By JQ magazine editor Justin Tedaldi (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02). Justin has written about Japanese arts and entertainment for JETAA since 2005. For more of his articles, click here. Photos by Matt Beard & Anne Colliard.
Under the White Big Top at Atlantic Station, a glowing disc becomes moon and sun, hummingbirds vault through moving hoops, and a sudden downpour sketches patterns in mid-air. This is LUZIA: A Waking Dream of Mexico, Cirque du Soleil’s acclaimed touring production that transforms a night at the circus into a kaleidoscopic travelogue: equal parts high-wire athleticism, live theater, and living mural. The Atlanta engagement runs now through January 25—a perfect holiday send-off and a rare chance to see the company’s first Big Top show to weave real rain into its acrobatics.
LUZIA opens with a parachutist tumbling into a field of golden marigolds before a “Running Woman” unfurls monarch-butterfly wings. From there, the show leapfrogs through an imaginary Mexico: a smoky dance hall inspired by the golden age of cinema; an arid desert rimmed by towering agaves; a cenote where an aerialist arcs just above a shimmering pool. The program’s audacious centerpiece is a curtain of water that “prints” shapes with droplets—flowers, animals, even motifs drawn from Otomí embroidery—then vanishes in an instant.
On treadmills, hoop divers sprint and spring through moving rings; Cyr wheel artists carve hypnotic circles in the rain; and the Russian swing sends flyers soaring 30 feet beneath the tent’s crown. (Note that this is the first Cirque touring production to integrate water at this scale; Cirque’s custom-made 2,600-seat Grand Chapiteau becomes a small village on wheels, complete with kitchens, workshops, and a self-contained water system.)
Reviews have been rapturous since the show’s Montreal premiere back in 2016. New York Theatre Guide called LUZIA “one not to miss,” praising the way it “showcases the best of Cirque’s acrobatic feats amid bright colors, vibrant music, and rich culture.” Atlanta’s ArtsATL admired how the “sumptuous and vibrant world of Mexico” is conjured through costumes, ingenious set pieces, and “excellent acrobatics.” Critics abroad have echoed the praise. Australia’s Herald Sun hailed LUZIA as a “spellbinding love letter to Mexican culture” and marveled at the onstage downpour created with tens of thousands of liters of filtered, heated, and recirculated water—an engineering feat that underscores Cirque’s obsession with detail and safety.
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