A quartet of acrobats in flowing nightclothes leap from one springboarded mattress to another, missing each other by inches.
A costumed juggler snatches silver rings from the air, his hands a blur. A surreal menagerie of clowns and carnavales bangs drums on the stage’s periphery as eight athletes swing into backflips off parallel bars.
It must be Cirque du Soleil.
The Montreal-based company’s new show, “Corteo,” follows a typically high-concept approach: An Italian clown imagines his own carnivalesque funeral, presided over by high-wire flying angels, tightrope walkers and all manner of death-defiers. Comedy, eye-popping stunts and picaresque songs reign throughout.
The show opens Friday under the Grand Chapiteau tent on the Pepsi Center grounds for 49 performances, having extended its run twice through July 26. Its ambition is typical of Cirque du Soleil’s famously overwhelming productions.
“The biggest challenge with ‘Corteo’ was linking the artistic and the technical,” said Alison Crawford, the show’s artistic director. “It’s highly technical – the most technical show we have – and if something goes wrong it has a domino effect. But it’s very fluid right now.”
“Corteo” marks the company’s fifth visit to Denver, a market that clearly enjoys its theatrical, European-flavored circuses. Of course, that style makes Cirque an easy target for the uninitiated – too avant-garde, too cutesy. But the live-wire energy and spectacle have captivated increasing numbers of worldwide audiences, granting the company double-digit growth for each of its 23 years.
Last year the company’s revenue hit $600 million.
Redefining the business
Cirque du Soleil’s blend of showmanship, smart marketing and creativity has made it an entertainment juggernaut, resuscitating a dying industry and negating competition. A truly international company with 3,500 employees, Cirque holds the same power over its market as Starbucks or Apple.
“This company lives and dies by the performances it puts on every single night,” said Mario D’Amico, senior vice president of marketing. “That’s the way people experience this brand in the deepest sort of way.”
As it stands, Cirque du Soleil has no real competition. It dominates a market once owned by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which has tweaked its own big-top shows with a nod to the Cirque aesthetic. The “Blue Ocean Strategy,” a term coined by business professor W. Chan Kim, allowed Cirque to enter a declining industry and own it. In fact, Cirque has achieved revenue in 20 years that exceeds the gross volume of 100 years of Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey, according to Kim’s book of the same name.
Credit Cirque’s aggressive, committed growth plans.
“Over a year before we ever put a ticket on sale, we actually came to Denver just to understand the market, create partnerships and introduce ourselves,” D’Amico said. “We’re not a fly-by-night operation that comes in, does our shows and gets out. We really do invest time and effort to understand what’s going on in the market.”
Case in point: 100 percent of the proceeds from “Corteo’s” July 12 performance will be donated to Urban Peak, which benefits at-risk youth. The company also donates 1 percent of its annual revenue to youth outreach programs internationally.
Street-performer roots
Cirque du Soleil (“Circus of the Sun”) was founded in 1984 by Canadian street performer Guy Laliberté, who still overseas Cirque’s operations from its Montreal headquarters. The $56 million, 246,000-square-foot complex houses business operations and creative development, including arena-sized workout and testing rooms.
And, of course, an open, artsy atmosphere.
“There’s so much art around here,” Crawford said. “We’ve got these huge windows so people can look in to see the artists practicing. It’s such an open environment – we’ve even got a vegetable garden.”
The Montreal headquarters comprises the creative, touring and performing arms plus a full-service music studio, record label and Emmy-winning TV production company. Cirque is also developing hospitality projects for hotels, restaurants, bars and cruises.
Still, founder Laliberté decided long ago that Cirque’s core business would remain boundary-pushing circus performances.
“We have a phenomenal respect for the traditions of the circus,” said Boris Verkhovsky, Cirque’s head coach. “But it’s very important to be innovative and avant garde and take risks. Every single project we go for is not based on something that we’ve already done or tried.”
All successful businesses balance ambition with practical concerns, and Cirque is no different. But its constant innovation and experimentation speaks to its restless soul.
“We intentionally don’t want to copy ourselves,” said Reggie Lyons, Cirque’s publicist. “For our creative and artistic people that’s boring, once they’ve done something and figured it out.”
Growing spectacle
The company’s increasing size and complexity presents challenges, especially when its identity rests on high standards of refined artistic vision.
“People only spend a dollar on a consumer product like Coke, so if it’s bad, they’re very forgiving,” said marketing VP D’Amico. “But if you spend $125 on Cirque and the performance falls flat, you get very angry right away. That’s the challenge for marketing this entertainment product in the high-art realm.”
Most of Cirque’s touring productions stage 380 shows per year, a staggering amount considering the physical demands. “Corteo’s” 62 performers, for example, include three Olympians. (Cirque fans are always struck by the world-class athleticism of the performers.) Resident shows like the five currently in Las Vegas or the one at Walt Disney World can each top 475 performances per year.
All of Cirque’s shows, whether touring or in residence, are intended to be self-sufficient. If they need it, they have a huge support system on which to lean.
“If we have an injury on tour, the artists are always sent to Montreal so the impact on the show is minimal,” said Verkhovsky. “We’ll organize the operation, recovery and retraining. The size of the company allows us to do great shows and support them without interfering with them.”
Verkhovsky, a Russian-born former Olympic trainer, thinks the company is growing intelligently by keeping creative rigor and identity at the forefront.
“I think it’s one of the most exiting things when you see a company grow so big, and yet the core values haven’t changed,” he said. “The position of Guy Laliberté is very simple: We felt the same way five years ago, 10 years ago and 20 years ago. We always find new ways to answer the question, ‘Where do we go now?”‘
Staff writer John Wenzel can be reached at 303-954-1642 or jwenzel@denverpost.com.
Cirque du Soleil’s “Corteo”
THEATRICAL CIRCUS|Grand Chapiteau Tent, Pepsi Center Grounds; various times, Friday-July 29|$31.50-$80|
cirquedusoleil.com
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By the numbers
A look under Cirque du Soleil’s growing big top:
1984 Year the company was
founded
1992 The last year Cirque received grants from the public
or private sector
600 million Total revenue dollars in 2006
60 million People who have seen a Cirque show
8 million People who will see
a Cirque show in 2007
3,500 Worldwide employees
1,600 Employees at Cirque’s
Montreal headquarters
100 Cities Cirque has visited worldwide
49 Planned “Corteo”
performances in Denver
40 Nationalities represented at the company
35 Average age of a Cirque
employee
25 Languages represented
at Cirque
14 Touring and resident shows worldwide in 2007
1 Percent of revenue Cirque
annually allocates to outreach programs
