Cirque du Soliel-Kooza

Sunday afternoon, I went with the wife, her sister and a friend of ours from college to see Cirque du Soliel's latest touring show, Kooza. www.cirquedusoleil.com/kooza

Based in Canada, Cirque du Soliel attracts performers from around the world to do amazing feats of tumbling, juggling, balancing, and other circus acts. Clowns are a big part of the show. Animals such as lions and tigers and bears (o my!) and elephants and many other fantastic and exotic creatures are not to be found. Cirque du Soliel focuses on the human element and the amazing feats that the human body can accomplish.

Having seen "Dralion" and "O", I've come to expect great things from the "Circus of the Sun." "Kooza" did not disappoint.

Clowns are a big part of Cirque du Soliel and they opened the show. They also did some skits in between some of the acts. They were all very amusing and even did some magic. And periodically, an audience member was brought up on stage.

There were contortionists, 3 girls ranging in age from young teen to young adult, who stretched and bent their bodies in ways I didn't think possible for a human to endure. But they managed to do it all flawlessly and keep smiles on their faces.

A high wire act involving bicycles and jumping rope and other daring balancing acts brought forth gasps and exclamations of surprise and delight.

A juggler, with the help of his dancing assistant, juggled balls, clubs and rings. I think the most he had going at one time was 8 rings. Very impressive stuff.

A platform about 8 feet high with a chair on top of it was brought out. A man balanced on it by doing a handstand. Applause. Another chair was brought out and added to it. He balanced on this one as well. And then another chair and another chair and another chair and he kept doing handstands and other balancing acts with the chairs as the stack kept getting higher and higher. Cheers and applause. I believe 8 chairs in total were balanced one on top of the other.

There were tumblers who did flips off of giant seesaws (for lack of a better term). They would be launched several feet in the air, do some twists and flips and land feet first on a big mattress. The best was when a performer did the feat in stilts and landed perfectly upright on the mattress.

By far, the most impressive act was what's called the Wheel of Death. Two giant wheels, without hubs or spokes, connected by metal posts in a complex web were suspended from the ceiling. Two performers, one for each wheel got into the wheels are started running around inside. They also made the entire mechanism rotate so that they were several dozen feet in the air. A truly phenomenal act. People held their breath as the performers were not connected by any cables to prevent them from falling.

It was truly a great show. If y'all ever get the opportunity, and can afford the ticket prices, or better yet, know someone who can, go see Cirque du Soliel. You won't be disappointed. One caution: if you happen to see them in Vegas, be warned that "Zumaniti" does contain nudity. I personally haven't seen it, but know this from ads that I've seen when I was in Vegas. :)