "Los Mosquitos" (Pole Dance)
7. "Alebrijes" (Contortion)
8. "Tlaloc" (Aerial Straps)
9. "Cierra Los Ojos" (Water Curtain)
10. "Fiesta Finale" (Curtain Call)

Additional songs not included on the CD:

1. "Zambullida" (Prologue)
2. "Running Girl" (Opening)
3. "La Wrestla" (360 Swing)
4. "Llave Dorada" (Juggling)
5. "Frente De La Tormenta" (Russian Swings)
6. "Tiempo De Fiesta" (Finale, part 1)
7. "Luz y Lluvia" (Finale, part 2)
8. "La Lucha" (Confetti)

Tour

The grand chapiteau for Luzia in Toronto, September 2016

Luzia began its Grand Chapiteau tour in North America in its specially designed white and yellow Big Top designed based on the solar system to reflect the importance of space and especially the moon in the Mexican culture which inspired the show. The main tent is white with yellow curves to represent the paths of the planets around the moon and the artistic tent is yellow to represent the sun. It also features a newly designed Tapis Rouge tent which was introduced from the start of the San Francisco run.^[2] LUZIA's stop in Orlando in spring 2019 will be historic as it marks the first time a big top show has ever been raised in the city.

The following colorboxes indicate the region of each performance:
 EU   Europe  NA   North America  SA   South and Central Americas  AP   Asia/Pacific  OC   Oceania  AF   Africa