Stage: KÀ

Grace under fire:Cirque du Soleil's fiery KÀ is nothing short of spectacular

By Jessica Kruse

"So what exactly does kà mean?" my husband asked me right before the show started. I pretended I didn't hear him, because I hate admitting I don't know the definition of a word. To distract him, I pointed at the group of performers, rigged to complex pulley systems, climbing around on the set. "That's pretty cool!" I said as one of them swung out over our heads. And for the next 90 minutes, as the performers staged some of the most impossible-looking acts I have ever witnessed, I said those three words over and over again, because, well, KÀ is pretty cool.

The newest and grandest of Las Vegas' Cirque du Soleil shows, KÀ tells the story of twins, a boy and a girl, who are separated when one of them is kidnapped. To reconnect, the two venture out independently, each being challenged physically and emotionally along the way, as archers and spearmen pursue them. Their journeys take them from a sandy seashore with magical sea creatures to the peaks of snow-capped mountains; through a magical glowing forest and into a magnificent battle before they are reunited.

As it turns out, kà is an Egyptian word for the belief that each body is accompanied by a spiritual double. The emphasis is on the idea of duality, illustrated through the use of fire, both as a means of creation and destruction. The pyrotechnics are wonderfully powerful, but one of the most poignant fire scenes actually uses just a single candle for light as Twin Brother learns to make shadow puppets.

What's most amazing about KÀ, however, are the two moving stages, which are positioned differently in each scene to give the audience the most advantageous view. One of the stages turns into a vertical position, which makes the battle scene at the end even more exciting to watch, as the actors scale and rappel what has now become more a wall than a stage.

Indeed, the performers mix dance, acrobatics and martial arts together with ease, and each perfectly choreographed scene blends smoothly into the next, keeping energy levels high throughout the performance. It's different from Cirque's previous work in that it doesn't have that intimate feeling some of its shows have, but KÀ is nothing short of spectacular.