Kà

Kà
A billboard for Kà at the MGM Grand Las Vegas
Company	Cirque du Soleil
Genre	Contemporary circus
Show type	Resident show
Date of premiere	February 2005
Location	MGM Grand in Las Vegas
Creative team
Creator & Director	Robert Lepage
Director of Creation	Guy Caron
Theatre & Set Designer	Mark Fisher
Costume Designer	Marie-Chantale Vaillancourt
Composer	René Dupéré
Choreographer	Jacques Heim
Lighting Designer	Luc Lafortune
Sound Designer	Jonathan Deans
Interactive Projections	Holger Förterer
Puppet Designer	Michael Curry
Props Designer	Patricia Ruel
Acrobatic Equipment and Rigging Designer	Jaque Paquin
Aerial Acrobatics Designer and Head Coach, Creation	André Simard
Makeup Designer	Nathalie Gagné
Company Founder & CEO	Guy Laliberté
Official website

Kà is a show by Cirque du Soleil at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Created and directed by Robert Lepage, the show and the theater cost $220 million to develop.^[1]

Kà is the first Cirque du Soleil production that deviates from the company's usual format—the production presents a more straightforward story, unlike the more abstract visuals presented by other Cirque productions.

The show has been seen by more than one million spectators since its opening in February 2005.^[2]

Contents 1 Stage 2 Choreography 3 Plot 3.1 Pre-show 3.2 Storyline 4 Music 5 Effects 6 Sound and video 7 Kà in popular culture 8 References 9 External links

Stage

Kà lacks a conventional stage with a permanent floor; instead, two giant moving platforms and five smaller lifts and platforms appear to float through a bottomless space. A narrow boardwalk separates the audience from a deep abyss where the stage floor would normally be. From the stage level of the boardwalk up to the high grid is 98 feet, and the pit drops 51 feet below, amounting to a total of some 15 stories from the highest ceiling grid to the lowest floor level. The opening width and depth of the performance area are each 120 feet.^[3] This enormous performance space is reconfigured with each scene change by the complex movements of the show's lifts and platforms.

The largest moveable platform employed in the show, the Sand Cliff Deck, measures 25 x 50 ft and weighs 50 tons.^[4] A vertical gantry crane supports and controls the Sand Cliff Deck, lifting the platform up and down 72 feet, rotating it 360 degrees and tilting it from flat to 100 degrees. This is attached to four 75-foot long hydraulic cylinders that run along two support columns. The Sand Cliff Deck is equipped with show and work lights, circular elevators to bring performers in and out, 80 'rod actuators' that sprout from the floor surface to enable performers to climb it when it is tilted vertically, and video projection tiles that allow computer generated images to appear on the floor of the deck. In one scene, the entire deck is covered with large quantities of 'sand' (cork granules) to create the realistic appearance of a beach.^[3]

The second largest platform, the Tatami Deck, is a cantilevered 30 x 30 foot platform located upstage of the Sand Cliff Deck. It weighs 75,000 lbs, and slides in and out like a drawer to provide a horizontal stage and carry massive set pieces such as the Wheel of Death.^[3]

These two decks can appear alone or together or simply disappear from view; they can move in front of, behind, above or below each other.

The theater and stage were designed by British architect Mark Fisher, the structural design of the stage platforms by New York engineer Mal McLaren, and the torsion tube, wrist, arm assembly for the deck built by Timberland Equipment, a company that normally builds mining equipment.

In 2008, Kà's unique floating stages earned the production the prestigious Thea Award for Outstanding Technical Achievement from the Themed Entertainment Association.^[3]

Choreography

The choreography incorporates several types of acrobatics and martial arts, including fight scenes using the Wushu style of martial arts, Chinese opera, Poi for manipulating staves and batons, Brazilian Capoeira dance, bungees, aerial straps, swing poles, and a wheel of death.

Plot

Kà is a story about "conflict and love", of "imperial twins who are separated at the prime of their youth and must undergo a rite of passage of self-discovery. It is about their encounters with Kà, the fire that has the dual power to destroy or illuminate."^[5]

Pre-show

Unlike other Cirque du Soleil performances, Kà offers four pre-shows. Once the house opens, guests are greeted by the villagers of Kà ("Gatekeepers") with different professions such the mayor and his wife, the healer, the gossip, and so on. Twenty minutes before curtain, two musicians enter the lobby and climb up to two stringed instruments specially designed for Kà and integrated into the architecture. Ten minutes before the show, actors appear in the metal framework to the left and right of the stage and perform flips and leaps assisted with ropes to dive into the audience and attempt to scare viewers. Five minutes before showtime, a staged act informs the audience that there is no flash photography or cell phone usage allowed.

Storyline

Kà begins with the stage set as a ship. The twins are returning home, and preparations are in motion for their arrival. The boat docks, and the entire royal family is united. The court celebrates the return of the twins by displaying fantastic feats in a pageant, while the twins each perform together on their flutes. Just as the celebration comes to a close, pandemonium erupts when the court is attacked by a group of archers. The twins watch in horror as their parents, The Emperor and Empress, are assassinated in front of their eyes.

As the palace burns to the ground, the surviving members flee for their lives. Accompanied by their nursemaid, Twin Sister and Twin Brother attempt to escape to a boat that will take them to safety. However, the Twin Brother is left behind, shot down by an arrow. The Court Jester jumps off the boat to save the Twin Brother from his pending doom. The boat escapes, only to sink in a terrible storm. As a soft piano and cello duet plays, the Nursemaid drowns in the water. The Twin Sister dives into the depths to rescue her, and quickly swims to the surface with the Nursemaid in tow.^[6]

As light returns, the stage is now the Archer's Den. The Chief Archer, the Evil Counselor and his men celebrate their victory from the destruction of the Imperial Palace. The Counselor's Son unveils his ultimate creation: a machine that "grinds bones with the magical ore to unleash the destructive power of fire." ^[7]

The Twin Sister, Nursemaid and the Valets are reunited on a golden sandy beach. As they explore, they encounter giant sea creatures, including a turtle, a starfish, and a centipede. The group then leaves, to try and find any other survivors. In the meantime, the Court Jester and the Twin Brother have taken refuge in a cave. The Jester gently tries to nurse the Twin Brother's wounds. To distract him from his pain and fear, the Jester teaches the Twin Brother the art of shadow puppets. This beautiful moment is foiled by the archers, who, watching at a distance, plot their capture of the two. The Jester hears a sound, and investigates while leaving Twin Brother alone. The Twin Brother turns, and sees the face of the Chief Archer's Daughter. Their eyes meet, but are interrupted as the Archer's leap out and capture him. The Chief Archer's Daughter watches helplessly as Twin Brother is carried away.^[8]

Meanwhile, the Twin Sister and her entourage are scaling a mountain, when they are also attacked by the Archers. Although the Archers do not capture them all, the group becomes separated. Although the Twin Sister and the Nursemaid are reunited through the assistance of a friendly mountain tribe, the Archers also manage to find the clan. Under the threat of being captured by the Archers, the mountain tribe saves the Twin Sister by revealing their escape device—a simple tent dwelling that transforms into a miraculous human-powered flying machine. The group escapes, but the Twin Sister falls from the machine, plunging into a deep, lush forest.^[9]

The stage returns to the Archer's Den, where the Twin Brother is imprisoned in a small cage. The Chief Archer's Daughter watches from a distance, holding the flutes that the twins played before their lives were changed forever. All seems lost for the Twin Brother, until he finds a friend in the kind-natured Chief Archer's Daughter, who dares to approach him. She passes the flutes to Twin Brother, and when she leans towards the cage for a closer look at Twin Brother, when he takes the moment to lean forward to steal a brief kiss. Although the Chief Archer's Daughter is taken aback, as she turns away from the Twin Brother, it is obvious that she has also become smitten by him.

After their tender moment and after great hesitation, the Chief Archer's Daughter sets the Twin Brother from his cage, begging him to flee. Before he does, the Twin Brother makes a decision—he returns to her his flutes, the precious ceremonial gifts that were treasured by their kingdom. The Twin Brother then flees, leaving the Chief Archer's Daughter in hope they will meet again. She cannot hide her joy—she expresses her love through a touching performance of dance using the twins' flutes. All of this is witnessed by the Counselor's Son, who has desired the Chief Archer's Daughter for years. Engulfed by the rage of his unrequited love, he prepares for war.^[10]

The stage lights up again, into the lush forest that the Twin Sister has fallen into. The magical forest is home to many creatures, including enormous insects and a 80-foot (24 m) long snake. As the Twin Sister falls, a dashing creature comes to her rescue. It is the Firefly Boy, who lives within the forest. He swoops down and rescues the daughter, before inviting her to dance within in the trees with him. Perched high above in the vines is one of the singers, singing a sweet and exotic melody for their acrobatic dance. Knowing that she must continue her search for her brother, the Twin Sister reluctantly leaves.^[11]

The twins are reunited at last. They inspire the other prisoners to stand up and fight against the enslavers. The rebellion occurs by the enormous slave cage, where the prisoners perform death-defying jumps through the air. The prisoners are overjoyed to escape, but the moment is ruined by the sounds from the Drums of War. An army, led by the Evil Counselor and his son, are preparing to crush the remains of the empire once and for all. With the aid of the Firefly Boy and the people of the forest, the Twins lead a counter attack, and are victorious. In the Aftermath, we hear the cries of sorrow from the Counselor. He rushes to the side of his son, who apparently lies dying in the center of the battlefield. The stage slowly disappears into darkness.^[12]

The stage lights up for a final time, revealing the same boat the twins used to return to the land. Triumphant after the battle, peace and harmony has been restored to all of the empire. The twins now rule the empire, and each has married their beloved met on their journey. The Chief Archer has vowed peace, and symbolizes this by breaking his bow over his knee. The Counselor's Son also returns. Although not dead, he has been blinded by the battle. To show he has learned the error of his ways, he makes a magnificent display through fireworks. Kà ends the way it started; in celebration.^[13]

Music

Kà features an off-stage band that accompanies the acting, acrobatics, and singing that takes place on stage. During various portions of the show, different musicians make appearances in the show, performing in costume directly on the stage. The vocals in Kà are provided by a mezzo-soprano and an alto voice, both of which are female.

Originally, Kà's score was to be composed by Benoit Jutras.^[14] However, Jutras left the show because of creative differences, and the music of Kà was composed by René Dupéré, who has composed music for multiple other Cirque productions, including Mystère at Treasure Island, and Cirque's touring production of Alegría.

The soundtrack for Kà was released on the 18th of October, 2005. In addition to the original score, the soundtrack features several 'inspired by' tracks. Although the album is somewhat remixed, most of the content remains faithful to the show.

Conducted by Hollywood veteran Simon Leclerc and co-produced, arranged and engineered by Martin Lord-Ferguson, the Kà soundtrack features a symphonic orchestra of 57 musicians and a choir of over 40 singers, making Kà Cirque du Soleil's most "ambitious recording to date."^[15] The album features the voices of Élise Velle (René Dupéré's wife) and a young soprano boy named Philippe Lapan-Vandal. In addition, the 'inspired by' tracks, with the exception of "If I Could Reach Your Heart" (performed by Élise Velle), feature the voice of Canadian world artist Nitza Melas.

Through the music of Kà, René Dupéré attempts to provoke various emotions and moods such as drama, emergency, serenity, passion, and even "the birth of love". Dupéré describes the music with an "African flavor" and states that he wants the audience to feel that the show is "full of energy". He says that the music is not intended to sound as though it belongs to a specific time frame. "It could be from medieval times or even 200 years in the future...the music itself is ageless."^[16]

Effects

Kà combines complex automation, pyrotechnics, puppetry, and multimedia projections that help immerse the audience in the story.

Sound and video

The Kà theater, which has a capacity of 1950 people, is equipped with a total of 4774 loudspeaker drivers in 2139 cabinets: a pair of speakers at ear level in every seat and hundreds more strategically placed around the auditorium.^[17] The digitally mixed audio system routes an intricate mix of sound effects and music to these speakers to create a very dynamic surround-sound audio experience.^[18] Sound effects can be targeted, manipulated and customized to any of 16 seating zones.^[17]

The multimedia projection in the show utilizes both infrared video motion detecting as well as a system of touch-sensitive panels beneath the surface of the main 'Sand Cliff' deck. This allows the system to track the location of individual performers and change the video content accordingly. A similar example of the infrared portion of this technology can be seen in some movie theater lobbies where people can step on and burst video projected bubbles.

Kà in popular culture

• Footage of Kà was featured in the premiere of the seventh season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, "Built To Kill, Part 1."

• Kà was a part of the 2007 NBA All-Star Game half-time show.

• Kà was also featured in an episode of Really Big Things on the Discovery Channel.

• The Kà theater was used as the set for episode 14 of the 2007 season of MTV's Road Rules series.

• The performers from Kà participated in part 1 of the first season finale of Top Chef on Bravo.

• On 28 December, 2007 the German national TV channel ZDF made history when they aired Kà.^[19]

• German national TV channel ZDF later aired a backstage documentary named Kà Backstage in parallel to the show Kà, allowing the viewers to switch between the channels with the same timeline. This documentary included never seen before behind-the-scenes night vision shots of the crew preparing the next sets while the show was running.

• "Battlefield" was featured as the percussion break in Phantom Regiment's 2008 field show "Spartacus."

References

External links

• Kà on Cirque du Soleil's website
• Kà on Mark Fisher's website

v • d • e Cirque du Soleil shows Alegría · Corteo · Criss Angel Believe · Dralion · Kà · Koozå · La Nouba · Love · Mystère · Nouvelle Expérience · O · Ovo · Quidam · Saltimbanco · Varekai · Viva Elvis · Wintuk · Zaia · Zed · Zumanity