With almost 30 Olympic athletes and over 50 performers from 50 different countries Cirque du Soleil finally makes its way to our shore, writes Diane Coetzer.
Forget every idea you've ever had about circuses - sad-eyed lions, boozy ringmasters and balloon-blowing clowns. Because when Canada's Cirque du Soleil rolls into town in March to stage its very first performances on African soil, there will never be any going back.
That the show is extraordinary is evident from the moment more that two dozen multi-coloured creatures slither onto the stage and start ascending four Chinese poles horizontally, using only their hands - before shooting floorwards - headfirst.
As Saltimbanco, Cirque du Soleil's longest-running show, unfolds, the jaw-dropping moments stack up - from the bird-like aerial-ballet display of the bungee segment and the human catapults jetting 10m into the air off the Russian Swing, to the death-defying trapeze act where one foot is all that's holding a shimmering body from plunging towards the ground, the show is a display of just what the human body can do.
In pursuit of individuals to join this unusual circus, the 25-year-old company's Montreal-based casting department scours the globe, stopping off at all major gymnastics and synchronised-swimming events, including the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games. In fact, the company has close to 30 Olympic athletes working on different shows.
Then there's the not-so-small matter of finding actors to play such characters as The Baron, The Dreamer and The Ringmaster, who provide mesmerising interludes (the clown Eddie in particular) of mime and performance.
One of these is South Africa's own acclaimed performer, Daniel Buckland, who spent several months in 2010 deep in the intense rehearsal programme required for any Cirque performer.
Buckland reports that, once the costume fitting is done and training begins, it's at least five hours a day perfecting the roles.
"I had three hours of training with the clown master René Bazinet to back up the role of Eddie, in which he taught me the blocking (a technical term for mapping out the route the actor takes on stage) of the role, gave me deep philosophical insights into the clown, and polished my mime and acting as well as general performance skills," Buckland says.
This is not Buckland's first Cirque experience. He's also been in one of the company's five permanent shows - The Beatles Love, which runs in Las Vegas. He was joined by his father, Andrew Buckland, associate professor at Rhodes University's drama department, in the show - Buckland Snr taking the role of Sergeant Pepper.
Andrew Buckland is widely considered South Africa's pre-eminent mime and performance artist, but even he found the Cirque experience astonishing - in particular, sharing a "huge" stage with 70other performers and hundreds of technicians "and having to be very precise about positioning".
"The acrobats literally risk their lives twice a night, five nights a week and when they are landing from their bungee rope a few centimetres from where you are standing, you can't be out of position. Lives depend on it," he says.
Cirque's performers may find their body-defying feats easy after months and years of training, but watching the show doesn't come cheap.
Tickets for the South African shows range from R272 to R476 - relatively affordable when compared to those for, say, U2, but not a small amount if you want to take your children to this family-friendly fare.
"I'm transported," whispered a woman in the row in front of us at London's Wembley Arena, where I attended the opening night of Saltimbanco's most recent run in the UK. And it was hard not to join her and her mates in the "oohing" and "aahing" and "oh-my-goshing" at trapeze artists and twin sisters Ruslana and Taisiya Bazaliy. We'd seen them warm up earlier in the show - just hanging around on the trapeze as if they did it every day (which, of course, they do).
Afterwards, at the opening-night cast party, I asked Boleadora artist Adriana Pegueroles (who swings a piece of cord with a weight attached while dancing) about life as part of the Cirque cast, and she didn't skip a beat.
"It's my family," she replied, her accent still richly Argentinian.
In that small room tucked into the side of Wembley Arena, it's hard not to notice the multinational make-up of Saltimbanco's cast, which features 51 performers and musicians from more than 20 countries. That's just a small number of the 5000 people the company employs - from the 2000 working at its Montreal international headquarters to those working on or in the shows.
In every Cirque production - including Saltimbanco - the cast rotates, meaning performers take over roles created by previous artists.
Says Andrew Buckland of his Beatles Love experience: "It was our task to work within a very narrow creative envelope to re-create what they had made. Over the months one started to find little subtleties which would be extremely rewarding. It realised the principle of freedom only through discipline, which is what I have been trying to teach for a long time."
This "freedom only through discipline" appears to fit precisely with the vision of the Cirque's founder, Guy Laliberté, a former fire-eater and accordion player. Although he seldom travels with shows, Laliberté's presence looms large and Cirque's staffers regularly refer to "our owner's vision".
"Our owner is very much about 'infecting the world' with Cirque du Soleil - allowing everyone to experience it in whatever form," says Finn Taylor, an Australian who is the general manager of Cirque's venue shows.
Laliberté's ability to execute his vision consistently has turned him into one of the richest men in the world - becoming, in 2009, the world's seventh space tourist.
A highly regarded philanthropist and skilled poker player, it's hard to imagine Laliberté arguing with Buckland's "freedom only through discipline" approach. Cirque's front-of-house mesmerising spectacle depends on a formidable work ethic behind the scenes.
Saltimbanco's softly spoken head coach, Gergely Boi, knows all about this. He comes from a traditional circus background in Hungary and just recently ended his own stint as an artist in Saltimbanco. He talks about the 10- and 11-hour days that are needed for performers to stay in peak condition for the rigours of a Cirque show.
"After a while, performers know just what they need to do to keep in the best possible form." He points to the Bazaliy sisters high up on the trapeze: "The twins are taking it a little slow as we have close to 10 shows here in the Wembley Arena and they have to pace themselves."
I ask Boi, why, after so many years and shows, he still believes in the power of Saltimbanco .
"It's colourful, full of acrobatics and has great performances and costumes," he says. "Actually it's really only about pure happiness."
Saltimbanco's costumes are produced at Cirque du Soleil's Montreal HQ where more than 300 artisans are employed in the costume workshop.
• There are more than 80 different kinds of buttons used to maintain the costumes on tour.
• More than 2500 costume items travel in more than 50 cases.
• There are more than 250 pairs of custom-made shoes - those used for the Chinese Pole Act are repainted before every single performance.
• The tour travels with its own washing machines, using biodegradable detergent.
• It takes about 90 minutes for each artist to put on their own make-up.
• The equipment on the tour totals 180 tons.
ABOUT CIRQUE:
• Cirque du Soleil ("Circus of the Sun") was founded in the early 1980s by Canadian Guy Laliberté and several street performers.
• From those small beginnings, it has grown to become the benchmark for theatrical circuses, relying only on the extraordinary performing ability of humans, combined with live music (only The Beatles Love doesn't feature a live band), incredible costumes, lighting and sets.
• Laliberté himself is a major figure in Quebec. He was awarded the l'Ordre national du Québec in 1997, the highest distinction awarded by the Québec government, and in 2004 was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
• Other accolades heaped on Laliberté include the 2006 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award and the 2007 Humanitarian Award for his work with the One Drop Foundation, which he founded.
• In 1984, 73 people worked for Cirque du Soleil. Today it has 5000 employees globally.
• More than 100 different occupations can be found at Cirque du Soleil.
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