Cirque du Soleil: OVO

Talk about creating a buzz. Touring circus company Cirque du Soleil’s OVO offers a nonstop, life-affirming, two-hour tribute to the infinitely diverse world of insects. This sensual, acrobatically dazzling show premiered in 2009 as the Montreal-based circus company’s 25th production since 1984. The cast for its premiere included 54 performing artists from 16 different countries. Created and directed by Deborah Colker, OVO (Portuguese for “egg”) contemplates insects in all their beauty, action and curiosity. Brazilian composer Berna Ceppas transforms their flight, leaps, creeping and crawling into a samba-influenced choreographic spectacle augmented by the constant flutter and hum of real insect sounds.

With well over a thousand performances to date, OVO long ago took flight as one of the Cirque’s most popular and rewarding extravaganzas. As Albany, New York’s Times Union said of OVO in 2020, “In our digital age, it’s reassuring to remember that non-simulated, filter-free entertainment still has the power to dazzle and transport us.”