Koozå

Koozå
Company	Cirque du Soleil
Genre	Contemporary circus
Show type	Touring show
Date of premiere	April 19, 2007
Creative team
Writer and director	David Shiner
Creation director	Serge Roy
Set designer	Stéphane Roy
Composer	Jean-François Côté
Costume designer	Marie-Chantale Vaillancourt
Lighting designer	Martin Labrecque
Artistic guide	Guy Laliberté
Sound designer	Jonathan Deans
Makeup designer	Florence Cornet
Rigging and acrobatic equipment designer	Danny Zen
Acrobatic performance designer	André Simard
Choreographers	Clarence Ford
Other information
Preceded by	Love (2006)
Succeeded by	Wintuk (2007)
Official website

Koozå is a touring circus production by Cirque du Soleil which premiered in Montréal, Canada, in 2007. The show was written and directed by David Shiner, who had previously worked as a clown in Cirque du Soleil's production of Nouvelle Expérience. His experience as a clown and his past work with Switzerland's Circus Knie and Germany's Circus Roncalli informed his work on Koozå.

Due to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, the artists and staff of Koozå were temporarily relocated to Macau where they continued training at Cirque du Soleil's resident show Zaia. The major benefit of relocating there is that the team is able to partner with the crews of Zed (which was also relocated from Japan) and Zaia at the Macau training facilities. Artists were also able to connect with artists from The House of Dancing Water, the water-based show at The City of Dreams by former Cirque du Soleil director Franco Dragone. Shows running from March 11 through April 9 were cancelled. The troupe returned and started performances again after facility management had conducted a thorough safety inspection.

Stéphane Roy designed Koozå's stage to evoke a public square that changes into a circus ring. The sight lines for the audience is quite grand, up to 260 degrees. The stage has one major component, a traveling tower dubbed the "bataclan." The decoration for the bataclan is inspired by Hindu culture, Pakistani buses and Indian jewelry. The large fabric structure behind the bataclan is organic in nature, as it's printed with a motif resembling the internal structure of leaves. As for the stage itself, the surface is decorated to look like the night sky. The center ring itself has a graphic representation of the night sky in Montréal the day which the show premiered.

Although there are many performers in Koozå, there are six primary characters who are central to the narrative.

Koozå has ten acrobatic acts, supplemented by other minor acts that develop the storyline.

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Wikipedia