STAGE TUBE: Cirque du Soleil Turns Drones Into Magical Flying Lampshades

Cirque du Soleil, ETH Zurich, and Verity Studios have teamed up to create a short film featuring 10 quadcopters -- i.e. drones -- in a flying dance sequence. The scene begins with a man working late at night, when suddenly his workshop loses power and he must struggle to work by the light of a single kerosene lamp -- that is, until his lamps take on a life of their own. Check out the performance, as well as a behind-the-scenes video, below!

Cirque du Soleil's Welby Altidor said in the making-of video that the company wanted to give emerging technology "some meaning, and give it some magic, and bring it to another level."

"Is there a future for this in the performing arts?" asked Verity Studios founder Raffaello D'Andrea, who is also a professor at ETH Zurich. "Absolutely. We're just getting started."

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