Cirque du Soleil won’t fly at the 2010 Olympics

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Sometimes it seems as if Cirque du Soleil is taking over the world. Besides having traveling and permanent shows all over the globe -- five permanent shows in Las Vegas alone -- the limber French-Canadian entertainment machine last year inked a 10-year agreement with the Kodak Theatre to create a permanent show for the Hollywood venue to open in 2010.

But one place you won’t see Cirque in 2010 is right on its home continent: The flying French-Canadians will not perform at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, B.C.

In a news report today, Canada’s Globe and Mail quoted an unnamed source saying that Cirque would not be performing because of ‘overly tight control exerted over the creative process’ by Olympic organizers, implying that this rubbed the ever-so-creative Cirque the wrong way.

Not so, Cirque spokeswoman Chantal Côté told The Times; Cirque is just too busy. ‘The reason stated by the Globe and Mail is stated out of context,’ she said via e-mail. ‘We have our hands full with the creation of three brand new shows per year starting this year, and we have realized that we could not dedicate ourselves 100% to these ceremonies because of that.’

Added Côté: ‘Concerning our wanting to be in charge of the artistic direction of the ceremonies, Cirque du Soleil always is in charge of the creative content of any project that it is a part of, and this one [would] have been no exception. The reason... really has nothing to do with that, it has everything to do with a lack of time on our side.’

-- Diane Haithman