Toruk - The First Flight

Toruk - The First Flight
Logo for Cirque du Soleil's Toruk - The First Flight
Company	Cirque du Soleil
Genre	Contemporary circus
Show type	Touring show
Date of premiere	December 21, 2015 (Montreal)
Creative team
Writers and directors	Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon
Creation director	Neilson Vignola
Set designer	Carl Fillion
Composer	Boe & Bill (Guy Dubuc and Marc Lessard)
Costume designer	Kym Barrett
Lighting designer	Alain Lortie
Artistic guide	Guy Laliberté
Sound designer	Jacques Boucher
Makeup designer	Kym Barrett
Rigging and acrobatic equipment designer	Pierre Masse
Acrobatic performance designer	Germain Guillemot
Choreographer	Tuan Le and Tan Loc Nguyen
Puppet designer	Patrick Martel
Other information
Preceded by	Joyà (2014)
Succeeded by	Paramour (2016)
Official website

Toruk - The First Flight is a Cirque du Soleil touring production that premiered in December 2015, and is inspired by James Cameron's film Avatar. It depicts a world before the events depicted in the film.^[1] The show began its development in Montreal, Quebec, and then moved in August 2015 to the CenturyLink Center in Bossier City, Louisiana, where rehearsals took place until the show premiered. The CenturyLink Center was chosen because the massive set of the show did not fit in the Cirque du Soleil studios in Montreal.

Plot

The translation for the official teaser trailer^[2] from the constructed Na'vi language is the following: "I am the last living member of the Anurai clan. When I connect with Eywa, I hear the voices of our distant ancestors; I hear the time when their lives were threatened. This is that story."

Toruk is the central character of the show, and will be brought to life as a life-sized puppet, along with Pandoran animals such as the Direhorse, the Austrapede, the Turtapede, and a Viperwolf.

The word 'Toruk', in the Na'vi language, refers to the great leonopteryx that rules over the Pandorian sky. Fundamental in Na'vi lore and culture, this perplexing creature is critical to the Na'vi clans' sense of destiny and interconnectedness with members past and present.

Characters

Cirque released the following information on some of the key characters in the show as part of the media press conference ^[3]

Ralu: He is a Member of the Omaticaya Clan and is the son of a formidable hunter who taught him exceptional focus and discipline. Ralu is a sensitive and compassionate boy on the brink of adulthood. Although he is only 14 years old (in Earth years), there is a calm and quiet force about him that underscores his carefree attitude. Always on the lookout for his childhood friend and protégé Entu, Ralu is a natural born leader. Whenever the going gets tough, he channels all his energy and skills into the challenge at hand and invariably gets the job done. Just ask Entu, whom Ralu once saved from certain death by luring away a thanator during archery practice deep in the rainforest. No wonder everybody rallies behind Ralu – his is a doer and a thinker with a heart of gold!

Entu: A member of the Omaticaya Clan, he lost both of his parents early in life in a freak attack by a thanator. He is the same age (14 years old in Earth years) as his lifelong friend Ralu – his mentor – with whom he has always engaged in a healthy competition that has definitely kept him on his toes. Spunky and intense, Entu is fully in touch with his emotions and knows to follow and trust his instincts. One day, when a member of his clan ventured too far out on a cliff edge and was left dangling on a limb, Entu instantly concocted an ingenious counterweight device using his pack, a sturdy branch and some vines to lower himself down the mountain face and save the boy, showing total disregard for his own safety. With his quick wit and dauntless spirit, Entu is eager – and ready – to dive headlong into the adventures that lie ahead.

Tsyal: She is a Member of the Tawkami Clan and is the only child of a village chief who lost her mother at a tender age. She was raised by her grandmother with the help of other members of her clan, as is the custom among the Na’vi. Highly proficient in herbal lore, her grandmother was a chemist widely revered among the Tawkami for her unique remedies and concoctions. Tsyal’s clan is renowned throughout the land for their knowledge of chemistry and alchemy, and the abilities she inherited from her grandmother are transmitted every two generations through a special bond among clan members. Spurred by her grandmother’s legacy and wanting to live up to the expectations bestowed upon her, Tsyal has taken great pride in creating innovative mixtures and recipes of her own. True to her clan nestled deep inside the primeval forests of Pandora, this easygoing, sprightly girl with an indomitable spirit has a cheerful nature and loves to play tricks. With a mere seed, she can put the fiercest beast to sleep; with the frailest-looking flower, she can induce the most beautiful dreams or provoke the most terrifying nightmares. Such is the tremendous power of the natural elements that Tsyal and her clan have learned to understand and harness.

The Storyteller: An Anurai, he is one of the last surviving members of this clan. He has been around humans – aka the Sky People – ever since he met a feisty xenobotanist with whom he forged a powerful friendship back in the 2140s. Several years later, the Storyteller witnessed firsthand the last time of Great Sorrow during which the Omaticaya Hometree was destroyed. Distressed by the discord among the clans on his home world, and learning how humans were tearing each other apart in the wake of the great climatic upheavals on Earth, the resilient Storyteller decided to reach out once more to the Sky People who saw him as a kind of translator and a wise go-between. By making humans aware of the bravery, valor and ingenuity of the Na’vi, he seeks above all to avoid history from repeating itself. He also aims to impress upon the Sky People the urgency of preserving their bonds with nature, and the necessity of pulling together to live in unity and peace.

Production

The Pandorian animals will be brought to life through large-scale puppetry. Toruk itself is a 'reverse string puppet' (handled from the base) while the Austrapede, Turtapede and Direhorse are 'lived-in puppets' (someone is inside) and the Viperwolf is an 'in-view puppet' (the lower half of the puppeteer is outside, becoming a part of the puppet, while his/her upper body is inside the puppet).

The set of Toruk is made of inflated rubber and steel, making the huge set easier to transport from city to city.

Toruk - The First Flight's Stage in Singapore

Acrobatic Acts

Toruk features 5 speciality acrobatic acts and general tumbling skills in order to capture the other worldly skills of the inhabitants of Pandora. Each tribe has their own unique apparatus and discipline, reflecting their tribal values and skills which Entu and Ralu will need to learn in order to tame Toruk. The following lists the acts, correct as of the first Asia Pacific Tour. Several acts were added following the premier of Toruk, and hence are not included in the official DVD recording. Those featured at the premier (and on the DVD are in italics):

• Tumbling: The young members of the Omaticaya Clan play a unique ball game in which points are scored by diving through giant hoop structures whilst carrying a glowing orb. All the meanwhile the clan members are jumping off and around the surroundings of the Hometree.
• Mother Loom/Spanish Webs: The Omaticaya Clan performers perform tricks on an angled grid frame in the centre of the hometree. On either side of the loom a performers climb and slide down Spanish Webs.
• Aerial Straps: Entu seeks refuge at the Tree of Voices, swinging on the straps, the tree's branches, to seek comfort from his deceased parents after falling during his initiation ceremony, breaking his ceremonial bow and failing the task.
• Aerial Silks: Tsyal climbs up the silk, the stem of the giant flower in the centre of the Tawakami tribe to reach the Tranquil Seed, one of the sacred objects to Entu and Ralu's quest.
• Contortion/Hand Balancing: Members of the Anurai Clan demonstrate their balancing skills by manoeuvring over a skeleton (resembling that of Toruk) which is fixed only by a pivot in the middle, tipping and turning all the while.
• Chinese Poles: The Tipani, specialists in weaponry, demonstrate their attacking skills on swinging Chinese poles, shaped like spears.
• Kites/Boomerang: Nearing their final goal of reaching Toruk, the trio reach the Kekunan Tribe, specialists in flying. Performers manipulate kites, shaped like the wings of the Toruk, whilst one Kekunan throws glowing, three sided boomerangs around the central platform before catching them again, much like horizontal juggling.

Music

1. "Omaticaya Clan"
2. "Lu Aw Navi"
3. "Shaman Story"
4. "Tawkami Clan"
5. "The Anurai Clan Sanctuary"
6. "Viperwolves and the Tipani Clan"
7. "Direhorses"
8. "Kekunan Clan"
9. "Hallelujah Mountains"
10. "The Toruk"
11. "Luminous Reunion"

The following tracks are included in the show but are not on the CD:

1. "Inside Hometree"
2. "Weaving Song"
3. "Earthquake!"
4. "The Vision"
5. "The Clearing"
6. "Tree of Voices"
7. "River & Desert"
8. "Lava & Flood"
9. "The First Toruk Makto"

Filming

On 18 January 2016, it was announced via the Toruk Facebook page that filming for an upcoming DVD had been completed and was currently undergoing editing.^[4] The DVD was released in July 2016.

Tour

Toruk began preview performances on 12 November 2015 in Bossier City, LA before moving on to several other cities in North America. It then had its official premier on 21 December 2015 in Montreal which officially kicked off its North American tour. The show then transitioned into an Asian tour in 2017, and will transition into European tour in 2018.

On April 15, Cirque du Soleil announced the cancellation of Toruk in Raleigh, North Carolina, citing the recent signing of the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act by North Carolina governor Pat McCrory, the Company announced in a press release that "Cirque du Soleil strongly believes in diversity and equality for every individual and is opposed to discrimination in any form. The new HB2 legislation passed in North Carolina is an important regression to ensuring human rights for all."

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

References

External links

• Official website
• https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6404142/