Cirque du Soleil's Alegria was fantastic!

We had a great time last night at Cirque du Soleil's Alegria at the Cedar Park Center. It was so nice to see Cirque du Soleil again (they haven't been to Austin since 2005 when the tent show, Varekai, was here). Everything about Cirque du Soleil is first rate, from the costumes, the make-up, the music and the acrobatics. Alegria has been one of my favorite shows since I first saw it in 1995. Of course, I'm partial to the power track act and the aerial high bar but I also love to watch Russian Bar, contortion, trapeze, flying man and basically every other performer.

The power track act has some fantastics tumbling, as expected with performers like Lisa Skinner and Trudy McIntosh (both Olympians from Australia). There were several double layouts (with great form), a couple of double doubles, a triple full and several split leg double layouts. I even spotted a split leg, full-out, which I believe I've never seen before (split leg layout on the first flip and a full twist on the second in layout position).

The handbalancing performer had a few sets of canes and he was hopping from set to set (while in a handstand of course).

Overall the set was smaller than the tent show version (especially the aerial high bar setup) but I think they did a great job adapting the show to an arena version. I hope we get more Cirque Du Soleil shows in Cedar Park!

Reminder - Cirque Du Soleil tickets on Sale today!

Tickets for Cirque Du Soleil's Alegria go on sale to the general public today, Dec 4th, at 10:00am. Alegria will be at the Cedar Park Event Center from February 17-20, 2010. Yay! It's great to have Cirque back in the Austin area.

Tickets are available through Ticketmaster or at the Cedar Park Event Center box office.

Cirque Du Soleil is coming to Cedar Park!

This is an update to my previous post about Cirque Du Soleil's Alegria coming to Austin. I received an email this morning and the venue is actually the new Cedar Park Center. I'm thrilled because it's closer to where I live. Yay! Tickets are on presale now for Cirque Club Members (it's free to join - just sign up at http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/). The dates for the show are February 17-21, 2010.

Assuming that the arena show is similar to the tent show I saw in 1995, I think this is a fantastic show - especially for people into gymnastics! Alegria has a tumble trak act (called power track), Russian bars, aerial high bar and other great acts (like trapeze). I already got my seats and I'm considering going twice to just support Cirque coming to Austin.

Here is a small version of the Alegria wallpaper image available from Cirque Du Soleil's website. Check out the Alegria page for more information about the show:
http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/alegria/default.aspx

Cirque Du Soleil may return to Austin!

For the first time since 2005 we may have a Cirque Du Soleil show coming to Austin. According to http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/ the show "Alegria" has Austin listed as one of their stops in early 2010. Alegria is now an arena show which means the show is performed in an arena instead of the famous Cirque Du Soleil tent. The purpose of the arena shows is for Cirque to visit smaller cities or locations where setting up the tents is unfeasible. Alegria is a very acrobatic show including power track (similar to tumble trak), trapeze, Russian Bar and aerial high bar. Aerial high bar is like a combination of men's high bar and trapeze. The performers do release skills similar to gymnastics but they perform them to a catcher or to another bar (like women's uneven bars). It's all performed very high in the air to add excitement. Power track always has great tumbling along with fantastic music and choreography. Alegria has been one of my favorite Cirque du Soleil shows since I first saw it in 1995.

I'll post more information on Alegria as it becomes available.