Um not sure if you are being "funny" but the cirque shows are not "circus".
thats exactly what they are
Cirque du Soleil
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Website www.cirquedusoleil.com
Cirque du Soleil (French:
[sɪʁk dzy sɔ.lɛj], "Circus of the Sun" or "Sun Circus") is a
Canadian entertainment company and the largest theatrical producer in the world.
[3] Based in
Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and located in the inner-city area of
Saint-Michel, it was founded in
Baie-Saint-Paul on 7 July 1984, by two former street performers,
Guy Laliberté and
Gilles Ste-Croix.
[4]
Initially named
Les Échassiers (
[lez‿e.ʃa.sje], "The
Waders"), they toured
Quebec in 1980 as a performing troupe. Their initial financial hardship was relieved in 1983 by a government grant from the
Canada Council for the Arts, as part of the 450th anniversary celebrations of
Jacques Cartier's voyage to Canada.
[5] Le Grand Tour du Cirque du Soleil was a success in 1984, and after securing a second year of funding, Laliberté hired Guy Caron from the
National Circus School to recreate it as a "proper circus". Its theatrical, character-driven approach and the absence of performing animals helped define Cirque du Soleil as the
contemporary circus ("nouveau cirque") that it remains today. (The only two instances of animals in Cirque shows are the snakes of
Zumanity and the doves of
Believe.
[6])
Each show is a synthesis of circus styles from around the world, with its own central theme and storyline. Shows employ continuous live music, with performers rather than stagehands changing the props. After financial successes and failures in the late 1980s,
Nouvelle Expérience was created – with the direction of
Franco Dragone – which not only made Cirque du Soleil profitable by 1990, but allowed it to create new shows.
[7]
Cirque du Soleil expanded rapidly through the 1990s and 2000s, going from one show to 19 shows in over 271 cities on every continent except Antarctica. The shows employ approximately 4,000 people from over 40 countries and generate an estimated annual revenue exceeding US$810 million.
[8][9] The multiple permanent
Las Vegas shows alone play to more than 9,000 people a night, 5% of the city's visitors, adding to the 90 million people who have experienced Cirque du Soleil worldwide.
[9]