Kodak Theatre Welcomes Cirque Du Soleil's IRIS, 7/21

Cirque du Soleil announced today that tickets go on sale to the general public on Monday, November 22 at 10:00 a.m. for IRIS A Journey through the World of Cinema, a brand new major, resident production created exclusively for the Kodak Theatre at the Hollywood & Highland Center, home of the Academy Awards®.   Tickets are available at cirquedusoleil.com or by calling 1-877-943-IRIS.  Performances begin July 21, 2011.
 
IRIS is written and directed by director-choreographer Philippe Decouflé, who is the founder and artistic director of the acclaimed French dance troupe Compagnie DCA.  Grammy®-and Emmy Award®-winner and Academy Award® nominee, Danny Elfman, is music composer; IRIS marks his first Cirque du Soleil show. 
 
IRIS is a lyrical, fanciful, kinetic foray into the seventh art. Bringing together dance, acrobatics, live video, filmed sequences and animation, the show takes spectators on a fantastic voyage through the history of cinema and its genres, taking them into the heart of the movie-making process. From illustration to animation, black and white to colour, silent films to talkies, fixed shots to swooping camera movements, spectators witness the poetic construction/deconstruction of this art as an object and as a way of transcending reality.
 
The word "iris" refers to the adjustable opening-or diaphragm-that controls the amount of light that passes through a camera lens.  The word also refers to the colored part of the eye.

Featuring 72 performers, 200 costumes, 8,300 square feet of floor surface, 174 loudspeakers, 603 lighting features, 20 video projectors, and 166,000 watts of sound,  IRIS joins the other Cirque du Soleil resident  productions Mystère^TM, O^TM, Zumanity^TM, KÀ^TM, The Beatles LOVE^TM, Criss Angel Believe^TM and Viva ELVIS^TM in Las Vegas, La Nouba^TM at Walt Disney World Resort, ZED^TM in Tokyo, and ZAIA^TM in Macao, in scale, scope and size. 

"We are thrilled to have found such a spectacular home in Los Angeles," said President and CEO of Cirque du Soleil Daniel Lamarre. "The city is at the forefront not only of film, but music, architecture and art as well. It is our hope that IRIS will be a welcome addition to Hollywood as a destination for locals and visitors alike. This is also a kind of homecoming for us. Our international career started right here when we brought a show called "We Reinvent the Circus" to the LA Festival for opening night on September 3, 1987.
 
IRIS is one of three major Cirque du Soleil productions scheduled premiering in North America in 2011.  The second is Zarcana, a new acrobatic spectacle that begins performances June 2011 at the legendary Radio City Music Hall in New York.  The third is Michael Jackson The Immortal World Tour^TM, an arena-touring show in which fans will experience the excitement of a Michael Jackson concert.  Information can be found at www.cirquedusoleil.com