Photo Gallery: Cirque du Soleil Arrives in Denver

The circus is in town! No, really, from July 17 to August 16, Cirque du Soleil’s ECHO has pitched their Big Top tent at Denver’s Ball Arena.

OFM had the pleasure of touring the circus grounds and interviewing Lucas, the show’s Cartographer and an aerialist.

Hi Lucas! Welcome to Denver. We are OFM, Colorado’s oldest LGBTQ publication and the second oldest publication in the United States.

That’s so cool. Glad to talk with you guys!

To kick things off, what has been your experience so far here in Denver?

I’m excited to be in Denver. I feel like this is a very nice city to be in with a lot of culture. I feel the show is going to be well received so I’m excited. 

As a kid growing up, what does it feel like to be in this position now and looking back to what you wanted and dreamed of as a kid? 

A: Wow, that’s a big question because I feel like, as a kid, that was my dream. And I see a lot of kids dreaming to be where I am right now. I feel I’m very lucky in a way and also responsible for showing those people that we can also make it, like even coming from a country that is not so developed or we don’t have much support for the arts or for the circus – we can still make it. So I’m very, very glad and I feel very lucky to be here.

I heard that you were with the show from the very beginning. 

Yes. 

What is it like to have seen it evolve in that way? And do you feel like you’ve also evolved as a person? 

Yes, for sure. It’s beautiful to see the evolution of the show. When we opened the show, it wasn’t 100% ready, like there was a lot of room for improvement. Now to be achieving those improvements is incredible. It’s a great feeling to be a part of this production, in a way. We’re not just here working and doing the work; we are also proposing ideas. We have had, like, choreographs that we did on our own, you know, so we helped create the show in a way. And to see the show is still evolving is beautiful. 

Personally, I feel it’s the same. Being part of this production or this evolution process brings so much joy, knowledge and understanding about yourself. It’s beautiful to see as a person, and also to be more evolved as a person, in a way. 

Let’s talk about the team and working with the people here. What is it like to feel like you’re on the team, and how important are the connections that you’ve made with the other performers? 

Yes, being in a circus, I feel like we are a big family. This is a very strong feeling here on the show. Even more coming from the beginning—We all struggled together from the beginning. So we did 10 months in Montreal of very intense moments, like sometimes 12 hours a day of work. That shows us the other side of people. But at the same time, it brings us even closer, and I feel like that’s the feeling that we have here. Like, we are really here to help each other.

Also, being on the road, everything moves besides the people that come with us. So I think that becomes a very big net of support between each other not only as a performer, but also as a person. And I feel like that’s something that we try to bring for the new people when they arrive as well, like to show them that they are part of a big family, and we’re here to support each other. 

The show Echo is about the bond between animals and people. Why do you think that that’s an important message right now for people to come and see, and what do you want people to feel like when they experience the show? 

With every show from Cirque, the goal is to take people out of their reality and make them dream. Our show is so related to what is happening right now with taking a lot from the earth, from nature, and not giving back—and not only from nature but in relationships between people. I think that can be applied in many ways. It’s a beautiful moment to remind ourselves that we can always give back, can always respect each other, respect nature and the place that we live in. 

When you’re up there and you’re about to perform, what’s going through your head?

I try not to think too much at the moment. I try to really take it as a joyful moment. But I feel like part of this successful feeling that we have from being on stage is the reaction that we get from the people watching us. It’s so fulfilling to see people so close and feeling so emotional and so connected. It’s such a beautiful feeling to see that you can change someone’s life in a way, even though it’s just a little seed that you plant in someone’s life. I think that is what keeps me going. 

Is there anything that you want readers to know that we wouldn’t know just by attending a show?

We are also normal people. We get a lot of joy from seeing people coming in, so we are very excited to see people from Denver. And, I feel like everybody can benefit from a show like this—to get away from your reality, to get inspired, to work in a better place, or a better way to view relationships. 

Being a part of the LGBTQ community and being from Brazil, what is your experience like at Cirque?

I feel like Cirque really helped me to accept myself. Coming from Brazil and high-level sports, it was very hard for me to accept myself and to be free. And then joining the circus, I saw that that was not a problem at all here, and that helped me a lot to be able to get through this process. I feel very lucky to be in this position. I want to bring that same feeling to the people back home or to, I don’t know, the kids that also feel repressed in a way. I want to show that we are also worth it, we also have our value and that it’s very important to feel that way, to feel loved, no matter what. I think that’s what I learned coming from the circus. 

Kevin Albert, the senior publicist for Cirque du Soleil, shared with OFM some fun facts about what it takes for this show to be successful on tour. “It takes about six days to set up, and then it takes us four days to pack up everything to move to our next city. When we leave, the parking lot will be left exactly as it was before we arrived, so if we dug some holes, we’re going to patch everything and make sure that everything looks as it was when we arrived.”  The show uses 72 trucks to carry with them everything that they need. To power things up, they plug into the main grid here in Denver. The show travels with their own electricians, plumbers, carpenters, heads of tents, chefs, massage therapists, seamstresses, and many others.

The circus travels with their own kitchen where four chefs prepare 300 to 400 meals a day, including breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This food feeds the staff, performers, and even family members that travel with them. 

Being in this air-conditioned tent was as if you stepped into another world. It was unbelievable to think that they had set all of this up in a matter of days. The space we started in consisted of the costume section for wardrobe and headpieces, a spot where the artists can practice their individual disciplines, a lounging area where they can see a live broadcast of the stage, their performance medicine space for treatments, and more. “It’s important to note that every artist does their own makeup, because we have 53 artists on stage, and obviously we can’t have 53 makeup artists, so this is where they do that as well.”

If you’ve ever been to a show, you know the stunning acrobatics are a big wow-factor, but the costumes are also known to add an extra bit of magic to the experience. 

“So in this show, we do have a lot of animals. They’re actually people that are wearing what we call the paper animal costumes. So that’s why the costumes are all white, because it’s supposed to represent being made out of paper, and they’re very fragile. Each mask is built specifically for the artist. So obviously they are doing acrobatics and doing tricks, jumps, running around, you have to make sure they stay on securely. So believe it or not, in Montreal, we do have a mold of every artist’s head. It’s a little scary when you go there.”

These are their band headpieces. “So we have a seven person band here on this show. They all sing throughout the show, and they all play an instrument throughout the show. This is a first for Cirque du Soleil, actually! 

“Our bandleader is mic’d up, and everybody has an ear piece, and they’re talking throughout the show. Obviously, it’s a human performance, so the music will adjust to what the artist is doing on stage. Not only is the band leader talking to the band, they’re also watching a screen in front of them to know exactly when to land and really accentuate the landings or the music.”

All of their costumes, meaning everything from head to toe, are made in Montreal at their international headquarters. Once the costumes are made, they’re shipped to the show. They then have a team of wardrobe technicians who make any adjustments to the costume or keep it well maintained throughout the tour. “We have about 900 different pieces of costumes here that they maintain on a daily basis after each show.” 

What about the language of the show? Kevin covered that, too. “So Cirque has always tried to be as international as possible. We use a language that we invented, that we call Cirque language. So in any country we go to, people think that they hear something that they don’t really know what it is. It’s just a way for us to be able to accentuate and punctuate where we want in the music, without using a specific language that we wouldn’t be able to use in other parts of the world.”

The creation for the show started in 2018. After about two years, it was supposed to launch in April of 2020. With tickets sold and artists ready, they had to shut everything down due to COVID. “We were one of the industries where we had to stay closed the longest because of the size of the audience.” The show launched in April of 2023, and it will last anywhere between 10 to 20 years traveling all around the world.

Article and photos by Becky Duffyhill. Follow her on Instagram @beckyduffyhill.creative.