How James Cameron’s AVATAR went from screen to stage | CIRQUE DU SOLEIL TORUK | BEHIND THE CURTAIN

I would have never dreamed when I was writing Avatar that one day it would be a Cirque du Soleil, you know, an arena show, it's exciting, it's taking something we did on the

screen

and bringing it to Zerk, it will be transported back to Pandora, yes, publicly Well, the beginning of this new show, Taruk, was when Cirque du Soleil came to us and told us that we love your film, we love that world, let's work together to create that world on

stage

using our artists and our techniques, and you know, of course, that it was a dream come true.

Because I'm a big fan of the Cirque du Soleil project, it started through a series of conversations between Jim Cameron and Gila Liberté with Victoria Michelle and we were introduced to this idea of ​​going back in time and saying how can we have tiny humans. and tall navi on the same show and gila alberte told us why don't you put your story thousands of years before humans arrived, so of course that makes chase

cameron

smile when we come up with that story. Oh, I never thought about that. that's a good idea, we have to make sure we're following the right step, although it's always tied to something you signed, a movie, oh gosh, okay, so this show is really based on the story, this is the first time this experiment with a story take people on a journey we are not totally in a circus well we are not totally in the theater we are not totally in the cinema it is from a neighborhood of all of that the story I am going to tell you happened more ago of 3,000 Years ago, on the moon Pandora, we were doing a show, so we shouldn't be afraid of the show.

We are not making a movie. We're doing a show inspired by the movie, but it's still a show. The main concern that we all have. They are the expectations of our company, Sergio Soleil and James Cameron's company, Lightstorm, and the audience, so I want to say that I have the three of them together, the expectations are enormous, we do not want people to be in front of the program that we want people to be. Within the show we want to try to create an immersion, so in the arena we project on the ground, we project in the black and we project by the audience the way in which the show is built and lit and there is a cloud of smoke. and I'm standing there in front of 15,000 people, I'll be wearing a diaper, I mean, it's a new experience for me, we're playing in big stadiums throwing ourselves around because the camera is pretty low, that's it, that's all in front of I'm not here, I'm not. , no, in front of you because the shadow will be in the middle.

Let me tell you a story from a long, long time ago. This story of a land far away begins in a time fraught with trouble and danger from the time of the first songs we, those who shall not be, have proudly defied the elements that so often unleashed the worst and, at times, the courage to alone is not enough to contain the storm of the many dangers we face, the most terrible comes from the sky, it is the most ferocious predator in our world. the creature with the colors of fire the great bull no matter how much we respect the kuruk the last shadow we fear him even more if he attacks from above his shadow is the last thing you see before dying the conflict in the show is that there is a volcanic eruption that threatens the Navi soul tree, which is their connection to their ancestors, and these two gnarled young men embark on a quest that goes from warning the people to taking up the mantle and saying that we are not just Let's warn the people that we are going to save people during that mission, they will little by little become adults, so it is the story of a transformation.

The first day they say okay, so you're going to improvise for three minutes about what you think the character is and you know, that feeling where your stomach gets stuck and I was like that, it's like I could be back. on a plane at the end of the day, even through Navi movement. I'm sure we're going to feel his personality absolutely. we should do it and there you know why there are two teams because it is going to be very demanding you will be there from minute one until the end of the show so you will always be there it will be exhausting it is really physically demanding physically to protect us they decided to have a double exactly because This isn't working, it's not working, we were actually very lucky because we worked really well together, so we were able to go away and plan and work on all of these things together. and having big discussions and saying openly and comfortably that it looks bad, don't do it, we do it, we really had to be very close to each other in terms of performance because it wasn't just us, but there are other people involved in our work, other people.

They take their cues from us, so it's very important that every time we play it we play the same thing because we rotate the others, we don't center them, yeah, so be careful with this to set very specific goals for each short rehearsal time to the artists with us on

stage

to do it in the most effective way because we have very little time, so we only have 15 millimeters more. In the end you have to go this way and then you go this way and go down there. we can do this, we only have two minutes, it's very fast, you follow the game you chose, it's pretty bad, so this is the potential color, we think maybe it will work, most of our costumes should look like they were made by , you know, hands-on navigation.

So they have to have an organic, handmade look, so we use a lot of weaving and macrame and we use a lot of materials that could look like they grew on a tree or like they came from the forest. somewhere here on your belt so you don't go all the way you just did this last night we worked for at least two years on the show thinking about the show making some drawings the costumes the staging all the time we prepare a lot you don't have option because you know we're creating in a very fast track mode I don't want to see you on stage being human I want to see that even you should start having it a little more in your body bang cats yes You have a chance if you're going to see the movie again.

I'm sure that will help you in some way. Just to see how they move. Just to see how they laugh. Just to see how they talk. Just to see how it's actually like 50 percent human and 50 percent feline animal, so really finding the balance wasn't easy and I'm still working on it. We had Julian, this choreographer, who was part of the film. She came to spread the Navi philosophy. I would say more. that movement, I would say philosophy, there is that element of always moving something curious and new entrepreneurs with good appearance suffer from confidence. I was so impressed that Serk saw the power of connecting with someone who was really there to get the whole kind of value system. of this aboriginal culture to make it an authentic experience for people to receive the knowledge of the path of the wind of shadow and light the path of all beasts that you find your place in this vast world of ours and the gold is a recognition of your initiation that be as strong as the taruq here we go the shaman is having a vision the tree of souls is surrounded by lava our direct link with eve our most sacred place the tree of souls is in danger of being destroyed by a volcano eruption I think we we get excited when we look at indigenous cultures and other cultures and we see their view of the world, how they relate to the natural world, how they relate to their own history and where they come from and create myths and that's what Turuk is a mythic. history of the navi's past these are the stories they convey in their verbal history of themselves one of our first days of rehearsal michelle and victor approached our trio group and said you can have microphones on and we, oh and you go to speak navi you're going to speak navi and we thought what's the next part of why I think

avatar

resonates so believably is because the culture is real and at the heart of that culture is this language that paul fromer created the sounds that have received the most attention are these things called ejectives, which are kind of plosive consonants that sound like the language continues to grow, we must have at least a couple thousand words, the interesting thing is that the language has now really been adopted and people have immersed themselves really into it and it's become natural for them, I don't think I could have predicted the way things turned out, I mean I'm absolutely delighted, I can't think of a movie that's like bigger than this, so when you play something like that, you want to make sure you do it to the best of your ability.

Keep going, guys, keep looking around the floor and the flowers, all the new lands you discover for the first time. Now we start this week the integration is where we place the projection artists in the projection lighting, so the first thing you have to do is come in because for the last 10 weeks the artists and performers have been performing on a big stage and look at the tree wow, it's not the tree at all, the tree that some artists told me this week you know we were listening to you you're the stage manager you know what you're doing but you're saying a river will come a waterfall is filling a river slowly , very slowly, there will be lava, so you jump on the lava lava, oh yeah, oh yeah, on the set of 50 shades of gray, you know, and now I see the river, the projections make the environment completely immersive, for what you think you're actually in the forest seeing all these things happening and birds and things flying and monsters and it's amazing, we have complete changes that happen with the click of a mouse.

The shaman's vision was correct. The tree of souls is in danger, but in the time it took us. heroes to gather the five sacred objects the omitakaya messengers have returned with the gnarled plans united in their efforts to try to save the tree of souls many times people go to shows in arenas and it is a kind of environment here scene after scene after scene in which you are traveling Through Pandora you travel to different exotic places and that is really exciting. The puppets are one of my favorite things about this show. I am incredibly scared by those wolves that are chasing me with those green eyes and teeth as if I forget that there is someone who is moving.

This is the first time that the

cirque

du

soleil

show has reached that point. It is not only about having a puppet that moves but also about having these puppeteers and their bodies really blend with the movements. Our challenge at this moment is that we have some delays with the tree and the skin that I call skin is what you see now there is a skin on stage right three but there is none on stage left three the projection wasn't hitting the tree the right way like this that we had to remove every tree which is huge as you can see so we did one it took us two and a half weeks to undo and redo it and we removed the second one to do the same operation again for the artists which means we didn't have the chance to To build that act we still had rehearsal equipment in Montreal, but now that we have the new look we discovered that it doesn't work like it did with the old one and we have to adapt so that the construction of that act simply Basically I just started 3 days ago, the size of the The physical world we are in is bigger than anything I have ever done and I often wonder how the hell we are going to solve this problem.

I'm sorry if we have. to take you in many directions all the time is there any grip on the edge of that fabric we've been asking for? Is there a short grip on the fabric on the stage to get up on that step without the possibility of falling and let's go? and it's like raymond is talking, I mean, it's terrifying, it's a very stressful way for an actor to get on stage because the Turk is the biggest puppet I've ever worked on, he's like a puppet with inverted strings, so the puppet is in the air and is hanging.

Through a 3D flight system, the character comes at the end of the show. For me, it was how we worked with different puppets individually and at the end we took all the puppeteers, put them together and gave life to the character, which is the title of the show that we have been rehearsing alone. with the prototype we drove, unfortunately it is about to be destroyed, so now it is sold with duct tape, but the new one is coming and it is beautiful. You know, it's like you're doing an opera and your star. Coming three months into the process, which is what divas usually do, we are all waiting for the tarot, it really informs our world and makes it real for us on my journey right now, I feel really authentic, I feel like it's a old man navi I have a story to tell, like the world we are creating is very three-dimensional, we are not just characters acting, we are Na'vi living those moments and that is a really beautiful feeling, since I am there in everything else. fades all I see is Pandora, the public has to come and I hope they smell the flowers even if there is no smell of flowers, but it is very clear what we are trying to share and spread this beautiful world of Pandora, uh, it's huge .

I mean, it's 27 trucks right now, we have over 40 projectors and we have tobe very precise, we can't move a lot of video projection, we are making the sound for each location, it is specific to each location, so we are redesigning as we go, yes. we're pushing the boundaries people will sit back and say wow i've never seen that before we're here it's december 21st it's the first day of winter it's the winter solstice it's a bright day marion for tarot cast we're really very Really excited, so tonight will be the world premiere of World War. You know it's not a small thing, yeah, you have to be ready, so I'm ready.

Someone once told me when you stop being nervous it means you stop worrying and I'm nervous only in the sense that I care if you don't get a little nervous that's when you let your guard down if you saw the drawings the first drawings and the first words that we wrote about this show is exactly what we have here is exactly what we dream tonight is special because it is at home there is always something very we are very nervous and very fragile when we play at home this is the night because our contract ended victory no, It's not finished, I'm not taking any notes tonight, you're already incredibly good, guys, thank you very much, it's fun to go to a premiere where someone else did all the work and I can enjoy it, it's already a creative success.

We start the show under a veil so it's great, it feels like we're in a little tent looking around and everyone's excited and you can't see anyone and all of a sudden the veil pulls back and you. I have all these faces looking at you and it's pretty magical. Our story begins here, at the foot of the birth tree of my clan, the Omatikaya, look at these two mischievous children, how proud they are. The name of the eldest is ralu, the youngest and two. as brothers n2 was very small when his parents were killed by a palula can, a gigantic and fearsome creature that hunts deep in our forests, raleu's family took him in and raised him as if he were their own and since then the two children have been inseparable.

I have always been it. He said that

cirque

du

soleil

is about a celebration of human physicality and human excellence. Part of Na'vi culture is about being alive in your own body and being alive as part of a community, part of a group of people and when you see the mountain range. artists working with perfect synchronization and this incredible type of group acrobatics, it is a very navi concept. I think what really surprised me is the scale to which the show evolved. The result is something visually impressive, but in a more balletic than acrobatic way. this way and people are simply transported into the story of these young people as they journey towards self-discovery.

The stamp that Victor and Michelle have put on the show is art above all else and, again, it's one of the things that I think helps make such an experience transporting for an audience, I think people should leave the Taruk experience with a sense of the wonder and mystery of Pandora, which somehow translates into a kind of respect for indigenous culture and a respect for the natural world and perhaps a connection to the The kind of harmony and balance of life that we need to recover as human beings. That's what the Avatar movies are about. That's what Toruk is all about.

Oh, um, you.