Like a magical cauldron bubbling, with scenes from the story of human evolution linked together in a chain, Cirque du Soleil's TOTEM (pronounced Toe-TEM) traces the fantastic journey of the human species from the beginnings of organic life, to its original amphibian state in Earth's primordial soup, to the foundations of science, to the realization of Man's dream of defying Earth's gravity and taking flight.

The themes of evolution and the search for balance are closely woven together throughout the show and illustrate - in a multidimensional visual and acrobatic language - the evolutionary journey of species, encompassing all of the potential we carry within ourselves.

Creation myths from all walks of life act as a springboard for exploring the birth and evolution of Man - like an echo of the great questions of life - through various esoteric interpretations. Somewhere between science and legend, they say, TOTEM is about life, exploring the ties that bind Man to other species, his dreams and his infinite potential. Thus, this show pays tribute to the infinite imagination of Man and the beauty of the world in balance between reason and excess.

TOTEM depicts a world peopled by archetypal characters, all of who witness and act out in their own way the perennial existential questions of life. Neanderthals, Cro-Magnons, primates and men in suits set out on their evolutional quest for knowledge. This interpretation of evolution is the line that runs through the show. In the course of his journey, Man aspires to reach the stars.

Closely related to the notions of lineage and belonging to a group, the word TOTEM suggests that we all share the same roots, the idea of the order of species. We carry within our bodies the potential of all species, all the way to our desire to fly - like the thunderbird at the top of the totem pole. And in that way "Totemism" refers to the animal in Man. It contains the very idea of evolution; our bodies are living exemplars of it, because our species carry traces of all species. Is it coincidence that this word, with the same spelling in many languages, sounds exactly like the Latin "Totum", which means "all" or "the whole?"