The tech inside Cirque's big tent

SAN FRANCISCO--It's six hours before a performance of the new Cirque du Soleil show, "Corteo," and backstage, computers are controlling a series of dollies hanging from two giant arched tracks bridging the stage.

Hanging from the dollies are three massive chandeliers from which acrobats are practicing gyrations and twists.

The dollies are the kind of rigging gear seen in just about any circus or theater with acts that require people or props to be elevated far above the ground. But the system running the dollies' deployment--a crucial element of the show, since nearly every act involves one or more performers flying or leaping high into the air--is entirely automated, something that would have been unheard of to Cirque du Soleil's progenitors and that is rare even in some of the Cirque's other shows.

Video: High wires and high tech
News.com reporter Daniel Terdiman goes behind the scenes to see how technology helps performers achieve mind-boggling feats of balance and flexibility.
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Under the giant blue and yellow tent in which "Corteo" performers leap, contort and clown, technology is everywhere, even if the audience hardly knows it.

"We keep getting smaller and smaller (technological) components," said Michael Wilder, the technical director on "Corteo" and a two-year veteran of "Quidam." "It's always a question of pushing (the technology) as far as we can and giving the creator as much as we can."

Most of the show's lighting, for example, is controlled using a protocol called Wireless DMX. The idea, Wilder explained, is that so much action goes on in midair--like the acrobats suspended from the chandeliers--that it would be impossible to use a wired system. Thus, technicians use computers that automatically send signals to hundreds of lights throughout the theater, both in the air and attached to beams or trusses, turning them on or off as needed.

Another high-tech, albeit lighthearted, piece of technology in "Corteo" is a set of three small spotlights on wheels that appear during the show and that were designed with lights on swivels that bob up and down, lending them a personality that gets the audience laughing.

As simple as the spotlights look, they are directed from backstage by wireless airplane controllers, allowing the stage manager to send them scurrying around the various performers at will.

Of course, Wilder said, the system doesn't always work.

"Sometimes the frequency goes haywire and (a spotlight) will take off and one of the actors has to go get it," he said. "It's still a live show. Computers still burp and crash."

"Corteo," which is showing in San Francisco through Jan. 8, is on its second stop in the U.S. after its April debut in Montreal. It is one of six Cirque du Soleil shows currently touring the world that complement five permanent installations in Las Vegas and Orlando, Fla.

Beyond the unique collection of jugglers, acrobats, clowns and trapeze artists in "Corteo," what sets the presentation apart from the company's traveling shows like "Alegria," "Varekai," "Saltimbanco" and "Quidam" is that it's the most technologically advanced touring show the Cirque has ever created, with more than 30 technicians operating the controls that enable the performers to spotlight their sometimes mind-boggling feats of flexibility and synchronicity.

Cirque du Soleil first began pushing boundaries in Quebec in 1984. It started taking its acts on the road in 1985, and by 1987 had crossed into America.

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