I saw Cirque Du Soleil for the first time when I was in 7th grade. That experience changed my life. The extravagant costumes, the otherworldly sets, the unbelievable stunts...Cirque du Soleil took hold of me in a way I had never felt before. I was completely moved. And the experience obviously left a big impression on me because I now run a circus company. Years later, my high school class voted me "Most Likely to Join Cirque Du Soleil" at our Prom.
That first cirque show was the beginning of my long love affair with circus arts and it planted a seed that would one day grow into CIRCUS PICNIC, the event and video production company that I run with my husband. So when our company was hired to perform for the grand opening of KURIOS, it was quite literally a childhood dream come true.
Kurios is set in a whimsical industrial revolution era, with portals, dreamscapes, and fanciful feats. Amazingly, the entire show was designed with the constraints of the time period in mind, and all of the set design and rigging is entirely mechanical. If it didn't exist in the 1800's Kurios didn't use it in their production!
We wanted to capture this spirit when designing our costumes for the grand opening. It was so fun to rock the steampunk circus style with an extra special touch of airbrush art by Pasha Luminus of Silver Lynx Art.
Our job at the grand opening was to beckon audiences into the big top tent, setting the stage for the mesmerizing show to come. What better way to grab people’s attention than with stilts? The audience was awestruck and delighted by our costumed stilt walkers. Hands down, we posed for more photos during this one hour event than in any other performance to date! [photo posing]
The cherry on top of this unforgettable experience was being able to cheer on our friend Facundo Gimenez, who plays the role of Ringmaster in Kurios. Facundo was the lead creative consultant for our Children’s TV show, Mr. Greenheart's Treehouse, helping to draw the very best out of our cast.
You can check out the photos from our exclusive backstage tour with the ring leader himself here.