Cirque du Soleil Director Talks About the Michael Jackson Tour

Jamie King, the choreographer of Michael Jackson’s DANGEROUS tour, is now the writer, director, and choreographer of his Immortal tour at Cirque du Soleil. In a recent interview with Robin Leach of Las Vegas Weekly, she said:

"No doubt, Immortal will become the biggest tour in the world."

The first performance of this tour will take place in October this year in Cirque du Soleil’s hometown, Montreal, Canada, and the 33 subsequent shows will begin starting December 3 at Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas.

"About nine months ago, Cirque du Soleil asked me to create the biggest show in the world—the way only Michael Jackson could have prepared it for Cirque du Soleil. The result of those efforts is now being presented as Immortal."

"Michael chose me to choreograph the dancing for his DANGEROUS concerts. At the time, I performed with him, and now I’ve created an immortal show for him. These achievements still don’t feel real to me. In six months, the shows will be on stage. My heart is trembling at the thought that there are only six months left, even though we’ve spent nine months working on the shows with a team of stars and experts."

"We’ve brought together acrobats, dancers, musicians, and stage managers from all over the world. Many of the musicians are collaborators from Michael’s previous tours. Our team is top-tier—made up of people who have worked with Michael and been by his side, and that experience is reflected in their careers. We hired people that Michael approved of and liked."

"I might be the director and writer of the show, but I’m not the only one. Michael co-directs with me. It’s as if he’s watching me and guiding me."

"I went with the Cirque team to Neverland. Being in a place where Michael considered it his home completely takes over your mind. We decided to bring Neverland to the stage. Isn’t that amazing? Now, when you step into these shows, you experience Neverland. Neverland comes alive in front of your eyes."

"Although Michael won’t be there in his body, his spirit, essence, and music will be felt. His songs are the narrators of our show. Throughout the performance, you’ll hear Michael’s voice guiding our journey from within Neverland, so that we can understand the secrets, magic, and innocence of him and of his Neverland. On this journey, we discover things we’ve always wanted to know about Michael, and we’ll rediscover things we already knew."

"There are many surprising facts about him. I didn’t know he was a poet. I knew he wrote songs, but after further research in this short time, I’ve learned even more about him—and now I know he was also a great poet, as well as a great painter. Throughout his life, he created many beautiful paintings. In our shows, Michael is portrayed as a great painter and artist, a great ringmaster, a great showman, and a great human being."

"When he was my boss (the DANGEROUS tour), he treated his dancers like princes and wanted us to be the best. Now I have the opportunity to showcase Michael’s talent and humanity through Cirque du Soleil’s Immortal tour."

"Michael’s children and his family have been very supportive of us so far."

Jamie says that while elements from the Jackson 5 group will also be used in these shows, their main focus is on Michael Jackson’s solo songs.

"Each show is 90 minutes, and during it, 30 of Michael’s songs are performed. The only way to fit these songs into one show is to mix and blend them together. I plan to use some scenes from This Is It that weren’t shown in theaters. But let me be clear: none of the dancers and musicians from This Is It will be with us. We have people from Michael’s older tours—Bad and Victory tours. It will be presented in a way that makes it seem as if Michael Jackson is hosting this tour."

"The audience will feel Neverland. Purity, humanity, that sensitive and vulnerable side of Michael Jackson’s personality that fewer people have understood—his childhood and his beautiful, pure heart are the things I want the audience to know and understand before they leave the theater."

Source: eMJey.com / lasvegasweekly.com