The Big Top is coming to the Big Apple!
Cirque du Soleil returns to New York City next week with “LUZIA,” an awe-inspiring production that promises to transport audiences to a “dreamlike” Mexico filled with breathtaking acrobatics and stunning, surreal visuals.
The show opens on March 5 under the Big Top at Randall’s Island, marking the first Cirque du Soleil production at the venue since 2016.
Directed by Daniele Finzi Pasca with Brigitte Poupart, “LUZIA” derives its name from the Spanish words for light (“luz”) and rain (“lluvia”), symbolizing the show’s themes of illumination and transformation.
“Daniele wanted to write a story inspired by the 10 years that he lived and traveled around Mexico,” said Gracie Valdez, the show’s artistic director. “In true Daniele Pasca fashion.”
Pasca didn’t want it to be “literal,” she said, but rather “representational.”
“‘LUZIA’ is really an homage, or a love letter to Mexico,” Valdez said, which really starts at seating. “The audience walks into this field of Cempasúchil — traditional Mexican flowers … so as soon as you walk in, you’re transported there.”
The show goes on to tell a “subtle” story, Valdez said, by blending traditional and contemporary circus arts, and taking spectators through an immersive world where rain is a main character. The show features a mesmerizing combination of aerial feats, acrobatics, and theatrical storytelling, including Cyr Wheel artists spinning under a downpour, hoop divers leaping across moving treadmills, and an aerialist twirling gracefully through cascading water.
“We really like to go to the ends of the limits of what the human body can do,” she said of Cirque’s high-level acrobats, “which, in this show, is no different.”
What is different is the integration of water, via a rain curtain that’s brand new to traveling Cirque shows. “‘LUZIA’ means light and rain, so [this show] is all about the light and rain coming together … that’s something that’s completely different for this show in particular.”
As the show’s artistic director, Valdez has worked countless hours to ensure the troupe’s best performances, night after night.
“One of my jobs is making sure that we can troubleshoot — is everything covered if somebody’s sick? How do we creatively make the show work so that the audience has no clue that anything is changed?” she said. “And when it’s successful, it’s a really rewarding part of my job.”
Bringing “LUZIA” to life, though, has been a team effort.
“To see the show’s evolution has been so rewarding,” Valdez said. “The work that has been done to make [the show] bright and colorful — especially the music of the show — is really part of that homage to the Latin and Mexican culture. It’s just amazing and beautiful.”
For more information or to purchase tickets, visit cirquedusoleil.com/luzia.
Following its New York run, “LUZIA” will continue its North American tour, with stops in Montreal, Washington, D.C. and Atlanta.
