Riverfront Choice Tickets

Quidam

Quidam: a nameless passer-by, a solitary figure lingering on a street corner, a person rushing past. It could be anyone, anybody. Someone coming, going, living in our anonymous society. A member of the crowd, one of the silent majority. The one who cries out, sings and dreams within us all. This is the "quidam" that Cirque du Soleil is celebrating.
 
A young girl fumes; she has already seen everything there is to see, and her world has lost all meaning. Her anger shatters her little world, and she finds herself in the universe of Quidam. She is joined by a joyful companion as well as another character, more mysterious, who will attempt to seduce her with the marvelous, the unsettling, and the terrifying.

Cirque du Soleil is considered a stunning concept in modern performance art and circus craft. There are no dancing bears here, though there are a few clowns. The performers are all human and each exhibits a superhuman ability at acrobatic feats and the ability to spread awe or mirth over the spectators. Quidam is the featured Cirque du Soleil extravaganza. The show includes a huge, rotating stage and arching trapeze platforms to bring the performers right over the heads in the audience.

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Quidam: The Story

Quidam, on the other hand, actually has a story that you can (sort of) follow: that of a young girl, Zoe, who is lost amid a world where she finds no meaning and is swept up in the universe of Quidam.

Zoe appears along with her disinterested parents, appearing lost and out of place. She is met by a mysterious, headless figure with an umbrella (depicted on the show's advertisements), who hands her a bowler hat - and the magic begins.

One of the first acts features an actor twisting and spinning inside a giant metal hampster-type wheel called the "German wheel". 

Another act showcases an adorable crew of Chinese youngsters who perform the "diabolos," sort of giant yo-yos. These girls flip, throw and spin the devices with skill beyond their years, all the while performing somersaults and flips before throwing and catching the diabolos on a mere string.

Clowns and audience "volunteers" are always a big part of Cirque. Warning: if you don't want to risk embarrassment, don't sit down front or make eye contact with the clowns.

Quidam's spectacle features a five-rail 120-foot overhead conveyor which spans the Grand Chapiteau. Aerial acts fly back and forth through the sky along this track.

Artist perform aerial contortions hanging on to two strands of silk, spinning and dropping from the sky, only to be caught at the last minute with a whisk of silk fabric.

The Cerceaux hoops performers spin over the audience within and between hoops suspended on the overhead rails. The Spanish Webs feature a team of aerialists climbing, hanging and dropping on ropes suspended above the crowd, with daring moves only to be caught by their own knots entwining their legs. The "Cloud Swing is a giant elegant trapeze-like swing.

Other spectactles include "Skipping Ropes" a combination of double-dutch and boxer rope skipping, this brings playground rope skipping into a whole different orbit - literally.

At the other end of the spectrum is the Statue - Vis Versa. Displaying amazing strength, the near nude (bodysuited) artists lifted, carried and posed entwined together until they appeared as one unit, as still as a statue. An impressive and artistic feat.

Then there is the Banquine, a troupe of mostly Russian and Ukraine acrobats who toss each other around, high above the stage.

Quidam is like everything in the Cirque du Soleil repertoire: spectacular, artistic and entertaining. Cirque has grown into a well-oiled machine since its humble beginnings, but every production always taps into your own imagination. Quidam is unique, its pace is more lyrical than the other shows, like poetry in motion. Quidam will leave you full of awe and thoroughly entertained.

And isn't that what a circus is all about?