On Sunday, the five of us (me, Berta, Abby, Mom, and Nana) went into Philly to see Alegria, one of the touring Cirque Du Soleil shows. This marks my fifth unique Cirque show, having seen "O", La Nouba, Dralion, and Varekai.The show was as good in performance as any of the other shows. All of the performers were the best at their craft. The "manipulation" act was my favorite. It was a single performer who started with one of those ribbons that flows through the air. She then started to do some amazing things with silver-colored hula hoops. My describing the performance is not doing it much justice, but at one point she had one hoop on her ankle (her foot extended outward), one around her waist, and two on each wrist. If you look at the picture I've included from the program (we weren't allowed to take pictures during the show) you might be able to guess that she often contorted herself with hoops whirling about her ankles in that manner.
Otherwise, I think I have seen too many of these shows. It's neat when you can be amazed by something new, and terrible when you've seen it so many times that it nearly becomes commonplace. I was disappointed not to see the russian bars act, since that would have been something new. The strong man act was new, but wasn't too impressive. He did toss a few heavy weights around blindfolded, which I think I may become more impressed with if I let my impressions stew longer.
In this show, the contortion act went on far too long. As I was commenting to my mom, after you see her look at you with her head twisted backward between her knees, what more twisting does she really need to show you?
There was something else amiss in this show, too. I think that Alegria is the oldest show we've seen, since it's been running for over 10 years. As such, it hasn't had the benefit of tuning itself to the audience in its design. That's odd to say since you'd think if it has been running so long that they would have tuned it quite well. But I think they architect the choreography and story well in advance, and don't change it too much while the show is playing. The other newer shows have the benefit of seeing the strengths of Alegria and working with them.
Alegria's theme wasn't as strong as the other shows. Granted, most of the themes of the other shows are pretty obscure or simple, but I couldn't follow a thread in Alegria. And their clowns... Usually, I don't mind the clowns in The Cirque du Soleil. But I couldn't fathom the clowns in this show. Some of the acts were simply not funny or understandable. Maybe I don't get the French phrasing of their humor. Oh well.
Well, the trip was nice and in spite of any of my complaints, the show was well performed. It's always nice to get out under the big top and see what new magic the Cirque Du Soleil has to offer.
My first Cirque show was in Pittsburgh a few years back, and I was completely mesmerized. I think it was Quidam. The acrobatics were amazing and the contortionism was cool, but my favorite part was when these little Chinese girls came out with pieces of wood about the size of their head shaped like hourglasses. Then they took a 3 or 4 foot piece of string and balanced these wooden hourglasses on the rope and flung them up into the air and caught them again as they were performing somersaults and tumbles and standing on each other. It looses something in translation, but it was very cool indeed. The second show I saw was in Chicago and it was also very impressive, but all the same, I noticed more of the background items, and began to see the emergency harnesses and lines attached to the people high up in the rafters, and I found my suspension of disbelief wavering at times. Still a truly impressive set of stunts and quite a good show, but no longer magical. You never mentioned if Abby enjoyed the show. Was she old enough to be captivated by it?
The diabolo act is part of the show in La Nouba in the permanent Cirque installation in Orlando. Of everything I've seen in all the Cirque Du Soleil shows (apart from "O", which cannot be compared), that's still my favorite act.
Abby gave her rapt attention to the show, but I think the experience is different for little kids. I don't think she saw the entire stage since there was a huge globe of blue-hair in front of us. Still, she seemed to like the Fast Track tumblers (the floor turns into long trampolines) well enough. And she had interesting things to say about the "snow" that fell during the last clown act she saw. Unfortunately, the show was during her nap time, and she fell asleep at intermission.
I took the family to Disney World last year and we went to see La Nouba. About 10 minutes into it, Gabrielle, who was coming up on two-years-old at the time, puked all over the place.
I left to get her cleaned up, but she made it VERY clear to me that she wasn't going back in the theater. For the next 90 minutes, I followed her as she ran around the lobby. I got to chatting with the staff as well, as they wondered why I was sitting out in the lobby while the show was in full swing.
Towards the end, a well-dressed man came up to me and introduced himself as the theater manager. Some of the staff had told him about my problem. He offered me free tickets to the next show in the best seats in the house. Annie took the kids back to the hotel, and I got to watch the next show uninterrupted.
A lot of class floating around down there in Orlando.
Hmm... Vomit = free ticket. I'll have to remember that for our trip in October. :)
Seriously though, I agree. The Disney area is a completely different world in terms of courtesy and friendliness. We don't go down there so often (my home timeshare is there) because we enjoy the plasticine amusement park facade -- We enjoy the professional enthusiasm and sincerity with which the employees interact with you.