and when?
16 June 1984
Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil (, "Circus of the Sun" or "Sun Circus") is a Montreal-based entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul on 16 June 1984 by former street performers Guy Laliberté and Gilles Ste-Croix.

what are the names of the cirque du soleil shows O, La Nouba, Mystère, Saltimbanco, Alegría, Quidam, Dralion what is it whose shows you just mentioned? Cirque du Soleil (Circus of the Sun) is a Montreal-based entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. who founded this company? Guy Laliberté, Gilles Ste-Croix
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Cirque du Soleil [SEP] Introduction
Their first official production "Le Grand Tour du Cirque du Soleil" was a success in 1984, and after securing a second year of funding, Laliberté hired Guy Caron from the National Circus School to recreate it as a "proper circus". Its theatrical, character-driven approach and the absence of performing animals helped define Cirque du Soleil as the contemporary circus ("nouveau cirque") that it remains today. After financial successes and failures in the late 1980s, "Nouvelle Expérience" was created—with the direction of Franco Dragone—which not only made Cirque du Soleil profitable by 1990, but allowed it to create new shows.