Cavalia
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Cavalia is a company based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada that presents large-scale equestrian productions involving trick riding, vaulting, haute école and pas de deux, unbridled displays, and Cirque du Soleil-like performances.
Cavalia was created and directed by Normand Latourelle, one of the original founders of Cirque du Soleil. The musical score was composed by Michel Cusson.
The tour uses 52 horses, all of them either stallions or geldings. Thirteen horses are Lusitanos (and brothers or half-brothers), and the remainder are Andalusian or PRE, Canadian Horses, American Quarter Horses, Paint horses, Belgians, Percherons, Arabians, and Appaloosa. About half of the horses were brought from southern France and the rest are from the United States.
The show is performed in 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.
The horses are only asked to practice one hour each day, and get two hours each day for play. They only perform for 5–10 minutes per show, 7-8 times each week, and the horses are trained to understudy for each other so different horses can be given the day off.
In May 2009, 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.[1]
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[edit] The equine stars
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, and consume 900 kg (1980 lb) of grain and 20 kg (44 lb) of carrots each week. Many of the horses have their mane braided when not performing, and Templado's knee-length mane takes 90 minutes to complete.[2] A team of 20 people, including a stables manager, two veterinary technicians, a farrier and several grooms, take care of horses' well-being.
[edit] The human stars
The show also features over 20 human stars from Canada, and also from France, Kyrgyzstan, United States, Australia, Mexico, and Morocco.
- Mohamed Achoune: Acrobatics, tumbling, dancing, Chinese pole
- Coen Clarke: Russian bar
- Jason Fergusson: Russian bar
- Dosbergen Kozugulov: Trick riding, dancing
- Marianella Michaud: Dancing, bungee, vertical rope, acrobatics
- Marie-Élaine Mongeau: Hand to hand, dancing, bungee, acrobatics
- Faiçal Moulid: Acrobatics, tumbling, dancing, trampoline
- Majolie Nadeau: Acrobatics, bungee, trampoline, vertical rope
- Maxime Panteleenko: Straps, Russian bar
- Landon Pearson: Trick riding, lasso
- Alexandre Philippe: Trick riding
- Benjamin Aillaud: Equestrian Director
- Renny Spencer; Trick riding, lasso
- Sylvia Zerbini; Liberty
[edit] References
- ^ "Cavalia gets a $4-million jump on new production". Montreal Gazette (Canwest). 2009-05-26. Archived from the original on 2009-05-27. http://web.archive.org/web/20090527234921/http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/fp/Cavalia+gets+million+jump+production/1631924/story.html. Retrieved 2009-05-26.
- ^ http://www.cavalia.net/pages/theShow/artists_horses/horses/alydar.aspx?lang=EN-CA List of horses, beginning alphabetically]
