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“War Horse” this is not.
The show combines ground-based equines and their riders with aerialist performers in a Cirque du Soleil-like extravaganza.
At press time, the production was planning on opening tonight in its big-top tent at Redmond’s Marymoor Park. The show’s premiere on Wednesday was postponed due to the snow and ice storm hitting the region. Check Cavalia’s website for the latest updates: cavalia.net.
Cavalia uses 38 riders, aerialists, acrobats, dancers, and musicians and features 46 horses representing 11 breeds. Video projections on a 210-foot-wide screen and other visual effects mix with the performers in the 26,000-square-foot, 110-foot-high big top.
A 160-foot-wide stage allows the horses to gallop at full speed, at times with riders and at other times free.
There’s a reason the Montreal-based show seems like Cirque on horseback. Cavalia is the creation of Cirque co-founder Normand Latourelle.
THE CREATOR
When Latourelle was looking for a new direction for his career, he attended a show that included a horse as a performer. For him, it was a revelation. “Every time it came on stage, the horse was stealing the focus from the performers,” he said.
Latourelle knew little about horses, but he appreciated their majestic form. “My God,” he recalls thinking, “this is such a beautiful animal.”
Latourelle also realized that the horse – which humans have used for millenia in war, transportation and agriculture – is inextricably interwoven with culture. “Looking at the history of the horse was looking at the history of civilization,” he said.
He knew he had a theme for a new show. Cavalia was born.
Though this is the show’s second visit to Puget Sound (the first was in 2004), Latourelle said it has evolved and expanded in the ensuing eight years. New music, visuals and a tighter rhythm have changed its look, he said. Performers and horses are new and there are more of them.
THE PERFORMER
“My trick horse loves to run. He goes two speeds: fast and faster,” said rider Fairland Ferguson.
The South Carolina-based performer has been with “Cavalia” for three years. She grew up riding horses in Virginia and worked her way through college as a rider with a country-western horse show. There, she learned the skills that she now uses in Cavalia.
The atmosphere at Cavalia is very different from her college days, she said. “I was the oddball out (in college). I was the crazy one, infatuated with my horses. When I came to Cavalia, everyone was like that.”
In Cavalia, Ferguson rides a trick horse (she does most of the tricks) and is a Roman rider, a style where she stands atop two horses in a six-horse team.
Ferguson won’t say which is more difficult or higher on the performance pecking order, trick or Roman riding. But she said there are differences.
Trick riding requires quick bursts of acrobatics. “You’re just worried about yourself,” she said. In Roman riding, “You’re worried about yourself and you’re controlling two horses.”
The work is precise and potentially dangerous – even the most well-trained horses can have mishaps that might not end well for a puny human rider. But Ferguson said she’s never fallen in a show. Practices are another story. She’s learned how to fall safely.
“Instead of trying to save it, I just let go and hit the ground.” She’s never been injured.
Key to working with thousand-pound equines is sticking with the same horse, Ferguson said. “That communication and understanding is really important.”
Dangers aside, Ferguson is forthcoming about her motivation for working in Cavalia.
“I’m a big old ham for performing. You can’t ask for a better job.”
And while she can’t be sure what the horses think about being performers, Ferguson said, “I feel like they want to have a purpose. We work with our horses and we know how they feel.”
THE CHOREOGRAPHER
Alain Gauthier, Cavalia’s choreographer and on-tour artistic director, has been with the show since its inception in 2003. Prior to that, he wracked up 2,000 performances with Cirque du Soleil as an aerial acrobat.
Gauthier choreographed Cavalia’s fusion of acrobats and horses. His goal: to create a unique experience in performance arts.
“The whole show is a blend,” he said. “We do it for (the horses). It’s the love of those horses that has got us together to create this new genre of entertainment.”
Trust is the word Gauthier uses repeatedly to describe the working relationship between the humans and horses. He recalls the first day he brought a horse and an aerialist together. “The riders rode in. The horses had never seen a human being hanging in the air upside down, and (they) backed away. But gradually they got used to it.”
The choreography of the show is intended to portray the relationship between humans and horses, Gauthier said. “It’s supposed to be as beautiful as the horse – which is pretty much impossible. We tried to find ways to move around the horse that complements it.”
Both Ferguson and Gauthier said Cavalia is not just a show for horse lovers. Gauthier said they aren’t even the majority of the audience. “It really caters to a wide range of audiences. Everybody gets something out of it.”
Craig Sailor: 253-597-8541, craig.sailor@thenewstribune.com
