Cirque du Soleil (French: [sɪʁk dzy sɔ.lɛj], “Circus of the Sun”) is an entertainment company based in Montreal and the world’s largest producer of contemporary circus performances. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul on June 16, 1984, by former street performers Guy Laliberté and Gilles Ste-Croix.
Originally a performing troupe called Les Échassiers ([lez‿e.ʃa.sje], “The Stiltwalkers”), they toured Quebec in various forms between 1979 and 1983. Their early financial struggles were alleviated in 1983 by a government grant from the Canada Council for the Arts, as part of the celebrations marking the 450th anniversary of Jacques Cartier’s voyage to Canada. Their first official production, Le Grand Tour du Cirque du Soleil, was a success in 1984, and after securing a second year of funding, Laliberté hired Guy Caron from the National Circus School to reshape it into a “proper circus.” Its theatrical approach, focus on characters, and absence of performing animals helped define Cirque du Soleil as a form of contemporary circus (“nouveau cirque”), which it remains today.
After both financial successes and failures in the late 1980s, Nouvelle Expérience was created—directed by Franco Dragone—which not only made Cirque du Soleil profitable by 1990 but also allowed it to create new shows.
Cirque du Soleil expanded rapidly throughout the 1990s and 2000s, growing from a single show to 19 productions in over 300 cities across every continent except Antarctica. The company employs around 4,000 people from 50 countries and generates an annual revenue of approximately 1 billion USD. Its multiple permanent shows in Las Vegas perform before more than 9,000 people each night—about 5% of the city’s visitors—adding to the more than 100 million people who have attended Cirque du Soleil productions worldwide.
