The Costumes of KOOZA

KOOZA™ is a return to the origins of Cirque du Soleil ® that combines two circus traditions—acrobatic performance and the art of clowning. The show highlights the physical demands of human performance in all its splendor and  fragility, presented in a colorful mélange that emphasizes bold slapstick humor.

“KOOZA is about human connection and the world of duality, good and bad,” says the show’s writer and director David Shiner. “The tone is fun and funny, light and open. The show doesn’t take itself too seriously, but it’s very much about ideas, too. As it evolves, we are exploring concepts such as fear, identity, recognition and power.

Costume designer Marie-Chantale Vaillancourt has drawn on a wide variety of sources of inspiration: everything from graphic novels, the painter Klimt, Mad Max movies, timetravel movies to India and Eastern Europe. She was also inspired by clock movements, tin soldiers, marching band
uniforms and children’s book illustrations. All this merges to create a look that alludes to Alice in Wonderland, Baron Munchaüsen and the Wizard of Oz.

Some fashionable facts about the costumes of KOOZA:

• All costumes are custom-made and the majority are produced at the Costume workshop in the International Headquarters in Montreal, Canada.

• Every year, the Costume workshop produced more than 25,000 pieces. Each year, the Costume workshop artisans use close to 130 kilometers of fabric from around the world. A total of 80% of all fabrics are treated and dyed in-house by the artisans of the textile design team.

• Shoes are hand- and custom-made for all artists by the artisans of the Shoe workshop. Brand new sports or  dance shoes are sometimes altered to meet the specific of a costume. On average, nearly 3,000 pairs of shoes are
produced by the workshop every year.

• Hats can be seen in every Cirque du Soleil show and are a key part of the costumes. Like the costumes, they are custom-designed and made in the workshop. To do this, the milliners mould and build the hats on plaster models of the artists’ heads. When artists arrive at Cirque du
Soleil, they must have a mould made of their head.

KOOZA Opens Friday, June 8 in Phoenix. For ticketing and more information, click here.