"Cirque at the 74th Academy Awards"

Oscar Night was a special one for Cirque fans. For five minutes on March 24, 2002 Cirque du Soleil was the focus of the 74th Academy Awards. It took Cirque four months to create the special show, which featured eleven acts from some of their most popular productions: Dralion, La Nouba, Quidam, Mystère, "O", and Alegría set to the electro-urban sound of the La Nouba soundtrack. As for the acts...

• Hoops (Quidam)
  • Featuring: Elena Lev
  
  
• German Wheel (Quidam)
  • Featuring: Chris Lashua


• Spanish Webs (Quidam)
  • Featuring: Natalia Pestova, Mireille Goyette, Jonathan Morin


• Banquine (Quidam)
  • Featuring - Konstantin Besstchetnyi, Marina Boutina, Elena Kolesnikova, Alexandre Leontiev, Alexandre Maiorov, Serguei Okhai, Dmitri Koukva, Alexandre Pestov, Vladimir Fomine, Roman Polishchuk, Svetlana Souvorova, Igor Strijanov, Alexandre Zaitsev, and Konstantin Zakharenko.


• Comet Character («O»)
  • Featuring: Colin Richard Follenweider


• Bungees (Mystère)
  • Featuring: Irina Sorokina, Kelly Roberta Tucker, Kristin Wingfield and Maria Akhlatkina.


• Flying Man in Silk (La Nouba)
  • Featuring: Yuri Maiorov


• Fire («O»)
  • Featuring: Michael Abraham Brown


• BMX (La Nouba)
  • Featuring: Chris Lashua


• Lion Ball (Dralion)
  • Featuring: Xi Shuai


• Trampoline Wall (La Nouba)
  • Featuring: Wellington Moura de Lima, Krystian Sawicki, and Nathan Patrick Henderson.

What made the performance by Cirque extra special is that their performances were tied to the images behind them. Cirque was, after all, presenting for special effects. Therefore, behind each of the performers and their respected acts were interesting special effects shots spanning the ages. A list of the images that appeared on the backdrop is as follows; in order of appearance:

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