If Matthew Knight Arena wanted to end its season of entertainment with an exciting close, the venue couldn’t have chosen a much bigger act. Starting June 8 and running for five days, the arena will feature nine performances of Cirque du Soleil’s touring production, “Dralion.” @@http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/dralion/default.aspx@@
“Cirque du Soleil is one of the top touring shows of its kind,” said Mike Duncan, senior associate athletic director of facilities, events and operations. “We are extremely pleased to be able to bring it to Eugene for the first time ever.”@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=staff&d=person&b=name&s=mike+duncan@@
Premiering in 1999 in Montreal, Canada, “Dralion” has toured the world and been viewed by over seven million people. The name “Dralion” is derived from two creatures: the lion, which symbolizes the West, and the dragon, which symbolizes the East.
“It’s traditional circus artists meeting acrobats and gymnasts. It all comes together with amazing world music and lighting and special effects,” said Esther Daack, general stage manager for “Dralion.” “It’s a great two hours of escapism.” @@http://www.byronbeck.com/home/831-cirques-dralion-a-esther-daack-coming-to-portland.html@@
Like other Cirque du Soleil productions, “Dralion” combines circus art and street entertainment under a specific theme and story line. The production is influenced by Eastern philosophy and uses a 3,000-year-old tradition of Chinese acrobatics to tell its story of the struggles for harmony between humans and nature. Representing the struggle are four elements in the show that take on human form; air is presented as the color blue, water is green, fire is red and earth is ochre. The purpose of “Dralion” is to show how this harmony can be achieved as humans and nature become one single being.
“We have an East meets West theme,” Daack said. “We have acrobats from all over the world, and they’re all unified by themes of circles and really discovering what unites us and makes us one.”
Apart from its symbolic interpretations, the production’s entertainment value is clearly on a large scale, as more than 60 acrobats, gymnasts, musicians and singers are featured in the performance.
“With our tour, it’s a little over a hundred. We have 60 artists and 45 technician and crew. It’s a relatively large show and almost like a traveling city that moves from place to place every week,” Daack said.
Juggling, chair balancing, trampoline acrobatics, hoop diving and hand balancing as well as other “Dralion”-specific performances can all be found in the show.
One of the things that separates Cirque du Soleil performances from other touring circuses is the production value. “Dralion” is no different: The set and costumes took months of designing, collaboration and execution to create.
The set is a metallic modern Chinese temple that is 60 feet wide and 26 feet tall. The set had to be engineered to be both aesthetically pleasing and interactive as artists climb, dance, swing and hang on various sections of the stage.
“Dralion” costume design may be more impressive as fabrics from the U.S., Italy, France, England and Quebec were all used. Overall, there are about 1,500 costume pieces in the show, many of which are specifically designed to fit each performer. All totaled the costumes equal roughly 16,000 feet of fabric.
“Dralion” brings closure to a successful year for the entertainment side of Matthew Knight Arena. The new venue hosted everything from Elton John to the Harlem Globetrotters to monster truck rallies.
“I’m pleased with the quality and variety of shows that we’ve been able to host in the Matthew Knight Arena during the first few months,” Duncan said. “You’ll continue to see top events make their way to Eugene to play the Matthew Knight Arena in the future.”
“Dralion” will be yet another event at the venue that displays its ability to handle a variety of entertainment-related shows.
“We’re excited that there’s such a great response to the cirque product. We get to break in a new venue,” Daack said.
Cirque du Soleil’s ‘Dralion’ comes to Eugene for first time ever
Daily Emerald
May 31, 2011
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