The Curiosities of 'Kurios', the New Cirque du Soleil in Malaga

There's an hour left before the show and the kitchen begins to empty. Some rush their meals with makeup already applied, while others take their last bite fully dressed as characters from another era. The food is always healthy and energizing, freshly made, without sodas or alcohol. Because this place, decorated with flags from about thirty countries, is no ordinary dining room. Those who eat here will soon be performing feats on a trapeze several meters high, launching into the air from a partner's shoulders, or twisting their bodies into impossible poses. On the other side of the Grand Tent, where the audience begins to take their seats, the machinery of Cirque du Soleil is getting ready. We are at 'Kurios', the show from the Canadian company currently touring Spain, which will set up in the fairgrounds of Málaga on June 4th. Today, it stops in Seville.

This is pure Cirque du Soleil: acts that push the envelope of 'even more difficult', a universe of magical characters, impressive costumes, and enveloping live music. But 'Kurios' has a distinctive identity, very different from the shows previously seen in Málaga under the Cirque du Soleil banner. Unlike the fantasy of others, here a retrofuturistic 'steampunk' aesthetic prevails, transporting the audience to an alternative 19th century, where technology advances at the pace of a steam locomotive and creates strange artifacts. In this context, an eccentric scientist opens his cabinet of wonders and unleashes his imagination, discovering an extraordinary and unexpected world, a very defined storyline not always present in other 'du Soleil' shows. The music is also unique: cabaret, jazz, and vintage sounds prevail here over the typical epic tone of the Canadian circus. These are some of the curiosities hidden in 'Kurios'.

In 'Kurios', 464 props are used, the highest number in any Cirque du Soleil show. They are everywhere. Dominating the scene are two large structures built with components from gramophones, old typewriters, electric spotlights, and turbines salvaged from scrap. There are unique objects, like the sphere carried by Microcosmos, who opens the door to a parade of inventions. Inside its 'belly' lives a small woman, with her armchair and other Victorian objects, equipped with an independent lighting and ventilation system. It weighs 9 kilograms, and the props team spent 250 hours building it. In this parallel reality, there are automatons, like the huge 340-kilogram mechanical hand that serves as a support for one of the most beautiful acts: on it, four artists create stunning images with the flexibility of their bodies.

In 'Kurios', the surprise, the goal of every circus show, is not only in the skills of the artists – which are also impressive – but in how they are presented. From a giant music box, two 'dolls' emerge performing an act with somersaults four meters high. It plays with changing perspectives and the reversal of things: whether it's an acrobat riding a bicycle or another stacking chairs on a table.

Anything is possible, even an invisible circus, a masterful clown act with a significant mechanical component. The attention to detail, to the small things, is astonishing in acts like the spinning of the yo-yo or the hand theater, where an artist can tell a story using only their fingers, projected in real time onto a hot air balloon.

A total of 50 artists from 21 countries make up the cast of 'Kurios'. Acrobats, tightrope walkers, contortionists, tumblers, and jugglers make the difficult look easy. An acrobat jumps on her bicycle suspended in the air and hangs in a variety of positions: holding onto the base of the handlebar or the wheel, by a foot or an arm. A group of gymnasts reinvents trampoline jumping in an unprecedented act for this show: the net has just the right tension to turn into a trampoline, with the artists themselves regulating the bounce effect with the pressure of their legs. In this way, some reach the top of the Grand Tent. The classic 'Banquine' here is performed with 15 artists jumping from one hand to another's shoulder, crossing in the air and creating human pyramids. There is balance on stacked chairs and a 'rola bola' ten meters high, synchronized acrobatics on straps, and comic acts that lighten the moments of maximum tension.

More than a hundred costumes have been tailored for this production. Custom-made in Montreal for each acrobat, they are durable, light, and stretchy. And, moreover, each has a specific aesthetic for each act. In the 'Cradle Duo', the artists appear to wear old circus outfits but are actually dressed in highly sophisticated fabrics with velvet effects and golden applications. In the trampoline act, they wear scales, fins, and fish tails, alluding to how Georges Méliès imagined Martians. Some designs are very labor-intensive. For the Accordion Man, a character who can shrink or grow at will, a person spent a week sewing the garment from the inside. After the show, the laundry is activated. Every night, two people wash for two hours all the clothes that have touched the artists' skin. In total, they travel with 8,000 pieces of wardrobe, including accessories, shoes, and wigs.

Two years after 'Alegría', Cirque du Soleil returns to set up in Málaga for a month with 'Kurios'. From June 4th to July 5th, the Grand Tent will rise at the fairgrounds, with tickets already on sale from 49 euros. One hundred people are needed to erect the tent, which can accommodate 2,500 people. And seven days are invested in completing the Cirque du Soleil city, with tents for the artists, administrative offices, ticket office, and a kitchen for the team serving up to 400 meals a day.