Imagine a forest of towering trees, their bases lost in darkness, their trunks a lattice of shadows, and a light like the full moon finding its way to an open space in the woods. Then a single horse trots in, pauses, leans its head toward the ground and waits. Another saunters in, and then, a few moments later, another, and then more. They brush noses, rub neck to neck, swish tails, play.
And a spellbound audience watches the kind of quiet and calm we so rarely make space for anymore — the kind of natural, simple elegance modern life rarely gives room to.
Eventually, humans walk in, and the journey begins. Odysseo, the latest show from Cavalia, created by former Cirque du Soleil pioneer Normand Latourelle, tugs at the nomadic hearts left in humans and the sense of adventure, exploration and independence seen in men and women astride horses. In addition to dozens of horseback riders, aerialists, dancers, and a troop of acrobats, several of whom can repeat backflips across the entire big top tent, the cast includes 62 horses — Arabians, Lusitanos, quarter horses and Spanish pure breds.
The show wanders to various extremes of the world — deserts, mountains, starry skies, waterfalls, ice and oceans — to showcase both stellar showmanship and the acrobatics that have long characterized the elite circus-inspired shows like Cirque du Soleil and others it has inspired.
Odysseo may move from that quiet opening scene into the level of spectacle and stagecraft that stuns — imagine three dozen horses walking and trotting in a coordinated formation that spins around the big top floor — but those roots to the human history in nomadic tribes first set free to roam wider distances when they tamed and rode horses, is never lost.
A certain creative mastery is required in working with an unknown like a horse — it takes a confidence and trust in the base material you lay out to work, even if it doesn’t work as planned. Even if a horse bucks when it is meant to play nicely. Odysseo seems built to let all that happen — to embrace it, even, and make that unpredictability, the beautiful accident, a part of the entertainment.
Set pieces include a multi-ton carousel that drops from the three-story-tall big top tent and an 80,000 gallon lake, and it’s all augmented by a screen at the back that plays out the scenery for a setting. That screen is perhaps best used to work subtle tricks of the eye — adding depth to the backdrop or augmenting the lighting — rather than pushing for powerful and running into over-wrought.
Stellar lighting design transforms the sand floor for each scene. Brilliantly detailed costume design by Michele Hamel and the late George Lévesque were built to fit both the horse and the rider, and assist in merging the vision. When a rider is astride two horses, the sheer, white train billowing out behind her gives the performance an ethereal look. In scenes that are about a much simpler play, like when a single woman commands five Arabian horses to circle and scatter with near invisible commands, the costume gets out of her way to let all gesture and grandness come from the horses and the level of training and skill with which they’re guided.
Odysseo clearly tailors to the horse lover — and judging from the large belt buckles and tall boots that dot the audience, the horse lovers have found it. But even an audience member who can’t forecast the tricks to come based on the saddle set-up is set for an evening of mesmerizing performances and wonder at what humans and nature can achieve together.
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