Cirque du Soleil’s LUZIA explores Mexico’s vibrant culture and nature
The touring production returns to Vancouver after seven years, featuring a 14-metre rain curtain and giant treadmills powered by 28 car batteries
Cyr wheel and trapeze artists in LUZIA. Photo by Anne Colliard
Cirque du Soleil presents LUZIA from November 4 to January 10 at Concord Pacific Place
SPINNING AGAINST THE glowing sunset surrounded by quiotes, Cyr wheel artist Sarah Togni is unfazed by the sudden shower of rain drenching her vibrant yellow dress. It’s the first time the audience sees the rain in LUZIA, Cirque du Soleil’s only touring production to use water in the show.
“Every time I see it as well, it’s mesmerizing,” Togni tells Stir of the downpour, interviewed at the Annex where she gave a sneak peak of her performance. “It can be slippery, and I need much more strength for that part, but it’s a big finale of the act and a natural crescendo.”
The towering agave plants, the prickly cacti, the pouring rain—it’s all part of Daniele Finzi Pasca’s imagined world, inspired by the writer-director’s decade spent in Mexico. First staged in 2016, LUZIA follows the enchanting journey of a parachutist who unlocks a magical realm that sits between dreams and reality. The title is a portmanteau of the Spanish words luz (light) and lluvia (rain), two recurring symbols that guide the show’s exploration of Mexico’s rich culture and traditions.
Seven years since its Vancouver premiere, LUZIA returns to the Grand Châpiteau at Concord Pacific Place from November 4 to January 10. The show features 47 artists representing 18 nationalities, bringing diverse acts that span juggling, contortion, trapeze, aerial straps, and more. Live music blends traditional and contemporary Latin American sounds, from flowing melodies of the Spanish guitar to the brassy notes of tubas and trumpets. Among the production’s innovative highlights is a rotating, 14-metre-tall rain curtain that can create two-dimensional images using water droplets and blank spaces. The rotating stage is also complete with 94,657 holes that drain the water into a 5,000-litre pool before it is filtered and reused.
A fifth-generation circus performer from Italy, Togni had dreamed of joining the Cirque du Soleil stage from a young age. “I saw my first [Cirque du Soleil] show when I was 9 years old with my family,” she says. “For me, compared to a traditional circus, it was really a different world that touched me deeply. From that day on, I decided that I wanted to be on that stage, and in 2022, I accomplished my dream.”
Helena Merten (left) and Sarah Togni (right). Photo by Ashley Kim
As one of two Cyr wheel artists on stage during the rain curtain’s first appearance, Togni is more than familiar with the mechanics, as well as the difficulties that it poses.
“I have a different wheel for the water part with a stronger grip that helps me out,” she says. “I also need to be really careful, especially when I’m tired and might not have the same strength as usual to control the wheel. It’s a challenge, but a good challenge.”
In a later act, Togni climbs up and down vertical poles alongside other acrobats, in a sequence reminiscent of a psychedelic peyote trip. She reveals that she had to learn pole dancing specifically for the show. “But I was more than willing to learn it because it’s a beautiful discipline that gave me a lot of upper body and abdominal strength,” she adds.
Introducing the audience to the captivating world of LUZIA is Helena Merten as Running Woman, with her metallic horse companion and billowing, six-metre-long butterfly wings—a nod to the annual migration of the monarch butterfly from Canada to Mexico. The Australian multidisciplinary artist performs in multiple acts, including swing to swing and hoop diving, where she and a group of acrobats dressed as hummingbirds effortlessly jump through hoops on two giant treadmills powered by 28 car batteries.
Merten as Running Woman in LUZIA. Photo by Anne Colliard
A former national tumbling champion and the youngest athlete to compete in the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, Merten came to the circus from a background in sports. “I grew up doing a range of different gymnastic disciplines, and of course I saw my first Cirque du Soleil show when I was seven; I always had it in the back of my mind that I could maybe do that someday,” she explains. “I deferred my university degree in sports science and just started putting up my résumé and trying to get on the road. I thought, ‘I’m young, so this is the time to do circus, and I can always study and go back to those things later.’”
Ten years since she joined LUZIA, Merten’s excitement for the stage remains constant. She shares her favourite moment in the show: her opening entrance as Running Woman. “It’s when the audience gets to see this imaginary world for the first time,” she says. “I love watching their reaction to seeing this explosion of colour and vibrance for the first time.” 
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