Cirque du Soleil: Behind the Scenes at Ovo!

Cirque has had a rough visit in Cincinnati, with the rain closing them down for the past week-- they've had to reschedule 15 shows and clean up quite a mess over at Coney Island. The're pushing through, though and last night they were back on stage!

While we were lucky enough to be invited to the dress rehearsal for Ovo back in April, we were also invited for a behind-the-scenes tour, which we took yesterday before their big return.

Here's the link to Dan's full Flickr set of our incredible tour.

Our contact at Cirque talked us through so many aspects of the show for over half an hour... from what the performers eat to where they lodge to how they practice to how Cirque finds their talent. We were able to tour the makeup and dressing room, the practice mats, the stage and more. We learned that some of the Cirque performers are ex-Olympians, that each costume is cleaned in Cirque's own washing machine every night, and that there are teachers that travel with the cast to teach Quebecois curriculum to Cirque cast and family members. We saw cast members warming up, rehearsing, putting on makeup and playing chess on an iPad. How... freaking... amazing.

(We want to give an absolutely huge thank you to Darcy at Vehr Communications, and Marie-Claude at Cirque! This was the chance of a lifetime for us!)

Cirque's Ovo website: http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/ovo/tickets/cincinnati.aspx