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.
A stunt performer, often called a stuntman or stuntwoman and occasionally stuntperson or stunt-person, is a trained professional who performs daring acts, often as a career. Stunt performers usually appear in films or on television, as opposed to a daredevil, who performs for a live audience. When they take the place of another actor, they are known as stunt doubles.
Quidam was the ninth stage show produced by Cirque du Soleil. It premiered in April 1996 and has been watched by millions of spectators around the world. Quidam originated as a big-top show in Montreal and was converted into an arena format beginning with its 2010 tour in North America. It then changed back to the Big Top for a 3-month run in Seoul, South Korea before returning to an arena show for its tour to Oceania. The show performed for the final time in Christchurch, New Zealand on February 26, 2016.
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.
Solstrom is a Cirque du Soleil television series in thirteen 45-minute episodes from 2003. It was initially broadcast on the U.S. Bravo cable network and aired on Bold in Canada and SBS Television in Australia. It has also been released on DVD.
Lisa Maree Skinner is an Australian artistic gymnast who competed at the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games. She was the first Australian gymnast to qualify for an individual event final at the Olympics. She has toured with Cirque du Soleil performing aerial hoops.
The cloud swing is an aerial act that usually combines static and swinging trapeze skills, drops, holds and rebound lifts.
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.
Zoë E. Bell is a New Zealand stuntwoman and actress. Some of her most notable stunt-work includes doubling for Lucy Lawless in Xena: Warrior Princess and for Uma Thurman in Kill Bill.
Jean Luann Epper was an American stuntwoman and actress. She performed stunts in over 100 feature films and television series and is perhaps best known as Lynda Carter's stunt double on the 1970s television series Wonder Woman. She was featured in Amanda Micheli's 2004 documentary Double Dare, along with New Zealand stuntwoman and actress Zoë Bell. Entertainment Weekly noted that many consider her "the greatest stuntwoman who's ever lived."
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.
Shenea Booth is an American acrobatic gymnast who represented the United States of America at the 2001 World Games, the 2002 World Championships and the 2004 World Championships in the Mixed Pair event, along with her partner, Arthur Davis.
Tuuli Pauliina Räsänen is a circus performer and actress from Finland. Her career jump-started when she was invited to perform as the first Fennoscandian soloist with Cirque du Soleil. She was awarded a five-year grant from Finland's Central Commission of Arts to pursuit artistic work. She has succeeded in establishing her career in the international market and at the moment performs with Komische Oper Berlin.
Olga Sidorova is a Russian-born trapezist.
Yvonne Tousek-Renne is a retired artistic gymnast who competed for her native Canada in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.
Cirque du Soleil: Fire Within is a 2002 Canadian reality television mini-series. The series follows eight Cirque du Soleil performers during the creation and production of the Cirque's touring production, Varekai. Stress ensues as several newcomers try to learn new acrobatic acts for the show, while the subplot also follows the crew behind the show trying to cast new performers, advertise the production, create the stage set, costumes, and make-up, and manage the show under the direction of newcomer Dominic Champagne.
Amanda Foster is a British stunt actress. Foster was accepted to the UK stunt register in 1997, and was the first black British woman to become a stunt double.
Erika Lemay is a Canadian artist, aerial dancer, actress, and author. She is a show director specialized in luxury events, and creator of Physical Poetry.
Le PeTiT CiRqUe(Fr, The Little Circus) is an all-youth professional circus company based in Los Angeles, California. LPC was founded in 2012 by Nathalie Yves Gaulthier, a former child actress and competitive gymnast. LPC consists of a wide array of cirque specialists, including acrobats, aerialists, contortionists, hand balancers, and foot archers, and other performing specialists, such as vocalists, dancers, hoop dancers, and martial artists. The troupe has performed in the United States, Canada, Norway, and the United Arab Emirates.
Le Cirque World's Top Performers is a contemporary circus company based in Italy.
