Cirque Éloize: iD at the Sony Centre

I saw iD, Cirque Éloize's newest creation tonight as it finished up a run as the first show to open up the renovated Sony Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto.

Having fallen deeply in love with the previous three Cirque Éloize shows I've seen; Nomade, Rain and Nebbia, all directed by Éloize's previous director Daniele Finzi Pasca as part of his "Sky Trilogy", I was taken aback when I saw the first promo videos of their new show iD. The images of Bboys dancing in front of graffiti-laden cityscapes to electronic music couldn't be a further departure from the languid, old-world romanticism that defined Finzi-Pasca's Sky Trilogy. I had some reservations going into the show. Done poorly a "young and urban" approach to nouveau cirque could be a tacky disaster. Happily, this is not the case.

Sure, iD is a huge departure for Éloize but while the style of the show is completely different, the performance quality, the artistic direction and the sheer talent and energy of the company remain at the same consistently high level. iD is a stunning, energetic tour-de-force. It is an exhilarating meeting of urban dance and circus framed in a simple but effectively drawn-out through-line of a rivalry between two street gangs. The show sizzles with youthful, exuberant energy, it's gritty and sexy and thrilling.

As is always the case in Cirque Éloize shows the cast consists of several talented, multi-disciplinary full-fledged and learned circus artists.

iD features a hand-to-hand act, it is the first act after the opening of the show which features characters hurriedly walking about the stage to create a bustling urban street scene, a chance encounter between a man and a woman leads to a beautifully-choreographed hand-to-hand number.

The juggling act takes place on a construction site. It's the kind of contrived scenario that could easily come off as hokey if done poorly but somehow director Jeannot Painchaud is able to focus the staging of the act and the construction worker characters on the stage so that it works as a clever context for the jugglers.

The contortion in iD is performed as a pas de deux between the contortionist (Leilani Franco) and a Bboy, in the loose storyline they are from rival gangs so there is a "forbidden love" pre-text to the act. Throughout their dance they mirror each others' moves in their own unique styles, they come together and create a beautiful, tender moment in the show. The act is original and cleverly staged, it presents contortion in a new context audiences have never seen. The two performers have great chemistry and performance quality and the act works brilliantly.

Urban dance plays a huge part in iD. There are several featured Bboy soloists but group dance numbers are infused throughout the show during the different numbers and really serve as the pulse that connects the show together. Too often urban dance isn't incorporated well into choreography and it just looks like a bunch of competing solos. This isn't the case with iD. Though the choreography isn't anything avant-garde, the dance is presented organically, the ensemble radiates energy and the choreography flows and makes sense with the presentation.

Other stand-out acts of the evening included a breathtaking dance-trapeze act by Evelyne Lamontagne and an interesting mixed-discipline pas-de-deux which Cirque Éloize does often. This time it's a dance between an aerial silks artist and a roller blader and made for another gorgeous moment in the show.

The set features a blank outline of a cityscape which is filled in with different projections during the show. The use of projections was very well-done and enabled the setting to keep up with the dynamic pace of the show. The projections were especially effective during the trampoline-wall finale. The backdrop is constantly shifting, windows open, ledges slide in and out, walls are rotated into place. The act is well-paced and builds to an ovation-inducing climax.

I guess you can pretty much gather that I really enjoyed iD and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. It's not my favourite Cirque Éloize show (a battle between Rain and Nebbia) and it certainly doesn't have the deep layers of emotion and soulfulness that the previous Éloize shows have but what it lacks in depth and subtlety it makes up for in style and energy and is well worth going to see.

Summerlicious at Nyood

I had dinner at Nyood, a restaurant in Toronto's Queen West neighbourhood by Chef Roger Mooking of the Food Network's Everyday Exotic, since I heard the prix-fixe menu on offer for Summerlicious was good.

I really like the place. The decor was interesting, I love the "modern baroque" theme.

The food was good. To start, I had the tuna tartare served with a black olive tapenade, plaintain chips and a soft boiled quail egg. The balance of the flavours was really nice, I was afraid the olive would overpower the delicate flavour of the tuna but it worked out quite nicely . . . I'm not sure what the quail egg added to the dish it may have just been there for presentation or maybe it was a clever wink to the salad niçoise.

For my main I had the European sea bass with sides of purple potatoes, lime-pickled red onions, sweet plantains and a charred lemon. The pickled red onions were delicious, kind of kimchi-like but zestier because of the lime juice. The fish was served in a very Cantonese-influenced style; fresh ginger and scallion were dominant in the flavour profile of the dish. My friend ordered the striploin with a chimichurri sauce. It was interesting to see one main with a predominant Asian influence and another with a South American influence.

For dessert; a hazelnut, chocolate tart with chantilly cream and mint syrup along with a nice café americano.

Overall, I enjoyed the meal, the decor, the atmosphere (the place was hopping but I like that frenetic energy) and the service. I'd definitely go back sometime.

Presto . . . change-o?

I just used my new Presto card to get onto the subway; an RFID, unified Ontario transit systems payment card.

Welcome to the world of tomorrow!

Er, well, unless you count similar services available for years in Tokyo (Suica and Pasmo cards), Hong Kong (Octopus card) and London (Oyster card) ... Welcome to the world of ten years ago!

So far GO Transit is phasing in Presto across its system over the next year. Oakville and Burlington transit both have it fully implemented, Mississauga Transit and Brampton Transit are implementing it this fall and Durham, York, Hamilton and OC Transpo in Ottawa will apparently all be adopting it sometime in late 2011.

The sole hold-out is TTC! It's only implementing Presto on a trial basis in 12 of its 69 subway stations right now (Bloor/Yonge being one of them so it benefits me).

C'mon, get on the ball TTC!!! Presto should be accepted at all subway stations, busses, street cars and Toronto Island Ferries!

I remember in Shanghai you could even use them to pay for cabs! That'd be awesome too.

Cirque du Soleil's Viva Elvis at the Aria Resort: Las Vegas

I was invited to the premiere of Viva Elvis the new Cirque du Soleil tribute show to Elvis Presley in residence at the newly opened Aria Resort in Las Vegas.

In brief, the show was mildly entertaining, the cast and band were very good, the sets were impressive and there were one or two great moments but, in general, the show lacks cohesion, creativity and vision. It certainly does not move the artistic bar higher for Cirque du Soleil and it essentially felt like a high-budget amusement park song and dance revue.

I thought LOVE, Cirque's Beatles tribute playing down the street at Mirage Resort, did a far better job of marrying Cirque's signature creativity with a classic rock songbook. LOVE was an abstract biography of the Beatles and their career, Viva Elvis was a literal biography of Elvis. Whereas LOVE creatively sketched these abstract tableaux replete with metaphor and symbolism to evoke the spirit of the Beatles and truly create something groundbreaking and original, Viva Elvis felt more like Cirque du Soleil's answer to Jersey Boys. Viva Elvis is just a very average tribute show, it doesn't really work as a piece of theatre and is really pedestrian as a dance show.

I didn't like the Colonel Parker character as a narrator; his numerous monologues literally narrating Elvis' life, "Elvis was born in Tupelo, Mississippi . . ." were long-winded, humourless and hackneyed. The character is utterly charmless and his delivery was unconvincing and flawed (he flubbed his lines a couple times last night). I thought the Col. Parker monologues were too literal and too frequent. I guess I just like my Cirque shows more abstract and interpretive and don't like being "narrated" to.

The dancers were obviously talented and delivered with a lot of conviction but for a show with three dozen choreographers I found the choreography in the show very one-note and for the most-part utterly unremarkable.

The live band was amazing, they really rocked the music and infused it with an amazing energy. The singers for the most-part were okay although none of the four really wow-ed me.

The sound design, however, was absolutely atrocious, at least from where I sat, down in front in section 101. The mix was horribly uneven, often Elvis' vocals were buried in the mix, the volume levels fluctuated throughout the show and sometimes bordered on intolerably loud. I was shocked at how absolutely awful the sound in the Viva Elvis theatre was given the pristine sound design in the LOVE theatre. If you're doing a music tribute show . . . you better make sure the sound isn't completely off.

Viva Elvis lacks a coherent grand vision, it's really just a pastiche of scenes representing different periods of Elvis' life. What I really couldn't get over was how kitschy and cheesy the show was.

The one act I did really enjoy was the aerial cradle duo performed to "One Night", the act took place on a massive guitar-shaped aerial frame and featured two male performers representing Elvis and his stillborn twin brother Jesse. I thought the acrobatic choreography needed more refinement but the scenographic context was nicely drawn out and at the end of the act when the "Elvis" acrobat climbs the neck of the guitar and beckons to his brother only to see him dropping into the abyss was a poignant piece of symbolism.

The massive trampoline contraption used in "Got a Lot O' Livin' To Do" was visually interesting . . . although the Marvel superhero theme of the act was totally cheesy. I thought the set-up for the act was more promising than the delivery, the pacing and choreography of the act was not very refined and the act lacked musicality, i.e. the act is not performed to the song, the act is performed and the song is just playing in the background.

Similarly, the cowboy lasso act performed to Mystery Train was really more fit to be a county fair side show attraction.

This massive prison set was dragged on stage for the Jailhouse Rock scene, there were a lot of performers running around willy-nilly on the set but the scene was chaotic and lacked focus.

The other more "Cirque" type acts, a chair balancing act to Bossa Nova Baby and the mixed-acro duo performing to Suspicious Minds weren't very well integrated at all and felt tacked-on at the last minute. The wedding ring aerial cradle act to Love Me / Don't was totally cornball and the pseudo stripper pole act performed to It's Now or Never was awkwardly staged and ultimately uninteresting as an act.

In addition to the very average material, the transitions in the show are non-existent. The tableaux of LOVE flow and morph into one another, in Viva Elvis the scene ends, it fades to black and the next scene begins. Sometimes the show will come to a dead stop and Col. Parker will deliver a monologue or, a couple times in the show, a movie screen would come down and a song would be performed to a cheesy Elvis film montage (what is this the Academy Awards?)

So in the end, I didn't feel that Viva Elvis delivered the level of creativity one would expect of a Cirque du Soleil show. Sure it's big and flashy but honestly just about anybody could have delivered similar or better content for an Elvis tribute show and Cirque really didn't push the envelope creatively on this project and it feels like their name is just attached to the project to give it creative credibility.

I suppose if you're a hardcore Elvis fan you might enjoy this show but there is definitely not enough "Cirque" content to satisfy someone looking for a Cirque show and somebody just in the mood for a rock tribute show would be far better served by LOVE which is superior to Viva Elvis in almost every conceivable respect.