ARTICLE
Cirque du Soleil Returns to Singapore with KOOZA
By InCinemas / 13 Jul 2017 (Thursday)
Credit: KOOZA by Cirque du Soleil Official Facebook
Cirque du Soleil is back in Singapore this July and August. This time, the iconic Canada-based circus company is bringing to Singaporean audience its latest production: KOOZA - a spectacular, awe-inspiring homage to the traditions of Cirque du Soleil: a combination of acrobatic performance and the art of clowning. The show boasts an international cast of 50 acrobats, musicians, magicians and actors from 19 different countries, coming together to create a magnificent circus show that more than lives up to Cirque du Soleil's enduring reputation.
KOOZA by Cirque du Soleil
Dates: 12 July - 20 August
Times:
- Tuesday - Friday: 8:00pm
- Saturday: 4:30pm and 8:00pm
- Sunday: 1:30pm and 5:00pm
Venue: Bayfront Avenue, beside Marina Bay Sands
Tickets can be purchased via internet, phone or at the venue.
(Get your tickets now!)
"KOOZA is about human connection and the world of duality, good and bad," shares the show's writer and director David Shiner. "We are exploring concepts such as fear, identity, recognition and power." These central ideas are represented in KOOZA through the character Innocent (Cedric Balisle), a childlike and melancholic clown carried off into the world of magic and wonder created by the Trickster (Dereck Piquette).
Credit: Sliding Doors Entertainment
Before the main acts take the stage, the clowns including the King (Hayden Spencer) and his two foolish servants (Miguel Berlanga and Michael Garner) are there to hype up the crowd with their antics and slapstick gags. Their presence throughout the show provides the audience with much needed laughters in between holding their breath during the circus acts. The show's creator and director David Shiner is a career clown and his expertise shows in the way he created these silly yet lovable clowns.
Credit: Sliding Doors Entertainment
The show then properly starts off with a Charivari performance including human pyramids and performers somersaulting across the stage. But it isn't until the three Mongolian contortionists with their almost inhuman flexibility take over that the elements of fear and amazement truly kick in for the audience. Aerial hoop is another stunning performance that one simply cannot take their eyes off.
Credit: Sliding Doors Entertainment
However, the true highlight of the first act has to be Double Highwire. Four tightrope walkers will have you on the edge of the seat watching through your fingers, as they not only walk, but jump, skip, and even bike across two high wires suspended in the air.
Credit: Cirque du Soleil Official Website
The show returns after the intermission with a quite literally death-defying act: Wheel of Death - a 1600-pound turning structure with two rings on either side. The extreme speeds at which the wheel rotates will make you feel dizzy, but it is the crazy stunts performed by the two artists on the wheel that set every nerve in your body on edge, and make you ever so thankful your feet are firmly on the ground.
Credit: Sliding Doors Entertainment
The show is undeniably full of spectacles and performances that stretch the limit of what the human body is physically capable of. But beyond all the stunts and theatrics, what is special about KOOZA is that it has a heart. Innocent doesn't pull off any stunt, yet we root for him all the same every time he tries. Perhaps we see in him our inner child, staring wide-eyed at the all the wonders the world has to offer, and his journey is, in a way, ours too.
Check out our special interview with KOOZA's cast and crew members below: