INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT CIRQUE DU SOLEIL

In 1982, the 23-year-old French-Canadian Guy Laliberte - a street actor, a “swallower” of fire, a self-taught fakir, an accordionist and a dancer on stilts, turned to the authorities of the city of Montreal with a fantastic, not to say crazy idea - to create a national circus
In 1984, the city authorities gave Laliberte permission to rent a land plot, the price for which was symbolic - one dollar a year
The first Cirque du Soleil hall was a blue-yellow circus tent with 800 seats on the outskirts of Montreal
In the 1980s, Guy Laliberte met with masters of the most famous circuses and circus schools in the world. In Moscow, he carefully studies the methods of training artists of the Russian circus, visiting the Center for Circus Arts "Rosgoszirk" in Izmailovo and both Moscow stationary circuses
In St. Petersburg, Guy Laliberte met with the school of Vyacheslav Polunin. A few years later, the famous Russian mime Slava Polunin accepts the invitation of a Canadian colleague, and has been working in the ALEGRIA program for almost a year
The annual budget of the Cirque du Soleil casting department, which searches for and carefully selects the most interesting numbers, outstanding athletes and talented artists from around the world, is about $ 45 million
Cirque du Soleil's head office is a weird-looking building, consisting of two transparent colored rectangles, which was designed and built by renowned Canadian architect Dun Hanganu. Construction cost 60 million. The building has a usable area of 18,600 square meters and is divided into two parts: Studio and Atelier. In the "Studio" there are training halls and all office rooms associated with the creative process. Atelier makes decorations and costumes. Atelier receives all costume fabrics exclusively white, then dyeing them in accordance with the sketches, at the discretion of artists and designers
According to Guy Laliberte, the value of his circus empire is from two to three billion dollars
Cirque du Soleil is Canada's third-highest income after hockey and maple syrup
Since its founding in 1984, the Cirque du Soleil has seen over 40 million viewers, more than 130 cities on five continents of our planet.
In the original version of the show in 1984, 73 people were involved. Today the company has 3,500 employees, including about 900 circus artists representing more than 40 nationalities and speaking 25 different languages
Circus of the Sun has an extensive network of administrative offices in London, New York, Amsterdam, Singapore, Hong Kong and Las Vegas.
The Russian branch of Cirque du Soleil has opened in Moscow. The first performance is planned to be given in Luzhniki in the fall of 2009, starting with a two-month tour of the performance of VAREKAI
Two major investors from Dubai - Istithmar World and Nakheel - each acquired a ten percent stake in Cirque du Soleil. New joint venture to build 1800 circus building in Dubai
Until a new circus building appears in Dubai, he will continue to give regular performances in three cities - Las Vegas, Macau and Tokyo
In 2006, the premiere of the thirteenth show of the Cirque du Soleil circus entitled Love (“Love”), dedicated to the history of the Beatles, was held in Las Vegas with great success. The performance was attended by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, the sons of John Lennon, Sean and Julian, Yoko Ono, the first wife of Lennon Cynthia, the children of George Harrison Dani and Blair and the wife of George Olivia Harrison. The project budget amounted to $ 100 million dollars (for comparison: the annual budget for financing the largest Russian circus company "Rosgosirc" is about $ 10 million)
Guy Laliberte, founder and CEO of Cirque du Soleil, was announced in 2007 as the winner of the Ernst & Yang Entrepreneur Of The Year® Awards international competition at the awards ceremony in Monte Carlo (Monaco)
The multi-millionaire Guy Laliberte is still performing every day ... "I don’t spit fire," he says, "but still try to bring a smile to the faces of my children. I recognize that some businessmen consider me to be just an artist, artists think that I - a businessman, but I know that I can strike a balance between creativity and business. "