Dazzling Quidam
Tan Hee Hui, Contributor, Singapore
Experiencing Cirque du Soleil's Quidam, now running in Singapore until Oct. 2, is like watching Tim Burton's fantasy movie Big Fish, which depicted a young girl's wide opened jaw at witnessing some surreal, magical moment.
That was my first reaction to Quidam's surreal-magical quality, which is also quite akin to the TV series Carnivale, sans its sinister plot.
Whilst queuing to buy a drink, a lady behind me told her friend that Quidam was a "stunning show".
Indeed it was, and welcome to possibly the greatest show on earth, which centers around several characters.
Among them is Zoe, a precocious Shirley Temple-like child who has seen it all, and her world has lost all meaning.
Frustrated and disillusioned, she is swept into the universe of Quidam, and comes across a myriad of strange, mysterious characters who attempt to seduce her with the marvelous, unsettling and terrifying.
Whilst Quidam, from which the show's title is derived, is a character that seemed to step out of a surrealist painting or been conjured up out of Zoe's imagination.
He is anonymous, an everyone and at the same time, a no-one, a nameless passer-by, a solitary figure lingering on a street corner, a person rushing past; could be anyone, anybody. The one who cries out, sings and dreams within us all.
Quidam started punchily with Zoe's father and mother being hoisted up by a wire before the proceedings were unraveled with stunning effect.
Divided into different acts that included vaudeville, cabaret, physical comedy, acrobatics and circus performances, each stole the opening night's full-house audience's hearts.
The show, with references to popular culture influences, was led throughout by indefatigable John, the ringmaster who holds the show tight and focused.
The crowd also frequently cheered the diverse line-up of acts of different nationalities who performed remarkably.
Starting with the German Wheel act, Canadian Shayne Courtright deftly balanced himself in his spins, turns, twists of a wheel without losing ground.
The Diabolos, or Chinese yo-yo segment, was like a child's game with four Chinese girls.
Each held two sticks linked by a string on which a wooden spool is juggled, tossed and balanced, while trying to outdo each other in their dexterity and ingenuity.
Their charming showcase displayed great timing while the girls sought to impress the audience, especially while navigating through their difficult moves.
The Aerial Hoops performance saw three acts suspended above the stage while pivoting and twirling through the air, at times solo, at other times in unison.
Their gracefulness while doing their thing high above ground was rather unnerving, yet it seemed like nothing to them.
It was the same for France's Isabelle Vaudelle who was suspended in the air performing her Aerial Contortion in Silk act.
The stage lighting was used to good effect to contrast and produce her dance moves' silhouettes in two cascading red fabrics. It was almost like a shadow puppet performance.
However, the Cloud Swing act was more brash when Aussie Donna Stevens took to the trapeze with chutzpah.
She was completely unafraid of heights while performing stunningly with a safety wire attached behind her back.
On the ground, the Spanish Webs and Skipping Ropes performed intricate group acts that required great timing and choreography, all of which the eight performers executed excellently.
They skipped through hurried ropes without missing a beat while entering into little spaces as the ropes took different positions and angles.
Hats off to Yves Decoste and Marie-Laure Mesnage who executed the Statue-Vis Versa segment almost effortlessly.
Their body-balancing act defied gravity, almost in alpha-like positions, which required tremendous strength, discipline and agility.
Their malleable moves and body positionings were done without so much as breaking into a sweat.
One's heart palpitated for the duo whilst feeling their pain when their bodies -- hands, feet and all -- pressed against one another in uncomfortable maneuverings.
Their bodies seemed like a temple for artistic expression that gestured and moved with clockwork precision, and almost resembled a clock's needle, highlighted aptly by the revolving stage which moved clockwise.
Also deserving respect was the Banquine showcase that displayed 15 Slavic artists' agile sequences of acrobatics and human pyramids amidst greatly synchronized movements.
Banquine is an Italian acrobatic tradition, with origins dating back to the Middle Ages.
Never mind the historical milestones, the performers effortlessly rolled, danced, jumped and leaped on the stage, winning the audience's resounding claps and cheers, especially when several dancers jumped on top of one another to form a pole.
In between the tricky, highly-stylized acrobatic and circus showcases, the cabaret shows and slapstick physical skits were highly entertaining.
One example was when the audience laughed out loud to the two clowns' (performed by Argentinean Guillermo Toto Castineiras and American Voki Kalfayan) zany antics.
In one skit they entered the stage from a manhole and their 1920s silent film-inspired sketch was particularly infectious and funny.
The clowns picked several audience members to "play along" to stereotypical silent film characters and even managed to get the latter to give their best take on their characters.
Cirque du Soleil came to be with the assistance of the Quebec government, as part of the celebrations surrounding the 450th anniversary of Jacques Cartier's arrival in Canada.
Cirque is based on a synergy of striking, dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment, featuring wild, outrageous costumes, and staged under magical lighting and set to original music.
Cirque's first show was held in the small Quebec town of Gaspe before moving on to 10 other cities throughout the province.
After the showcases in Montreal, Sherbrooke and Quebec City, Cirque du Soleil left their home province to perform in neighboring Ontario.
In April 1996, Cirque launched Quidam in Montreal. After finishing its hometown run, Quidam headed off on a three-year North American tour.
Amidst all of Quidam's highly entertaining segments, each step and move along the way bore significance in their choreography, nuances and meanings.
For one, they morphed into affirmations of allowing the audience to escape into a fantasy world where anything is possible.
Best of all, no animals were trained, harmed or even required in the truly memorable Quidam.
Quidam is on from Tuesday to Saturday, 8 p.m. at the Grand Chapiteau at the corner of Beach and Rochor Roads. Extra shows are performed at 4pm every Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.. Ticket prices range from S$49 to S$250.