Cirque Du Soleil Returns To The Valley

Cirque du Soleil’s big top production, KOOZA returns to North America after touring over a year in Japan. Phoenix is the first of only four U.S. cities to host this dazzling production. It is also the only West Coast city on the tour. Since its premiere in Montreal in April of 2007, KOOZA has charmed close to 4 million spectators in North America and Japan.

KOOZA premieres Friday, June 8 for a limited engagement under the white air-conditioned Big Top.

Written and directed by David Shiner, KOOZA is a return to the origins of Cirque du Soleil that combines two circus traditions – acrobatic performance and the art of clowning. The show highlights the physical demands of human performance in all its splendor and fragility, presented in a colorful mélange that emphasizes bold slapstick humor.

The first visible sign of the arrival of Cirque du Soleil and its Big Top touring show KOOZA in the city of Phoenix was the raising of the White Big Top and the set up of the Cirque du Soleil Village. This event took place at the University of Phoenix Stadium, where a team of 80 men and women hoisted more than 100 steel poles from the ground up.

About the White Big Top and the Cirque du Soleil Village:

The Big Top stands about 66 feet high and is 167 feet in diameter.
The 4 masts stand at 80 feet tall each.
The Big Top can accommodate more than 2,500 people.
The entire site set-up includes installation of entrance, hospitality and rehearsal tents, administrative offices, workshops, kitchen and a school.
Just like a village, the site is completely self-sufficient for electrical power and relies only on a local water supply and telecommunication facilities to support its infrastructure.
The Big Top and Artistic tents are all climate-controlled for the warm season or for the colder season.
KOOZA travels city to city with more than 60 trailers carrying the entire village.
To lodge the cast and crew, more than 120 rooms are required for a total of 4,000 nights!
During an engagement in a city, more than 150 people are hired locally for a variety of jobs including ticket takers, ushers, janitors, receptionists, etc.

As part of the Cirque du Soleil village, a box office is located inside the entrance tent through a designated Box office entrance and will be opened as of Thursday, June 7, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tickets for KOOZA may be purchased in person. Regular box office hours are from 90 minutes prior to show time to 30 minutes after the beginning of the show on show days.