Cirque du Soleil | Kooza | Montreal - May 16, 2007

I've seen several Cirque du Soleil shows, personally liking Alegria the best. Now I have another show in close second - Kooza - which I had the chance to see on Wednesday, May 16th.

"KOOZA tells the story of The Innocent, a melancholy loner in search of his place in the world. KOOZA is a return to the origins of Cirque du Soleil: It combines two circus traditions – acrobatic performance and the art of clowning. The show highlights the physical demands of human performance in all its splendor and fragility, presented in a colorful mélange that emphasizes bold slapstick humor.

The Innocent's journey brings him into contact with a panoply of comic characters such as the King, the Trickster, the Pickpocket, and the Obnoxious Tourist and his Bad Dog.

Between strength and fragility, laughter and smiles, turmoil and harmony, KOOZA explores themes of fear, identity, recognition and power. The show is set in an electrifying and exotic visual world full of surprises, thrills, chills, audacity and total involvement."

This is the first time I see people giving a standing ovation at the end of several acts, at least 5 times if my memory doesn't fail me. And those performers getting them must have felt good, because usually the public only gives a standing ovation at the end of the show. Each act was just outstanding, and there were errors that occurred during 2 different acts, and that just made it more real for me.

There are several main characters: the trickster, the innocent, the king, two clowns, the pickpocket, Heimloss, and the bad dog. Out all of them the Trickster was the one that grabbed my attention, this charming, charismatic, sexy and sophisticated character, made my head turn a couple of times. Jason Berret was the performer that was supposed to play the characters, but he got injured during rehearsals and I understand he is not playing his character during the Cirque's stay in Montreal. I don't know the name of the understudy, but can please someone introduce me to him?

Incredible performance by all involved, and it is true the Cirque du Soleil has gone back to the roots of the circus, it feels different, more powerful and dangerous. There were several times when I didn't want to applaud because I was scared by doing so, I could interrupt the performers and they could fall to their death. Actually I wanted to tell everybody else to be quiet, and sometimes I almost felt like asking the crowd to do just that.

The music is not one of the strongest points of this show, and I guess it is expected for a not so theatrical performance, but a more acrobatic one. Nevertheless, the voice of the sole singer is easy on the ears. The clowns were super happy, always smiling and not too aggressive - I was one of those that were scared of clowns when I was a child - and they were actually sweet with everyone.

Another impression I had was that you could see some Las Vegas influence in the show, which would make sense if you count how many theater shows they have in that city. Costumes were once again delightful to see, and it sexily covered those well defined muscles and beautiful curves of the performers. Skin tight colour tops were worn by several of the male characters, giving the illusion of sexiness but not to erotic, just perfectly innocent.

The pickpocket act would have been even more entertaining if the volunteer he had picked to come up to the stage spoke English, or even better if the performer himself spoke French - with or without the language, just unbelievable how he cleared the pockets of his victim - and you thought you only saw that in Latin America eh?

There were a couple of times when I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Like when one of the acrobats of the "HighWire Act" almost felt to the ground, stopped only by his grabbing of the wire - he then pulled himself back up to continue the show - none of the performers for this act wore safety strings.

I loved the Latin dance in Unicycle, and I stopped breathing while the Balancing on Chairs act was on, only to be snap out of my concentration by the vibrating cell phone in my pants - I thought I had silenced my phone, instead I put it in vibrating mode. There are some surprises that occur during the shown, but I won't talk about them otherwise they won't be surprises anymore.

This is one of top shows I've seen so far from the Cirque du Soleil, and if you have the chance, go see it because it's worth every minute. I'm actually surprised to know there are so many Montrealers that had never seen any of their shows - you definitely don't know what you've been missing all this time. Please do not forget to introduce me to the Trickster.

Bravo Cirque du Soleil.

Pictures by cirquetribune.com
Quote by cirquedusoleil.com

Cajjmere Wray & Stephan Grondin @ Stereo - May 5, 2007

How to get tickets was my main concern for this party, things have changed and one thing I don’t like is to arrive at Stereo with no tickets at all. If it is choosing between (a) going there with no assurance I will get in, and (b) not going at all, I have chosen (b) a couple of times already. Anyway, got my tickets two days previous to the party, nevertheless for Stephan Grondin I might have picked (a).

I was probably one of the first to arrive at Stereo, and stayed like that for a while. “Where is everyone?” I kept asking myself. It was like everybody was taking their time to come down, or maybe they were just trapped downstairs in the bar. One hour later and place was still empty, never mind that, the volume was already as if the main DJ had arrived.

Cajjmere Wray, excuse my ignorance but I had no idea who he was, or what type of music to expect from him. Asked around to see if someone knew the name of the first DJ, until I finally found someone that gave me the answer. At first I have to say I was lost with his music, I tried to understand what was going on, until I stopped trying and just let everything in.

The volume was way up for a small crowd, and the music was not really upbeat in order to make the few people around to move to the dance floor - music was a mix of everything, and several times I just stop dancing and looked up as if waiting for something else to happen. 4:00am and finally the people had started to arrive, and it didn’t take long for the floor to be “at capacity +.”

It had taken me this long to finally make up my mind about what I thought Cajjmere was doing. I might be wrong, but I believe he was taking us in a trip thru different eras of the house music, throwing some classic old beats, some knew stuff, tribal anthems, lots of vocals, some electro, but the most important thing was that he was progressively given us an introduction to what was to come. Good introduction, perhaps it could had been a lit bit more organized at the beginning, this way it wouldn’t had taken me this long to understand the initial journey for this evening. It would be interesting to see him as the main DJ of the evening, in other words, I super enjoy the last hour of his set.

It was a little bit passed 5:00am and the crowd was perfectly marinated for the passing of the torch. Not sure if this is what happened, but Grondin started with the same record Cajjmere ended, with a different twist, and even if it wasn’t that the case, what an incredible transition, not even in the Olympics you see this type of passing of fire.

I can comment on the people already, because whoever was there, stayed until super late. Who was there? Stereo was there, yes, the Stereo we have fallen in love with, the people that smile when you look at them, and make you feel like you are home. People with shirts on and without them, drag queens, geeks, electro boys, crazy girls, beautiful healthy males (borrowing the expression from this guy from Toronto I met during the night), guys with suits, first timers to the temple, Barbies, the Brazilo-Venezuelan couple and their Argentine friends, old friends. Believe me when I say Stereo was there.

Stephan Grondin used his magic to make a happy combo mixing up all the energy available in the dance floor, because no one was left untouched and nobody wanted to be left behind. Track after track of hard beats, “tribalisimos” for some, “sensuales” for others, and just “increibles” for me.

There are few Djs that are able to maintain such an incredible level of enthusiasm in the dance floor, and Grondin with his tunes is clearly one of them. Tribal melodies that were mixed in such a happy sensual fashion that left me with a big smile in my face. Just looked around and you could see similar smiles around.

Some vocals were given to the crowd, in a way only Grondin is able to delivery, but his speciality is to mix and remix those tunes so well that you don’t get tired of them, on the contrary, you want more and more. If we want more, Grondin give us more, and the never ending cycle only ends when our bodies tell us is enough.

The party to celebrate the release of the new CD, was unique and perhaps of the best sets I have heard from Grondin, and let me tell you, I’ve been many times in the dance floor while he has been spinning up there in the DJ booth. It was everything you expect from him and more, sexy, tribal, dark, delicious, “amazonicly” hot, savage, anyway you get the idea. People understood what Grondin did, and Grondin gave back to the floor his understanding of us.

Grondin, thank you for an unforgettable evening, and thank you people for being yourselves, if there is ever a movie about Stereo, make sure to mention this party.

I cannot forget to talk about the unbelievable party Mr. Danny Torrence had waiting for us down at Stereo Bar. I only stayed for 2 hours, not because I was tired, but because I had a previous engagement.

Great job these guys have, getting paid to do something they love so much, and we just love dancing because they are working.