North American tour of Cirque du Soleil’s “Corteo” begins in Portland

Cirque de Soleil (which means “Circus of the Sun” in French) was founded in 1984 in Quebec by two street performers, Guy Laliberté and Daniel Gauthier. The animal-free, human acrobatic circus first ventured to Los Angeles in 1987 and has since toured many countries all over the world, presenting one of its many touring productions that circulate on different continents at different times.

“Corteo,” which first came to North America in 2005, began its 2008 tour in Portland on March 1. This big top production draws its name from the Italian word for cortege, which is a procession of people. “Corteo,” like most other Cirque du Soleil productions, has an abstract plot and central theme that runs throughout the show. The theme for “Corteo” brings, appropriately enough, a “carnival atmosphere,” according to the website.

The plot centers on an old clown who dreams about his funeral and reminisces about his past. The conceptual nature of “Corteo,” however abstract it may appear to the viewer, is a central part of each artist’s performance.

“You definitely feel the whole concept of the show, between everyone in the audience and the people on stage you see throughout the show,” Damian Istria, an Australian gymnast who has been a Cirque acrobat for two years, said.

Istria is in two acts, Bouncing Beds and Tournik. “In Bouncing Beds I am a child and doing what the main character wishes he could have done, jumping on his bed as a child,” he said.

In this act, six performers do acrobatics on two oversized beds that rotate on platforms. “You really get the feeling of the show, and since Bouncing Beds is at the beginning of the show, you feel the progression of the whole story from there,” he said.

Besides being skilled acrobats, these performers must also possess the acting skills required for the plot. “[‘Corteo’] is very theatrical in nature,” Istria said. “You have to be able to combine your character role and the acrobatics. You need to be able to stay in character while doing the acrobatic tricks, or be able to quickly click off and click on to do what you need to do acrobatically.”

Istria’s two acts, Bouncing Beds and Tournik (an act “which marries horizontal bar techniques with circus arts,” according to the website), are two very different components of the same show. “Difficulty-wise, Tournik is a lot more technical than Bouncing Beds, but Bouncing Beds is so much fun, it’s seven minutes of non-stop acting and you’re just going the whole time,” he said. Despite these vast differences, Istria does not prefer one performance style over the other. “I wouldn’t say that any one is harder than the other. For me, it’s a perfect combination,” he said “It’s about having the two extremes. I definitely enjoy both acts.”

A national Australian competitive gymnast for 15 years before he came to Cirque du Soleil, Istria joined Cirque somewhat on a whim. “It was one of those things, I took a big jump, came across to give this a try,” he said. “It’s amazing—it’s opened up a whole new world for me.”

As he tours the country with “Corteo,” Istria is working on finishing his degree in business online. With just two classes left before he completes the business program through an Australian university, Istria works part-time on his academics because of the busy touring schedule. However, he views the academics as the ideal compliment to his performance lifestyle. “It’s the perfect combination. It also gives you something for later on,” he said.

Once he is finished with the performance aspect of Cirque du Soleil, however, he may enter the business side. “I could use this degree and stay within the company, stay on tour, go to the head office in Montreal,” he said. “It’s such a big company; it’s not just the circus and performing. I could stay in this company with my degree and move around.”

Besides being there for the performances and the later business opportunities, Istria is enthusiastic about what Cirque du Soleil does as a whole. “You can’t compare or take away what Cirque du Soleil has and compare it to other circuses. You can’t really compare it to anything,” he said. “And you don’t actually need to have the animals for it to be a circus. It’s the performing, it’s the acts, and it’s about what the human body can do itself.”