April 20, 2004

{ cirque du soleil La Nouba live }

i've longed to see cirque du soleil live for so long... i've always figured that i'd get to see them once i got to las vegas since their traveling shows are a little out of my price range (around $300 a ticket)... imagine my delight or rather hysteria when upon arriving in orlando for vacation last week, i found out cirque has a permanent show at disney... not only do they have a 10 year contract with disney, but they perform 5 nights of the week, two shows per evening... it was looking up for me, but what about the cost of tickets??? no worries, the tickets ranged from $65-$98 and luckily i had a birthday coming up and shane still hadn't figured out what to get me... La Nouba, means "the spree," translated... it's a show about childhood dreams and nightmares and most of all, memories... this show was one of if not the most beautiful displays of art i've ever seen... journey into a world of imagination and beauty, excitement and awe... cirque du soleil combines the most talented performers from around the world with their signature french quirky humor... among the acts performed were the german wheel, and not just one or two performers on the wheels, but about 10 or so rolling across the stage and mastering the unimaginable... the stage transforms in so many ways and with such grace and beauty over and over again... luckily, we had dead center seats so we could see everything that was going on because while the main act is performing, there are always a million other things going on around that you're actually supposed to be able to see but wouldn't be able to catch them at all if you weren't seated somewhere in the front... then it was on to the tightrope, not your ordinary circus tight rope act... these people ride unicycles, flip on unicycles and walk the tight rope with a girl doing a one handed hand stand on one of the performer's heads- on the tight rope... amazing... and the beautiful live music, stage and sound effects and the dreamlike world cirque has created for it's audience has you immersed in a place that will have you feeling elated and completely submersed in the beauty of the show... during the middle of each of the main acts, the performers make sure you stay entertained with audience participation and humorous numbers involving cirque's quirky french clowns... the show is so fluent that they don't miss a beat... another great act were two bike riders who put the free-style trixters you see on the x-games to shame... to shame... it was interesting and very well put together... there were too many acts to describe but i have to mention my favorite... anyone who has ever seen cirque's dvd "quidam" will certainly remember the 4 little asian girls who perform an act with diabolos or maybe that's just what the act is called.... they use something that resembles a large yo-yo and do the most amazing routine... they throw these things back and forth to each other catching them on strings and then they do some of the most amazing acrobatics all the while still keeping total control of their yo-yo's and throwing them all over the place and they never miss a beat... an aerial ballet in silk was also performed which was breathtaking and if you've ever watched any of the old cirque shows, i'm sure you'll remember the very dangerous balancing on rickety old chairs act, stacking them higher and higher until they are about 17 feet high... the performer climbs up the stacked chairs to the top and contorts his body at the top, doing handstands on the legs of the upside down chairs and an array of other positions... you'll also witness a lovely trapeze act and last but not least, trampolines... but these aren't your ordinary trampolines, if you could see what these people were doing with their floor made of springs, you'd see what i mean... really, if you ever get the chance, please go- it's the same quality show as the traveling shows but much cheaper and it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life... there was a lot more to the show than i've mentioned here, but some of the highlights were covered... no matter who you are, young or old, you won't be disappointed with La Nouba... Contributed by: Stacy Broce

» check out La Nouba
» visit the official cirque du soleil site

By Alan Smithee in Art | Comments:

Comments

Sounds astounding. Particularly love your piling on of details to the degree of being overwhelmed by crazy hot circus madness.
I hear the Cirque-folk don't take kindly to the HIV+ crowd. What does that mean in 2004?

Posted by: Greggers at April 21, 2004 6:28 PM

"I hear the Cirque-folk don�t take kindly to the HIV+ crowd. What does that mean in 2004?"

Greg- what the hell does that mean, period?

I know Disney's not down with the lavender crowd, but does Cirque have some policy against HIV+ performers? Is this one of those nationally circulated news stories I'm just stupidly unaware of again?
Those performers do work pretty closely together though, body against body, sweat and spit and blood colliding.
Wooo! I need a cold shower!

Posted by: Adam at April 29, 2004 12:24 AM