Date of birth: September 2, 1959 Place of birth: Quebec   Date of birth: September 5, 1958 City Place of birth: Montreal Calling: Co-founders of the Cirque du Soleil	Photo : Eric Piché avec l'autorisation du Cirque du Soleil
Guy Laliberté, the Founding President of the Cirque du Soleil, and Daniel Gauthier, the Cirque's President, have been partners in crime for most of their lives. In 1982, at the Baie-Saint-Paul fair, a new troupe of young acrobats mixed with the crowd of tourists. It was the Club des Talons Hauts, and our two co-founders were members. Perched on stilts, they juggled, played the accordion and spat fire. The crowd was enchanted. They could not know that they were witnessing the beginnings of what was to become the Cirque du Soleil, the first Quebec circus to win an international reputation. Two years later, at the celebrations marking the 450th anniversary of Jacques Cartier's arrival in the New World, Guy and Daniel were invited to entertain the public. A unique concept was developed, that astonishingly theatrical mixture of the arts of the circus and busking, under magical lighting, to original music. No animal acts -- that was and is a major difference from the traditional circus. The first production was staged in the Gaspé, and the Cirque then visited 10 other cities in the province, with a tent that seated 800 spectators. Guy and Daniel had to convince businesspeople that this new kind of circus could be worth supporting. Despite their inexperience, they relied (successfully) on the originality of their concept and above all on the audacity of their youth to sell their ideas. They went on to develop a network of partners across the world that enabled the Cirque du Soleil to perform abroad. It was in 1985 that the Cirque set out to conquer the world: they were a huge hit everywhere they performed in Canada, and won a number of prizes. Two years later they tested the waters in the United States with their Cirque réinventé. The following year they were back in the States, for a tour that turned out to be a triumph. In 1990 they premiered Nouvelle Expérience in Montreal and headed off to Europe where the public went wild over them. In 1992 it was Japan's turn to succumb to Fascination, and then the Cirque took Las Vegas by storm with Nouvelle Expérience. In the same year, Guy and Daniel created Saltimbanco. In 1993, the Cirque signed a 10-year contract with the new Las Vegas hotel, Treasure Island, to present Mystère. In 1994, to mark the 10th anniversary of the Cirque's creation, a new production called Allegria was launched. In 1996, the Cirque toured the world with Quidom. A year later, a new headquarters was completed in Montreal, and a year after that, O prend was headlining in Las Vegas. The Cirque du Soleil employs more than 2,000 people. Currently seven different productions are playing in different places all over the world. It just took the spark of an idea in the heads of these two men for all of Quebec and Canada to be brought to global attention in a whole new way.