Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil Inc.
Type
Private
Founded
1984
Founder(s)
Guy Laliberté
Headquarters Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Daniel Lamarre, President and
CEO
Industry
Entertainment
Employees
3,800
Divisions
Cirque du Soleil Images,
Cirque du Soleil’s
Merchandising
Subsidiaries
Cirque du Soleil Musique
Website
www.cirquedusoleil.com
Cirque du Soleil (French for "Circus of the
Sun," in English pronounced /sɪrk duː soʊˈleɪ/)
is an entertainment company. Based in
Montreal, Quebec, Canada and located in the
inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was foun-
ded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former
street performers, Guy Laliberté and Daniel
Gauthier.[1] The company is the winner of the
1991 Drama Desk Award for Unique Theat-
rical Experience.
Initially named Les Échassiers,
they
toured Quebec in 1980 as a performing
troupe and encountered financial hardship
that was relieved by a government grant in
1983 as part of the 450th anniversary celeb-
rations of Jacques Cartier’s discovery of
Canada.[2] Le Grand Tour du Cirque du Soleil
was a success in 1984, and after securing a
second year of funding, Laliberté hired Guy
Caron from the National Circus School to re-
create it as a "proper circus". No ring and no
animals helped make Cirque du Soleil the
modern circus ("Cirque Nouveau"/New Cir-
cus) that it is today.[3]
Each show is a synthesis of circus styles
from around the world, with its own central
theme and storyline. They draw the audience
into the performance through continuous live
music, with performers rather than stage-
hands changing the props. After critical and
financial successes (Los Angeles Arts Festiv-
al) and failures in the late 1980s, Nouvelle
Expérience was created – with the direction
of Franco Dragone – which not only made
Cirque profitable by 1990, but allowed it to
create new shows.[4]
Cirque expanded rapidly
through the
1990s and 2000s, going from one show to ap-
proximately 3,500 employees from over 40
countries producing 15 shows over every
continent except Afr