The big top comes to Riga

TALLINN - A blend of dance, theater and acrobatics is to hit Riga on the most significant day for the country - Independence Day (Nov. 18) - which will tell audiences a story of rebellion against the monotonous working life. The internationally acclaimed Montreal-based circus-troupe Cirque Eloize are bringing their award-winning circus spectacular Cirkopolis.

Cirque Eloize is a Quebec-based nouveau cirque (contemporary circus) troupe, founded by Jeannot Painchaud, Daniel Cyr and Julie Hamelin.
Positioned at the heart of the renewal of circus arts, Cirque Eloize has been creating moving performances filled with magic since 1993. Continually striving for artistic perfection, it is one of the leaders in contemporary circus arts. Based on the multidisciplinary talents of its artists, Cirque Eloize expresses its innovative nature through theatricality and humanity, and combines circus arts with music, dance and theater in a path-breaking and original manner.

With ten original productions to its credit, Cirque Eloize has presented almost 4,000 performances in over 440 cities and 40 countries. Cirque Eloize has taken part in numerous prestigious international festivals and recently seduced Broadway with its show Rain, which has been touring that major network of theaters since fall 2007.

In addition to its tour performances, Cirque Eloize develops custom made concepts for international special events. To date, more than 1,300 events have taken place. Moreover, in 2003, Cirque Eloize organized the first festival of circus arts in North America - “La Semaine des Arts du cirque” - in the Magdalen Islands. The company also founded the Fondation Eloize, which has a mission to help underprivileged youth through an introduction to circus arts and help develop the performing arts. The troupe Artcirq, made up of young Inuit living in Canada’s far north (Nunavut), is the first organization to benefit from this support.

With Cirkopolis, Cirque Eloize presents a show that combines the worlds of circus, dance and theater. In the heart of a stern and imposing city in appearance, giant gears and dark portals symbolize a mechanism that crushes individuality. Performing within an inventive stage design and accompanied by an original musical score and video projections, twelve acrobats and multidisciplinary artists rebel against monotony, reinvent themselves and challenge the limits of the factory-city. In a world where fantasy provokes reality, the veil of anonymity and solitude is lifted and replaced by bursts of color.

Cirkopolis unfolds scene by scene like an elemental universe, with sculptural imagery: jugglers brave the space, a contortionist is lifted by her companions in a surge of inspiration, aerial artists defy the height of the skyscrapers. Experiencing this show is also stepping into the dance of the Cyr wheel, dreading the audacity of the German wheel and discovering the candor of a man who dreams only of dancing.
The stage is equipped with large screens displaying video projections that will take viewers to an impressive industrial world where fantasy challenges reality, and urban anonymity and solitude is relieved by the lightness of the performance by multi-talented acrobats.

Jeannot Painchaud, creative director of Cirque Eloize and co-director of Cirkopolis, explained, “Cirkopolis was imagined as a crossroads — between imagination and reality, between individuality and community, between limits and possibilities. The show is driven by the poetic impulse of life, the physical prowess of the circus and the humor, at once serious and light-hearted. Entering Cirkopolis is all about letting go and allowing yourself to be borne aloft by hope.”
Get ready to be blown away by the mesmerizing, pulsating and captivating performance that makes Cirque Eloize’s Cirkopolis the not-to-be-missed event happening in 2014. This is uplifting entertainment for the whole family and will forever change the way you think about the circus.

Cirkopolis
Arena Riga
November 18, 18:00
Tickets 7 – 30 euros
Tickets can be purchased at: www.bilesuserviss.lv