I’m a big Cirque du Soleil fan so I have been to 5 live productions and KÀ is my favorite one. That’s why I chose to watch the Cirque du Soleil KÀ VR Experience first. 

This is a 360 Degree 3D video recording of a few scenes from the production. With 360 Degree video you stand in one place and are able to look around but are unable to move through space. While it does not exactly simulate being there because the resolution is too low and the camera lens distorts people, it is still an interesting experience. 

KÀ is a story of a family torn apart by war. A brother and sister go through their own different growth periods and experiences before they eventually reunite. It is a beautiful and poetic story. We lose almost all of the story in the VR experience since it only focuses on action sequences. 

The action sequences are somewhat less impressive close up because you get to see up close how the production is staged and how the hits are not real. However, the choreography is impressive. 

You do get to see things that you don’t see from the audience. At one point, you get to see under the stage and the mechanics of how it works, which is neat camera placement because it gives you a view of those around you and above you. This under the stage setting is a cool choice for those of us who want to see behind the scenes of this incredible stage design.

There is a rotating vertical stage that is one of the most incredible stage designs I have ever seen, but in VR, even when it is vertical, your point of view makes it seem like it is mostly horizontal with not much of a vertical plane, which is 100% not accurate. This stage is close to vertical. It is always impressive to see people flying off of it into the abyss below.

This experience works best standing up since you need to keep turning to see what is happening behind you. I find this sort of thing a little annoying since we want to see the entire picture in front of us, not move around to find the action. But, with a run time of just over 13 minutes, standing for the entire time is doable. 

This is an older production, so narratives in VR have advanced quite a bit from these early days of 360 degree videos. But this is still worth watching. 

Technical Specs

• 360 Degrees – the video is all around you
• 3D live action video – the images have depth and were filmed in real life
• 3 Degrees of Freedom
• No interactivity or ability to use hand controllers for anything other than pause, exit, or restart