The dream world of odysseo. For the next half hour, well go behind the scenes and explore the magic that takes place beneath the biggest top in the world, meeting the performers and horses and creator of the one of a kind experience. [ cheers and applause ] abc 7 presents discover odysseo. The show is a marriage, an integration of the performing arts world and the equestrianwo very modern way. We have 65 horses, almost 50 artists including acrobats, dancers, musicians, trainers, and riders. We call it odysseo because it tells the history of the relationship between man and horses, but its a journey where men and horses go to discover the most beautiful landscape in the world. In 1988, i was in San Francisco, and when i left, i wanted to do Something Different so i decided to buy horses and train horses in order to do a show, and i created cavalia, and it came to San Francisco in 2004. Its still creating, and i wanted to, again, challenge the existing, and thats why i create the odysseo. When horses scratch each other, they scratch each other, hes scratching you back. Oh, thank you. The horse is an indescribable thing, youre with another living being. At the end of the day, they know what you taught them. When you get out there, thats like the test. Youre so proud when you see the communication you have together, and these horses are so loyal and so amazing. Its just being there and being with the horses. There is no director, just be ourselves and what we want to show, its not performers, but its the horses. We are leading the horses between the stage on stage, and were just there to show them what to do, and to let them be horses on stage. We show what is possible from that relationship, from how you can build it, and then bejuwe j give it to the audience. When i discovered horses , which was not my world, i think they are the most beautiful. Secondly, they are very novel because they never look after a fight. I didnt want to do a show, a traditional circus where you hear whips and see animals suffer to do what they do. The horse, when they come on stage, and you can see because half of the time, they are free. They can do whatever they want. They are not attached, no ropes, no whips, no nothing. They just play. I thought, lets explore that world. Lets bring this world and mix it with the entertainment or the performing arts world. Im the eyes of norman and the director wayne spokes, so whatever they kind of saw, it was my job to direct it and help what they envisioned, for me to then put it on the stage. For an ice skating rink, for example, they wanted horses on the stage, but white silk and angels in the sky. Creating that image that matches the image of the backdrop is very interesting. Its very beautiful. You know, we have acrobats, and we get the african acrobats coming down with their drums, and so we create all of this beautiful imagery with the artists and horses and marries as one. All right. I am both a writer and arielist. I can do both skill sets, interesting for me, allowing me to combine my passions together. To be an arealist, you fly in the air, dance in the air, and the apparatuses used in this show are silk, long white tissues that hang from the ceiling, and we use hoop, and we do a really big hoop number that could include up to eight different hoop artists as well as whole on a human size carousel. Its really fun to be up there and you really have to trust your body, and just enjoy the moment. The first number i do is called the roman writing so i have two horses that i stand up and hop up on while they ride around, and i do that with five other girls. The experience i get when i perform i cant describe it. Theres no high that can beat that. Its not a job for me. Its a life. Its out of this world. Its you and your partner, you and the horse. Its a partnership thats hard to find anywhere else. What makes cavalias production of oddyse [chris]still smoking up a storm . [tom]yeah. Pathetic,isnt it . [chris] ever try to. [tom] quit . Of course my best time was six days. The worst was. Uh. 23. 4 seconds. [chris] so can i ask you. [chris tom] why are you still smoking . [tom] [sarcastic] its so much fun. [chris]why not call the smokers helpline . The programs free,and. [tom]and theyll tell me. You oughta quit. [chris] not so. Just tell them youre ready to quit. Then,theyll tell you how. [tom] really . You wouldnt have that number on you,would you . We are the other scene of odysseo. What makes cavalias production of odysseo is the size of the tent. Theres not one bigger on the planet. We are looking at two separated, and theres two arches in tweeptweephe tent, and the amount of volume of space we have is truly fantast fantastic. We arehw traveling with 120 semitrailers. Compare that to Rolling Stone or u2, they have only 60. Thatncty gives you the scope of. We arrive from manitobanb which a 42 hours drive. We arrive frn want the horses t suffer in the truck for 42 hours so i charter a boeing 747, them out on the plane, they travel first class, and after five hours, they landed, they are safe. We bring them to a farm. They just arrived from an equestrian center. They have 12 days of full rest, eating grass, i mean, being;w,z horses. To set up this hill, it would require aboutzv a month. Were standing on about 60,000 vinyl right here. 0gn this fabric will eventually be the roof, that measures a substantial amount of space. The hockey arena in san jose, you have a space thats fantastically huge, sitting in 2,000 seat bleachers, and when the curtain opens and you see the depth of the stage, you have a hard time rationalizing how big it is from what it was you saw outdoors. The base of it itself is quite deceiving, and its the show that wraps around it thats technology. Its poetry. Its the lighting. Its the sound. From beginning to end, theres a new element that comes. You dont get tired of whatever it is youre looking at. Were just in the process of one of our major scenes, something thats very unique to the show, which is a carousel, which weighs about 10 tons. This is our mountain. This[ls is something that nor really wanted t in his show was mountain to bring nature to the show. This is c1y tonsjh]t dirt just the mountain here. Hg wefn build it with dirt. Obviously, we have to get the footing correct and the leveling really correct, so this is all in the process of being built. At the end of the show, we fill the stage with 14,000 gallons of water in a minute and the most challenging stunt in the show is when one of the guys is in our cost, going around at fast pace, goes underneath the belly, over the top, and pulls himself over the saddle and gets back on. The audiences reactions i just went tinkly now just telling you, and the audience is just, like, wow its great. Its very, very challenging. You have to be a very experienced rider to do it, but we have two guys that do it very well. We are inside the stables, and im about to give you a behind the scenes look of the magic that the odysseo herd consists of horses, together, creating an unprecedented vision of grace. The relationship between the horses and the performing partner is incredibly special. A great amount of work and time goes into this marriage, and the result is a bond that can never be broken. Hi, pumpkin. I love you. Youre so perfect. Its very special. The riders come in at 9 00 in the morning. They each have three horses to look after, and, obviously, during that time, they really bond with the horse, and there, the horses, they generally work with them during the show, and you see that relationship develop a lot, and then thats the relationship that we want to see that we take to the stage. What i work with, doing liberty work with them, so its basically trust between horses and me. Im making them do a little dancing around me just by my voice and body language so i spend hours with them. By being gentle and Building Trust between us, they are doing just what im asking. So right now were in the stables. We have 70 horses here who are actually going by our wash racks. Now the wash racks are not just any little wash racks. We have hot and cold water. We have lots of brushes and tools we use. We have hyperallergenic shampoo for the horses. We use no harsh chemicals on the horses. In the stalls, you can see the windows in between the stalls because we want our horses next to the buddies. All the horses are strategically placed to be next to their friends. Right now, were entering inside our tack room, and in that room, we have a lot of different times of equipment. We have riders from all over the world, so depending on where they are from the world, they use different types of saddles. We have this saddle, we have jumping saddles. We have trick riding saturdayei and then theres european saddle and the american style trick riding styles. These are mine, im an american trick rider. On the wall, heres the bridles. We only use bits on the horses so they are really nice light bits for the horses in their mouths. We also have bridles with no bits at all, theres just a band around their nose, and in liberty, we dont have anything at all. All we have is our voices to ask them to do things for us. This is my workout for the day. Carrying my saddle from one end to the other. This is an american trick riding saddle. It has lots of different parts to t and that is because this is what i use when i do stunts on the horse. So trick riding is when the horses are going from one end to the other, and they are running as fast as they possibly can while im hanging upside down on them, hanging off the back of them, jumping on and off of them, and theres a lot of pieces and straps here to help me do that. Something cool about this show is we let the horses be free and be who they are. We have a live band so they can follow the movement of the horse. If you came to the show every night for weeks, you would see a different show every single night because these horses are really, really playful with different energies every day. I know no matter what, this horse has my back. Im a wardrobe assistant so i help in the repairs of the costumes, upkeep of the wigs, those types of things, and in the ncns quick changes, in the backstage area, help thev5 artists quick change, and we have quick changes as quick as 30 seconds so we have to be there and bel prepared with all thedejfn pie. The artists can have up to six quick changes a show. So the center is wearing this costume which is three of the pieces that we have, and we have 350 costumes, but they comprise of a thousand pieces, so the best would be one, her shirt is one, her skirt. We have to keep track of all of this and thousands pieces of costumes and riders as well. We have an extensive list of everything, and we keep it all in order so we know what we have backstage in the warmups, everything to get ready for the show. Well, inspiration is all over the world. Its a little colors from all over the world, and they wanted to make sure that the costumes not only stood out on stage, but because we have a huge stage with lots of visuals, lots of music. This gives you goose bumps more than once. You can watch a movie, and you get a moment of goose bumps, but during [ applause ] we have also con fig rafigur acrobatics. Some acrobatics are on the ground, but also some flying acts, like, we have created some special and designed special ways to have flying act and horses. We have acrobats from guinea, which is in africa, and they spend most of the time on the beach practicing their acrobatics. We all dream one day of flying. We all one day of jumping higher, and thats what we get to see. Coming to see odysseo, youre going to experience a level of passion for horses you wouldnt otherwise see. Youre going to see a level of acrobatics and stage presence that i think weve become accustomed to seeing, but once you mix that dynamic with the horses, you end up at a different place all together. We also have the vip package where you enter into a very nice lounge, and we serve a lot of food, you know, its almost full meal, and we serve desserts, and after the show, if you buy the vip package, we could it rendezvous, and you get to visit the stables. The show is enhasnt ichanti. I think its the best show ive ever seen. Really amazing. Once in a lifetime experience. I thought it was spectacular. We saw it in chicago when we lived there about five times and looking so much forward to another show, so when this came about, it was instinct. We just bought front row tickets. Well, i loved it because i love the water where they, like, galloped and walked and jumped all around and the People Holding the pose where they jumped the horses and people jumped the posts, and where they stacked up with each other. Outstanding, completely outstanding. What do you think . I think its really unique because you dont see so many shows with horses, and the people who are riding them can do pretty cool tricks. I think my favorite part was probably the all the acrobats coming in on the horses, in their long dresses flowing behind them. The production values were awesome, and i loved the way they kept all the horses integrated with all the people, and the water at the end was a neat surprise. My favorite part was they just flooded the area with water and the horses were running around in it. Its like youre in a dream, you know, like the best possible dream ever. I dont know. I mean, you cant even imagine that this stuff is possible to do on a stage. You enter into a dreamlike world. Its two hour and a half of pure joy, and its fun to watch. Whether youre 4 years old, 44 years old, 84 years old, its just a feel good show, and you dont have to be a horse person. Of course, the show is a lot about horses, but its so spe spectacular that its a total world that we have invented. I remember when i discovered my first disney movie. Its the same thing. When you come to this show, you feel like you became a kid and entered that fabulous world. The more we bring happiness, keep our happiness, the better the world is going to be. [ applause ] you can discover the magic of odysseo right now while the productions here in the bay area. Shows are underway at at t park under the white tent. Thank you for joining us. Umbrellas up in the east bay testimony berkeley is getting a soaking as the bay area deals with its second storm in two days and a more powerful storm is still to come. Lets get a live look at conditions outside. This is our bay bring toll plaza cameras, getting a bit of a soaking,. Traffic is backed up. Heavy showers hit the north bay at 3 00 this afternoon. Heres a look from our east bay hills camera. This is time lapse video of the rain today as it moved through the east bay. San francisco