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Cavalia Inc.

Type	Private company
Industry	Entertainment
Founded	2003 (as Voltige)
Founder(s)	Normand Latourelle
Headquarters	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Normand Latourelle Dominique Day (Co-Founders)
Employees	300
Website	www.cavalia.net

Cavalia is a company based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada that presents large-scale equestrian and performing arts productions. Its shows display expertise and innovation with cutting-edge technology, multimedia and special effects, along with equestrian and acrobatic performances such as Trick Riding, Vaulting, Haute École, Pas De Deux, and unbridled displays. Cavalia has produced two shows: Cavalia: A Magical Encounter Between Human and Horse, and Odysseo.

History [edit]

Created in 2003 by Normand Latourelle under the name of "Voltige",^[1] the very first show was held in Shawinigan. The company's original production, Cavalia: A Magical Encounter Between Human and Horse, has been touring since then and has reached over 3 Million spectators across North America and Europe through more than 1,800 performances (as of February 2012).^[2] In May 2009, the Government of Canada provided Cavalia with a $4-million loan to Cavalia Inc. to develop new productions and construct a horse-training facility in Sutton, Quebec.^[3] Latourelle was an original founder of rival Cirque du Soleil.^[4][5]

Cavalia's new show, Odysseo, premiered in October 2011.^[6]

Cavalia was created and is directed by Normand Latourelle. The large-scale multimedia performance his company delivers is often compared to Cirque du Soleil, of which he was one of the four original co-founders as well as Managing Director and Executive Vice-President from 1985 to 1990.

First Production: Cavalia, A Magical Encounter Between Human and Horse [edit]

The first show explores the changing relationship between humans and horses throughout history, offering a variety of equestrian and acrobatic numbers.^[7] Riders, acrobats, dancers and musicians share the stage with horses. A Magical Encounter Between Human and Horse consists of around fifty horses and 120 permanent employees, including 45 artists and five musicians.^[2]

Cavalia's Key Players [edit]

Cavalia's performance is a multimedia production based on various light and sound techniques as well as performing arts. These are the main creators that contributed to designing the show:

• Normand Latourelle: President and Artistic Director
• Erick Villeneuve: Director and Visual Designer
• Alain Lortie: Lighting Designer
• Manon Desmarais: Costume Designer
• Marc Labelle: Designer
• Alain Gauthier: Choreographer
• Michel Cusson: Music ^[8]

The Big Top and Village [edit]

Cavalia's White Big Top under a full moon

The Cavalia show in Downtown Miami, Florida, 2010.

The show is performed in what was once the largest tent in North America, a 2440 m² (26,300 ft²) big top, and takes 40 people 12 days to erect and 7 days to dismantle. The stable adds on another 1070 m² (11,500 ft²), and it takes 45 trucks to move the whole show. The 46 m (150 ft) wide stage takes 1500 tons of sand to complete.^[9]

About the White Big Top [edit]

• 150 people work for the tent raising and site preparation.
• The installation lasts 12 days, while the removal is completed in three days.
• The tent is 30 meters high, the equivalent height of a 10-storey building.
• 6635 m2 of fabric is used to create the marquee that extends over an area of 2 440m2.
• A screen of 70 meters serves as a backdrop for projections and multimedia effects.
• The stage is 50 meters in width, the length of an Olympic pool.
• 2,500 tons of sand, earth and gravel, the equivalent of 100 trucks, are used to create the scene.
• The Big Top can accommodate up to 2 000 spectators.

Cavalia’s village includes nine tents [edit]

• the White Big Top,
• the Rendezvous VIP Tent,
• the Entrance Tents,
• two Artistic Tents,
• two Warming Tents,
• the Stable and the Staff Cafeteria.^[10]

Ticket, Spain, 2008.

The Equine Performers [edit]

Drawing on a tradition that streches back to Lord Astley in the 1700ś, Circus as we know it was defined and developed by the Horse Exhibition. The stars of the show are the horses, about half stallions and half geldings. (There are no mares). These horses eat 40 bales of hay per day; they consume 900 kg (1980 lb) of grain and 20 kg (44 lb) of carrots each week. Many of the horses have their manes braided when not performing, and Templado's knee-length mane takes 90 minutes to complete.^[11] The horses are maintained by a team of 20 people, including a stables manager, two veterinary technicians, a farrier, and several groomers.

The tour features some fifty horses, all of them either stallions or geldings. Many of the horses are Lusitanos, and the remainder are Andalusian (PRE), Canadian Horses, American Quarter Horses, Paint horses, Belgians, Percherons, Arabians, and Appaloosa. The show's horses were originally from Canada, France, Spain, and the United States.^[12]

The horses are only asked to practice one hour each day, and they get two hours each day for play. The whole performance is 2 hours and 30 minutes per show, 7-8 times each week, and the horses are trained to understudy for each other so that different horses can be given the day off.

The Human Performers [edit]

The show also features over 20 human stars from Canada, and also from France, Kyrgyzstan, United States, Australia, Mexico, and Morocco.

Second Production: Odysseo [edit]

Odysseo was launched in 2011. In this second production by Cavalia, "horses and humans leave together to meet a world between dream and reality by traveling through the great wonders that nature has offered, deserts, waterfalls, canyons and glaciers."^[13] This second show portrays equestrian arts, acrobatics, music, multimedia projections and special effects under one Big Top. It features some 300 different costumes.^[14]

Odysseo's Key Players [edit]

Odysseo borrows from several different performance arts and techniques. The following are the principal creators from various disciplines who contributed to designing the show:

• Normand Latourelle: President and Artistic Director
• Wayne Fowkes: Director
• Benjamin Aillaud: Equestrian Direction and Choreography
• Guillaume Lord: Set Design
• Geodesik: Visual Design
• Alain Lortie: Lighting Design
• George Hamel and Michele Levesque: Costumes
• Darren Charles, Alain Gauthier: choreography
• Mathieu Roy and Elsie Morin : Acrobatic Number Conception^[15]

Cavalia Odysseo Tour: -Montreal, Quebec, Canada, -Atlanta, Georgia, USA, -Miami, Florida, USA, -Toronto, Ontario, Canada, -Monterrey, Nuevo León, México, -Scottdale, Arizona, USA -Burbank, California, USA

The Big Top and the Site [edit]

Like the first production's Big Top, Odysseo's tent was designed specifically for the needs of the show and the vision of its creators. It is two and a quarter times bigger than the first one and is (as of March 2012) the largest touring tent in the world.^[16]

Exterior [edit]

• consists of four poles, four arches and 2.1 square miles of canvas;
• is 38 meters high;
• the structure measures 115 meters long and 65 meters wide;
• it occupies a surface area which extends over 120 meters in length and 95 meter wide.^[17]

Interior [edit]

• hosts a scene of more than 2500 square meters;
• is composed of 6,000 tons of rock, earth and sand;
• has a seating capacity of 2290 people.^[18]

Assembly and Transport [edit]

• Installation requires 40 motors and a mechanical crane;
• Each arch is composed of eight 9-meter-long sections.
• The arches rise to 27 meters and are 62 meters long;
• the painting is composed of 16 pieces;
• 1310 piles and anchor points are used;
• 166 posts are required to assemble the walls of the tower;
• wiring has a length of 5.8 km;
• It takes 20 trucks to transport the tent.^[19][20]

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Official Site