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Inside Cirque du Soleil's technology lab

#innovation meets the circus.

We hear about disruption all the time -- to transport, to media, to manufacturers. What happens when it comes for the circus? The centuries-old entertainment form used to be the place to see incredible, death-defying feats. Now, we see that kind of wonder on our smartphone screens all the time.

Cirque du Soleil is iconic: both a smooth corporate machine and pop culture staple. The company's approach has been to launch its latest innovation lab called Nextasy. At the global headquarters in Montreal, the lab is playing with motion sensing to make a soundtrack respond to dancers' actions, AI to spark new makeup ideas and augmented reality to overlay animations onto live performance. In our feature video, we visit Cirque du Soleil to see how it's trying to create spectacle more than 200 years after the first circus, and how it harnesses technology for its own whimsical purposes.

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Writer and presenter: Chris Ip
Camera and editor: Brian Oh