Shrine Circus Pictures

Despite my annoyance with the mislabeled seats and getting trampled for the elephant rides, I'm happy with the pictures I got at the Shrine Circus. Here's a link to the set on Flickr.

2011 Austin Shrine Circus

Handbalancing on canes act
Originally uploaded by DigiNik13

The Austin Shrine Circus, at the Cedar Park Event Center, was once again a mix of good and bad experiences. First I'll start with the good:

The performers all did a great job. There were aerialists (silks, hoops, trapeze and swinging rings) and handbalancers, jugglers, clowns and other standard circus acts. There was a performer shot from a cannon all the way across the arena to a landing area. This was especially scary in the low ceiling of our small arena - he had to go over the lighting rigging but not hit the ceiling. The BMX bike performer was energetic and talented as was the motorcycle performer. All the aerialists and circus performers did a great job. I got some photos that I'm slowly editing for my flickr stream.

But this is the second time I've been to the Shrine Circus at the Cedar Park Center and the second time I leave feeling a little annoyed a few things:

1. The seating! This is the Cedar Park Center's mistake. We had a huge annoyance last year when the Box Office sold us seats that were no where near where the employee pointed to on the seating chart. This year, I decided to buy my tickets online through Ticketmaster so I could read the seating chart myself and pick out my seats. Well, this year the seating chart did not match how the Cedar Park Center set up their floor seats. So our "front row center" seats were actually off to the right side (but still front row). How hard can it be to set up the floor seats so that they match the seating chart?

2. The lighting. I love that the Shrine Circus encourages photography - I thank them for this! Now, could we just light the performers consistently? There were some performers performing in the dark with the spotlight next to them - like the spotlight had missed it's mark. Other performers had no light at all. I think everyone (performers and audience) would appreciate more even and consistent lighting so we can see these artists better.

3. The elephant rides. I was annoyed by this last year (see last year's post) and it was equally annoying again. The way they do these rides, they create a massive mob during the pre-show, intermission and after show. This mob is literally trampling the people in the floor seats and making it impossible to get up from your seat. Also, it's very frustrating for families to wait in a long line only to get turned away because the intermission is over. But the most appalling aspect to me was the assembly of plank they used to get people on and off the elephant. Picture a platform about 5 feet high and a few feet wide. Before the show started they tore the legs off the platform and placed it in a pile in front of us - that was okay. But since the elephant rides start again for the intermission, the technicians came out two acts before the intermission and assembled this huge platform a couple of feet in front of us. Yes, our view was blocked by the poles of a five foot high platform (and the plank and the technicians assembling it) during the end of the BMX bike and the trapeze act before the intermission. Can't they be a little more friendly to their audience members and wait until the intermission to assemble it? Of course they can't because they have kids and parents already standing in the aisles waiting to trample everyone to be first in line for the elephant rides during the short intermission (some of these people got turned away from the elephant rides before the show started so I can understand their impatience also). The elephant/pony rides are just a frustrating, crowded experience for anyone unfortunate enough to be close to them. It's a shame that something like this (and the seating problem) leaves a bad taste in my mouth and overshadows the fantastic performances by the artists but since they encourage photography, I'll give it another chance next year.

Shrine Circus Starts Tomorrow

Austin Shrine Circus starts tomorrow at the Cedar Park Center. There will be an Elephant Brunch at noon on Friday and the circus shows start Friday evening and go through Monday. I'm looking forward to taking lots of photos when I see the show on Saturday.

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 Dreams Illumination Review

Saturday we saw Cirque Dreams Illumination at the Long Center in Austin, TX. This was my first time to see a Cirque Dreams production so I wasn't sure what to expect. Overall, I found the skill level of the performers to be very high and enjoyable. The music and choreography was average (in my opinion) but overall I would say this was a good show. Some of the acts that stand out to me are the Foot manipulators (I believe Cirque du Soleil calls this Icarian Games), the juggler (fantastic!), the aerial cube act (with 4 girls on a cube) and the handbalancer. According to the program, the handbalancer is 6'2" - that makes his skill level even more impressive. No doubt his fantastic flexibility helps him but it's impressive to see someone that tall do a reverse planche. I enjoyed the slackline performer (Wirewalker) and was especially impressed by his back extension roll to handstand on the wire. There was another handbalancing/acro act by three guys who did a really great job. Other notable acts were the contortion girls, rollo bollos, and the aerial perch couple.

I also enjoyed seeing Sky and Aaron - the two local Austin performers who won the "Run Away with Cirque Dreams Casting Call". The casting call is a very good marketing tool for Cirque Dreams as it gave us a preview of the show (and the ability to take pictures) and also allowed for some local talent to perform in Austin (some of my pictures from the casting call are located here: www.flickr.com/photos/flipimages/sets/72157625235230721 )

One thing about the performance that seemed odd to me was the clown act. It's act where the "Director" is directing "audience members" (most likely plants) through a silent movie. However, it's an almost exact copy of the same act done by David Shiner in Cirque Du Soleil's Nouvelle Experience, which I saw in 1991 (and is still available on DVD). I don't know who owns the rights to this act but it was weird to see it done almost verbatim by another circus.

I look forward to Cirque Dreams returning to Austin next year - especially if they do the Casting Call again.

Workshops and Performances at Sky Candy Austin

As part of the East Austin Studio Tour, Sky Candy Austin will be doing workshops and performances on November 13th & 14th. Space in the workshops is limited so if you are interested visit their website to sign up (or to get more information): http://www.skycandyaustin.com/. I'm hoping I can get away from Austin Comic Con long enough to stop by and see what's happening there.

Adult Gymnastics Class at Star Center

I just found out that Star Center has an adult gymnastics class on Monday and Wednesday evening... for more information visit their website http://www.austinstarcenter.com/ (it's on the Class Schedule). The gym is located in South Austin - nice and convenient for those of you that live South. Since I'm on the opposite side of town (North Austin....in a galaxy far far away), I probably won't be able to check out this class but I'm still happy to see that some gyms are willing to have classes for adults.