Cirque du Soleil’s Dralion show came to town and so we all went to go check it out. It was at the Cedar Park Center, which is about 10 minutes away from us (so convenient!). As usual the Cirque du Soleil production was great! The theme seemed to feature four different cultures: Indian, African, Southeast Asian, and European. The show starts out with the “clowns” who speak some kind of strange language that vaguely resembles a romance language. It was mostly gibberish but sometimes a “bellisimo” or “amigo” was thrown in. Throughout the show these clowns make funny appearances. I think it’s to give the stagehands time to change things up and maybe let the performers change costumes. This time, I didn’t think the clowns were as funny as usual and their skits weren’t that easy to follow. I was mostly just waiting for them to finish so that the next group of performers could wow us with their incredible performances.
And there were plenty of incredible performances to be seen! Up early was a truly fantastic juggler. That to me is always so mind-boggling how he can keep track of so many flying objects. Other familiar performances were the group of gymnast/contortionists who do their incredible balancing act. These girls must not have any vertebrae because they can bend to impossible angles. Then there was the man and woman who fly around the stage from those long ribbons. This was the “artistic” portion of the show, and frankly, I was struggling to keep my attention focused. Could have done without this part… But some new things that I haven’t seen before really made this show memorable. There was a trampoline act where the performers would jump off a wall and then bounce back up to ledges on the wall. It was so cool because they looked like they were running up the side of a building. Then there was another act that involved acrobats jumping through rings. This was neat because the would do a tumbling run, then jump through the ring, do another roll, and then through yet another ring. You just have to see it to believe it. Towards the end there was a group jump-rope act. And by group, I mean about a dozen guys jumping over multiple ropes while forming a pyramid. It was some crazy stuff!
Another cool thing about these shows is that the music is live. You can see the drummer and percussionist just behind the stage, and the singers can really belt out their new-agey tunes. Dralion was an incredible show and I’d easily recommend it for all ages. It’s definitely worthy of the Cirque du Soleil name.
Make sure to click on the link above, then watch the preview video to get a taste of all the performances.
The style we are going for is actually kind of related to country style (Hawaiian country as opposed to Hawaiian kitsch), so most of the antiques that Mariko has collected will fit right in. Now just need to plan out my paintings, but I think I am going for some flower close-ups similar in a Georgia O’Keefe flavor, and maybe some ocean scenes. I have done several wave paintings, so it will be fun to do some more of those. This is just the kind of inspiration that gets my creative juices flowing! Off to find my old sketchbook… and how much do oil paints cost these days?
