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ECHO

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Creations


ECHO


Création

Concepteurs
Scénographie
Musique
Personages

Expérience

Opening
Cube Suspension
Aerial Strap
Icarian Games
Double Trouble
Hair Hang
Human Cradle
Marionette
Slackwire
Aerial Poles
Juggling
Double Trouble
Dislocation
Washington Trap
Teeterboards
Finale

Réserve
Dance Trapeze
Contortion
Aerial Loops Duo


Retiré
Flying Poles
Diabolo
Cube Manip

Odyssey

Itinéraire
Visuals

 

Did You Know?
Set, Stage & Projections

The imaginative set design of ECHO revolves around the CUBE ("Ruby", which comes from Rubik's cube), a simple yet profound set piece that blends a spectacular range of audio, visual, and tactile media. Mesuring 23-feet x 23-feet (7-meters x 7-meters), the cube sets the stage for a wide range of acrobatics and theatrics. At different points, it may be dismantled, stripped, and rebuilt, scaled by animals, swung from by artists, and used as a mesmerizing projection surface. And surrounded by a stage that resembles water in a lake, every interaction with the CUBE creates a unique effect that ripples into the future.

 
With so many elements involved in a single set piece, ECHO Author-Director Mukhtar Omar Sharif Mukhtar says the Cube is up to interpretation. "It's not just as literal as 'this is the world'," he says. "It could be anything: a relationship, love, something you cherish... it could represent the world, or the planet, but it's really a symbol. The more we take away from it, the emptier it becomes, and the more we put into it, the fuller it becomes. That's what I would love for people to see when they see this."

Designing the CUBE was a massive undertaking. Not only does it need to support the acrobatics and theatrical performance of the show, but it also has to meet the technical requirements of a traveling Big Top show. Here are a few highlights:

  • BASICS — The cube measures 23 square feet and weighs roughly 12 tons. It is built to track from upstage to downstage on a single central pivot. The roof of the cube contains a lightbox with 2.7 kilometers of LED strips. Lighting it from within instead enables the technical team to highlight performers and characters with greater precision than relying strictly on outside lighting.

  • STRUCTURE — The primary structure of the CUBE is mostly made of steel with some aluminum trussing. There are 40 lightweight blocks that fill in the CUBE, which are made of different materials based on their use. There are soft blocks made of foam so they can be easily dropped from various heights, while "acro blocks" are made of carbon fiber or fiberglass to support the requiements of the performers. (Assistant Technical Director Sarah Morales said that each piece must be placed in exactly the right spot. "As much as all the squares look interchangeable, they absolutely cannot go anywhere aside from where they're supposed to go and you don't have the time or space to fix it," Morales said.)

  • PROJECTIONS — It takes 10 projectors to project imagery on the rotating CUBE and throughout the stage - the most ever for a traveling Cirque du Soleil show. Each video projector tracks a single zone of the stage, and crossfades projections between zones as the CUBE moves and rotates. These projectors can create 3D effects on the surface of the CUBE to appear like it's deconstructing and constructing while never moving an inch. To ensure so many projecors could meet the mobility demands of a Big Top show, Cirque technical teams had to design a special self-standing infrastructure just for this equipment.

  • ACROBATICS — At one of the most surprising points in the show, one of the CUBE's walls supports 40 artists. In a first-of-it's kind performance, a dual slackwire act takes place within the rotating CUBE. Meanwhile, beneath the slackwire performance, at the base of the CUBE are real flames, which means everything had to be made fireproof.

Yet despite so much built into one impressive structure, Production Director Serge Côté says the biggest challenge when designing the CUBE was integrating it in a way that brings theatricality to the performance - not attention to its technical feats. "We want people to forget about the technicality... to come into the Big Top, which is kind of a magical space, forget about everything that goes on [behind the scenes], and step out with a smile."


Cirque Corner