Fun Week for Circus events

It's that time of year again..... Ringling Brother's is coming to Austin this week at the Frank Erwin Center with a new show "Fully Charged".  From the website it appears to be a fun acrobatic show with a 80 foot tumble trak act - that should make me really jealous :-)  I'm planning to take photos and post them on my Flickr page.

Also, I just found out today that Cirque Du Soleil is returning to the Cedar Park Center this December.  This breaks their usual pattern of coming to Cedar Park every February.  They will be performing the final US performances of Saltimbanco December 12-16th.  Presale tickets are already available for Cirque Club members (it's free to join through Cirque Du Soleil's website).  Tickets will go on sale to the general public on August 24th.

I'm excited to see Saltimbanco because I've only seen it on TV and I'm really looking forward to seeing it live.  It was a new tent show around 1993 but I missed it at that time.  The DVD is great although I imagine some of the acts have changed since then.  I still think it will be a great show and I'm already looking forward to it.

Quidam opens tonight at the Cedar Park Center

Don't miss it! I'm going this weekend. Quidam is one of my favorite Cirque du Soleil shows. I first saw it in Orange County in 1997. I'm really looking forward to seeing the Banquine act again as well as my other favorites: diabolos, hand balancing, jump rope, aerial hoops, German wheel and anything else acrobatic. Can't wait!

Dralion at the Cedar Park Center

I first saw Dralion as a tent show in 1999 and, although I enjoyed it, I felt the other Cirque Du Soleil shows I had seen were much better. I just saw Dralion again at the Cedar Park Center (the new arena version of the show) and I have to say that this show has really matured and improved with time. Dralion is a blend of western culture with traditional Chinese circus acts but in 1999 I felt that the traditional Chinese circus acts did not have the same energy or stage presence as most Cirque acts. That is no longer the case. This version of Dralion has a very energetic Chinese acrobatic troupe. The Hoop Diving act was more energetic than I remembered and the Skipping Rope act was fantastic. Part of the improvement is that the current performers connect with the audience better than the performers I saw 12 years ago and that makes them more enjoyable to watch.

Also fantastic was the Russian juggler, Vladik Miagkostoupov, who has big shoes to fill after Victor Kee (Victor Kee was the highlight of the 1999 version of Dralion, in my opinion). Vladik uses a similar style - combining juggling, acrobatics and dance and is equally as entertaining. I also enjoyed the Aerial Pas de Deux - which is a very romantic aerial silk performance with a great emotional display between the two performers. The aerial hoop act is equally amazing and also had great chemistry between the hoop performer and the character representing fire.

Of course, my favorite change to Dralion is the inclusion of the trampoline wall act. Trampoline wall is always fun to watch and really wows the crowd (I was especially amazed at the performer who did the crash dive from one trampoline to the other when the trampolines were quite far apart - scary!).

Overall, I have to say that all the acts in Dralion were entertaining and the show has improved dramatically with time. Dralion will be at the Cedar Park Center until March 20th so there's still time to get tickets.

P.S. It appears that the seating chart for the floor seats on Ticketmaster once again, does not match what the Cedar Park Center had set up. We were in the front row of floor section 4, seats 1 and 2. On the Ticketmaster chart that would have us on the left side of the section (if facing the stage) but we were on the very right side of the section. In this case, it made no difference to us - our seats were great. But this is a pet peeve of mine when it comes to buying tickets for the Shrine Circus (our floor seats have never been what we thought we bought) - see previous posts for details.

Cirque Du Soleil is coming back to town!

Cirque du Soleil will be back at the Cedar Park Center March 10-20th, 2011. This year the show is Dralion which is a blend of traditional Chinese circus arts with typical Cirque du Soleil flair. I saw the tent show in 1999 and it incorporated many entertaining acts: juggling, teeterboard and hoop diving with fantastic Cirque du Soleil music. I have not yet seen the arena version but I've heard that the show has been updated and now includes a trampoline wall act - Yay!

For more information on the show visit Cirque Du Soleil's website here.

The Cedar Park Center sent me this link for discounted seats - use the promotional code STARS (all caps).

I'm always happy to see Cirque du Soleil come to town, even if they don't allow photography during the show :-)

Some Events Coming Up

Here's a list of a few events that are coming up soon:
1. The Shrine Circus will be at the Cedar Park Center again this year Friday January 14 - Monday January 17.

2. Austin Sky Candy Aerial Arts Collective is raising money to expand their classes and purchase new equipment. If you are interested in donating to their cause here is a link to more information.

3. Cirque du Soleil's Dralion will be at the Cedar Park Center in March and, during that time, Cirque will be holding auditions for singers and musicians. More information is available here for singers and here for musicians.

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.