Cirque du Soleil Artists

• The Other Life of Fiona from Saltimbanco -- Fiona is a member of Saltimbanco's Baroque family. The Baroques sleep under bridges and emerge to celebrate life. Defiant, rebellious, explosive, they are enlightened beings whose free spirits run wild. The Baroques are eccentric and electric. They light up the world with their infectious energy and celebrate life with their every movement. The stage is their giant playground. Fiona is played by Andrea Conway.
  
  
• Tightwire from La Nouba -- Performed by Jade Kindar-Martin and Karine Mauffrey.
  
  
• Fire–Human Torch from "O" -- He is the human torch world record holder (unratified), having remained alight for two full minutes. Performed by Ray Wold.
  
  
• Comedy, Claudio and Mooky from Varekai -- Enjoy this much-loved clown duet from Varekai. Performed by Claudio Adalberto Carneiro and Kathleen Helen Cornish.
  
  
• Aerial Pas De Deux from Dralion -- Acrobats roll and move themselves along the length of two cloths suspended from the ceiling. Performed by Igor Arefiev and Colette Elizabeth Morrow.
  
  
• Balancing On Chairs from LaNouba -- Art of holding the body in unusual positions while balancing on a column of chairs. Performed by Rokardy.

Guest Artists

• Acrobatic Juggling -- Performed by Olexandra and Vladyslav Bondarenko.
• Adagio on Unicycle -- Performed by Iuri Chavro and Diana Alechlchenko.
• Balancing Act on Slippery Surface -- Performed by Anatoliy Zalevskyy.
• Fantasy-Music on Glasses -- Performed by Michel Lauzière.

"Wind of Romance" is a slow-paced and bland homage to love clichés. Overall the episode is more tolerable than some of its downright awful predecessors, but it still fails to engage the audience and in the end is nothing more than mindless fluff set to Miklos' score of Italian elevator music.

This episode finds Fiona, one of the Baroques from Saltimbanco (Andrea Conway) inspiring love in an Italian piazza by blowing the magical solstrom at various couples with predictable results. First, Romeo rides a bicycle across a tightwire strung over the piazza to reach his Juliet. Jade Kindar-Martin and Karine Mauffrey of La Nouba play the two overused Shakespearean archetypes.

Claudio Carneiro is also after Juliet's affections but Mooky Cornish is after his. As expected the two Varekai clowns assume their usual roles of bumbling idiot and boy-crazed girl. At one point the two perform their "magic" act from Varekai with Claudio dressed like Liberace.

When flicking aside a cigarette Claudio inadvertently sets a man reading the paper on fire. Ray Wold of "O" performs his "human torch" act . . again; we've already seen his act featured in another Solstrom episode.

The stand-out performance in this episode is called Balancing Act on Slippery Surface. It is essentially a one-man Body Skating performance by Anatoliy Zalevskyy. The performer slides, spins and performs balancing figures on the slippery mat. The performance is graceful and understated. This act was the recipient of a Golden Clown at the 1999 Circus Festival of Monte Carlo.

The rest of the episode's acts are passable but banal. As usual, the presentation isn't very effective and the production is cheaply done. Olexandra and Vladyslav Bondarenko perform a contact juggling/adagio act, Iuri Chavro and Diana Alechlchenko perform an adagio on a unicycle, Rokardy of La Nouba performs an altered version of his Balancing on Chairs, Michel Lauzière makes another appearance to perform a symphony on vibrating wine glasses, and Igor Arefiev and Colette Elizabeth Morrow perform their Aerial Pas de Deux from Dralion.

The episode closes with the Trampoline and Wall performance that is adapted from La Nouba's finale. The performers are exceptionally talented but taken out of context the performance is lacking.

Text written by Wayne Leung, as published in the “Fascination! Newsletter”.