SAN JOSE
– Cirque du Soleil returns to the Bay Area with
”
Varekai,
”
the group’s latest live creation.
The show will premiere in San Jose Thursday and run through Feb.
16.
SAN JOSE – Cirque du Soleil returns to the Bay Area with “Varekai,” the group’s latest live creation.
The show will premiere in San Jose Thursday and run through Feb. 16.
The group invites you to go deep within a forest, at the summit of a volcano, exists an extraordinary world – a world where something else is possible. This world is called Varekai.
The sky lets go a solitary young man, and the story of Varekai begins. Parachuted into the shadows of a magical forest, a kaleidoscopic world imbued with fantastic creatures, the man takes flight in an adventure both absurd and extraordinary.
On this day at the edge of time, in a place of pure and undiluted possibility, begins an inspired incantation to a life rediscovered and to a newly found wonder in the mysteries of the world and the mind.
The show introduces an international cast of more than 50 artists representing 13 different countries. It emerges from an explosive fusion of drama and acrobatics. The impossible becomes possible in stunning displays of skill and power set against innovative music and otherworldly sets, interwoven with vivid choreography that speaks to all in the universal language of movement. The pendulum of time sweeps backward, paying tribute to the ancient and rare circus traditions of Icarian games, water meteors and Georgian dance. “Varekai” then catapults to the future with revolutionary twists on such acts as Russian swings, body skating and triple trapeze.
The word “Varekai,” pronounced ver-ay-‘kie, means “wherever” in the Romany language of the gypsies – the universal wanderers. Written and directed by Dominic Champagne, this production pays tribute to the nomadic soul, to the spirit and art of the circus tradition and to those who quest with infinite passion along the path that leads to varekai.
“‘Varekai’ is a furious, flamboyant celebration inspired by those artists who, every single day, no matter where the wind carries them, risk their life to challenge the laws of gravity, to jump and dance over the volcano,” Director Dominic Champagne said. “To tell the old world that something else is possible.”
Cirque du Soleil’s performances of “Varekai” will be at 8 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays; at 5 and 9 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 4 and 8 p.m. Saturdays and 1 and 5 p.m. Sundays. The shows will take place under the blue-and-yellow Grand Chapiteau on Market Street adjacent ot the Convention Center in downtown San Jose. Tickets are $45 to $75 for adults and $31.50 to $45.50 for children. Prices are $40.50 to $58.50 for students and senior citizens on weekdays. For more information call the box office at (800) 450-1480.
