It was 18 years ago that Normand Latourelle, co-founder of Montreal’s famed Cirque du Soleil, discovered the power of horses.
He was staging a theatrical show that included a horse as “an extra.” “This wasn’t a show about horses, it was a show about people,” he recalled last week. But each time the animal took the stage, Latourelle realized the audience was captivated and drawn in by the stallion. Gradually, more horses were added to the show and he came to appreciate what he calls the “unique relationship between the horse and the human. It was with that show that I started my study.”
Cavalia, Latourelle’s current theatrical production, made its New York-area debut in the Meadowlands recently. It is the result of what he learned about this relationship.
“This is not a horse show. It is a show about that relationship between human and horse.” – Normand Latourelle
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Still, Latourelle, Cavalia’s artistic director, insisted, “This is not a horse show. It is a show about that relationship between human and horse, which you get to see live, before your very eyes. In contemporary life, you rarely get to see that. It’s a simple show, but also at the same time spectacular. When you look at horse events, it’s about how perfect the horses are. In Cavalia, it’s about how happy they can be, even if they’re not perfect. We follow their spontaneity. Of course, the show is organized. We have a script. But shows can vary by five to 10 minutes because the horses decide to act differently on different nights.”
‘Almost like a ballet’
Ringling Bros., this is not. The show’s performers – the human ones, that is – use no saddles or whips to ride and corral their co-stars, and the animals are given a certain amount of freedom to behave as they would in the wild.
When horse trainer and professional aerialist Sylvia Zerbini first saw Cavalia in 2004 she said, “I knew that was the show I wanted join.”
The daughter circus performers – her mother was a trapeze artist and her father was a horse trainer – Zerbini was at the time performing in another show in which she was “presenting horses onstage, unrestrained. When I saw Cavalia for the first time, I was blown away, because it was exactly what I was doing.”
She joined the show in 2008 and is now one of Cavalia’s lead performers. For her routine, Zerbini presents nine horses – a group that includes both stallions and geldings, which is rare given that the horses are unrestrained.
“When we begin, the horses come in roaming free, and they interact with each other the way they would in a herd,” Zerbini said, describing her act. “Then I come in and I begin to organize them. It almost looks like a ballet routine.”
Latourelle said the horses in Cavalia have proven to be a very versatile element in the performance.
“Horses have been integral to the development of our civilization and they are intertwined with our history,” he said. “Humanity has grown up with horses. Therefore, as an artist and as an artistic director, using horses in a show gives me liberty to draw inspiration from many historical periods in time.”
Yep, it’s big
Key to the show’s ability to portray horses in their natural state is giving the animals ample room to trot and run as they might if they were in an open field. To accomplish this, the Cavalia stage had to be quite large.
Latourelle said the portion of the stage the audience sees is 150 feet by 80 feet, but the animals are given a 245-foot runway that allows them to pick up speed before galloping onstage. The backstage area also includes a stable and warm-up area for the horses, plus two 45-foot wings for the performers.
The Cavalia big top is 160 feet by 160 feet, Latourelle said, to allow for auditorium-style seating, rather than traditional circus seating. The tent’s height is more than 100 feet to give the acrobats and aerialists enough room to “fly,” Latourelle noted.
With 64 horses and 120 people involved in the show, Cavalia, he added, “Right now we are the biggest tour in the world, in terms of logistics.”
Despite Cavalia’s equestrian bent, Latourelle insists that Cirque du Soleil fans won’t be left out in the barn.
“Cavalia has its own personality, but there is some influence from Cirque,” he said. “There’s music, there’s a large screen we use for multimedia. So, if you enjoyed Cirque du Soleil, this show has something for you, too.”
Cavalia opened Wednesday, June 9 and runs through Sunday, June 20. There are no performances on Mondays.
E-mail E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.