By Ann M. Augherton
Herald Managing Editor
(From the issue of 9/23/04)

Cirque du Soleil returns to Washington with its latest production, "Varekai."

The gravity-defying performance intertwines acrobatics, elaborate costumes and haunting music for a show so powerful, you find yourself shaking your head in disbelief and forgetting to applaud.

It is certainly not the circus of your childhood. There are no animals, red clown noses have been replaced by exquisite costumes and squeezable horns with wind instruments, violins and keyboards.

"Varekai," which means "wherever" in the language of the gypsies, is staged in a mysterious forest near the top of a volcano. The white-winged Anton Chelnokov opens the show with the "Flight of Icarus," based on Greek mythology. Icarus dangles from the big top and falls to earth, only to be captured in a net where he performs breathtaking dives.

The elaborate set, designed by Stéphane Roy, combines some 300 trees, including "acrobatic trees" that the players climb, a catwalk and a stage with trap doors, as well as rotating and rising sections. Other equipment comes and goes to allow the troupe to catapult, dangle from and fly through the air over the audience. Some 130 different costumes were designed by Eiko Ishioka for this production.

The music, composed by Violaine Corradi, combines gospel, Hawaiian, French troubadours and Armenian styles for something unidentifiable, yet appealing.

The cast, which includes more than 50 people from 14 different countries, works with a 15-member creative team. The Bethrothed, or La Promise, played by Irina Naumenko of Russia, is Icarus’ guide, as is Sergiy Marchenko of Ukraine, who is a wise old man who inspires Icarus to change.

The Skywatcher, or La Vigie, played by Canada’s Gordon White, is the mad scientist/inventor.

It wouldn’t be a circus without a clown, and Jordi Deambulants and Joannna Holden keep things light between acts as they mix sight gags with audience participation.

Icarian Games, an ancient circus tradition, is foot-juggling where one man lies on his back with his legs up and juggles another man with his feet. The man being juggled rotates head over feet and is caught by the juggler’s feet.

Dergin Tokmak of Germany, who was stricken with polio at age 1, performs on crutches with amazing strength and balance. Naumenko wows the audience with her flexibility as she folds herself into unbelievable positions while balancing on canes.

Cirque du Soleil was created by a group of street performers in Canada in 1984, and since then they boast 40 million spectators worldwide. Each Cirque production seems better than the one before, as the theme, costumes, music and symbolism change.

Cirque du Soleil’s "Varekai" plays through Oct. 24 on the grounds of RFK Stadium in Washington.