By Matt Bearden
Cirque du Soleil’s touring LUZIA captures color, music, and acrobatics in a beautiful imagination inspired by Mexican culture. Here, under the Big Top, audiences are transported to a “surreal escape” and witness “grand visual surprises” that only the masterminds behind Cirque du Soleil could imagine. Audiences will instantly recognize how the acts and set designs draw on diverse Mexican traditions, including marigolds, Día de los Muertos, the Tarahumara running tribe, mariachi, and regional textile patterns.
LUZIA was originally created in 2016 by husband-and-wife duo Daniele Finzi Pasca and Julie Hamelin Finzi. They spent 10 years in Mexico, where they were inspired by the country’s bright colors, culture, landscapes, and wildlife. Together, they wrote a fantastical journey where a parachutist experiences singing, love, thirst, and spectacle.
When I spoke with head coach Emerson Neve, he described the show, saying, “The show is set with the clown jumping out of a plane. And then his parachute doesn’t work, and he ends up landing. There’s a key that he turns, and then it becomes a fantastic world. The journey of the show—it is a journey through Mexico.”
Neve originally performed in Cirque’s Saltimbanco, the show that brought Cirque worldwide fame. From performing to becoming an artist coach to becoming LUZIA’s head coach, Neve knows the inner workings that bring to life the magic we all love from Cirque du Soleil. He also has the knowledge to bring out the performers’ full brilliance and potential. Going from performer to coach equips Neve with a trusting bond with the performers.
When you are under the Big Top and watching 47 performers, you’ll see more than just their unique talent. To Neve, these performers are akin to superheroes. Just like many of us, Neve has hard days. But when he, like us, sits there to watch the show, he witnesses more than just choreography and storytelling. These performers take us into a different world, a fantasy world. They use their special talents—their superpowers—to transport us somewhere else entirely. To Neve, and to many of us, LUZIA dazzles. Under the Big Top, we all come together to experience the extraordinary, the daring, and the bizarre. After all, this is a circus show. These performers, in their crocodile or jaguar costumes, their tight spandex or hummingbird feathers, and their astounding flexibility, unite us. That’s pretty super, don’t you think?
LUZIA is the only touring Cirque du Soleil show that uses water as a main component. Neve half-joked saying “acrobatics and water just don’t go well” together. Could have fooled me. The way the trapeze and aerial strap performers move through the falling water and jump out of the shallow pool on stage tells me more about why these people are superheroes. The strap performers artistically fly at dizzying heights, holding tight to their bungee straps, through the programmed but potentially unpredictable water. Water and acrobatics are a risky business, but so is the handbalancing act on bendable pegs. With this water feature, a new dimension is added. It becomes vital that cast and crew stay alert and watch each other’s backs.
By the end of the show, the parachutist arrives at a party. All the performers gather around a table full of food, laughter, and celebration. It is cinematic, the ending, because time slows down on us, and a sad realization washes over the parachutist: was it all a dream? The comedy, the singing, chasing the butterfly? He doesn’t know. We don’t know, either. This ending is personal to everyone—performers, staff, coaches, and audience. I won’t tell you much more about the ending except that it is beautifully tender. I cannot recall an ending like this from Cirque in the years I have been attending their shows.
LUZIA is unique in its own right. Taking direct inspiration from Mexico, the magical world that Daniele Finzi Pasca and Julie Hamelin Finzi originally dreamed of has evolved into a beautiful artwork. The story and show have mostly stayed the same since their original debut. However, the show you see may be slightly different from one day to the next. As is the nature of performance art, there are always substitutions at the ready in case of an injury or new cast member. Nonetheless, what you will see under the Big Top will take you to a surreal world where you watch superheroes make you believe in magic.
Go to cirquedusoleil.com to order tickets to see LUZIA at Atlantic Station between now and January 25, 2026.
