CriticalDance Forum

Cirque du Soleil will be returning to the Royal Albert Hall in January 2004 with DRALION(tm), performing in London for the first time. For more information, visit the following
website for details of the all-new European tour:
www.cirquedusoleil.com

DRALION is a celebration of life and the four elements that maintain the
natural order: air, water, fire and earth.

Following the phenomenal success of SALTIMBANCO(tm) in London, DRALION
will make its European premiere at the Royal Albert Hall on January 9,
2004 for a limited season.

You may purchase your tickets in advance by calling the Ticketing
Network at 0870 160 2830 or Royal Albert Hall at 020-78 38 31 23.

Tickets will be released to the general public on April 4.

<small>[ 15 March 2003, 04:53 PM: Message edited by: Emma Pegler ]</small>

The billion dollar circus
As Cirque du Soleil limbers up for the European premiere of its latest show, Dralion, in London next week, David Lister [The Independent] goes to Las Vegas and Mexico City to meet some of the performers and directors behind this phenomenal French-Canadian success story

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Cirque du Soleil, Royal Albert Hall, London
No spit and sawdust here: this is circus as son et lumière
By James Rampton
The Independent
09 January 2004

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Dralion
by Benedict Nightingale
The Times

AM I getting spoilt and demanding, or is Cirque du Soleil not quite the imaginative marvel it was seven years ago?

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Give 'em enough rope
Cirque du Soleil go through the hoops in a bid to bring renewed zest to a much-imitated style. And for the audience, resistance is futile. By Harriet Lane for The Observer

Royal Albert Hall, London SW7, until 13 February
Twenty years ago a clutch of hippyish Canadian street entertainers decided, as you do, to form their own circus: only this one wouldn't have any poodles riding bicycles, lion-taming or children on horseback. By banning from the Big Top everything convention expected to find in it, Cirque du Soleil made audiences realise how much they'd been missing.

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Cirque du Soleil - Dralion
By By Liz Arratoon for The Stage

Cirque du Soleil returns with another mix of technical wizardry and dazzling artistry. Often criticised for its corporate vision of circus, Dralion is essentially what we have come to expect of the French-Canadian company - a flashy set, elaborate costumes, loud music and most of all, stunning acts.

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One we missed earlier:

The billion dollar circus
As Cirque du Soleil limbers up for the European premiere of its latest show, Dralion, in London next week, David Lister for the Independent goes to Las Vegas and Mexico City to meet some of the performers and directors behind this phenomenal French-Canadian success story.

Seventeen years ago, Guy Laliberté, a 25-year-old Canadian fire-eater and stilt-walker, took a small band of street entertainers in a van from Quebec to the Los Angeles festival.

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Dralion
By Clifford Bishop for The sunday Times


The gasp-count is high enough in this, the most recent tentacle of the Cirque du Soleil empire to stretch its way across Europe. The acrobats and jugglers, 37 of them Chinese, spin like diabolos, throw themselves through revolving hoops or catapult onto each other’s shoulders with a recklessness that takes the breath away.

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Did you see the performance they did on TV over the festive season,gosh it was fantastic.I thought it was going to be boring when i read about it,but i thought i would see what it was like ....i'm i glad i did.The only thing that spoiled it was Dale Winton popping up every so often.
I must try and see more of their performances.

No I missed it spf - I know that many have been very impressed with Cirque. Tell us more about what you enjoyed in the performance.

Send off the clowns and it would be bliss
By Charles Spencer for The Daily Telegraph

Right, that's it. No more pussy-footing. The time has come to take direct action. Every year, when Cirque du Soleil comes to town, I write that most of the show is sensational, but the clowns are the absolute pits. Far from sending them in, the management should send them off, forthwith. But blow me down, every year my polite and entirely reasonable request is ignored.

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Sorry it took a bit of time to reply,been a bit busy.
Anyway,as i said i thought that this was going to be another"circus" type programme with lots of clowns,but i was very,very much mistaken. This was a programme of various talents from acrobats to unbelievable feats,some of which left you wondering "How did they do that?".
The most enjoyable were the 3 Chinese children who had those cone thing doing god knows what on a piece of string,they did a good 10-15 min routine including some gymnastic moves.At the end they got a very warm reception and we were told that they stay at the permanent show in France for a year then return to China and they are replaced by another 3 children.
There was this Russian guy who could "fly" on pieces of red cloth suspended from the ceiling,he flew quite a bit over the audience which produced a few gasps!!
Two guys at the end ran up and down buildings with the aid of trampolines,gosh the things they could do puts ordinary trampolining to shame.There was a mock building in the centre of 4 very large and long trampolines,they built up the bounce and literaly walked up the walls.A good piece they did was to bounce into the windows with no effort,magical.
I wish i could tell you more ,but it would be too long. I do hope they consider putting it onto video or DVD,if it isn't already??

spf, go to the Cirque du Soleil website, click on Boutique, then on Video. You can find all of the shows that are on video there.