Swirling, twirling and super-thrilling, they delivered an excitement-packed, on-the-go, non-stop doze of entertainment night after another for over 14 nights. One moment, up in the air, the other, swirling in the wheel right through the audience, yet another moment they were up on their toes, frowning.
The two-week extravaganza at ‘The Twenty-Four Fun zone’, recently concluded, and owes it big time to these ‘movers and shakers’ of the circus world. The ladies and gentlemen of Cirque Elioze, the Canada-based circus company, yet again enthralled the Doha audience with their awe-inspiring skills and performances.
Perfectly placed to catch the audience right from the entrance into the fun arena, the Cyr Wheel would take you into a spin right away. With changing landscapes in the background, it would virtually take the audience on a world tour.  
The wheels would leave you into the hands of jugglers who would throw you the heels of acrobats, flying high in the air, from where you would land straight under the wheels of a trotting mountain bike. From the beginning to the end, you would only gain energy with the momentum.
“We have 10 circus performers who have come from Cirque Elioze this time and they are performing both on the stage and in the venue,” one of the volunteers from the organising team told Community.
Elioze has once before thrilled the audiences in Doha with the iD performance last year at Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC). However, it was a different showcase of high-energy, custom-made for The Twenty-Four.
“This is more contemporary form of circus which mixes elements of traditional circus with modern techniques like acrobatics, Cyr wheel, contortionists, etc.,” added the volunteer.
Invented by Sumerians in 3300 BC, the wheel circa was an extraordinary invention that would change the course of human history. Daniel Cyr, the Co-Founder of Cirque Eloize, designed the Cyr Wheel in 2003.
Simple in shape, the wheel allows circus performers to execute a virtually infinite number of acrobatic figures, each more complex and awe-inspiring than the last. Since its inauguration at the prestigious Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain in Paris in 2003, where Daniel Cyr won the Silver Medal for his Cyr Wheel number, it has dazzled spectators in the Cirque Eloize shows across the world.
The Sumerians of yesteryear could not have foreseen the countless possibilities that their invention has engendered. Daniel Cyr’s wheel, which is light and strong, is a device that is no less fabulous, resembling a machine that may have sprung from the mind of Leonardo da Vinci.
Once learned, mastered, and used as an object of creation, the Cyr Wheel becomes an extension of the body. As the Wheel turns, it also turns the heads of awed spectators.
Over the course of a few short years, the Cyr Wheel has earned its letters of nobility, and has become an integral part of the circus universe. Close to 100 acrobats around the world now practice this discipline, including 30 who were trained by Daniel Cyr of Elioze himself.
The inventor of the Cyr Wheel has also been invited to teach the technique for using his new device at a number of circus schools in Europe, at the National Circus School of Montreal and at Cirque du Soleil, for which he developed one number and trained the artists for Corteo.
At The Twenty-Four, the show combined the worlds of circus, dance and theatre. Performing within an inventive stage design and accompanied by an original musical score and video projections, the 10 performers and multidisciplinary artists rebelled against monotony, reinvented themselves and challenged the limits.
In a world where fantasy provokes reality, the veil of anonymity and solitude is lifted and replaced by bursts of colour. The jugglers braving the space, a contortionist lifting up by her companions in a surge of inspiration, aerial artists defying the heights of the skyscrapers; experiencing the Elioze circus was truly stepping into the dance of the CyrWheel, dreading the audacity of the German wheel and discovering the candour of a man who dreams only of dancing.
“The show is driven by the poetic impulse of life, the physical prowess of the circus and the humour, at once serious and light-hearted,” explains Jeannot Painchaud, creative director and co-founder of Cirque Eloize.
Positioned at the heart of the renewal of circus arts, Cirque Eloize has been creating moving performances filled with magic since 1993. Continually striving for artistic perfection, it is one of the leaders in contemporary circus arts.
Based on the multidisciplinary talents of its artists, Cirque Eloize expresses its innovative nature through theatricality and humanity, and combines circus arts with music, dance and theatre in a path-breaking and original manner.
With 10 original productions to its credit, Cirque Eloize has presented almost 4,000 performances in over 440 cities and 40 countries. Cirque Eloize has taken part in numerous prestigious international festivals and recently seduces Broadway with its show ‘Rain’ which has been touring that major network of theatres since fall 2007.
In addition to its tour performances, Cirque Eloize develops custom made concepts for international special events. To date, more than 1,300 events have taken place. Moreover, in 2003, Cirque Eloize organised the first festival of circus arts in North America, ‘La Semaine
des Arts du cirque,’ in the Magdalen Islands.
The company also founded the Fondation Eloize, which has a mission to help underprivileged youth through an introduction to circus arts and help develop the performing arts. The troupe Artcirq, made up of young Inuit living in Canada’s far north (Nunavut), is the first organisation to benefit from this support.
Since 2004, Cirque Eloize’s head office and creative studio are located in the Gare Dalhousie, a historic building in the heart of Old-Montreal, departure station of the first train going from Montreal to Vancouver in 1889. In order to maintain this site as a place for dialogue and encounters for the circus community, Cirque Eloize invites up-and-coming artists to visit. Today, the company includes more than 100 individuals working in various teams and projects.
The Twenty-Four saw only a glimpse of what Elioze is all about. A dozen of disciplines, including contortion, Cyr Wheel, hand-to-hand and group acrobatics performed by a troupe composed of artists coming from different countries such as Canada, Britain, United States of America, German and France enthralled hundreds of people that visited the fun zone every night for the past two weeks.
“It is a nice environment to coincide with the sport event of handball. We are enjoying the experience to our utmost. We are having one big concert every day, we have different ball-games, selfie corner and we have a lot of space for taking pictures,” a volunteer told Community on the second last night of the fun-packed mega event.
“For the last four days, we have received hundreds of people and yesterday there were more than 1,600 people visiting this event making it a big success. Air guitar is the climax of the evening, it is crazy. They liven up the venue every night. It is for people who do not play guitar yet they can enjoy it to the fullest,” he added.  
Bungee jumping remained on of the most popular activities besides the Jazz and clubbing music and dance experiences.