The Cyr Wheel
Daniel Cyr, designer of the Cyr Wheel
and its technique
The Sumerians invented the wheel circa 3300 BC. The wheel was an extraordinary invention that would change the course of human history. Daniel Cyr, Cirque Éloize Co-Founder, designed the Cyr Wheel in 2003 AD. The Cyr Wheel is as simple in shape as it is to use – a device that 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 Éloize shows entitled Nomade, Rain and iD, as well as in Cirque du Soleil's Corteo, and during the closing ceremonies for the XX Winter Olympic Games in Turin.
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 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. The Cyr Wheel is now among the disciplines that are taught at the National Circus School of Montreal and it’s just the beginning. As the Wheel continues to turn, innumerable new movements are created and the borders of stage creation are pushed back even further.
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