The History of Cirque Du Soleil Essay Example
The History of Cirque Du Soleil Essay Example

The History of Cirque Du Soleil Essay Example

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  • Pages: 4 (1030 words)
  • Published: August 13, 2018
  • Type: Case Study
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The history of Cirque du Soleil traces back to the 1980s. That was when Guy Laliberte and Daniel Gauthier decided to gather a group of young street performers in Quebec and founded Le Club des Talons Hauts. In 1981, they organized the Fete foraine of Baie-Saint-Paul, a cultural event in which street artists from all over met to exchange ideas and enliven the streets of the city. Encouraged by public enthusiasm, Circus itself first saw light in 1984 with the support of the Government of Quebec.

They based the circus in a way that was completely new and far from the usual circus model; their goal was to create a circus full of astonishing acrobatics, creativity, magic light and sound effects, scenery and music. They envisioned all this without the involvement of animals. Cirque du Soleil began

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touring with his first production, Le Grand Tour du Cirque du Soleil and then the show La Magie Continue. In the midst of these financial difficulties, the Cirque du Soleil was invited in 1987 to the Los Angeles Festival of the Arts, where they were a total success.

Their fame began to be known in artistic circles and circuses around the world, especially after the show "Cirque reinvented" which was very successful at the Festival. Thanks to their success in Los Angeles, they had enough money to return to Quebec. The magic, innovation and creativity of their shows caused that many producers became interested in the company, being among them Columbia Pictures, who wanted Laliberte and Gauthier to agree to the production of a movie about Cirque du Soleil. However, Laliberte was not satisfied with the contract, a

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Columbia would get so many rights.

Laliberte rejected the deal before it concretized. From that moment on, one of the objectives of the Cirque is to remain a private company in its entirety. At Los Angeles festival they first met with Michael Eisner, Disney's executive director, who from the outset was impressed with the innovative proposal of Cirque du Soleil. Eventually, Laliberte and Eisner started a business partnership in subsequent years. Following their success in California, Cirque du Soleil debuted a new show called 'Nouvelle Experience'. Cirque's first incursion into the establishment of a resident show was established Las Vegas in 1992.

Cirque had been in talks with Caesars Palace to develop a permanent show. However, Caesars Palace thought that the show was too "daring" for Vegas. Rather than tone down its artistic ambitions, Cirque went across the street and reached an agreement with Mirage Resorts. Steve Wynn, the chairman of Mirage Resorts, and Bobby Baldwin, had seen the Cirque du Soleil produced in Chicago last year and knew it would work in Vegas. Cirque du Soleil’s first resident show was established in Las Vegas as a result of this meeting, becoming a very successful partnership.

Form this point on, the number of shows has grown exponentially. Nearly 10 years after the meeting with Eisner, Cirque finally signed an agreement with Disney to produce a resident show for them, La Nouba, which was specifically designed to take place in Downtown Disney at Walt Disney World Resort. This 10-year agreement was based in almost identical terms as the ones with Mirage Resorts. For the purpose of this show, Cirque created its first permanent independent show, having

two nightly performances, five nights a week. The exhibition was inaugurated in December 1998, just two months after the opening of "O"..

In the 1990’s Cirque du Soleil has grown massively to resist the temptation of duplication their shows. They focused on a strategy of exclusivity, which means that Cirque du Soleil was against replicating the same show in 2 different locations. Having been contacted by companies around the world who wanted to make copies of their shows in several places, Cirque always gave a negative response. Ultimately, this strategy of exclusivity had exhausted the entire organization. Laliberte realized that Cirque had become increasingly dependent on the creators.

Thereafter, Laliberte said that the heart of Cirque's creative process would be the organization, not a single set of individuals. Having had some issues with Dragone, on of the show director’s, Laliberte went on for the first time to look for new show creators Cirque had become increasingly widespread. Anyhow, they always made sure to maintain their artistic quality. At this point, more than 200 employees work on creating and maintaining more than 1,000 costumes for all performances. With each new show in operation, the complexity of Cirque grew exponentially.

Laliberte and Gauthier began to differ about the future direction of the company and the increased activities of Cirque and in May 2000, Daniel Gauthier, co-founder and owner of 50% of Cirque decided to leave. Now Laliberte was the sole owner of the Cirque du Soleil. Cirque du soleil continued to expand, diversify their shows and their creative content. Cirque developed new programs entirely different for every taste. In Las Vegas, MGM Mirage (MGM Grand and Mirage

Resorts merged in 2000) as their exclusive partner, and created a show for adults called Zumanity, the sensual side of Cirque du Soleil and other productions, Ka and Love.

In each show and on their website, Cirque du Soleil also sells exclusive products such as shirts and umbrellas. Cirque also produced documentaries, DVDs of their shows, television programs and has made two films. Today, Cirque is one of the most popular and renowned names in the world of entertainment. It is well known for combining skills, cultures, talents and crafts of high quality. Each function of Cirque du Soleil surprises its audience. Cirque shows contain different themes, such as love, friendship, eroticism, etc. rought to the stage with great histrionics and emotional strength. Guy Laliberte still has the same vision and talent he had when he began his circus career. The plan for the future of Cirque du Soleil is to reach all continents, searching for new types of partners, accomplish new projects in places like Asia where it plans to enter the Macao market (known as the Las Vegas of the East). Finally, Cirque had signed an agreement with two subsidiaries of Dubai World, and planned permanent show in Dubai in 2010. Hopefully, this new partnership will create many new future projects.

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