Cirque du Soleil To Perform in Super Bowl XLI Pregame Show - Superbowl.com

Cirque du Soleil to perform in Super Bowl XLI pregame show
(Jan. 9, 2007) -- Cirque du Soleil and Miami-based artist Romero Britto will team to celebrate South Florida and football in an unprecedented performance in the Super Bowl XLI pregame show on CBS at Dolphin Stadium in South Florida on Sunday, Feb. 4, the NFL announced.

The Super Bowl is annually the nation's highest-rated TV program. More than 141 million viewers watched last year's game in the U.S. Super Bowl XLI will be broadcast to a potential worldwide audience of 1 billion in more than 230 countries and territories.

Inspired by Brazilian street theater, 60 professional performers and hundreds of other participants will participate in the pregame show, which will be a high-energy extravaganza of music, dance, gymnastics and circus arts linked by a multi-colored football theme. The Cirque du Soleil performers will be a living, breathing canvas for Britto, whose signature pop-art has come to define the color and vibrancy of South Florida.

Grammy® Award Winner Louie Vega will supply an original musical score and will perform with his Elements of Life Orchestra featuring vocalist Anane while the Cirque du Soleil performance comes to life.

The Cirque du Soleil team will include Fernand Rainville, director of creation, Patricia Ruel, creator of costumes and accessories, Geneviève Dorion-Coupal, choreographer and Daniel Cola, acrobatic coach.

Don Mischer Productions and White Cherry Entertainment will produce the Super Bowl XLI pregame show as part of their season-long marquee entertainment agreement with the NFL. The two companies produced the NFL Opening Kickoff 2006 special from Pittsburgh and the Thanksgiving special from Kansas City on NFL Network. In addition to the pregame show, they also will produce the Pepsi Super Bowl XLI Halftime Show. Don Mischer Productions will serve as executive producer and director, while White Cherry Entertainment, led by Ricky Kirshner and Glenn Weiss, will serve as executive producers. The NFL has worked the past three years with both Don Mischer Productions and White Cherry Entertainment on Opening Kickoff and Super Bowl shows.

David Saltz of Red Eye Flight Productions will also serve as producer of the pregame show. Saltz has worked with Cirque on their Beatles inspired LOVE production and has brought them together with Britto for this original Super Bowl performance. Saltz has worked with the NFL on Opening Kickoff and Super Bowl Halftime the past three years.