Interview: Cavalia's Normand Latourelle on Captivating Audiences With ODYSSEO

With a wide and varied background in the performing arts (including a five-year stint with Cirque du Soleil), Normand Latourelle founded and created Cavalia Inc. in 2003, to showcase the beautiful athleticism of the horse. Just before Cavalia's second production ODYSSEO makes its return engagement in Orange County (opening November 16th), Normand took some time from his Northern California show prep to explain his passion for horses and for his creative projects.

Not originally a horse-person, "I didn't know anything about horses. I'm a guy from the city. I've done shows for four years, but never been close to a horse before I started CAVALIA. I read a lot of books. When you start to look at the history of the horse, it's a history of humanity. It took me about 10 years before we opened the show in 2003 to figure it out, to make sure that I could do a show where the horses would be happy on stage. I didn't want to have a show where we abused animal or forced animals to do what we ask them to do. I found some very fantastic trainers from France who had a different type of training for horses. They were people who were doing shows in France with horses. I was very attracted by the fact that most of the time they were training the horses at liberty, more free, no attachment, no nothing.

Wild horses, where the horses are free, would be a fantastic way to start the show, before man even rode them, jumped on them, started to ride them. That's how I wanted to start my show. That's how I built CAVALIA. Through the pace of the show, CAVALIA was telling what was the relationship and the history of the relationship between horse and man throughout time. I did introduce lots of riding techniques, but what was most important, more than half the show, the horses were not ridden. They were just coming to play on stage with the performers."

Normand took eight years to create ODYSSEO. "For rehearsal time and building the show, it took two years and half. I started to buy horses to get them to be ready for the show about six years before we opened the show. It's a long process because again, when you have a horse, you need to train him.

We try to take a horse when he's pretty young; not been ridden too much. We don't want the horses to be affected by their past. Most of the time, we like to bring in a horse between four and six years old. We train them the way we like to train. We have the luxury of time. When it's time to find horses, our equestrian director buys horses for sale.

And then, you have to decide what the horses are going to do. So I wrote the script about four, five years before we opened the show. I needed to decide what the horses are going to do and what type of horses we needed."

Each breed of horse has different capabilities that they can naturally do. Normand and his trainers/riders work with each horse discovering where their talents lie. Trainers each have a small herd of horses assigned to them with a few trainers assigned to each horse. Think understudy in a Broadway play or double-casting.

"If you go to Cirque du Soleil, many of the artists have heavy makeup or masks. Where us, we don't. We want the horse to recognize not only the voice, but the face of the riders when they go in the show. Otherwise, they would need to wear the make-up or the mask all day long, which we don't want. It's very important to create a bond between the horse and rider or the trainer. Most of the trainers will arrive before noon and leave after the show, which often goes past 11 o'clock. Not that the horses work all those hours, don't get me wrong. They do spend time with them just walking, going outside, grooming, cleaning, washing. The stage is so big, the horses like to be near their trainers. Nobody is allowed to beat a horse or to force him to do what we are doing in the show. So the horses become very confident with their trainers, like their friend, like a dog. You have a dog that likes you, you don't need a leash. He will follow you. Same thing with a horse - except it's little bit bigger."

ODYSSEO horses sometimes travel better than most humans. If the distance between venues is short, they trek by truck. If the distance isn't drivable, they go by Boeing 747s. "Our 65 horses all go in one plane. We're the only one in the world who do that. These are cargo planes, which only allow four to eight people. So we have at least one veterinarian, two vet technicians, the equestrian director; and if we can go up to more, we have the stable director and a few groomers."

Human performers have to go in separate planes, not because humans are less important, but because of aviation regulations for human passengers.

Physical set-up involves two identical White Big Top structures - one to use in the current city and the other to erect in the next city's venue. "To prep the site and set up the tent, usually we take two to three weeks depending how complicated the site location is and how much ground we need to level. That's just for the roof of the Big Top, which is the biggest tent in the world. From the last show in one city to the first show in the next city; we have 17 days: three days to tear down, one day to move, ten days to set up, and two to three days to put the show back and rehearse with the horses."

Potential sites for ODYSSEO have to allow for a large backstage space for the horses to easily move around, comparable in size to the 2,000-seat bleachers area in front of the stage. "I want to make sure the horses are 100% well, as they do what they do. I think we have achieved that."

Producing both the touring shows of CAVALIA and ODYSSEO, Normand and his crew have it all down to a science. "When we first brought Cirque to Los Angeles in 1987, we thought the logistics were very big. We had 27 trucks. But with ODYSSEO, we travel with 127 trucks and semi-trailers. Compare it to the biggest rock & roll tour, I think the biggest one was the U2 tour, they had 65 semi- trailers. It's a big organization."

Normand will never use a horse for longer than five years in a row on tour. "Most of them start to perform at around six years old. The first five years, they will go for one or two in pasture, then they will return for another two years, maybe three. After that, we don't keep any horses over 17 years old. Even if the horse can live for 35 years. We have a farm in Canada where we bring them to or we find an adoption program. It's not that the horse is working too much. Just that at one point, we want the horse to eat grass. While we're touring, there's no grass everywhere. They like to eat grass. We like to keep our horse happy. If ever I am reincarnated, I hope that I reincarnated as a horse in CAVALIA."

Normand's first show CAVALIA featured the relationship between horse and man. ODYSSEO takes this relationship even further with the horse and man discovering the planet together and finding the most magnificent spots of nature. ODYSSEO recreates such inspired landscapes (including the Mongolian Steppe and the Sahara Desert) as 3-D images on a projection screen three times the size of an IMAX screen.

Normand built a gigantic stage for ODYSSEO. "This is the biggest touring stage. I don't think there's any bigger stage in the world. The stage is revealed by layers. When we start the show, we have what I call my 'magical forest.' It really looks like a forest. At one point, the forest disappears, and we see a mountain, a real mountain inside. It peaks at over 33-ft. high, almost a four-floor building."

Normand has constructed a huge surface the size of a hockey rink at the bottom of the mountain "that gets covered with 40,000 gallons of water in one minute and a half. The reason why I say ODYSSEO with the 'O' at the end, the show finishes in water. All the horse, all the artists, all the acrobats; everybody's just splashing in water in a huge lake. Cirque's O used one million gallons. In O, the pool is deep. We talking about creating a surface of water that is about 4" high. Nobody's diving here. We recycle the water, filter the water and push it in and out every show."

Normand has come a long way from touring his year-end high school production to four other neighboring schools, to wearing various hats as promoter, artist management (at only 16 years old in Canada), sound man, light rigger and roadie. He has produced the sound and light show on Parliament Hill in Ottawa and the 350th anniversary celebrations for the founding of Montreal.

"I created a few events, very different and very spectacular. One of them was a parade, not with cars, but with people. We had self-supported lights carried by people. Almost 2,000 performers in the parade. Very spectacular at night. I also created a giant puppet show in the old city with a sound and light show and major projections projected on buildings. That was the beginning of giant projection. We created that show that went on for the entire summer. So this is the kind of thing that I was really proud of. Something different."

Queried if he'd like to put on an Olympics opening or closing ceremony:

"Not a goal. I'm a slow creator. To create the Olympics, it's like instant soup. You eat it once and that's it. You need to create in two months, three months, almost everything. It's not me. I like to take my time. I don't like to be rushed in creation. If I don't have enough ideas, I would not do the show. I want to make sure I have many 'good' ideas. I'm too slow to do that."

Asked how long Normand sees ODYSSEO touring, "Right now, I don't see the end of it. As an example, we were in Irvine less than six months ago and we are returning, which is very rare for a show. I think we did close to 100,000 spectators six months ago and returning, expect to do about the same success. If you figure, how many artists and, we're very lucky, can say they did 100,000 spectators in the LA area, especially in Irvine - none. This does not attract only horse people, that's very important. My background was with Cirque as you know. The integration of the acrobatic world and the equestrian world is absolutely spectacular. Even if you don't like horses, I promise you're going to enjoy the show. The show is very fun to watch. It's very beautiful. For a live show, I call this a revelation. You'll just leave lighter. It brings the spectator to a dream, a 'feel good' show. I think you need that right now especially during this political season. With this show, you just forget about all your problems and just enjoy; and you can. You won't believe your very eyes what you see, I promise you. Come to see ODYSSEO. You will be blown away."

ODYSSEO runs from November 16, 2016 through January 8, 2017. For tickets, directions to the White Big Top location, and show info, log onto www.cavalia.net/odysseo