Cirque du Soleil's Corteo and Symmetrical Beauty

By Brian Welter

Cirque du Soleil's Corteo is a nostalgic timepiece for a long-passed though not-forgotten part of us when our energy went into creating family- and community-oriented culture rather than into engaging in the completely unnecessary battle of the sexes and the faulty idea of rights-as-entitlements.

Corteo is beautiful because male and female balancing each other is instinctively beautiful to humans. Compare this harmony to much of what passes as modern art – blasphemy, excrement, urinals or other ugly things arranged in anti-aesthetic ways. Corteo, conversely, demonstrates true aestheticism. It indicates that true equality between the sexes requires complementarity.

A man bravely climbs to the top of a ladder, which is leaning against nothing. He uses his own poise to keep both himself and thelity. The stunning energy of the entire show – again, whether the creators realize it or not – flows from the balanced equality of the sexes. As Cirque du soleil demonstrates, true equality of the sexes only comes about when the perfect symmetry of maleness – femaleness, masculinity – femininity is played upon.

Corteo is a nostalgic timepiece for a long-passed though not-forgotten part of us when our energy went into creating family- and community-oriented culture rather than into engaging in the completely unnecessary battle of the sexes and the faulty idea of rights-as-entitlements.

Corteo is beautiful because male and female balancing each other is instinctively beautiful to humans. Compare this harmony to much of what passes as modern art – blasphemy, excrement, urinals or other ugly things arranged in anti-aesthetic ways. Corteo, conversely, demonstrates true aestheticism. It indicates that true equality between the sexes requires complementarity.

A man bravely climbs to the top of a ladder, which is leaning against nothing. He uses his own poise to keep both himself and the ladder standing. He climbs to the heavens, towards a beautiful female angel dressed in white: “Ascension toward the heavens to play with the angels,” according to Cirque du soleil's program. This quest contrasts with our confused society, where men, kicked out of the family by feminist-inspired family law and judges, are treated as mere wallets and drift and roam the streets rather than climb ladders to angels.

The sexuality of Corteo is a masculine – feminine, erotic one that is not pornographic (the whole family can watch). The sexuality is playful and naïve, paralleling the innocent early days of true romantic love.

At the beginning, the star of the show, the clown, lies in his bed dreaming of former lovers. These women float down, dancing and doing gymnastics in the air. Morally speaking, the clown cannot let go of these women because he has given each of them too much of himself.

Corteo, then, appeals to Catholic sensibilities. Beautiful, high art investigates the serious drama of human nature in its good and bad, male and female elements, as the program notes:

“Corteo is a grand procession, a festive parade imagined by a clown. Juxtaposing the large with the small, the ridiculous with the tragic and the magic of perfection with the charm of imperfection, the show highlights the strength and fragility of the clown, as well as his wisdom and kindness, to illustrate the portion of humanity that is in each of us.”