By CLTure
July 6, 2025
Photo: Marie-Andrée Lemire
The world’s largest contemporary circus company, Cirque du Soleil — French for “Circus of the Sun” — revolutionized the traditional big top more than four decades ago by replacing animal acts with storytelling, acrobatics, elaborate costumes, live original music, and cinematic set designs. A fusion of circus arts, dance, and avant-garde theatre, Cirque du Soleil has staged over 40 original shows for more than 200 million people in 450 cities across six continents.
This summer, the acclaimed touring company brings one of its most whimsical, nature-inspired productions to Charlotte: OVO. Meaning “egg” in Portuguese, OVO transports audiences into an ecosystem bursting with color, chaos, and whimsical charm. Mighty crickets catapult off trampolines, a hypnotic spider contorts inside her glittering web, ants juggle giant kiwis, and a mysterious egg becomes the heart of an unexpected love story.
Written and directed by Brazilian Laurence Olivier Award-winning choreographer Deborah Colker — the first woman ever to direct a Cirque du Soleil production — OVO showcases 53 world-class acrobats and musicians from 25 countries, transforming Bojangles Coliseum into a kaleidoscopic insect colony from August 28-31. Celebrating its 15th anniversary, OVO returns with a reimagined set design, new acrobatic acts, reinvented costumes, and an updated musical score.
The Acrobatics
At the heart of OVO is Cirque’s signature daredevil artistry. Butterflies soar in a poetic aerial pas-de-deux on straps, while a soon-to-be butterfly unfurls in a silken cocoon, symbolizing metamorphosis in motion. A dragonfly balances delicately among giant stalks and leaves, hovering upside down with impossible grace. Nimble acrobatic fleas leap fearlessly from pole to pole, a moth becomes ensnared in an ethereal web, and a spider dances atop a rocking leaf in a mesmerizing slackwire routine. Each creature tells its own story of survival, play, and transformation through gravity-defying stunts and hypnotic choreography.
The Costumes
Costume designer Liz Vandal’s lifelong fascination with insects transforms OVO’s performers into a living menagerie of vibrant creatures. Blending sleek lines of futuristic superheroes with the segmented armor of Renaissance knights, Vandal’s designs don’t mimic insects literally — they evoke the feeling of encountering one up close. Cirque’s legendary costume workshop spends countless hours perfecting every detail, from permanent pleating and sublimated prints to layered shells and metallic sheens, creating a kind of organic origami that brings this insect world to life.
The Set Design
Set designer Gringo Cardia, collaborating closely with Colker, drew inspiration from the hidden nests and organic habitats that insects build. The result is an ever-shifting environment that feels part forest, part cave, part magical insect metropolis. Almost no straight lines exist — the curved wall backdrop becomes a playground for acrobats to climb, leap, and disappear into. Towering hibiscus flowers, giant tulips, and blooming nasturtiums loom over the stage, while a massive 8.5-meter egg — a symbol of life and regeneration — sits at the heart of it all.
The Soundtrack
Composed by Brazilian musician Berna Ceppas, OVO’s vibrant soundtrack fuses the warm rhythms of bossa nova and samba with funk, electro, and layered percussion that pulses like the hidden life of a jungle floor. Ceppas even sampled real insect sounds, blending them live from his keyboard to add an authentic buzz to the score. Each main character has its own theme and instruments, performed by a dynamic seven-piece band — complete with drums, percussion, bass, violin, winds, keys, guitar, and vocals. True to Cirque tradition, the music is performed entirely live and shifts in real time to match the acrobats’ every leap and twist.
Cirque du Soleil OVO will be in Charlotte for a limited run, August 28-31 at Bojangles Coliseum. Tickets are available at CirqueDuSoleil.com.
Sponsored by Cirque Du Soleil
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