If you're interested in the notes, go to http://lorishyba.pbwiki.com/Cirque+du+Soleil%27s+Corteo

1. Photo: cirquedusoleil.com
Layers of Performativity
in Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo
“Iconography of Death”
John Douglas Taylor Conference
Lori Shyba, Assistant Professor
McMaster University, Hamilton
October 25, 2008

2. For the Funeral Procession clip from Corteo,
go to the 2 minute 21 second point of
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKQAsTM07l4

3. Layers of PERFORMATIVITY
1. Inspiration
2.The Industry
3.The Spectacle
4.The Sacred Sphere
5.Transformation
6. Doubling and Duality
7. Omnipotence

4. Layer One: INSPIRATION and the
Kernel of Creativity
“At the heart of creativity is an
experience of the mystical union; the
heart of the mystical union is an
experience of creativity. Those who
speak in spiritual terms routinely refer to
God as as the creator but seldom see
creator as the literal term for artist.”
– Julia Cameron

5. Layer Two: THE INDUSTRY and
Making it Happen.
“Linguist philosophers J.L. Austin and
J.R. Searle distinguished between two
kinds of utterances: ‘constantives’ or
statements, and ‘performatives’ like
“I bless you” that perform an act in
their being said.”
– Marvin Carlson

6. Layer Three: THE SPECTACLE and the
Process of Getting it on Stage.
“In the creative process there is the
father, the author of the play; the
mother, the actor pregnant with the
part; and the child, the role to be
born.”
– Constantine Stanislavsky

7. Photo: cirquedusoleil.com

8. Layer Four: THE SACRED SPHERE of
PLAY
“The play-element was present and
significant from the beginning ... some
serious, some playful, but all rooted in
ritual and production of culture by
allowing in the innate human need for
rhythm, harmony, change, contrast and
climax to unfold in full richness.”
– Johan Huizinga

9. Photo: cirquedusoleil.com

10. Layer Five: TRANSFORMATION and
RITUAL
“Corteo, which means quot;cortegequot; in
Italian, is a joyous procession imagined
by a clown ... situated in a mysterious
space between heaven and earth..”
– Cirque du Soleil promotions
“Rite of Passage” is a transformance,
changing status of relationship and
identity. (Schechner) In Corteo, this rite of
passage is the transformation of the
human soul.

11. Layer Six: DOUBLING and DUALITY
“All performance involves a
consciousness of doubleness, through
which the actual execution of an action
is placed in mental comparison with a
potential, an idea, or a remembered
original model.”
– Richard Bauman

12. Layer 7: OMNIPOTENCE and CAMERA’S EYE
Looking at these Paradise scenes from
Corteo ask yourself these questions ...
1. Who or what does the camera
represent in this scene?
2. How does its pervasiveness ramify
into our culture and social fabric?
3. Is the camera you? Could it also be
a “Godcam”?

13. Photo: cirquedusoleil.com
Watch the Paradise Act from Corteo
Please refer to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7XE6psJP9c

14. Lori Shyba
lori.shyba@shaw.ca