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August 08, 2004
CIRQUE DU SOLEIL: ALEGRIA!
I was back in Philadelphia this weekend; me, the Doc, Mrs. Doc, her sister and four friends went to go see Cirque du Soleil performing their show, Alegria.
I was the only one in the group who'd never seen Cirque du Soleil before; in fact, everyone else in our party was a Cirque groupie, having seen at least two other shows. So while everyone else was looking very forward to the show, I was anticipating it a little differently; I did want very much to see it, but I had no idea what to expect. All I knew is that Cirque du Soleil are very well known, that they are supposed to be an amazing - if weird - combination of traditional circus and performance/theater, and that from the little I knew I expected them to be very artsy... in other words, I wasn't sure I'd like it.
I needn't have worried. It was everything I expected it to be: impressive, artistic, theatrical, thrill-inducing, and just plain weird. And I loved it.
I was trying to explain to my mom what the show was like... the best I could do was calling it "a Broadway circus." Everything you know from a regular circus - trapeeze artists, acrobats, clowns, the strong man, and the freak show (ie, a contortionist) is part of the Cirque show. But there are few words spoken; the performers incorporate elements of dance, mime, theater and music into the show... it's really a lot like going to see an avant-garde dance performance, only with a circus doing the dancing.
Because Cirque is French-Canadian (based in Montreal), nothing is in English - so it really is interpretive in nature for the audience. Combine gymnastics with dance, and you have a sense of what their acrobats are like. And they all perform to music - not the three-ring circus whirlygig-type music or Stars and Stripes Forever, but funky artsy showtune style songs. Here's a snippet of the theme song that The Singer In White sings as the company is entering the arena at the beginning of the show.
I thought the music was really pretty... and the woman who played the Singer In White (I think her name was Eve Montpetit, if I read their site right) has one of the most beautiful voices I have ever heard. (I don't think she's the one singing on the sample I linked to.) I mean, her voice was so powerful and so entrancing that I found myself thinking, "I bet she's really, really attractive off stage." It was just one of those voices that's so good that it attracts all on its own.
The acrobats were amazing - perfectly synched, and performing a routine that left me cheering aloud and clapping enthusiastically. Very, very impressive. The trapeeze artists were very cool as well - and the strong man is a very good performer - you don't often see a weightlifter who is able to incorporate stage dance into his repetoire. The contortionist left me cringing and clapping all at once - the human body is not supposed to bend the way she was able to bend. It was kind of like a freak show, but she was such a good performer - and the music that accompanied her was so pretty - that it was more art than odd. The fire performer (the guy who juggles the flaming batons and performs with flames) was also very impressive.
I hate to say this next part, because I know the abuse I'm going to get for saying this. But the act that impressed me the most was the handbalancing gymnast; the guy comes out and performs a gymnastic routine that would make Olympic gold medal winners run home crying for their mothers. And this guy's sheer level of fitness is inhuman. Every muscle in his body is defined; it was like watching one of DaVinci's drawings come to life.
And (here goes the part I'm going to get abused for, but what the hell?) my reaction was to simply think, "Good God, the human body is a beautiful thing." NOT in a sexual sense, but just in the sense of the body being a work of art. The guy does a one handed handstand -- that's balancing himself on one hand, with his legs straight up vertical in the air -- and not only holds it for more than a minute at a time, but manages to do splits and get dance moves in there while he's doing it. When he finished his act, all we were all saying to each other was "holy (stuff)." As we walked out when it was over, one of the guys who was with us summarized it best: "Man, when you're as fit as that guy... can you imagine how good it feels even just to walk?"
It wasn't all great - the clown acts, while cool, were a little too long. Some of the others in the group complained that the clowns were too "dark" -- they weren't always trying to amuse, they were trying to entertain and tell stories... and they were very much from the "sad clown telling sad stories" school. Myself, I didn't mind the darkness of it - cynical old me actually prefers dark stories and unhappy endings to uplifting, sappy stuff... I just thought the clowns were onstage just a little too long. But they were still pretty impressive.
If you have a broadband connection to the Net, or if you are able to get streaming video over your Net connection, here's a short highlight clip from Cirque of the Alegria show.
So, to summarize... Cirque du Soleil is artsy, it's weird, it's interpretive, it's circus, it's dance, it's theater, it's awe-striking, it's thrilling, and it's something I can't wait to see again. Amazingly, my Cirque groupie friends all said that while this was a great show, all the other Cirque shows are actually even better. So I have much to look forward to. Two thumbs way up on this one ... if you've never seen Cirque, I recommend that you go see them if they come to a town near you; if you're a Cirque fan, share some comments below; which shows have you seen, which did you like best, and if you've seen Alegria, what did you think?
Guess I'm a Cirque groupie now too.
