Cavalia

Cavalia Inc.

Type	Private company
Industry	Entertainment
Founded	2003 (as Voltige)
Founder	Normand Latourelle
Headquarters	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Normand Latourelle Dominique Day (Co-Founders)
Number of employees	500
Website	www.cavalia.net

Headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Cavalia Inc. is an entertainment company that specializes in the creation, production and touring of shows for audiences of all ages. Founded by Normand Latourelle, the company has an expertise in equestrian and performing arts, and is known for making the most of cutting-edge technology, multimedia and special effects, which allows for the creation of magical, unique, never-before-seen theatrical experiences that presents large-scale equestrian and performing arts productions. Its shows display equestrian and acrobatic techniques such as Trick Riding, Vaulting, Haute École, Pas De Deux, and unbridled displays. Cavalia has produced two shows up to now: Cavalia: A Magical Encounter Between Human and Horse, and Odysseo.

Name origin

Cavalia is a fabricated word, inspired by the Spanish and French words for horse (caballo and cheval) and the English word cavalry. Normand Latourelle often says he'd love to open a dictionary some day and see "Cavalia" defining his multimedia production about the historical relationship between humans and horses.

History

Created in 2003 by Normand Latourelle under the name of "Voltige",^[1] the very first show was held in Shawinigan, Quebec. The large-scale multimedia performance the company delivers is often compared to Cirque du Soleil, of which he was one of the four original co-founders as well as Managing Director and Executive Vice-President from 1985 to 1990. Apart from Latourelle's history, Cavalia has no affiliation with Cirque du Soleil and remains a separate entity. The company's original production, Cavalia: A Magical Encounter Between Human and Horse, has been touring since 2003 and has reached over 4 Million spectators across North America, Europe and Australia through more than 2,200 performances (as of September 2013).^[2] Odysseo, Cavalia's newest show, premiered in October 2011 in Laval, Quebec.

In May 2009, the 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.^[3]

First Production: Cavalia, A Magical Encounter Between Human and Horse

The first show is a tribute to the relationship between humans and horses throughout history, delivering a fresh mix of equestrian and performing arts, multimedia and special effects. Often labelled an equestrian ballet, it expresses a dream of freedom, cooperation and harmony.^[4] Riders, acrobats, dancers and musicians share the stage with horses. A Magical Encounter Between Human and Horse features about 50 horses, 5 musicians and 45 artists including riders, aerialists, acrobats, dancers from all over the world.^[2]

Cavalia's Key Players

Cavalia's performance is a multimedia production based on various light and sound techniques as well as performing arts. These are the main creators that contributed to designing the show:

Latourelle: President and Artistic Director
Benjamin Aillaud: Equestrian Director and Choreographer
Erick Villeneuve: Director and Visual Designer
Alain Lortie: Lighting Designer
Desmarais: Costume Designer
Marc Labelle: Designer
Alain Gauthier: Choreographer and Staging Artistic Coordinator
Michel Cusson: Music ^[5]

The Equine Performers

Drawing on a tradition that stretches back to Lord Astley in the 1700s, Circus as we know it was defined and developed by the Horse Exhibition. The stars of the show are the horses, all of them either stallions or geldings. (There are no mares). Many of the horses are Lusitanos, and the remainder are Andalusian (PRE), Canadian Horses, American Quarter Horses, Paint horses, Belgians, Percherons, Arabians, and Appaloosa. The show's horses were originally from Canada, France, Spain, and the United States.^[6] These horses eat 40 bales of hay per day; they consume 900 kg (1980 lb) of grain and 20 kg (44 lb) of carrots each week. Many of the horses have their manes braided when not performing, and Templado's knee-length mane takes 90 minutes to complete.^[7] The horses are maintained by a team of 20 people, including a stables manager, two veterinary technicians, a farrier, and several groomers.

The horses are only asked to practise one hour each day, and they get two hours each day for play. The whole performance is 2 hours and 30 minutes per show, 7-8 times each week, and the horses are trained to understudy for each other so that different horses can be given the day off.

The Human Performers

The show also features over 20 human stars from Canada, and also from France, Kyrgyzstan, United States, Australia, Mexico, and Morocco.

The Big Top and Village

The show is performed in what was once 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.^[8]

About the White Big Top

150 people work for the tent raising and site preparation.
The installation lasts 12 days, while the removal is completed in three days.
The tent is 30 metres high, the equivalent height of a 10-storey building.
6635 m2 of fabric is used to create the marquee that extends over an area of 2 440m2.
A screen of 70 metres serves as a backdrop for projections and multimedia effects.
The stage is 50 metres in width, the length of an Olympic pool.
2,500 tons of sand, earth and gravel, the equivalent of 100 trucks, are used to create the scene.
The Big Top can accommodate up to 2 000 spectators.

Cavalia’s village includes nine tents

the White Big Top,
the Rendezvous VIP Tent,
the Entrance Tents,
two Artistic Tents,
two Warming Tents,
the Stable and
the Staff Cafeteria.^[9]

Second Production: Odysseo

Odysseo was launched in 2011 and has been enjoyed by more than 900 000 spectators.^[10] In this second production by Cavalia, "horses and humans leave together to meet a world between dream and reality by traveling through the great wonders that nature has offered, deserts, waterfalls, canyons and glaciers."^[11] This second show portrays equestrian arts, acrobatics, music, multimedia projections and special effects under one Big Top. It features some 300 different costumes.^[12]

Odysseo's Key Players

Odysseo borrows from several different performance arts and techniques. The following are the principal creators from various disciplines who contributed to designing the show:

Normand Latourelle: President and Artistic Director
Wayne Fowkes: Director
Benjamin Aillaud: Equestrian Direction and Choreography
Guillaume Lord: Set Design
Geodezik: Visual Design
Alain Lortie: Lighting Design
George Lévesque and Michèle Hamel: Costumes
Darren Charles and Alain Gauthier: choreography
Mathieu Roy and Elsie Morin : Acrobatic Number Conception^[13]

The Big Top

The Big Top in Edmonton (2012)

Like the first production's Big Top, Odysseo's tent was designed specifically for the needs of the show and the vision of its creators. It is two and a quarter times bigger than the first one and is (as of September 2013) the largest touring tent in the world.^[14]

The exterior

consists of four poles, four arches and 2.1 square miles of canvas;
is 38 meters high;
the structure measures 115 metres long and 65 metres wide;
it occupies a surface area which extends over 120 metres in length and 95 metres wide.^[15]

The interior

hosts a scene of more than 2500 square metres;
is composed of 6,000 tons of rock, earth and sand;
has a seating capacity of 2290 people.^[16]

Assembly and transport

Installation requires 40 motors and a mechanical crane;
Each arch is composed of eight 9-meter-long sections.
The arches rise to 27 meters and are 62 meters long;
the painting is composed of 16 pieces;
1310 piles and anchor points are used;
166 posts are required to assemble the walls of the tower;
wiring has a length of 5.8 km;
It takes 20 trucks to transport the tent.^[17]^[18]

Touring history

With its eponymous show, Cavalia has toured around the world and performed in the following cities:

2003

Shawinigan, Québec (World Premiere)
Toronto, Ontario

2004

Montréal, Québec
San Francisco, California
Glendale, California
Seattle, Washington
Berkeley (San Francisco), California
San Diego (Del Mar), California

2005

Santa Monica, California
Phoenix (Scottsdale), Arizona
Toronto, Ontario
Montréal, Québec
Boston, Massachusetts
Washington, DC

2006

Houston, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Laval (Montréal), Québec
Québec City, Québec
Las Vegas, Nevada
Irvine, California

2007

Brussels, Belgium
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Berlin, Germany
Brussels, Belgium
Düsseldorf, Germany

Ticket, Spain, 2008.

2008

Barcelona, Spain
Madrid, Spain
Bilbao, Spain
Knokke, Belgium
Lisbon, Portugal
Valencia, Spain

2009

Scottsdale (Phoenix), USA
Montréal, Canada
Chicago, USA
Washington, DC, USA
Atlanta, USA

The Cavalia show in Downtown Miami, Florida, 2010.

2010

Miami, USA
Tampa, USA
Charlotte, USA
New York, USA
Brossard (Montréal), Canada
Denver, USA
San Francisco, USA
Burbank, CA, USA

2011

Vancouver, Canada
Calgary, Canada
Québec City, Canada
Minneapolis, USA
Portland, OR, USA

2012

Seattle, USA
St. Louis, USA
Mexico City, México
San Jose, USA
Edmonton, Canada
San Diego, USA

2013

Brisbane, Australia
Sydney, Australia
Melbourne, Australia
Adelaide, Australia
Perth, Australia

2014

Abu Dhabi, Emirates
Dubai, Emirates
Brussels, Belgium
Singapore, Singapore^[19]^[2]
Seoul, Korea^[20]

2015

Taipei, Taiwan
Hong Kong, China

With its second production, Odysseo, the company has toured in North America, visiting: