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CIRQUE DU SOLEIL® THE SPARK: Igniting the Creative Fire That Lives Within Us All (Hardcover)
by John U. Bacon , Lyn Heward
Category:
Creativity, Innovation, Competitive strategy, Business success |
Market price: ¥ 220.00
MSL price:
¥ 178.00
[ Shop incentives ]
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Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
Good for Gifts
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MSL Pointer Review:
An inspirational story how anyone can reinvent a business through a discipline of creativity. Highly recommended to all business leaders and entrepreneurs. |
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Author: John U. Bacon , Lyn Heward
Publisher: Doubleday; 1st edition
Pub. in: April, 2006
ISBN: 0385516517
Pages: 135
Measurements: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA01522
Other information: ISBN-13: 978-0385516518
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- MSL Picks -
The Spark is about what ignites the creative fire. It shadows Cirque du Soleil and what drives them to excel and gives us a small peek behind the tour de force performances of this world class performance engine. But what is it that drives these performances and takes world class athletes and makes them a creative team that inpires passion and evokes feeling from their audiences? In this fiction of a bored man, going thru the motions of his life and business, the authors lead him down the "rabbit hole" and into a world of passion, creativity, destiny and fulfillment. It is a lesson we can all learn from. This message, unlike most business books or self help tomes goes down easy and is as effortless as the graceful art of the performers. Some may find it too simple, but most truth is simple. Some may find it as a PR tool for the Circus. Yes it is, but what a tool, for in seeing the Circus as it puts it's best foot forward, (and yes I realize it is not telling me the whole "warts and all" story of this amazing group)...in glimpsing the vision, the guiding principles of this troupe, we may find a model to inspire our creative spark to ignite all over again... and this just might be transformative. Run away down the rabbit hole, and join the Circus for a while... you may never be the same again. Thank you to Cirque for this effort!! Another medium...yet still... dazzling!
(From quoting a guest reviewer)
Target readers:
Business leaders, entrepreneurs, managers, management consultants, corporate trainers and MBAs.
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Lyn Heward is the former President and COO of Cirque du Soleil’s Creative Content Division and is currently acting as executive producer for a variety of special projects. John U. Bacon, a veteran journalist and public speaker, has won numerous national writing awards and is the author of three books.
Lyn Heward is the former President and COO of Cirque du Soleil’s Creative Content Division and is currently acting as executive producer for a variety of special projects. John U. Bacon, a veteran journalist and public speaker, has won numerous national writing awards and is the author of three books.
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From publisher
Creativity and innovation are widely recognized as essential to success in business, and so many aspects of our lives. For over two decades, Cirque du Soleil has been a world-renowned laboratory of creativity, enthralling audiences around the world by fusing dazzling acrobatics, staging and choreography, and music, along with beautiful costumes and technical effects to inspire and create magical, almost otherworldly theatrical experiences. In The Spark, Cirque's former president of creative content, Lyn Heward, invites readers inside the world and ideas of Cirque du Soleil through the story of an ordinary man searching for meaning in his work and life.
Like so many other people in their careers, sports agent Frank Castle has lost the passion he once had for his job. But a chance encounter with an inspiring Cirque du Soleil director takes him inside Cirque du Soleil to meet the artists, directors, designers, and technicians who create, shape, and perform in their acclaimed shows. As the story unfolds, the artists reveal surprising secrets about the sparks that ignite their creativity - from the pressure of deadlines and the exhilaration that comes from risking it all, to the chance encounters and everyday occurrences that have changed the way they live and work. As Frank comes to discover, every one of us is creative - wherever we work or whatever our job title is - but it’s up to us to tap into that powerful force.
As The Spark makes clear, there is no single formula for creative success–each of us must unlock the power of our imagination in our own way. An inspiring tale that draws on behind-the-scenes stories from the most creative people in entertainment as well as some out-of-this-world Cirque du Soleil magic, The Spark is an unparalleled guide on how to make creativity a part of everything you do.
Lyn Heward is the former President and COO of Cirque du Soleil’s Creative Content Division and is currently acting as executive producer for a variety of special projects. John U. Bacon, a veteran journalist and public speaker, has won numerous national writing awards and is the author of three books.
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Chapter One
Through the White Doors
If You Have No Idea What You’re Looking For . . .
When people ask where my remarkable journey began, I tell them it was somewhere between the first and seventh doors. At least, that’s where I found myself after I left behind the cacophony of the casino, with its blinking lights, rolling dice, and excitement around every corner. As fascinated as I was with the land of chance, I needed to give my senses a brief respite from the spinning wheels of fortune.
I was searching for something, though for what, I didn’t know. Something extraordinary. Something beyond the mundane world of marketing and money that had brought me to Las Vegas in the first place. Something beyond the grind that had become my life. Of course, if you have no idea what you’re looking for, it’s pretty hard to find it.
I was about to escape to my hotel room for a moment of tranquillity, when I saw two men dressed in black work outfits walking away from the slot machines toward a quieter part of the casino. It was in an almost dreamlike state that I followed them. They disappeared through a plain white door–perhaps the only portal in the casino that didn’t seem to announce what was on the other side. Intrigued, I pushed on it, and it opened, leading me into a completely silent, perfectly white corridor, lit so well it almost glowed with energy. A few feet in front of me was another door, just as pristine, every bit as beckoning. I opened it, though more tentatively than the first, for while I could surely pass off wandering through one wrong door as a mistake, opening the second seemed a more serious offense.
Behind the second white door was a third. Who were those men and where were they going? And what would I do when I found them? What kind of Alice-down-the-rabbit-hole adventure was I getting myself into? As I passed through the next door, I noticed a security camera above and a security desk to my left, and I felt my shoulders tense up. What were they trying to protect here? But there was not a soul in sight, so I kept going. By the time I reached the sixth door, I had accepted that I had no idea where the corridor was leading me–but I had the unmistakable sense that, as each door closed behind me, I was one step closer to what I was searching for.
As I pushed through the seventh door, I realized I had reached the end of the corridor and the beginning of my journey. The final door opened into a vast theatre. Rows of plush blue seats arced to my left. The ceiling soared a hundred feet above me, and I resisted the urge to call out and hear the sound of my voice echoing, if only to prove to myself that I wasn’t dreaming.
To my right was the strangest stage I’d ever encountered. I watched as a mysterious monolithic structure, maybe forty by eighty feet, moved left and right, forward and back, and finally stood straight up and down, as if defying gravity. I couldn’t determine its purpose–surely it wasn’t part of the stage? You’d have to be Spiderman to scale such a precipice!
On the other side of the theatre, I could see the men who’d unwittingly led me through the doors. They were tinkering with equipment on the revolving column, which was perched precariously behind a stage floor that opened into a seemingly bottomless abyss. Though they were a good twenty yards away, I could hear their voices; the acoustics of the theatre were that crisp. I could detect several distinct accents among the half-dozen people around the stage–Scottish, Russian, Texan, and French Canadian.
They were so focused on their work that no one seemed to notice I was there. My curiosity was aroused in a way it hadn’t been since college, when every experience was a new adventure and I didn’t have to worry about the consequences of my actions the way I did now; my mind seemed alive to the possibilities my surroundings presented. I sat down in one of the theatre seats, in the middle of everything, and took it all in.
The enormous theatre was less a stage than a cavernous aviary, framed by huge catwalks constructed of aged wooden planks and copper railing, an intriguing contrast to the ultramodern style of the MGM Grand Hotel. It possessed a timeless quality, as if I’d stepped foot in an edifice that had been built long before Las Vegas existed.
I might have sat there for ten or twenty minutes, just watching and listening.
Eventually, someone noticed me: a friendly-looking woman who seemed to appear out of nowhere–slender, middle-aged, with short, dark red hair and a stylish suede jacket. She made her way along a row of seats toward me. While I was no doubt somewhere I shouldn’t be, she seemed more curious about my presence than upset.
Normally, I would have apologized profusely for trespassing, and jumped up to leave. But something held me back.
“Hello, there,” she said when she was only a couple of rows away.
“Hello,” I said with a small nod. I assumed I was going to get kicked out; I didn’t see any point in attempting to fight it. But instead of asking me to leave, the woman offered her hand.
“I’m Diane,” she said.
“And I’m Frank,” I responded. She settled in a couple seats to my right, taking in the scene before us. Had she fallen into this alternative universe the same way I had?
“Pretty breathtaking, isn’t it?” she asked, gesturing outward with her hand.
“I’ve never seen anything like it before,” I said.
“I like to think of it as a theatre of unfulfilled dreams and great expectations.”
“I didn’t know quite how to respond to that. “It’s so quiet, despite its size.”
“Hmm,” she agreed. “It can be such a soothing, tranquil place during the day. But there’s a latent electricity in the air, too, don’t you think? Before the shows begin, I often feel a kinetic energy in the theatre, as if it were on the verge of exploding.”
No sooner had the words left her mouth than a fireball exploded above the pit in the middle of the stage; the smoke hovered for a few seconds before dissipating into the air.
“Just testing, Diane!” one of the men in black called out.
“What is this?” I asked. By this time I realized she belonged here, and I had certainly given myself away as an interloper. But my social graces had deserted me, leaving behind simply a sincere desire to learn more.
She laughed. “How did you get in here?”
I smiled, as I traced my steps back in my mind. This was no dream, I realized. I was undeniably, completely awake. “I was looking to escape a convention seminar,” I explained, “and started wandering through the casino. I saw those guys,” I pointed toward the riggers, “and I thought they seemed to know more about where they were going than I did, so I followed them.”
“Well, I admire your sense of adventure,” Diane said. “What kind of work do you do that brings you to Las Vegas?”
“I’m a sports agent,” I said, somewhat apologetically.
“You don’t sound overly thrilled about that.”
“At first I loved it. Working with the athletes–the talent, as we call them–was exciting. I was jetting off to cities all over the country, searching for the next NBA all-star, NFL quarterback, baseball Hall of Famer.” I paused, then confessed, “But somewhere along the line, my work started feeling less like a calling and more like a plain old job.”
I was surprised at my candor. Why was I so willing to reveal my feelings to a stranger? I wondered. It was so unlike me–a man who made his living playing his cards close to his chest.
Diane nodded sympathetically. “Not many people seem excited by their jobs, do they?”
“No, I suppose not,” I said. Off the top of my head, I really couldn’t think of anyone I knew who was passionate about their work.
“What was your seminar about?”
“‘Marketing Creatively,’” I said, reciting the title. “But it really wasn’t about creativity. It was just about finding even more ways to make money through endorsements.” When had I become so cynical about my job? “So, what is the show you’re rehearsing? This theatre looks like a set for an Indiana Jones movie.”
“You’re serious?” Diane asked. “You really don’t know what the show is?”
I shook my head. Instead of appearing insulted, however, Diane smiled, amused. I’m sure she was wondering who this stranger was who managed to slip through security and plop down in the middle of their theatre in the middle of the day. She shifted her shoulders toward me before speaking. “It’s a show called KÀ. Have you heard of Cirque du Soleil?”
“Of course!” I said, feeling the fuzzy grasp of my surroundings finally coming into focus. “I’ve seen your billboards all over Las Vegas. But I’ll be honest: I’m not really sure what you do.”
“Well,” Diane said, warming to the challenge of educating me, fishing for an introductory speech she probably hadn’t had to give in years, “we’re a creative entertainment company; we develop shows built around the dreams, talents, and passions of our artists and creators. Cirque was formed in Quebec in 1984, and we now have eleven shows around the world, four right here in Las Vegas.”
“Well, if this theatre is any indication of what you do on stage, I can only imagine wha... |
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From Time (MSL quoted), USA
<2008-10-22 00:00>
An inspiring tale about the power of creativity and the imagination, from Cirque du Soleil, the amazing troupe of performers that “makes nearly every other form of entertainment seem timid, sullen, earthbound. |
From Publishers Weekly (MSL quoted), USA
<2008-10-22 00:00>
For anyone who has ever marveled at the creativity, athleticism and magic of Cirque du Soleil, this book is a jewel that explores the showmanship, challenges and philosophies that have made Cirque an international sensation. Using a fictional narrative, Heward (former president and COO of Cirque's creative content division) and journalist Bacon follow a sports agent named Frank as he seeks the drive and enthusiasm that have faded from his career. Through a chance encounter while in Las Vegas, Frank sees a Cirque du Soleil performance and is enchanted. Before long Frank takes a leave of absence from his job and starts training with Cirque athletes in Montreal while giving the reader a behind-the-scenes look at how the Cirque sensation is created and the underlying philosophy. He gleans lessons on the value of working for a common goal, creating a meaningful experience for customers, using failure as a learning tool and how to reinvent oneself to find life's true path. While the scenarios that Frank encounters often seem too convenient, the book is captivating and offers important lessons that can be applied to many aspects of modern life. |
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