Horsing Around in Style

It’s love at first sight. He’s tall and long-legged, with a long, thick mane. Having spotted him through the crowd, you walk up to introduce yourself--and nearly melt when he focuses those big, dark eyes on you.

This scenario plays out again and again as crowds pass through the entrance tent at the equestrian spectacular “Cheval.” The path leads through stalls where the equine performers await their entrances, and the magnificent animals--serene, majestic, drop-dead gorgeous--exert an almost magnetic pull.

They’re still more stunning in action: One circles the performance ring while an acrobat uses its back like a pommel horse to perform gymnastics. Another dances the flamenco with castanets tied to its front legs. Four of them circle the ring, shoulder to shoulder, while standing riders form a human pyramid on their backs, like a stunt in a water-skiing exhibition.

Conceived by Cirque du Soleil co-founder Gilles Ste-Croix, “Cheval” (French for “horse”) is the latest French Canadian theatrical circus to reach the Southland, in performances at the Orange County Fair and Exposition Center in Costa Mesa.

Like a Cirque du Soleil show, it is fully costumed and choreographed--performed to live music in a single ring under a big top.

Yet while Cirque has always, emphatically been humans-only, “Cheval” depends on an intense connection between human and animal. Remember trying to train your dog to shake hands, or your pony to jump over a low fence? Multiply that by about 70 billion, and you have the level achieved by these trainers and their horses. For the acrobatic acts, in particular, horses and humans must move in perfect partnership, in a predictable, steady rhythm.

The “Cheval” acts are showier than the traditional equestrian arts, but they’re built upon the basics of such disciplines as dressage (carefully trained movements, born long ago of battlefield maneuvers) and garotcha (in which the rider carries a long pole, evolved from use in cattle sorting, to center the horse’s movements).

Steady, dependable animals such as Percheron draft horses, bred to work in the fields, are used for the vaulting acts, in which an acrobat may be flipping from one horseback onto another. The equestrian ballets performed at liberty, or riderless, with the horses responding to voice commands, are performed by friskier breeds, such as the Andalusian.

But you needn’t know an Andalusian from an appaloosa to enjoy “Cheval.” The horses are poetry in motion, and the two-footed performers are, basically, superhuman. Their achievement explains itself.

Robert Donnert and Anita Fuzy pass three, then five juggling pins between one another while standing atop a pair of horses that trail one another, Donnert traveling backward so that he faces Fuzy.

Brothers Olissio and Matt Zamperla Zoppe execute breathtaking vaults, culminating in Matt doing a back-flip off of Olissio’s shoulders and landing on the backs of a pair of trailing horses.

Standing at the center of the ring, Caroline Williams directs six sleek Andalusians in an equine ballet, commanding pairs of them to partner off for synchronized pirouettes. She is miked so the audience can hear her steady patter of commands, spoken in a multilingual patois that makes generous use of the French “allez” (let’s go).

Wearing a red coat with a long, flowing skirt, Stephane Simon, on horseback, directs his misty gray Andalusian to perform the flamenco-like number, to the band’s sultry, Spanish-sounding accompaniment (the original music is by Bernard Poirier).

Clowns Voki Kalfayan and Christian Ferland cut up between acts, trying to mimic what they’ve just seen, sometimes using a hobbyhorse, sometimes a real one.

Amusement mixes with awe as Ferland tries to mount a Hispano-Arabian gelding named Bohemio. Ferland hikes one leg onto the horse’s back but can’t climb any higher, so Bohemio helps out by kneeling, then lying all the way down. Now Ferland can climb aboard, but Bohemio, practical jokester that he is, decides to play dead. Ferland tries to wrestle the horse upright, but Bohemio remains utterly, placidly unmovable, while his eyes seem to flash with merriment.

Afterward, the audience exits back through the stalls, with many people stopping for a last, longing look at Bohemio and his handsome buddies.

“Cheval,” Orange County Fair and Exposition Center, 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa. Tuesdays-Friday, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 4 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 1:30 and 5 p.m. Ends April 21. $49-$58, adults; $44-$51, students and seniors; $30-$35, children 12 and younger. (877) 528-0777, www.admission.com or through Ticketmaster. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.