"Do not be fooled. I am neither spirit nor magic spell, neither man nor woman. Without hearth or home, I am neither a god nor a demon, nor a song, nor a tale. I am no one, but many faces are legion. Unmask me... if you dare!"

When Saltimbanco was created it was estimated that 60% of the world's future population would live in large cities, a concept known as "urbanization". But the urban world that Cirque du Soleil saw developing was a lifeless one, variations on future dystopias, with echoes of the Cold War. "There weren't many reasons given for hope in a better tomorrow," Michel Crête, set designer recalled. But "we said: You've got to believe that you’re going to live in a better future and that you can be part of that future," Gilles Ste. Croix added. "You've got to have hope."

Created as an antidote to the violence and despair typical of the 20th century, Saltimbanco proposes a new vision of urbanity, overflowing with optimism and happiness. From the Italian "saltare in banco", which according to the French historian Etienne Pasquier (1529-1615) is an Italian word that, when studied from a French perspective, literally means "to jump on a bench" – the bench being a slightly elevated platform or, in other words, the stage – Saltimbanco explores the urban experience in all its myriad forms: the people who live there, their idiosyncrasies and likenesses, families and groups, the hustle and bustle of the street, and the towering heights of skyscrapers.

Between whirlwind and lull, prowess and poetry, Saltimbanco takes spectators on an allegorical and acrobatic journey into the heart of the city. Decidedly baroque in its visual vocabulary, the show's eclectic cast of characters draws spectators into a fanciful, dreamlike world, an imaginary city where diversity is a cause for hope, taking them on an adventure in which anything can happen with a language all its own.

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Spirit and body, shadow and light, between earth and sky I tumble, spinning arabesques, kaleidoscope fantasy. I am nobile and rogue, mortal and sorcerer, fire and water, power and grace. Sublime and grotesque, somber and afire, I entrance, mesmerize, fusing madness and wisdom, primordial chaos. ~~ I am celestial, and eerie, playful and mischievous, subtle and striking, magnificent, androgynous. Soaring, teetering, slithering, I am fluid, poetic, hypnotic. Dancing, whirling, flying, I am rebellious, defiant, explosive. ~~ I am one, I am many, I am as we are - eternal, out of time. I am science and magic, chimeric etheral. I come from nowhere. I come from everywhere. ~~ But... I am creature of neither fantasy nor reality, neither incantation nor dream. I am neither man nor woman, god nor demon, song nor story. I am no one, I am legion. I am Saltimbanco.