Since its inception, in 1984, more than 60 creators from all corners of the world have contributed their talents to Cirque du Soleil productions, bringing wonder and delight to more than 30 millions of spectators in 130 cities on four continents. During all this years has received such prestigious awards as the Emmy, Drama Desk, ACE and Rose d’Or de Montreux.

In the reality of Varekai

Conceived by a new creative team, led by writer and director Dominic Champagne, the show Varekai has played to sold-out audiences and standing ovations in the first five cities of its current North American tour, as well as to unanimous critical acclaim.

The story tells a fantasy that take place deep within a forest, at the summit of a volcano, where exists an extraordinary world, a world where something else is possible. A world called Varekai.

The Story lets go a solitary young man, and the story of Varekai begins. Parachuted into the shadows of a magical forest, a kaleidoscopic world imbued with fantastical creatures, that young man takes flight in an adventure both absurd and extraordinary. On this day at the edge of time, in this place of pure and undiluted possibility, begins an inspired incantation to a life rediscovered and to newly found wonder in the mysteries of the world and the mind.

The word Varekai (pronounced “veray-kie”) means “whenever” in the Romany language of the gypsies –the universal and eternal wanderers.
Directed by Dominique Champagne, a production like Varekai pays tribute to the nomadic soul, to the spirit and art of circus tradition, and to those who quest with infinite passion along the path that leads to that fantastic place.

The creator

The director Dominique Champagne says: “Varekai is a furios flamboyant celebration inspired by those artists who, every single day, no matter where the winds carries them, risk their life to challenge the laws of gravity, to jump and dance over the volcano. To tell the old world that something else is possible”.

“In that sense –explains Champagne- Varekai emerges from an explosive fusion of drama and acrobatics. This is why the impossible becomes possible in stunning displays of skyll and power set against innovative music and otherworldly sets, interwoven with vivid choreography that speaks to all in the universal language of movement.

The pendulum of time sweeps backward, paying tribute to the ancient and rare circus traditions of Icarian games, water meteors and Gregorian dance. Varekai then catapults to the future with revolutionary twists on such acts as Russian swings, body skating and triple trapeze”.

A multitalented and prolific artist, Dominique Champagne has been a forceful presence on the Quebec cultural scene since leaving the National Theatre School of Canada in 1987. His more than 100 accomplishments for the stage and television have earned him a host of awards and honors.

Directing Varekai marks Champagne’s first collaboration with Cirque du Soleil, but also signifies a return to his roots. At the age of 20, penniless and alone in Greece, he joined the circus becoming a circus boy. That experience teaches him something that he never forgets: “the circus is a place where fraternity is possible and where the clashing of cultures is an exceptional source of creativity. The multi-ethnic environment at Cirque du Soleil is inspiring. It feeds my creative universe”.

This universe of Champagne is also nourished by such figures as Samuel Beckett, Charlie Chaplin, Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

“I was born the year of the ‘I have a dream’ speech. I belong to the generation that experienced the end of the party known as the 60’s and the difficulties that came with the morning after. I am a product of dreams and disillusions. As an artist, I want to show the beauty found within misery when someone is trying to escape their situation. Thanks to Verakai I can share, now, some of my dreams, hopes and feelings with the people of Los Angeles”.