Before now, I had never really thought of going to a circus or
any showcasing of performances by gymnasts/contortionists. I mean, I enjoy
watching them on Cable TV while channel-surfing but to go actually go see them live was
altogether something a tad farfetched for me. That is, until last weekend. Something
about Le Grand Cirque Adrenaline caught my attention like no other show like it ever had before. And then
I decided it would be nice to go see the show live this time around.
I called a friend of mine who had the almighty
ability to secure tickets to all sorts of shows that take place in the city,
but this time it turned out that she was only human after all. So I
had to secure a ticket for myself, all the while hoping that I’d get to see something I’d never seen before, not even on TV. Bottom-line: I got to. (And it made me regret not seeing Cirque Du Soleil while they were around!)
When it was time to go into the theatre, I noticed that
booklets with pictures of the performances inside of it were being sold in the
lobby. I didn’t want to buy it at first because I believe things like that are
supposed to be for free, so I just walked by. During recess I eventually had to go get it, as it was the only way I could have pictures of the performances for the blog (flash-photography and video-recording are not allowed
in the theatre).
The MC was very engaging and very hilarious…all with very
few words, and none of English. The intro was power-packed. The contortionists,
the aerial straps, the hand-to-hand guys, the jugglers, the trampoline guys, the dancers, the
bikers; all of them took to the stage and gave the audience sneak previews of
their performances. The music made it feel like I was levitating;
the lighting was sensational and immensely colourful; and it really felt like I
was having an out-of-body experience. After the intro, the performers began to
come in one after the other, each one as intensely gripping as the one before.
Personally, the performer who played with reflective shapes
was the most captivating. First he played with a linear triangle; with each
side about one metre in length. Swiftly and deftly, the triangle moved in his
hands, constantly reflecting every color of light that was thrown on the stage.
And then he played with a pyramid of the same dimensions. And just when I thought
that was the climax of his performance, he moved on to a cube. Incredible! It began to look
like the shapes were extensions of him. They responded to his hands as though
there was an unseen connection in between. (Sadly, there were no pictures of him in the booklet)
Before I get carried away by my favorite performance, there was also the aerial strap who suavely and almost divinely wove himself in and out of a hoop suspended from the celing like that was exactly what he was born to do; the juggler who dressed as an elf and juggled about a dozen balls, so much so that it just seemed like the balls were doing their own thing and he was just mind-controlling them; the trampoline guys who bounced and spun in the air like weightless forms and stuck to the wall behind the trampoline like they were made of Velcro; the bikers, three of them, who rode their bikes at the same time in a sphere called the "globe of death", so fast that they began to look like one colorful band within the globe; the twin contortionists (they're actually identical twins) who slid in and out of a hollow cylinders way smaller than their size, as though they were made of rubber; the balancing artist who stood, seemingly effortlessly, on six or seven cylinders stacked one on top of the other (side upon side, not top upon bottom); and the muscled contortionists who twisted around each other in the most unimaginable fashions and positions.
Before I get carried away by my favorite performance, there was also the aerial strap who suavely and almost divinely wove himself in and out of a hoop suspended from the celing like that was exactly what he was born to do; the juggler who dressed as an elf and juggled about a dozen balls, so much so that it just seemed like the balls were doing their own thing and he was just mind-controlling them; the trampoline guys who bounced and spun in the air like weightless forms and stuck to the wall behind the trampoline like they were made of Velcro; the bikers, three of them, who rode their bikes at the same time in a sphere called the "globe of death", so fast that they began to look like one colorful band within the globe; the twin contortionists (they're actually identical twins) who slid in and out of a hollow cylinders way smaller than their size, as though they were made of rubber; the balancing artist who stood, seemingly effortlessly, on six or seven cylinders stacked one on top of the other (side upon side, not top upon bottom); and the muscled contortionists who twisted around each other in the most unimaginable fashions and positions.
All in all, it was a totally exhilarating show; one that I would most
definitely recommend to you if ever they arrived in your city (I'm told they travel a lot). These performers are a must-see. They made my weekend, end of story!
