Cirque Du Soleil
“Nouvelle Experience”(VHS videotape 1:12)
For the non-French speaker, Cirque Du Soleil translates as “Circus of the Sun”, while Nouvelle Experience simply means “New Experience”. Indeed, this unique Quebec-based troupe has become an international sensation by providing a non-animal circus which is a truly enlightening new experience.
For the uninitiated, Cirque Du Soleil performances are a series of jaw-dropping exhibitions of human skill, strength, choreography, audience participation, gymnastics, flexibility, comedy and pagentry woven together via wonderful (albeit non-verbal) characters and original musical compositions, yielding storylines which are abstract yet powerfully poignant. Even just moments after a show, audiences may find it difficult to express the range of emotions, thoughts and wonderment they have experienced.
Fortunately for anyone who missed the early tours, Nouvelle Experience, perhaps Cirque’s definitively classic performances, have been released on video. This is all-ages material which will amuse the kids, impress the adults, and even intrigue desperate-to-be-hip teens. While a schmaltzy act (such as a cake-balancing, chair-climbing gymnast) appears now and then in a Cirque performance, even these are amazing acts of human strength, balance and agility… the rest are acts which need no “don’t try this at home” labeling since no mere mortal would even know where to begin.
Skeptics should try to find Nouvelle Experience at a rental shop, but most fans of the performing arts will want a copy for their own video library. Alternatively, check local listing for an IMAX showing of Cirque Du Soleil’s “The Journey of Man”. In addition, New Age music enthusiasts will find the original music scores from each staging to be lively and of exceptional quality.
Check out the Cirque Du Soleil website for tour dates, as well as available video and music products such as the feature-length film:
