The Stage is Set

KOOZA’s set rekindles the circuses of yesteryear: a world crackling with electricity, amazing feats, dazzling colors and unexpected turns.

In many ways, the KOOZA set is a return to roots for Cirque du Soleil. A place where danger, pleasure, hope, fear, innocence, joy and especially love are palpable.

The stage is dominated by one major element: a grand traveling tower called the Bataclan. The Bataclan moves artists in and out of the spotlight, acts as a bandstand, and alters the performance space as it moves about.

Inspired by Hindu culture, Pakistani buses, and Indian jewelry, the Bataclan is framed by “sails” that can be opened and closed like the petals of an enormous flower.

KOOZA features about 100 props that are specially designed to reinforce the characters–giving them greater depth and breathing life into their movements.

A life-sized jack-in-the-box, a mysterious magician’s chair, or a simple kite that hasn’t yet learned how to fly… KOOZA’s props are an indispensable extension of the performer’s own body.

Look up into the set and you’ll see a starry sky that creates the impression of entering a nebula. Look down onto the stage floor, and you’ll see a sky chart with special significance…

It portrays the heavens on the day of the first public performance of the KOOZA.

The lighting of KOOZA conjures a radiant, whimsical world caught somewhere between strength and fragility, laughter and chills, turmoil and harmony.

In KOOZA, the designers used a front of house lighting configuration (commonly found in theaters) inside the Big Top for the first time at Cirque du Soleil. Three trusses had to be set in place over the audience’s heads to rig the lights.