Cirque’s 2010 Double: Varekai & Saltimbanco

Multi award-winning Canadian circus company Cirque du Soleil, now celebrating its 25th anniversary, will make another two-pronged attack on the UK in 2010.

The new year launches with Cirque’s residency – its 14th annual London season – at the Royal Albert Hall, where its Varekai, first seen here in 2008, runs from 5 January to 14 February 2010. Later in the year, Saltimbanco launches a new arena tour from Sheffield Arena on 20 May 2010.

Taking its name from the Romany gypsy word for “wherever”, Varekai is set deep within a magical forest, at the summit of a volcano, in “an extraordinary world, a world where something else is possible, a world called Varekai”. A young man is parachuted into Varekai, and sets off an absurd adventure in the kaleidoscopic world populated by fantastical creatures.

According to promotional material, “this production pays tribute to the nomadic soul, to the spirit and art of the circus tradition, and to the infinite passion of those whose quest takes them along the path that leads to Varekai”.

Saltimbanco premiered in Montreal in 1992 and was first seen at the Albert Hall in 2002 and last in the UK on an arena tour in 2004. It’s billed as a “celebration of life”, offering up a new vision of urban living, full of optimism and joy, kaleidoscopically conveyed through voice, movement and music. Its acts include: bungee, Chinese poles, Russian swing, trapeze, double wire, diabolo and adagio.

Following Sheffield, Saltimbanco visits Liverpool, Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, Dublin and Nottingham, before concluding its 2010 UK dates at London’s Wembley Arena from 28 July to 1 August.

Cirque du Soleil was established in Quebec in 1984 by a troupe of street performers. Since then, it has grown to employ over 4,000 people (a quarter of them performers) presenting 20 shows to nearly 100 million people in more than 200 cities on five continents, including residencies in Las Vegas and Walt Disney World, Florida.