Fire Within

I finally got the first two of three DVDs for Cirque Du Soleil: Fire Within today. I forgot how much I used to love the Cirque. I haven't really watched a Cirque video or any of these Fire Within episodes since way back in freshman year in high school. That's probably about a good six or seven years ago. In those six or seven years, I have totally forgotten how I was so mystified by the inner working of the Cirque. I also forgot how stunning Raquel Oliveira and Olga Pikhienko are. I guess my interest in foreigners originates from Fire Withing. Raquel is from Rio de Janeiro and Olga is from Russia but has been traveling with the Cirque since she was about 15.


For those uninitiated, Fire Within is a reality series that was shot during the making of Cirque Du Soleil's show Varekai. It follows several performers from the beginning of training to the opening of the show. Ashely and Gareth are in the program for the Icarian Games. They difficulty lies in that there's only a small handful of Icarian artists in the world, and they have to learn the art from scratch. Kevin and Andrew are the commonly refered to "twins" are there for the Aerial Straps which become one of the main focal points of Varekai and even catches the eye of Guy Laliberté. Raquel and Stella are parts of the triple trapeze which was birthed after the failure of the cage structure of whose name escapes me right now. Oleg, a 35 year old acrobat who is trying to reinvent himself as a dancer. He's a very Russian individual and his the person who has been touring for years upon years and is the oldest member of the troup. Olga Pikhienko who is one of the world's leading contortionists. When Varekai started to get up on its feet, she was a leading performer in Quidam and the Cirque brought her over into Varekai to takes the leading female role. There are alot of people to follow but it's not confusing at all as some of the cast, Olga included, come into the troup midway into the development as they are already well established in the Cirque.

You really get to see the physical and emotional challenges that the performers go through to prepare for the show. Hell, you even see the struggles that the casting crew and advertising agency go through because of the time crunch and artistic nature of the Cirque. Everything has to go through Laliberté which is a huge strain on the process. Dominic Champagne has to work extremely hard trying to get everything together from getting the acts just right so that laliberté likes it, to the name of the show, the posters, to the show itself.

If you're interested in performing arts or good docu-dramas, then check out Cirque Du Soleil: Fire Within.