Patrick Leroux - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Uploads

Book Chapters by Patrick Leroux

Cirque du Soleil is the world’s largest live entertainment company with 20 shows running concurre... more Cirque du Soleil is the world’s largest live entertainment company with 20 shows running concurrently around the world; 7 in Las Vegas, 3 in New York, 2 in Orlando, 1 in Riviera Maya, and 8 on tour (Cirque du Soleil website, 2016).
This writing argues that one of the most vital aspects contributing to the company’s success is its use of narrative.
In contrast to most traditional circus, Cirque du Soleil shows use narratives to structure the works and to engage audiences, not text-based narratives but rather physical and visual narratives that can communicate with audiences from different cultures, and can cross language barriers. Three of the diverse approaches to narrative within Cirque du Soleil works are explored through examining the shows, KÀ (2004), Kooza (2007), and Luzia (2016), which use a ‘theatrical’, a ‘thread’ and a ‘thematic’ approach to narrative respectively.
Although the diverse narratives animating Cirque du Soleil’s shows entertain millions of spectators annually, this chapter suggests that the narratives that underlie the building of the Cirque du Soleil brand itself are equally compelling. These include the rags-to-riches narrative of the company’s founder Guy Laliberté; the narrative of physical exceptionalism as a pathway to success for athletes; the narrative of Cirque du Soleil artists as being of, and from, the people reinforced by the increasing inclusion of performers who have come to prominence through social media; and finally the narrative of success promoted through Cirque du Soleil’s spectacular, hugely expensive staging, and cutting edge technologies.

Papers by Patrick Leroux

Routledge eBooks, May 15, 2023

McGill-Queen's University Press eBooks, May 1, 2016

McGill-Queen's University Press eBooks, May 1, 2016

McGill-Queen's University Press eBooks, May 1, 2016

Canadian Theatre Review, 2004

There are very few actual experimental theatres left in Montreal. By that I mean companies devote... more There are very few actual experimental theatres left in Montreal. By that I mean companies devoted to works seeking to challenge and surprise the audience constantly, as well as the artists themselves. Resisting the impeding institutionalization of Quebec theatre are the aptly named Nouveau Théâtre Experimental (ΝΤΕ) and Momentum. Interestingly, they both ventured into autobiographical drama last year, with unexpected critical and public hits, which they have fortunately revived this season. Neither of the companies’ front men, Jean-Pierre Ronfard, in the case of the ΝΤΕ, or Jean-Frederic Messier of Momemtum, was involved in these autobiographical ventures.

Canadian Theatre Review

There was stunned silence, followed by awkward glances back and forth. Someone’s face puckered as... more There was stunned silence, followed by awkward glances back and forth. Someone’s face puckered as if in reaction to an unfortunate smell. I had breached the decidedly unhip topic of “identitaire” drama in Québec. My culturally astute colleagues in Montréal wondered why on earth anyone would be interested in such a topic in this day and age. “It’s a commission for an English Canadian journal,” I managed to plead. Ah! That explained it all…

Canadian Theatre Review

Monstrolls? Sarah Kane? Her earlier works were certainly shocking; they could be described as Art... more Monstrolls? Sarah Kane? Her earlier works were certainly shocking; they could be described as Artaudian, resolutely post-New Jacobean if one must (assuming th at one sees her as an inheritor of Bond and Barker), but monstrous? “Theatre of the Abject,” “Theatre of Extremes,” maybe. Compe ting ep ithe ts jostle to convey Kane’s challenging work; yet Crave defies these qualifiers. Her plays provoked with their violence, images and apparent lack of moral fibre, and critics had a field day reacting to her so-called “euro-cynicism.”

Urdimento: Revista de Estudos em Artes Cênicas

O circo contemporâneo, baseando-se em práticas e aparelhos tradicionais e em várias de suas conve... more O circo contemporâneo, baseando-se em práticas e aparelhos tradicionais e em várias de suas convenções espetaculares, enfatiza a performance de feitos humanos acrobáticos excepcionais, a engenhosidade ou a inventividade espetacular, muitas vezes contraintuitivas. O contemporâneo não é necessariamente avant-garde, mas definir os contornos e o ethos da contemporaneidade do circo ajuda a explorar suas manifestações de vanguarda. Há exemplos nas fronteiras, onde coexistem circo e dança, o burlesco, arte performática, não-atuação e engajamento político. A maioria das práticas avant-gardesão apresentadas em festivais internacionais. Elas não estão fora das normas, elas as estabelecem. Este artigo explora a interseção e, às vezes, complicada coabitação entre a concepção do contemporâneo e da vanguarda na prática e na recepção do circo atual. Primeiro, a contemporaneidade no circo de hoje é definida e contextualizada, propõe-se uma dialética do circo contemporâneo e conclui-se com propostas...

Spirale : arts • Lettres • Sciences humaines, 2009

Spirale : arts • lettres • sciences humaines, 2013

Cet essai revient sur le processus de création d’une forme courte sise entre le théâtre, le cirqu... more Cet essai revient sur le processus de création d’une forme courte sise entre le théâtre, le cirque contemporain et l’installation sonore, Hamlet sur le fil. L’adaptation de la pièce-monument du répertoire occidental en contexte circassien a révélé à son auteur à quel point le brouillage des rôles et des écritures allait reposer sur les tensions entre texte, textualités et textures. Ce flou ontologique aura permis la création d’une oeuvre hybride reposant à la fois sur le geste assumé du déséquilibre acrobatique et sur un soliloque canonique composé d’acrobaties intellectuelles face à la recherche d’un équilibre. Il aura également permis d’envisager la figure d’Hamlet en funambule et en chercheur-créateur. L’essai offre un regard intime sur les processus de traduction, d’adaptation et de transposition d’une figure, d’un geste impossible et d’une parole canonique ayant pour caractéristique de mettre en scène le doute et la valse-hésitation devant la prise de risque rédemptrice.This self-reflective article probes the creative process of Hamlet sur le fil, a short performance piece straddling theatre, contemporary circus and sound installation. Adapting the Western canon’s iconic play for a contemporary circus context revealed to the author what a fine line he would be walking in negotiating multiple artistic roles and the very notion of writing and authorship given that text, textuality and texture are here embodied in physical prowess. This ontological blurring of boundaries allowed the creation of a hybrid piece drawing from acrobatic disequilibrium and the intellectual acrobatics of the canonical soliloquy which strives for balance. The figure of a tightrope-walking Hamlet as a researcher-creator emerges. The article offers an intimate reading of the artistic process involving the translation, adaptation, and transposition of an archetype. Hamlet’s doubts and hesitations embodied on the tight wire suggest he might finally be ready for his redemptive risk-taking

Récits de professeurs d’université à mi-carrière

Contemporary Circus, 2019

Cirque du Soleil is the world’s largest live entertainment company with 20 shows running concurre... more Cirque du Soleil is the world’s largest live entertainment company with 20 shows running concurrently around the world; 7 in Las Vegas, 3 in New York, 2 in Orlando, 1 in Riviera Maya, and 8 on tour (Cirque du Soleil website, 2016).
This writing argues that one of the most vital aspects contributing to the company’s success is its use of narrative.
In contrast to most traditional circus, Cirque du Soleil shows use narratives to structure the works and to engage audiences, not text-based narratives but rather physical and visual narratives that can communicate with audiences from different cultures, and can cross language barriers. Three of the diverse approaches to narrative within Cirque du Soleil works are explored through examining the shows, KÀ (2004), Kooza (2007), and Luzia (2016), which use a ‘theatrical’, a ‘thread’ and a ‘thematic’ approach to narrative respectively.
Although the diverse narratives animating Cirque du Soleil’s shows entertain millions of spectators annually, this chapter suggests that the narratives that underlie the building of the Cirque du Soleil brand itself are equally compelling. These include the rags-to-riches narrative of the company’s founder Guy Laliberté; the narrative of physical exceptionalism as a pathway to success for athletes; the narrative of Cirque du Soleil artists as being of, and from, the people reinforced by the increasing inclusion of performers who have come to prominence through social media; and finally the narrative of success promoted through Cirque du Soleil’s spectacular, hugely expensive staging, and cutting edge technologies.

Routledge eBooks, May 15, 2023

McGill-Queen's University Press eBooks, May 1, 2016

McGill-Queen's University Press eBooks, May 1, 2016

McGill-Queen's University Press eBooks, May 1, 2016

Canadian Theatre Review, 2004

There are very few actual experimental theatres left in Montreal. By that I mean companies devote... more There are very few actual experimental theatres left in Montreal. By that I mean companies devoted to works seeking to challenge and surprise the audience constantly, as well as the artists themselves. Resisting the impeding institutionalization of Quebec theatre are the aptly named Nouveau Théâtre Experimental (ΝΤΕ) and Momentum. Interestingly, they both ventured into autobiographical drama last year, with unexpected critical and public hits, which they have fortunately revived this season. Neither of the companies’ front men, Jean-Pierre Ronfard, in the case of the ΝΤΕ, or Jean-Frederic Messier of Momemtum, was involved in these autobiographical ventures.

Canadian Theatre Review

There was stunned silence, followed by awkward glances back and forth. Someone’s face puckered as... more There was stunned silence, followed by awkward glances back and forth. Someone’s face puckered as if in reaction to an unfortunate smell. I had breached the decidedly unhip topic of “identitaire” drama in Québec. My culturally astute colleagues in Montréal wondered why on earth anyone would be interested in such a topic in this day and age. “It’s a commission for an English Canadian journal,” I managed to plead. Ah! That explained it all…

Canadian Theatre Review

Monstrolls? Sarah Kane? Her earlier works were certainly shocking; they could be described as Art... more Monstrolls? Sarah Kane? Her earlier works were certainly shocking; they could be described as Artaudian, resolutely post-New Jacobean if one must (assuming th at one sees her as an inheritor of Bond and Barker), but monstrous? “Theatre of the Abject,” “Theatre of Extremes,” maybe. Compe ting ep ithe ts jostle to convey Kane’s challenging work; yet Crave defies these qualifiers. Her plays provoked with their violence, images and apparent lack of moral fibre, and critics had a field day reacting to her so-called “euro-cynicism.”

Urdimento: Revista de Estudos em Artes Cênicas

O circo contemporâneo, baseando-se em práticas e aparelhos tradicionais e em várias de suas conve... more O circo contemporâneo, baseando-se em práticas e aparelhos tradicionais e em várias de suas convenções espetaculares, enfatiza a performance de feitos humanos acrobáticos excepcionais, a engenhosidade ou a inventividade espetacular, muitas vezes contraintuitivas. O contemporâneo não é necessariamente avant-garde, mas definir os contornos e o ethos da contemporaneidade do circo ajuda a explorar suas manifestações de vanguarda. Há exemplos nas fronteiras, onde coexistem circo e dança, o burlesco, arte performática, não-atuação e engajamento político. A maioria das práticas avant-gardesão apresentadas em festivais internacionais. Elas não estão fora das normas, elas as estabelecem. Este artigo explora a interseção e, às vezes, complicada coabitação entre a concepção do contemporâneo e da vanguarda na prática e na recepção do circo atual. Primeiro, a contemporaneidade no circo de hoje é definida e contextualizada, propõe-se uma dialética do circo contemporâneo e conclui-se com propostas...

Spirale : arts • Lettres • Sciences humaines, 2009

Spirale : arts • lettres • sciences humaines, 2013

Cet essai revient sur le processus de création d’une forme courte sise entre le théâtre, le cirqu... more Cet essai revient sur le processus de création d’une forme courte sise entre le théâtre, le cirque contemporain et l’installation sonore, Hamlet sur le fil. L’adaptation de la pièce-monument du répertoire occidental en contexte circassien a révélé à son auteur à quel point le brouillage des rôles et des écritures allait reposer sur les tensions entre texte, textualités et textures. Ce flou ontologique aura permis la création d’une oeuvre hybride reposant à la fois sur le geste assumé du déséquilibre acrobatique et sur un soliloque canonique composé d’acrobaties intellectuelles face à la recherche d’un équilibre. Il aura également permis d’envisager la figure d’Hamlet en funambule et en chercheur-créateur. L’essai offre un regard intime sur les processus de traduction, d’adaptation et de transposition d’une figure, d’un geste impossible et d’une parole canonique ayant pour caractéristique de mettre en scène le doute et la valse-hésitation devant la prise de risque rédemptrice.This self-reflective article probes the creative process of Hamlet sur le fil, a short performance piece straddling theatre, contemporary circus and sound installation. Adapting the Western canon’s iconic play for a contemporary circus context revealed to the author what a fine line he would be walking in negotiating multiple artistic roles and the very notion of writing and authorship given that text, textuality and texture are here embodied in physical prowess. This ontological blurring of boundaries allowed the creation of a hybrid piece drawing from acrobatic disequilibrium and the intellectual acrobatics of the canonical soliloquy which strives for balance. The figure of a tightrope-walking Hamlet as a researcher-creator emerges. The article offers an intimate reading of the artistic process involving the translation, adaptation, and transposition of an archetype. Hamlet’s doubts and hesitations embodied on the tight wire suggest he might finally be ready for his redemptive risk-taking

Récits de professeurs d’université à mi-carrière

Contemporary Circus, 2019

Contemporary Circus, 2019

In this volume, twenty-four creators come together with three scholars to discuss Contemporary Ci... more In this volume, twenty-four creators come together with three scholars to discuss Contemporary Circus, bridging the divide between practice and theory.
Lavers, Leroux, and Burtt offer conversations across four key themes: Apparatus, Politics, Performers, and New Work. Extensively illustrated with fifty photos of Contemporary Circus productions, and extensively annotated, Contemporary Circus thematically groups and contextualises extracts of conversations to provide a sophisticated and wide-ranging study supported by critical theory.
Of interest to both practitioners and scholars, Contemporary Circus uses the lens of ‘contestation,’ or calling things into question, to provide a portal into ways of seeing today’s circus performance