Cirque du Soleil KA at MGM Grand Las Vegas
Seen from directly overhead, two opposing groups of armor-suited warriors charge to meet in the middle. A fierce battle ensues, the warriors using staffs, swords and kung fu. Some have an almost-supernatural power to leap over their enemy. That's how the scene unfolds in Cirque du Soleil's new "Ka." But the spectators doesn't see the slide viewpoint on film, or reflected in mirrors. They see it because the warrior are balanced in the air, their feet rappelling onto a near-vertical wall, upon which the image of the battleground is projected. Along with drama their stunt combat, the performers are squeezing control units, hidden in their fists, to move the wires that hang them from a grid 90 feet above the stage. In part, it's the reply to the question everyone had: How could Cirque KA top itself and bring a distinct new product in its fourth show on the Las vegas Strip?
The $165 million Cirque Ka, which started its first Cirque KA ticketed "preview" shows today at the MGM Grand (the formal opening is in February) characters not only a watershed for Las Vegas entertainment, but maybe the formation of an all-new entertainment medium: the live movie; theater that uses the language of cinema." In movies you will see a battlefield from different angles ... We've had the chance to give people a live experience about battle that is completely different than what you would get in any other theater," says Lyn Heward, who oversees Cirque's creative contented division. Visit our website to check out our Cirque KA Tickets inventory. we have selected quality tickets for Cirque KA in Las Vegas.
"Ka" has the rich, textured atmosphere of grand opera, except that nothing is stagebound, not even the two stages themselves. Scenes flow from one to another, changing perspective. When the nanny of the young protagonist falls overboard during a turbulent storm at sea, you first see the older caretaker (Teuda Bara) swept off the side of the boat that spins and bobs like a cork on the water. Then the stage transforms to an underwater point of view, to show the nanny sinking to the bottom -- again by using aerial wires and film projection -- and the young heroine (Jennifer Haight) plunging in to rescue her. "If your basics are solid, then you can build it," says "Ka" production manager Stephane Mongeau. The first Cirque making to be storyboarded in advance came together, perhaps not coincidentally, in a comparatively compressed time frame.
In June 2002, Cirque Ka and MGM Mirage established rumors that dated back to at least mid-2001: "EFX" would shut at the end of that year, to be replaced by the new Cirque and, as it turned out, a theater gutted and rebuilt from the ground up. But Lepage had come up with the essential treatment for "Ka" by the end of 2001. And Cirque Ka had dropped a major clue to its new way with its tribute to special effects in the 2002 Academy Awards broadcast. "What we were trying to do at that time was say to people, `Look, you don't need the magic of film to do "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"-like movements.' You can actually do it in real life, too," Heward says. Cirque Ka attracts many people every year. We have been selling Cirque KA Tickets for all Las Vegas Events for more than 20 years and we know all of our customers needs.
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