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A performer shows off a lavish costume used in Cirque du Soleil’s newest show to come to Lo

For Violaine Corradi, the composer behind Cirque du Soleil’s latest production to stop in Los Angeles, “Varekai,” the challenge of creating original music for a Cirque show means more than just finding the right notes.

“So many things can happen (during a live performance). The acrobat might take a little longer before he’s done, so the musicians constantly have to follow the movement,” Corradi said. “The way I write the music is I have to give them keys or doors, to switch from section A to section B, so sometimes the band will have to look and say, ‘Okay, this is taking a little longer, but it has to make sense musically.’ So they have plan A, plan B, plan C. It is very, very hard.”

The inherent difficulty of producing a score that needs to be as flexible as a contortionist has not deterred Corradi from becoming a more regular fixture in Cirque du Soleil. Since completing work on her first Cirque production, 1999’s “Dralion,” Corradi spent a few years scoring IMAX films like “Great North” and “Bears,” but agreed to take on the challenge of composing for “Varekai” with little hesitation.

“You know, the acrobats risk their lives,” Corradi points out. “We don’t realize it, but they do. And us as creators, we are asked to throw ourselves into the void like them, and this is what I find so exciting (about) working with Cirque du Soleil.”

Fourteen shows and almost 20 years since a group of Montreal street performers first conceived of the possibility of a re-imagined, commercially successful circus, Cirque du Soleil has become synonymous with the most intricate and visually stunning acrobatic performances in the world. But along with that kind of marketplace dominance comes the inherent risk of saturation. There are currently four other productions besides “Varekai” touring the globe, along with two permanent shows in Las Vegas and one at Walt Disney World in Orlando. A third Vegas show, “Zumanity,” officially premieres in September.

Now that the Cirque style has become a more familiar language of performance, the company’s creative team has adopted a wider view of what kind of resources it can tap in an effort to keep the company’s productions fresh and unique.

“If you look at Cirque’s history, for the first eight productions, it was almost the same creative team that developed (each of them),” said Director of Communications Reneé-Calude Ménard. “In ‘Varekai,’ 50 percent of the creators are new, had never done a Cirque show. It’s one of the intentions of Cirque for the future, the idea being that we try to get as many creative people as possible to come on board and bring another perspective.”

Tickets for “Varekai,” opening Sept. 12, are available at www.cirquedusoleil.com.