It was supposed to be our anniversary date but they didn't have any shows for our anniversary so we just bought the tickets for an earlier date.
Anyway it was a really great show as it was my first Cirque du Soleil viewing, but honestly we were both expecting more acrobatics.
Whilst they had some really good acts, there were still a lot of filler comedic acts. In fact I think there were too many, and it devalued the show and lowered the quality of it. I didn't pay that amount of money for dry humour and over-the-top comedy acts; I paid to see amazing acrobatics. It makes Cirque du Soleil look like a sell out because they appear to be catering for the mass audience, by adding in comedic acts. But they fail because these comedic acts don't even incorporate good humour in them, and they don't cater for the people who went just to see the acrobatics and the technical acts (which is also every single person).
I was actually really disappointed that there was no flying trapeze. I seriously kept expecting it, especially after seeing the fixed trapeze duo, which was one of my favourite acts.
This was a good act because it had an evident storyline, great acting, and they matched the story well into the actual performance, unlike some of the others.
The music for this was also, I would say, the best piece. They really choreographed the performance to the song, which was great.
Another good one with an evident storyline was the rollerblading one, which talked about the unity and contact of two people partaking in a marriage ceremony.
This was also Diwan's favourite, because they had some amazing moves done on such a tiny platform (only 1.8m in diameter apparently).
There were lots of spinning and turning; it was crazy.
One thing I really did not like about this show was that the theme was the evolution of animals and man, and the eventual desire for human flight.
-from the Cirque du Soleil TOTEM program
The theme was good and I thought it would be amazing, but they just didn't really follow it well. Sure, it started off with frog-like people on a really cool set of double bars that were built into the bone structure of a turtle's shell...
But unfortunately after that it just went all over the place.
For example, the best act of the show was the unicycles and bowls act, but it just had nothing to do with the theme of evolution.
-from the Cirque du Soleil TOTEM program
I mean come on, that was a bit of a stretch there, linking it back to nature and evolution.
Don't get me wrong, these acts were amazing, but the storyline didn't translate well. It seemed like they just had all these cool acts and were like, "Hey, let's put these performers in clothing that reflects different time periods and we'll call it the evolution of man!"
But as I said, these five Chinese girls on their unicycles KILLED IT! It was arguably the best performance of the night.
Here's a video of something similar, and I think it's even performed by the same five Chinese girls:
These girls are from China and have been training since childhood. The unicycles are 7 ft tall but very light, which makes them easier to manoeuvre down the ramp at the beginning of the act. To suggest a time of harvest and the abundance of fall, the unicyclists’ costumes feature seed pods, flowers, trees and leaves. The base costumes are printed in earth tones, with small details sewn onto them—including bolts and screws as well as feathers and insects.
-Vanessa Choot
Unfortunately they also didn't have a hand balancing duet performance. It was in the program but on the website it looks like it's been removed from the program, and it wasn't in the show I saw. That was a big shame, because those acts are always really good to see.
Another one of my favourites was the Ameridian hoop dance
It didn't look super technical, but the way those two performances danced and hopped to the beat was just so mesmerising; it almost had like a calming effect on me. It was also super cool how they handled the hula hoops, even forming it into a ball.
I think the most confusing act was the one where Darwin starred in. Yes, Charles Darwin. Because if they didn't put him in, it'd be really difficult to see how this show related to evolution at all (except for that comedic act with the evolution walk as pictured above).
But basically Darwin stood in this large plastic-like funnel and just threw these glowing balls inside and they bounced around and eventually just starting rolling horizontally. It was very confusing.
Some other highlights:
A balancing act done on a curved steel frame
Dem arms.
Russian bars
So overall, I did enjoy it a lot, but as I said, I expected a lot more. I thought I was just being picky and fussy, but I had a look at some of the reviews online and, well, I guess I'm not alone.
For example:
-Leigh McIndoe
-Madeleine Sabulis
This was good; something I completely agree with:
-Cassy Gilbert
If you don't have the seats that face the front of the stage, you really miss out on quite a bit, seeing as everything is directed to the front. This was obviously different from The Lion King Musical, which was at the Capitol Theatre and everyone was facing the front. Diwan and I were sitting on the side in line with the front part of the stage (the second lowest priced seats) and it still wasn't good enough of a view. So I think it's worth the value to fork out the extra $50 or whatever it costs to get a better performance out of it.
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