Cirque du Soleil is a Canadian entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, Montreal, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul on 16 June 1984 by former street performers Guy Laliberté and Gilles Ste-Croix.
Blue Man Group is an American performance art company formed in 1987. Blue Man Group is known for its stage productions, which incorporate many kinds of music and art, both popular and obscure. Its performers, known as Blue Men, have their skin painted blue. They are mute during shows and always appear in groups of three.
Mystère is one of six resident Cirque du Soleil shows in Las Vegas, Nevada. Held in a custom theatre at the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino, the show was first performed on 25 December 1993, making it the company's longest running show. As with many Cirque du Soleil productions, Mystère features a mixture of circus skills, dance, elaborate sets, opera, worldbeat music, and street theatre-style comedy. Featuring a musical score composed by René Dupéré and Benoît Jutras, the show was created under the direction of Franco Dragone.
Franco Dragone was an Italian-born Belgian theatre director. He was the founder and artistic director of Dragone, a creative company specializing in the creation of large-scale theatre shows. He was also known for his work with Cirque du Soleil and Celine Dion.
Guy Laliberté, is a Canadian billionaire businessman, and poker player. Along with Gilles Ste-Croix, he is the co-founder of Cirque du Soleil in 1984. The Canadian circus company's shows have since been seen by more than 90 million people worldwide. Before founding the company, he had busked, performing as an accordion player, stiltwalker, and fire-eater.
Kà is a show by Cirque du Soleil at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Kà describes the story as "the coming of age of a young man and a young woman through their encounters with love, conflict and the duality of Kà, the fire that can unite or separate, destroy or illuminate."
O is a water-themed stage production by Cirque du Soleil, a Canadian circus and entertainment company. The show has been in permanent residence at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, since October 1998. O, whose name is pronounced the same way as eau, the French word for "water", takes place around and above a 1.5-million-US-gallon (5,700 m3) pool of water. It features water acts such as synchronized swimming as well as aerial and ground acts. The O theatre, which is designed to resemble a 14th-century European opera house, has 1,800 seats, thus allowing the performance to be watched by 3,600 people a night since the performance usually plays twice in a given day, also designed to meet the special demands of the show.
Love is a 2006 theatrical production by Cirque du Soleil which combines the re-produced and re-imagined music of The Beatles with an interpretive, circus-based artistic and athletic stage performance. The show plays at a specially built theatre at the Mirage in Las Vegas.
Benoît Jutras is a Canadian composer. Jutras is best known for his work with the Canadian entertainment company Cirque du Soleil, first as music director and later as composer for several of the company's contemporary circus shows. Jutras' music often blends eclectic influences, including world beat, classical, rock, trip hop, and electronica. His scores for Cirque du Soleil shows include O, Mystère, Quidam, and La Nouba. His work outside Cirque du Soleil has included original soundtracks for Le Rêve, the Glow in the Park Parade, and The House of Dancing Water. He has also composed for film and television.
Olga Pikhienko is a circus performer who specializes in handbalancing and contortion. Pikhienko started in rhythmic gymnastics at the age of five. When she was eleven, she started performing with her father, Sasha Pikhienko, at the Nikulin Circus based in Moscow. Olga's act with her father won them a gold medal in 1992 at the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain in Paris. In 1993, they won a silver medal in Beijing, China at the World Festival.
Jeremy Kushnier is a Canadian actor, singer and songwriter.
Criss Angel Believe was the sixth Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas, which premiered at the 1,600-capacity Believe Theatre inside the Luxor hotel in Las Vegas in 2008. It is a theatrical production created in partnership of Cirque du Soleil and magician Criss Angel, who was billed as the "co-writer, illusions creator and designer, original concept creator and star" of the show. The show had its final performance on April 17, 2016, being replaced by Criss Angel Mindfreak Live on May 11 of the same year.
Mark Fisher, OBE, MVO, RDI was a British architect best known for his rock music stage sets. He was born in Warwickshire, England.
René Dupéré is a Canadian composer from Mont-Joli, Québec, Canada.
Viva Elvis was the seventh resident Cirque du Soleil show on the Las Vegas Strip. It resided at the Aria Resort & Casino and premiered on February 19, 2010. The show closed on August 31, 2012. Cirque du Soleil partnered with Elvis Presley Enterprises to produce this show, similar to how they partnered with The Beatles' Apple Corps Ltd to produce the resident show Love at the Mirage.
Hassan El Hajjami, also known as Haspop, is a French stage director, choreographer and dancer.
Zarkana was a Cirque du Soleil stage production written and directed by François Girard. It began as a touring show in 2011 and was converted to a resident show in Las Vegas in late 2012. It premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on June 29, 2011, and later toured to the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow and the Madrid Arena in Madrid.
Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away is a 2012 American 3D family fantasy film directed by Andrew Adamson. The film premiered on October 20, 2012 at the Tokyo International Film Festival, and was released theatrically in the United States on December 21, 2012.
Nili Brosh is an Israeli-American guitarist. She has performed and/or recorded with Danny Elfman, Cirque du Soleil, Dethklok, Steve Vai, Tony MacAlpine, Paul Gilbert, Andy Timmons, Guthrie Govan/The Aristocrats, Stu Hamm, DragonForce, Jennifer Batten, Gretchen Menn, Alphonso Johnson, Jeff Loomis, Bryan Beller, and The Iron Maidens.
Anna Stankus is a circus performer who specialises in hula hoop manipulation whilst also incorporating rhythmic gymnastics and contortion in her acts. She is currently on tour with Cirque du Soleil Kooza for its North American tour. Since first beginning her career in 2007, she has gone on to perform in many productions worldwide including for Cirque du Soleil, Cirque Le Noir, Franco Dragone shows and in various variety shows in her hometown of Las Vegas.
