1979–1983: Origins In 1979, after having quit college and learned the art of
fire breathing, Guy Laliberté organized a summer fair in Baie-Saint-Paul with the help of Daniel Gauthier and Gilles Ste-Croix. Although well received by audiences and critics alike,
Les Échassiers was a financial failure. Laliberté spent the following winter in Hawaii while Ste-Croix stayed in Quebec to set up a nonprofit
holding company named "The High-Heeled Club" (
Club des Talons Hauts) to mitigate the losses of the previous summer. This allowed
Les Échassiers de Baie-Saint-Paul to break even by fall 1981. The following summer, Laliberté and Ste-Croix founded
La Fête Foraine, a street performance festival that featured circus performances and workshops to teach the circus arts to the public. Laliberté managed and produced the fair for 2 more years, becoming a moderate financial success. In 1983, the government of Quebec gave him a $1.6 million grant to host a production the following year as part of Quebec's 450th anniversary celebration of the French explorer
Jacques Cartier's arrival in Turtle Island (North America). This became Cirque du Soleil's first production
Le Grand Tour du Cirque du Soleil.
1984–1989: Foundation and early productions The company's first production
Le Grand Tour performed in Quebec for 13 weeks in summer 1984. Although several issues persisted during the first tour (including a collapsed tent and conflict between artists), it was a financial success. After securing funding from the
Canadian government for a second year from the help of Quebec premier
René Lévesque, Laliberté hired Guy Caron, head of the
National Circus School, as Cirque du Soleil's
artistic director. Laliberté and Caron reworked the company's performance style to emulate that of
Moscow Circus by having the acts tell a story. Further influences from the Circus of China, Cirque Arlette Gruss, and
Circus Roncalli led Cirque du Soleil to approach their shows in a more theatrical fashion with live music and no technical crew on stage. To assist in this shift towards a theatrical production, Laliberté and Caron hired Belgian director
Franco Dragone to direct segments of their 1985 production,
Cirque du Soleil. The company's first non-Quebec performances in
Ontario in 1985 were unsuccessful, leading to a $750,000 deficit. To enable a 1986 tour, the
Desjardins Group covered $200,000 of bad checks, financier
Daniel Lamarre represented the company for free, and the Quebec government allotted it an additional year of funding.
La Magie Continue, their 1986 production, proved more artistically successful with the direction of Franco Dragone. This extended to the creation of their 1987 show
Le Cirque Réinventé. Over the next two years the show continued to tour Canada and the United States, making its first appearance at New York's
Battery Park in March 1988. In 1989 plans for a second touring show named
Éclipse started developing. Due to artistic differences with these plans, Guy Caron, along with a number of artists, left the company causing the plans to be shelved. Gilles Ste-Croix, who had been away from the company since 1985, subsequently replaced Caron as artistic director. The following touring shows created by the same creative team—
Saltimbanco,
Alegría, and
Quidam—proved to be equally successful. Its success as the company's first permanent production would later allow for the creation of two more permanent shows in 1998:
O in Las Vegas and
La Nouba at
Walt Disney World in
Orlando, Florida. Following the premiere of
La Nouba, the creative team made up of Dragone, Lemieux, Crête, Lafortune, and Brown (as well as
Benoît Jutras who took over as in-house composer after Dupéré in 1994) departed Cirque du Soleil. Starting with the creation of
Dralion in 1999, the company began producing shows with entirely new creative teams. Cirque du Soleil also toured Japan in the summer of 1992 at the behest of the
Fuji Television Network. Combining acts from their previous shows
Nouvelle Expérience and
Le Cirque Réinventé, they created their first arena show
Fascination which toured Japan from May to August of that year. Shortly afterwards, at the beginning of 2001, Daniel Gauthier left the company and was bought out by Guy Laliberté, bringing his ownership stake in the company to 95%. In 2005, Lamarre took over as President of Cirque du Soleil from Laliberté while Heward took on the role of executive producer for special projects. In that same year the company premiered the touring show
Corteo. The same year, the Cirque du Soleil switched ticketing companies to go with Outbox's technology, a white label system, of which it also became a shareholder. '' sign at the Mirage Hotel Cirque du Soleil premiered two shows in 2006:
Delirium, their first significant touring arena show, in January of that year and
The Beatles Love, their first collaboration with
The Beatles, in June. Similarly, in 2007 they opened two more productions with the resident show
Wintuk in New York City and the touring tent show
Koozå. In July 2007 the company made their first effort to convert tent shows to arena settings by launching
Saltimbancos arena tour in London, Ontario (this custom would be followed by other tent shows in later years). That year Cirque du Soleil also announced that they sold a 20% stake in the company to Dubai investors Istithmar World and Nakheel in order to finance their goals, including plans for a resident show in Dubai directed by Guy Caron and
Michael Curry (according to Laliberté, these plans were later "put on ice" due to the
Great Recession). In 2009, they launched 3 more shows: the touring tent show
Ovo, the touring theatre show
Banana Shpeel, and the resident show
Viva Elvis in Las Vegas. At this time Cirque du Soleil began being criticized for the quality of their productions.
Banana Shpeel became labelled as one of the company's first "failures" when it was panned by both critics and audiences;
Criss Angel Believe and
Viva Elvis also received negative reviews.
2010–2014: Cutbacks and restructuring The touring show
Totem premiered in 2010 and was soon followed by three more shows in 2011: the resident show
Iris in Los Angeles and the touring shows
Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour and
Zarkana. Although the company was still growing at this time, it continued to face several issues with its newer productions.
Zarkana and
Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour received poor reviews and the company had a string of closures.
Banana Shpeel closed in Toronto in October 2010 after cancelling its previously-announced engagement in San Francisco. In July 2011, Cirque du Soleil announced the closure of
Zed due to poor ticket sales as a direct result of the
March 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. In November 2011 MGM Grand asked the company to close and replace
Viva Elvis by the end of 2012 due to poor ticket sales. In February 2012, the company announced the closure of
Zaia due to disappointing ticket sales and in November 2012, despite critical praise, announced the closure of
Iris, also due to low ticket sales. In December 2012, the company announced a new division—Cirque du Soleil Média—in conjunction with Bell Media, followed by the release of their second film
Worlds Away. At this time Cirque du Soleil also announced 50 layoffs. The layoffs consisted mostly of 30 employee positions at their International Headquarters in Montreal, including three vice-presidents. With the high output of shows between 2007 and 2011 in combination with its multiple closures, the company began slowing down its operations. In 2012 and 2013 it only opened two shows: the touring tent show
Amaluna and the resident show
Michael Jackson: One in Las Vegas. On 16 January 2013, Cirque du Soleil announced that it would be laying off 400 of its 5000 employees worldwide, most of which at their International Headquarters. The company noted that it had not been profitable in 2012 despite having garnered over $1 billion in revenue that year. Later that year, on 30 June 2013, the company faced headlines when acrobat
Sarah "Sasoun" Guyard-Guillot died after falling during a performance of
Kà in Las Vegas, its first on-stage death in its history. In April 2014,
Kurios: Cabinet of Curiosities, a touring tent show, premiered in Montreal to critical acclaim and was followed in November 2014 by
Joyà, both the company's first resident show in Mexico and their first
dinner theatre production.
2015–2020: Rebranding and diversification under TPG Capital, Fosun, and CDPQ On 20 April 2015, Guy Laliberté announced that he had sold a 90% joint stake in the company to the investment groups TPG Capital, Fosun Capital Group, and La Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) for approximately $1.5 billion, while retaining a 10% stake in the company himself. The sale received regulatory approval from the
Government of Canada on 30 June 2015. Under the new ownership, the company began majorly restructuring its executive leadership in order to focus on increasing their profitability. Their finance director, chief operating officer, and numerous vice-presidents were all replaced within six months of the company's sale. Notably, the position of Chief Operating Officer held by Charles Décarie was given to finance lawyer Jonathan Tétrault. In November 2015 the company premiered the touring arena show
Toruk – The First Flight based on James Cameron's
Avatar franchise. It was followed shortly after by the touring tent show
Luzia and the company's first Broadway musical
Paramour, both opening in April 2016. By the end of 2016 the company had also launched the preschool television series
Luna Petunia on Netflix. In 2017, it launched three more productions.
Séptimo Día - No Descansaré, an arena show based on the music of
Soda Stereo, premiered in March for a short year-long tour targeted largely at South and Central American audiences. In April 2017, it premiered the touring tent show
Volta and in October,
Crystal, the company's first
ice show. Cirque du Soleil launched the children's show
Big Top Academy through
TVO in October 2018. In November 2018, it premiered the touring tent show
Bazzar in India, the company's first production to tour in that region. In 2019, the company opened six shows: the touring tent show
Alegría: In a New Light; the touring arena shows
Axel and
Messi10; the touring theatre show
Twas the Night Before; and two resident shows—
X: The Land of Fantasy in Hangzhou, China and
R.U.N in Las Vegas. Under the ownership of TPG Capital, Fosun Capital Group, and La Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Cirque du Soleil restructured into a new parent company named Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group and secured several multi-million dollar acquisitions: the Blue Man Group, VStar Entertainment Group, and The Works Entertainment Group. In February 2020, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec acquired Guy Laliberté's remaining 10% stake in Cirque du Soleil, bringing its total ownership in the company from 10% to 20%. Although it received financial support with a $50 million injection from its shareholders and a $200 million loan from the Quebec government, on 29 June 2020 the company announced that it had filed for
bankruptcy protection and was
terminating 3,500 employees who had previously been laid off. CEO
Daniel Lamarre stated the intention of the company was to rehire "a substantial majority" of terminated employees once coronavirus-related shutdowns were lifted and operations could resume, business conditions allowing. In connection with the filing, Cirque du Soleil entered a
stalking horse bid from its shareholders with the intention of drawing outside bidders to buy the company. In July 2020, the company's shareholders offered a proposal that would allow its creditors to obtain a 45% stake in the company while the current shareholders would maintain a 55% shared stake. On 17 July 2020, a takeover proposal by the company's creditors valued at US$1.2 billion was approved as a benchmark bid in the company by the
Quebec Superior Court. On 17 August 2020,
Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec reported that it had to write off the US$75 million investment which it had made only four months prior, in February. On 24 November 2020, it was announced that the company emerged from bankruptcy and was sold to a group of its creditors led by Canadian investment company
Catalyst Capital Group.
2021–present: Post-pandemic restructuring under Catalyst With the exception of the resident shows
Joyà and
X: The Land of Fantasy, which reopened with limited capacities in the summer of 2020, Cirque du Soleil did not reopen its shows for over a year during its worldwide COVID-19 performance suspension. They began gradually reopening its shows in the summer of 2021, beginning with its Las Vegas-based resident shows. Several productions that had been temporarily suspended due to the pandemic (including
Zumanity,
Totem,
Volta, and
Axel) did not reopen and were retroactively permanently closed by the company. In 2021, the resident show
Drawn to Life premiered—the company's first new production since the onset of the pandemic. In 2024, the touring theatre production
Songblazers premiered, but was shut down after four months due to "logistical reasons". In 2025, the resident shows
Alizé and
Ludõ premiered in Berlin and Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico, respectively.
Changes in leadership and employment structure In November 2021, Cirque du Soleil announced that Daniel Lamarre would be stepping down as president and CEO of the company and transitioning into the role of executive vice-chairman of the board, while former chief financial officer and chief operating officer Stéphane Lefebvre would take over as president and CEO, effective 1 December 2021. In April 2025, Stéphane Lefebvre stepped down from his position as president and CEO and was temporarily replaced again by Lamarre until
Mark Cornell was appointed president and CEO in November 2025. Numerous cutbacks occurred during this period under a consolidation policy the company titled "ONE Cirque", which included over 100 layoffs, the closure of two Blue Man Group performance venues, and the shuttering of their Las Vegas costume and fabrication workshops, all between November 2024 and February 2025. In February 2025, chief revenue officer Mike Newquist departed the company less than one month after beginning in the position. == Shows ==