Closer Inspection


Not-so-creepy crawlies Cirque du Soleil’s bevy of acrobatic bugs


BY KRIS CORONADO Insects and acrobats. The two groups have more in common than you might think. “Both of them can jump, can fl y, can run, can do many amazing things,” says Deborah Colker, the director, choreographer and writer of “Ovo,” Cirque du Soleil’s latest acrobatic eye candy, which debuted in the District on Sept. 9. The story of “Ovo” the Portuguese word for “egg” — begins with, well, the arrival of an enormous egg in the bugs’ community. Confounded by the discovery, the insects steal it from the outsider who brought it (in this case, a vibrant blue fl y) and invite the audience into their hidden world. “For each family of insects, I brought a different kind of personality, different kinds of gestures and ways to move,” Colker says. The jumping, dancing crickets “always have a lot of humor and a lot of vigor,” while the white spider uses slow, seductive movements and the ants perform with disciplined synchronicity. But although all 54 performers channel some element of the insect world, Colker didn’t want to simply copy nature. “This would be impossible. I wanted to give my point of view,” she says.


FLEAS T e fi ve fl eas focus on maintaining


their equilibrium as they balance into various


body-bending pyramids. T e fl eas’ costumes are yellow on the back and red on the front. “We chose red and yellow more as an evocation of childishness and


troublemakers,” costume designer Liz Vandal says. “T ese girls, you can tell they’re very charming, coquette and sexy, but you can feel they’re


going to pinch you and run away.”


ANTS


Because ants oſt en use their feet to build their homes and carry food, they’re represented by six foot jugglers. T e three porters on their backs use their feet to send the three fl yers pirouetting from sitting to standing to lying positions, while the fl yers in turn balance and toss


fl at drums. T e ants’ shoes are made of cotton and have a fl exible rubber sole thin enough to allow them to use their toes to toss objects and each other.


CRICKETS


T e 11 crickets have the most demanding cardiovascular workout of the show. Costumers developed a technique called organic origami, creasing yellow and green polyester fabric in layers under a clear Mytex coating, then heating them until the polyester cracked and expanded


to expose the colors in a hard-shell fashion.


Each one took 75 to 80 hours to make.


WHITE SPIDER


Svetlana Belova, 33, who plays the white spider, has been a contortionist since she was 15. An hour before Belova’s elegant and fl uid eight-minute performance, she does handstands to warm up. “We went with all white,” says costume designer Liz Vandal of Belova’s Lycra leotard, because there are fewer white spiders in nature. “We rarely see them, but it was also very glamorous, as if she’s from Las Vegas.”


INSECT CHARACTER PHOTOGRAPHS BY BENOÎT FONTAINE © 2009 CIRQUE DU SOLEIL; WHITE SPIDER CHARACTER PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF OSA IMAGES


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