In mid-May, the Schottenstein Center’s wood floors will transform into a lush, vibrant landscape complete with mountains, oceans and alien flora and fauna.
It’s not a fairy tale, but one of Cirque du Soleil’s latest productions. Toruk – the First Flight, slated for May 11-15, will blow audiences away with its combination of acrobatics, projections and puppets brought to life.
Photos courtesy of Kym Barrett
Toruk is inspired by James Cameron’s 2009 film Avatar, but takes place thousands of years prior to the events of the film. It tells the story of the first Na’vi, the humanoid alien species that inhabits Pandora, to fly on the back of the Toruk, a fearsome dragon-like creature that rules the Pandorian skies.
The idea of meshing Cirque du Soleil with Avatar was born when Cameron met with a Cirque du Soleil executive and mentioned that the company had inspired some of the characters in Cameron’s films.
“You know, it’s a dangerous game in some ways; it’s a hit or a miss,” says Fabrice Lemire, artistic director and assistant stage director of Toruk. “But the collaboration we had during the creation with James Cameron and Lightstorm, the producing company, has been phenomenal. The respect of James Cameron and his team toward us, toward the creator, was unbelievable.”
Utilizing projectors, Cirque du Soleil has managed to bring the show to life. Throughout the show, ticketholders can expect to see waterfalls, soaring skies and green forest floors: all simulations using projectors. Toruk differs from a typical Cirque production because the acrobatics follow the story, not the other way around. Puppetry and narration, which have never been used by Cirque until Toruk, are central to the show as well.
Among the 16 puppets in the production are the Toruk itself; direhorses, six-legged, colorful horses; viperwolves, leathery wolves with human-like hands; and austrapedes, long-beaked birds reminiscent of ostriches. One of the six puppeteers responsible for bringing these creatures to life is Kailah Cabanas, who makes her Cirque du Soleil debut with Toruk.
When a friend sent Cabanas a link to Cirque du Soleil’s application for puppeteers, Cabanas jumped on the opportunity, believing it to be “too good to be true.”
“Eventually, they told me I got the gig, and I hadn’t actually met anyone, so I was almost waiting for someone to be like, ‘Oh, just joking!’” says Cabanas. “I honestly pinch myself every day. … I’ve seen Cirque shows before and I never thought I would be a part of it, so I feel blessed doing this show.”
All six puppeteers are required to manipulate the massive Toruk, which boasts a wingspan of 40 feet. Among the initial challenges of bringing the Toruk to life, Cabanas says, were working with the other puppeteers to manipulate the massive beast as well as figuring out how the Toruk would move if it were real.
“Audiences know it’s not real, yet they choose to believe that it is,” says Cabanas. “You get affected by it, you have an emotional attachment to it even though you know it’s not real. I think that’s amazing. … I love the opportunity to actually connect with an audience through this puppet.”
For Lemire, having to work within a world that isn’t his own and not having total creative freedom is one of the major challenges of working on Toruk.
“We are in the territory of James Cameron. … Even though the show is open, we have to respect the universe,” says Lemire. “I cannot just bring a trapeze into my show. People would be like, ‘Uh, do the Na’vi do trapeze in the forest?’”
Though Toruk is unlike a typical Cirque du Soleil production, both Lemire and Cabanas expect ticketholders to enjoy the show, even if they have not seen the film.
“What I love about this show is it’s not just for a specific audience; it’s not just for children, it’s not just for people who are older,” says Cabanas. “It’s visually stunning, the sound tech is amazing, we have the puppetry and, of course, you still have the acrobatics of Cirque du Soleil.”
“We place the bar so high with the visual aspect, and the directors we hire to create this show are masters of visual effect,” says Lemire. “So if you come in with an expectation, drop those expectations … I want to motivate you to look at the art form differently, I want to inspire you to be open to a different aesthetic.”
Amanda DePerro is an assistant editor. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
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