Ever seen a person throw himself to the ground from his horse, land on his feet for a split second and then hurl himself over the other side onto the ground and back into the saddle at a hair-raising galloping speed?
Plumed and primped feathery tails, daring acrobatics, fairytale costumes, dreamy settings, brilliant aerial artists and more are all part of a show celebrating man’s relationship with horses over the last 5000 years across Asia, Spain and Europe, Africa and the Americas.
Cavalia is a dazzling two-hour spectacle involving an equine cast of some 44 highly buffed and polished stallions, geldings and colts. Normand Latourelle, the artistic director, is one of several who masterminded Cirque du Soleil’s human circus.
These days, audiences are squeamish about animals deployed in circuses. I couldn’t have been the only one studying the riders’ boots for impossible to argue with razor sharp spurs or riders tugging on the horses’ mouths with cruel hands. With the exception of one rather heavy-handed dressage rider, whose sequence is crammed with tricky piaff, passage, flying changes and complex turns, these quadrupeds seem to have been trained by natural horsemanship methods; a kindly approach which fosters a productive partnership between human and horse. The trusting and more often than not highly reliable four-legged performers are remarkably unfazed by scary stimulus such as trapeze artists in wafting costumes floating in space like wraiths or twirling above horse and rider like menacing raptors.
Be warned. As a horse-fuelled show Cavalia runs on horse time. Inevitably, there are less successful and slower moments. A man coaxes a small herd of unrestrained bays to move in formation, canter in small and larger circles and come to a unison stop facing him. But, just as compelling was the sabotaging white-blazed stallion determinedly biting the neck and rump of a circling colleague. An ensemble of grey horses, rider and mounts extravagantly clad in crisp white fantasy gear was too long. But, the precisely choreographed lateral steps are so hard to execute to music it was forgivable.
The occasional average moments are more than compensated for by amazing feats such as a young cowgirl who makes her spinning rope carve amazing patterns in the air, around her person, above her head and to the side. Another woman stands bareback on a horse. She commands another five horses ahead, all loosely connected via a rope as they canter around the set.
The daredevil trick riders were extraordinary. Repeatedly hurling their bodies above the saddle, traveling upside down with pointed feet aimed at the ceiling or else lying horizontal from the side. Yes. It’s a crowd pleaser, from the splendour of the backdrops, the costumed references to Game of Thrones, the singing and live band of blistering Latin American and Middle Eastern grooves. Ultimately, it’s the quarterhorses, warmbloods, paints and percherons who steal the show.
Rating: 3 ½ stars out of 5
Cavalia: A Magical Encounter Between Human and Horse
Founder and Artistic Director: Normand Latourelle
Stable Director: Donna Morton
Stable Coordinator: Kerrie Cokley
Groom: Callum Snell
Under the White Big Top, Eagle Farm, QLD
6 March – 21 April (season extended)
Entertainment Quarter, Moore Park NSW
Opens 15 May
Docklands, Melbourne, VIC
Opens 7 August
