Original subtitles

- I never would have dreamed when I was writing Avatar

that it would someday be a Cirque Du Soleil arena show.

It's exciting.

- It's taking something we did on the screen

and bringing it to Cirque.

You know, being transported back to Pandora.

-Well, the inception of this new show, Toruk,

was when Cirque Du Soleil came to us

and said we loved your film, we love that world.

Let's work together to create that world on stage,

using our performers and our techniques.

You know, of course, that was a dream come true because

I've been a huge fan of the Cirque Du Soleil projects.

-It began through a series of conversations

between Jim Cameron and Guy Laliberte

with Victor and Michel.

And they presented us this idea of going back in time.

- We said, how can we have human, small human and tall Navi

in the same show?

And Guy Laliberte told us, "Why don't you put your story

thousands of year before the human came?"

- So of course, that got a smile on James Cameron's face

when we come up with that story.

He said, "Oh, I never thought of that, that's a good idea."

We have to make sure that we're

following the right step, though.

It's always linked with something that you saw in the movie.

- This show is really story-driven.

This is the first time, it's an experiment with a story

to bring people on a journey.

We're not totally in a circus world,

we're not totally at the theater,

we're not totally in cinema.

It's a hybrid of all of that.

- The story I am about to tell you

happened more than three thousand years ago

on the moon Pandora.

- We're making a show,

so we need not to be afraid of showmanship.

We're not doing a movie.

We're doing a show inspired by a movie,

but it's still a show.

- The main concept we all have is the expectation

from our company, Cirque Du Soleil,

and from James Cameron's company, Lightstorm,

and the audience.

So, I mean, I have the three of them all together,

the expectations are huge.

- We don't want people to be in front of the show,

we want people to be inside the show.

We want to try to create an immersion,

so that's why, in the arena, we project on the floor,

we project on the black,

and we project on a part of the audience.

- The way that the show builds and lights,

and there's a puff of smoke and I'm standing there

in front of 15,000 people.

I'll be wearing a diaper.

I mean, that's a new experience for me.

We're playing big arenas.

- Catching up, because the camera is quite low.

That's it, that's it.

-In front of me, not out here.

-No, no, in front of you,

because the shadow will be in the middle of you.

-Oh, of course, because it's projecting

the shadow behind you.

- Yeah, yeah, it's the play to cover.

-This story begins in a troubled time,

an unstable time filled with danger.

- The conflict in the show

is that there is a volcanic eruption

that is threatening the Navi's Tree of Souls,

which is their connection to their ancestors.

And these two young Navi boys are set out on a quest

that turns from a quest to warn people

to taking over the mantle

and saying we're not just gonna warn people,

we're gonna save people.

- During that quest they will slowly,

progressively become adult.

So, it's the story of a transformation.

-Day one, they say, okay,

so you're going to improvise for three minutes

on what you think the character is.

And you know that feeling where your stomach

just seizes up?

And I was like, "This is it."

"I'm gonna be back on a plane at the end of the day."

- Even through the Navi movement,

I'm sure we're gonna feel their personality.

- Absolutely.

We should have, we should.

- You know why there's two team?

Because it's gonna be very demanding,

you're gonna be there from minute one to at the end

of the show, so you're always there.

It's gonna be exhausting.

- It's really demanding physically so,

kind of to protect us they decided like to have a double.

- We actually were really lucky because we work

so well together.

So we could go away and plan and work on all these

things together and have great discussions

and openly and comfortably say, "That looks bad."

"Don't do that."

- We do it a lot.

- We really had to be very close to each other

in terms of a performance because there was not only us,

there's other people involved to our work,

other people that take their cues from us.

So it's very important that every time we play it

we play it the same because we rotate, the other's don't.

- Be careful with this.

Help them on.

- They have to make very specific goal

for every short rehearsal time

for the artist with us on the stage, you know,

to make it most effectively because we are very

in short of time.

-So we have only 15 new minutes more.

We have to go in this way, and then you go this way.

Then go all the way down there, under this.

Two minutes.

- It is really fast.

- You go in like, boom.

- So this is the potential color we think, maybe?

It could be.

It works.

- Most of our costumes have to look like they were made by,

you know, Navi hands, so they have to have an

organic hand-made look.

So we're using a lot of weaving and macrame,

and we're using a lot of materials that could potentially

look like they grew on a tree or came from the forest.

I think somewhere here on your belt,

so you're not taking all the weight.

- You just made this last night?

- Yes.

-We work for at least two years in the show,

thinking about the show, making some drawings,

the costume, the staging.

All the time we prepare ourself a lot.

- We have no choice because, you know,

we're creating in a very fast track mode.

- I don't want to see you on stage being human.

I want to see Navi on you.

You should start to get it a little bit more on your body.

Being cast,

if you have a chance, if you go and watch the movie again

I'm sure that will help you in some ways,

just so see how they move, just to see how they laugh,

just to see how they talk, just to see how they react.

- She's like 50 percent human being and 50 percent animal,

feline, so to find really the balance of that was amazing

and I'm still working on it.

We had Julene, his choreographer that she was part

of the movie.

She came to spread the Navi philosophy.

I would say it more than movement.

I would say philosophy.

- There's that element of always moving,

something curious and new.

Right?

Looking.

What is that?

-was so impressed that Cirque would see the

power of connecting us with someone who really was there

to get the whole kind of

the value system of this aboriginal culture to make it

an authentic experience for people.

One must earn his place on Pandora.

Ralu will come to learn that Eywa is everywhere

and that she maintains harmony by forging links

between all living things.

- I think we get excited when we look into indigenous

cultures and other cultures and see their world view.

How they relate to the natural world.

How they relate to their own history

and where they came from

and they create myths, and that's what Toruk is,

a mythic story from the past of the Navi.

These are the stories that they hand down

in their verbal history of themselves.

- One of our first day's rehearsals,

Michel and Victor came down to our group of trio

and they said,

"Actually, you guys are gonna have microphones on."

-And you're gonna speak Navi.

-You're gonna speak Navi.

-And we're like, "What is next?"

- Part of why I think Avatar resonates so believably

is because the culture is real.

And at the heart of that culture is this language

that Paul Frommer created.

- The sounds that have gotten the most attention

are these things called ejectives,

which are sort of popping consonants,

which sound kind of like.

-The language is continuing to grow.

We must have at least a couple thousand words.

The interesting thing is that the language is now

really been adopted and people have really plunged into it

and it has become natural for them.

I don't think I could have predicted the way things

have turned out.

I mean, I'm absolutely delighted.

- I can't think of a film that's like bigger than this,

so when you're representing something like that you wanna

make sure you do it to the very best of your ability.

-Continue, guys.

Continue, continue.

Look around on the floor, as well.

The flowers.

All new land that you discover for the first time.

- Now we started this week the integration.

It's where we put projections,

artists in the projections, the lighting.

So, first thing, they have to walk in it.

- Because for the last 10 weeks the artists and performers

have been performing in a gray set.

-Turn yourself, look at the tree.

Wow, it's totally.

No, the tree, the tree.

Some artists told me this week,

"You know, we were listening to you."

"You're the stage director, you know what you're doing,

but you were saying there will be a river coming."

Waterfall is filling a river slowly, quite slowly.

And there will be lava, and so you jump over the lava.

Lava, oh yeah, oh yeah.

On the 50 Shades of Grey set, you know?

And now I see the river.

- The projections make the environment completely immersive,

so you believe you are actually in the forest

seeing all these things happening.

And birds, and things flying, and monsters.

It's incredible.

- We have complete set changes happen

with a click of a mouse.

- Well, oftentimes people go to arena shows and it's sort

of one environment.

Here, scene after scene after scene,

you're traveling across Pandora.

You're traveling to different exotic locations

and that's really exciting.

-Puppets are like one of my favorite things

of the show.

I'm incredibly scared by those wolf chasing me

with those green eyes and teeth.

I forget that there's someone that is moving them.

- It's the first time that a Cirque du Soleil show

has puppets to that extent.

It's not just about having a puppet that moves.

It's also about having these puppeteers and their bodies

really blend in with the movement.

- Well, our challenge right now is since we have some delays

with the tree and the skin, which I call the skin.

It's what you see right now.

There's one skin on the stage right tree,

but there's none on the stage left tree.

The projection was not hitting the tree the right way,

so we have to remove the whole tree,

which is huge as you can see.

So we've done one.

Takes two weeks and a half to undo and redo,

and we removed the second one

to do the same operation again.

For the artist's main set,

we didn't have the chance to build that act yet.

We had rehearsal kind of equipment in Montreal,

but now that we have the new skin we find out it doesn't

work the way it was working with the old one,

and we have to adapt.

So the construction of that act just basically just starts

in three days.

- The size of the physical world that we're in,

it's bigger than anything I've ever done

and I often wonder like how the heck are we gonna get

this problem solved?

- I'm sorry if we have to take you on many directions

all the time.

- Is there any sure grip on that fabric,

which we could ask him for?

Is there any sure grip on the fabric on the stage?

To get onto that step without the possibility of falling

and we're going and if like, Raymond's let's me.

I mean, it's terrifying.

That's a very stressful way for an actor to get onstage.

- The Toruk is the biggest puppet I've worked on.

It's like a reverse string marionette.

So the puppet is in the air.

It's hung by a 3D flight system.

The character comes at the end of the show.

To me it was like we work with different puppets

individually and, at the end, we take all the puppeteers,

we bring them together, and they give life to the character

that is the title of the show.

- We've been rehearsing only with the prototype,

which we manage unfortunately to just about destroy

so now it's holding by gaffer tape,

but the new one is coming and it's gorgeous.

- You know it's like you're doing an opera and you're star

is arriving three months into the process,

which is usually what divas do.

We're all waiting for Toruk.

It really informs our world and it makes it real to us.

In my journey at the moment, I feel really authentic.

I feel like I'm a Navi elder,

I have a story to tell.

Like the world we're creating

is a very three-dimensional one.

- We're not just characters performing.

We are Navi living in those moments

and that's a really beautiful feeling.

- As I'm in there, everything else fades away.

All I see is Pandora.

- The audience has to come and I'm expecting them

to smell the flowers even if there is no smell

to the flowers, but it's so clear what we are trying

to share and to spread, this beautiful Pandora world.

- It's huge, I mean it's 27 trucks at the moment.

We have over 40 projectors and it has to be very precise.

Cannot move.

A lot of video projection.

We're doing the sound for every venue.

It's specific for every venue so we're redesigning

as we go.

Yeah, we're pushing the envelope.

People will sit down and say,

"Wow, I never saw that before."

- We're here, it's December 21st.

It's the first day of winter, it's the Winter Solstice.

It's a merry and bright day for the Toruk cast.

We're really, really, really pumped.

- How are you doing?

Good?

- So tonight it will be the world, world, world premiere.

You know, it's not a small thing.

Yeah, you have to be ready, so I'm ready.

- Someone once told me, when you stop being nervous

it means you stop caring,

and I'm nervous only in the sense that I care.

If you don't go in a little bit nervous,

that's when you let your guard down.

- If you would see the drawings,

the first drawings and first words that we wrote

about this show it's exactly what we have here.

It's exactly what we dreamt.

Tonight is special because it's home.

We're very nervous and very fragile

when we play home.

- This is the night because our contract is finished.

- This is over.

- I don't take any notes tonight.

You're already so incredibly good.

All you guys, thank you very much.

- Thank you.

We'll miss you!

Have fun tonight.

-I will.

- It's fun to go to a premiere where somebody else

did all the work and I get to just enjoy it.

To me it's already creatively successful.

- We start the show set under a veil so it's kinda cool.

It feels like we're in a little tent looking around

and everyone's excited.

You can't see anyone and all of the sudden the veil's

pulled back and you've got all these faces looking at you

and it's pretty magical.

-I've always said that Cirque du Soleil is

about a celebration of human physicality

and human excellence.

Part of the Navi culture is about being alive

in your own body and being alive as part of a community,

part of a group of people.

And when you see the Cirque performers working

with perfect synchronization in these amazing kind of

group acrobatics, that's a very Navi concept.

- I think what I was really surprised at is the scale

to which the show evolved.

The result is something that is visually stunning

but in a more balletic way than an acrobatic way.

And people are just transported into the story

of these young people as they journey for self discovery.

The stamp that Victor and Michel have put on the show

is artistry above all else,

and, again, it's one of the things

that I think helps make Toruk such a transportive

experience for an audience.

- I think people should leave the Toruk experience

with the sense of the wonder and mystery of Pandora,

which in a way translates into a kind of respect

for indigenous culture and a respect for the natural world,

and maybe a connection to the harmony and the balance

of life that we need to get back to as human beings.

That's what the Avatar films are about.

That's what Toruk is about.

- Toruk!