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Coordinating the movements of 55 performers through nine acts for 21 individual shows is no small feat. Neither is figuring out how to get everyone and everything here in the first place.

Hawaii presents some unique challenges for a show like Cirque du Soleil, which returns to Honolulu for two weeks in October. All of their gear has to be shipped or flown to the islands. The group travels with about 50 support staff, including chefs and physical trainers. Bringing Cirque here can be risky, too. The islands’ 1.3 million people represent a much smaller market than Cirque’s traditional target cities with populations of 3 million and up.

“It’s a big logistical nightmare,” Michael Smith, the show’s senior artistic director, told Civil Beat.

And then there’s the temptation to try the sports and foods that make Hawaii special.

But Smith says he’s got that last part covered. Don’t expect to see many of the performers out surfing or eating too many helpings of squid luau and haupia. “They’re incredibly responsible. I don’t spend my time doing pep talks. What they have to do on stage they take very seriously,” he said.

“They’re elite athletes so they’re pretty careful about what they eat. But they don’t tend to be that adventurous anyway, especially the Russians.”

The show that’s coming to Honolulu’s Neal Blaisdell Center from Oct. 15 to Oct. 31 is called Alegria. It’s one of two former “big top” tent shows that Cirque has redesigned to work in an arena setting.

It takes 10 hours and 80 technicians to put the set together and as little as 3.5 hours to break it down. Normally they fill 18 trucks that roll on to the next city. But coming to Honolulu involved special arrangements and considerations. Equipment was specially tagged and secured for ocean-travel. To allow enough time for the 24 containers to arrive, Hawaii’s shows are scheduled at the end of a planned two-week break for the performers.

The group will take over 100 Waikiki hotel rooms and hire an additional 150 people locally to fill a variety of jobs including riggers, ushers and parking attendants. Staff chefs will stock the cafeteria with local fish and vegetables bought from local vendors.

All told, it costs Cirque du Soleil 20 percent more to bring a show to Hawaii than it does anywhere else in North America. The cost is similar to bringing a show to Europe.

“Obviously, there is an added cost which we do not put on the ticket prices,” Smith said.

So why come to Hawaii in the first place?

It’s part of a new business model that the company is carrying forward in the wake of the recession, which has hit the entertainment industry hard. Cirque is trying to open up smaller markets.

“For a big top [show], we have to have major cities with 3 million people and up because we need to stay a month or longer to cover our costs. With [arena shows], we can stay one week. We get more people in and the overhead is a lot lower,” Smith said. “As a business model, it’s working well.”

By the end of the year, Cirque will have doubled its roster of traveling arena shows to four.

There’s a second somewhat romantic reason the show wants to build a relationship with Hawaii. Cirque co-founder Guy Laliberté came up with the name “Cirque du Soleil” while sitting on a beach in Hawaii more than 25 years ago.

Cirque du Soleil was founded in 1984 in Quebec by a group of street performers who didn’t have money to buy a hotel — they slept in their van.

The company has grown into a global brand with more than 21 different shows employing a combination of incredible human acrobatics, elaborate sets, lavish costumes, face paint, headdresses and dramatic music.

“We’ve changed in people’s minds what circus is,” said Smith.

Making the show successful here involves a calculated strategy of wooing locals over tourists — at least in the beginning. About 35,000 people — mostly locals — turned out for Cirque’s first Hawaii show two years ago, called Saltimbanco.

The show isn’t just a treat for audiences. The performers like coming to Hawaii, too, Smith said. You might see them on the street in the weeks before the performance. Many will come spend their two week vacations here with their families before the performances begin.

Around midnight after their last show, that same gear that spent a week on a boat will be loaded into two jumbo jets while the performers pile into a chartered plane. Their next stop: Boise, Idaho.