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Susan Ramsay

CAVALIA
Central Harbourfront
The city's horse lovers probably wondered why there were so few big touring shows that present the equine species in breathtaking glory for all the world to see. Good news is — in case you have missed the huge white tent on the waterfront — there is one now coming to Hong Kong.
Cavalia is the brainchild of Normand Latourelle, one of the founders of the Cirque du Soleil. He has married acrobatics, dressage, liberty horses, musicians, trick riders and technical wizards to create a show like no other.
Cavalia is a feat of artistry that requires an immense amount of planning and preparation to get the exact effect at the exact time. The man in charge of making sure that happens is Latourelle's son, Mathieu.

The 35-year-old from Montreal has been with the show for 12 years, since its start. Now he is the tour director and that involves moving the animals, acrobats, their stage and equipment over vast distances, and dealing with the fine details of paperwork. Right now he's knee-deep in soil at the Central Harbourfront as the construction of the show goes on around him.
Oddly enough, he didn't start out with a deep passion for horses. When his father told him about the idea for the show he was sceptical. He learned, over the years, to love his charges and respect them for their beauty, athleticism and individual characteristics. Cavalia, he says, is not just for horse lovers. It's about art.
"We see horses in art all the time — in paintings and sculptures. They are present in almost every culture and have been vital to man's civilisation. Now, when they are presented to us in the big top, with the lights and the music, they become the artists."

Cavalia's 40 horses come from a wide range of breeds, from paints to Arabs to quarter horses and Australian stock horses to showcase a wide variety of tricks, stunts and moves. With Latourelle confirming that the horses can reach a full gallop in the limited space, some of those tricks will happen in a blur.
"The horses are chosen for where they are best suited, the Spanish breeds do the dressage and the paints and quarter horses do the Roman or trick riding," Latourelle says.
To show the horses at their best — and let's be clear: ticket prices have left would-be fans reeling from sticker shock — the arena is laid out as a concert, not as a circus. "Half the area of the big top is for the horses, and half for the audience," Latourelle explains.
"But my father wanted to make sure the experience was magical for everyone, so the raised bleachers are important, and they have to be steeply raised so that everyone can see the stage."

It's no easy feat to set up an arena of such high quality that the horses can perform night after night without injury. While the show travels with vet technicians and would call a local vet if anything were to go wrong, ensuring that conditions underfoot are perfect is all part of Latourelle's job. Spoiler alert: at the end of the show the stage is flooded, and the horses perform while splashing through the water — something which has been met with enthusiasm from the audience.
But once water is added into the mixture, the sand still needs to hold together firmly enough for each stride by horse or human to be solid. It's an alchemy that has been perfected to an art with a blend of natural sand and specially made equine material.
Everyone knows that saying in showbiz about not working with children or animals. Horses are high-spirited creatures and if anyone remembers the silence during the Olympic dressage in 2008, it's hard to imagine these performers putting up with any signs of exuberance from the audience. But Latourelle says Cavalia's horses actually enjoy the applause. "Sometimes," he says, "one of them will like it so much he will go on repeating the move, even when he's not supposed to."

(All the horses of Cavalia are male, either entire or gelded so there are no distractions.)
The trainers use positive reinforcement with their charges, so at times the show does not go according to script. In other shows or sports, artists and athletes rely on each other or on their equipment. But these performers rely on animals with minds of their own. That makes any horse performance unique. Add that to the genius of Cirque du Soleil and you have something spectacular.
Central Harbourfront, March 31 to April 26, various times, HK$245-HK$1,995 HK Ticketing. Inquiries: 3128 8288


Cavalia: meet the team that brought horse circus to Hong Kong

Whinny formula: performers on horseback.

Hot to trot: Mathieu Latourelle at Central harbourfront. Photo: Felix Wong

One of the cast with two of the equine stars.

Performers on horseback.

Performers on aerial straps.

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Cavalia, created by one of Cirque du Soleil's founders, marries acrobatics, musicians, technical wizardry and horses to create a show like no other.
