Opened on the 16th of September 2010 at City of Dreams, Macau’s premier entertainment resort, The House of Dancing Water is the world’s largest and most spectacular water extravaganza. Costing over a staggering HKD2 BILLION (USD250 MILLION), this permanent world-class production represents the iconic entertainment centrepiece of City of Dreams leisure and entertainment offering. The show, which was personally created and directed by one of the world’s greatest show maker in the entertainment business Mr. Franco Dragone, offers a sophisticated, highly contemporary and aspiring show that keeps the visitors engaged with the show for approximately 85 minutes. It is officially the world’s first water-based show launched in Asia. As a member in the crowd, you can feel the energy that is being projected by the actors It’s almost as if you can smell the fear, feel the love, share the sadness, and savour the joy that the cast portrays in the show.
The story begins in the coast of Coloane with a Fisherman who is travelling on his boat. Suddenly, a mysterious energy from the water creates a terrible whirlpool grabbing and pulling the Fisherman to a place and time of legends...he cannot understand what is happening. He observes, lost and intrigued...when a storm brings a survivor from a shipwreck, a Stranger to this magical kingdom. The young brave Stranger encounters and falls in love with a beautiful Princess who was thrown into a cage by her evil stepmother, the Dark Queen. Without hesitation, the fisherman helps the Stranger fight against the Dark Queen and rescues the Princess. With his help the Stranger and the Princess defeats the Dark Queen and the Fisherman obtains an unexpected reward. Effectively, it’s a spectacular love story that transcends time and space
In a press conference on it’s opening day in September 2010, Mr. Lawrence Ho, Co-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Melco Crown Entertainment Limited, said: “The House of Dancing Water puts together the best of the best in the entertainment world, which is truly a gift we tailor-made for Macau”. Indeed, he is right because this show definitely provides a reason for people to visit Macau, apart from the casinos and shopping. It took Mr. Dragone five years to plan and create the show, and 2 years to choose and train over 80 chosen artists to perform for the show. It truly is a multi-cultural production team with international performance artists and crew from over 25 countries.
It is the first water-based show in Asia set in a 270-degree 2,000-seat ‘Dancing Water Theater’ that has around 239 automated fountains providing water fountain effects up to approximately 18 meters in height. Then there are the 11 hydraulic lifts weighing over 15 tons making it possible to convert an aquatic stage that can hold over 3.7 million gallons of water (larger than FIVE Olympic-sized swimming pools), to a solid dry floor stage.
The House of Dancing Water provides the splendour of human performance with amazing scenes of beautiful romantic dance routines on and in water, a chandelier in the roof created by a set of actors (they make it look ever so easy), and the “Russian swings” sequence which involves high-performance diving and gymnastic artistry.
Now, with all this water in the theatre one is left wondering how the vast majority of performing artists can swim, dive, and act without wearing their swimming costumes because they are wearing heavy clothes. Well, the answer is that all the costumes worn by the cast in The House of Dancing Water are made with a special material known as neoprene, a fabric that withstands the effect of water (normally used in Hollywood movies) and makes the dress comfortable to wear while swimming or diving. The theater contains the world’s largest commercial pool measuring approximately 50 meters in diameter and approximately 7 meters deep. It’s the kind of stuff that would make Olympics swimmers dribble with envy.
Another incredible show of feat by Wabo, the Wiseman, is that he can bend his legs and arms, and walk while turning himself into a shape of a crab. His ability has effectively turned him into a sought after personality in the show business arena.
Towards the conclusion of the show seven ‘riders’, comprising of highly trained motorcycle stuntman ride from one part of the area to other side while ‘flying’ their motorbikes up to 15 metres in height and jump 20 metres in length. Hard to believe but some of them even do somersaults or ‘fly’ while waving to the crowd (without touching/steering the bike). Due to the special use of motorbikes in the show, the average lifetime of the motorbikes is about 6 months. The show really brings out the best of the world’s best artists. When a show like this is being presented live in front of millions of people there is no room for failure and for a perfect magical show to happen all systems of communication and moves have to be perfectly timed. It is very easy to sit here and applaud the efforts of everyone but the, of course, it’s the people who are performing this day in day out that really know how much hard work they have put into this show.
It’s the kind of show where you may end up thinking, “Hmmm, I wish I could do that” and it may even inspire you to go to the gym or your local swimming pool. However, at the same time it’s also the kind of show where you may end up having to politely remind your kids (or even adults in some cases) to ‘don’t try this at home’.
The show is a spectacle itself. The location is perfect and the facilities are first class. You can go to all the shows in the West End or the Broadway, and you will probably never come across something like this because the demographics of how the show is designed are completely different. I have never seen a show where the actors are performing acts while they are dining and swimming. Now, that is not easy to do and it is very dangerous. But the cast and crew, all well trained that they are, do a fantastic job and make the whole stuff look so damn easy. It really is sensational stuff.
The story begins in the coast of Coloane with a Fisherman who is travelling on his boat. Suddenly, a mysterious energy from the water creates a terrible whirlpool grabbing and pulling the Fisherman to a place and time of legends...he cannot understand what is happening. He observes, lost and intrigued...when a storm brings a survivor from a shipwreck, a Stranger to this magical kingdom. The young brave Stranger encounters and falls in love with a beautiful Princess who was thrown into a cage by her evil stepmother, the Dark Queen. Without hesitation, the fisherman helps the Stranger fight against the Dark Queen and rescues the Princess. With his help the Stranger and the Princess defeats the Dark Queen and the Fisherman obtains an unexpected reward. Effectively, it’s a spectacular love story that transcends time and space
In a press conference on it’s opening day in September 2010, Mr. Lawrence Ho, Co-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Melco Crown Entertainment Limited, said: “The House of Dancing Water puts together the best of the best in the entertainment world, which is truly a gift we tailor-made for Macau”. Indeed, he is right because this show definitely provides a reason for people to visit Macau, apart from the casinos and shopping. It took Mr. Dragone five years to plan and create the show, and 2 years to choose and train over 80 chosen artists to perform for the show. It truly is a multi-cultural production team with international performance artists and crew from over 25 countries.
It is the first water-based show in Asia set in a 270-degree 2,000-seat ‘Dancing Water Theater’ that has around 239 automated fountains providing water fountain effects up to approximately 18 meters in height. Then there are the 11 hydraulic lifts weighing over 15 tons making it possible to convert an aquatic stage that can hold over 3.7 million gallons of water (larger than FIVE Olympic-sized swimming pools), to a solid dry floor stage.
The House of Dancing Water provides the splendour of human performance with amazing scenes of beautiful romantic dance routines on and in water, a chandelier in the roof created by a set of actors (they make it look ever so easy), and the “Russian swings” sequence which involves high-performance diving and gymnastic artistry.
Now, with all this water in the theatre one is left wondering how the vast majority of performing artists can swim, dive, and act without wearing their swimming costumes because they are wearing heavy clothes. Well, the answer is that all the costumes worn by the cast in The House of Dancing Water are made with a special material known as neoprene, a fabric that withstands the effect of water (normally used in Hollywood movies) and makes the dress comfortable to wear while swimming or diving. The theater contains the world’s largest commercial pool measuring approximately 50 meters in diameter and approximately 7 meters deep. It’s the kind of stuff that would make Olympics swimmers dribble with envy.
Another incredible show of feat by Wabo, the Wiseman, is that he can bend his legs and arms, and walk while turning himself into a shape of a crab. His ability has effectively turned him into a sought after personality in the show business arena.
Towards the conclusion of the show seven ‘riders’, comprising of highly trained motorcycle stuntman ride from one part of the area to other side while ‘flying’ their motorbikes up to 15 metres in height and jump 20 metres in length. Hard to believe but some of them even do somersaults or ‘fly’ while waving to the crowd (without touching/steering the bike). Due to the special use of motorbikes in the show, the average lifetime of the motorbikes is about 6 months. The show really brings out the best of the world’s best artists. When a show like this is being presented live in front of millions of people there is no room for failure and for a perfect magical show to happen all systems of communication and moves have to be perfectly timed. It is very easy to sit here and applaud the efforts of everyone but the, of course, it’s the people who are performing this day in day out that really know how much hard work they have put into this show.
It’s the kind of show where you may end up thinking, “Hmmm, I wish I could do that” and it may even inspire you to go to the gym or your local swimming pool. However, at the same time it’s also the kind of show where you may end up having to politely remind your kids (or even adults in some cases) to ‘don’t try this at home’.
The show is a spectacle itself. The location is perfect and the facilities are first class. You can go to all the shows in the West End or the Broadway, and you will probably never come across something like this because the demographics of how the show is designed are completely different. I have never seen a show where the actors are performing acts while they are dining and swimming. Now, that is not easy to do and it is very dangerous. But the cast and crew, all well trained that they are, do a fantastic job and make the whole stuff look so damn easy. It really is sensational stuff.
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