“Wintuk”, Cirque du Soleil’s last seasonal show, will be continuing at the Theater at Madison Square Garden up until January 2nd. This show is about a young boy and girl who stumble upon an ice kingdom, where they search for snow and meet lots of crazy characters along the way. However, the majority of the audience does not see “Wintuk” for the plot line itself. Instead, people come to hear the New Age music and see the amazing stunts performed. The creators of “Wintuk” must keep the attention on their talented performers, while still managing to sell enough tickets to make a profit. Because of this, the amazing “stuff” going on throughout the show has to be so great that people will be longing to come see the performance.
This reminded me of what we had talked about after going to Fall For Dance and seeing the Keigwin production. Even though the dancing was not extremely complicated and there was no main story line to follow, the audience was wowed by the sparkly costumes and exciting music. Is is more important for playwrights and choreographers to focus on the actual content of a performance, or on what they think will please the audience? It all comes back around to a balance between the two. It seems as though everything in music, art, theater, dance, etc. all comes back to this idea.
