Cirque du Soleil: Seeing is Believing

A year ago I'd only ever dreamt longingly of seeing a Cirque du Soleil show.  Now I've seen three.  On three different continents.  It's funny how life unfolds.  

Totem at the Royal Albert Hall was a dream come true.  There is a story behind each of the Cirque shows, and Totem follows the evolution of man starting from our amphibian ancestors, to our quest to fly, and soar like our winged friends.  

Totem beautifully and seamlessly evolves as a spellbinding mystical masterpiece where you don't want to blink, as you hardly believe what you behold. 

The language in which the show is presented is multifaceted:  your eyes and ears are captivated, and invited to pause a moment, suspended in disbelief as your assumptions as to the limits of the human body are questioned and swiftly dispelled. 

The art is an exacting science, and with the exception of one act, the performers are unaided by safety ropes, relying on their own physical precision and grace to present a gem whose content has stuck in my mind for the last week.  The sheer beauty is awesome, and the whole experience intensified through the absence of language.  

Narrative would be quite superfluous to this experience which represented a feast for the senses, and the imagination.  The food for thought was the innate elegance that, paradoxically, has been retained by apparently less evolved creatures whose worlds don't require them to strive in the way our superbrains cause us to.



From where I was sitting, it was the roller skaters stole the show, spinning and whirling at heart-stopping speeds on top of a tiny drum shaped platform – just 1.8 meters in diameter.



You can't help but hold your breath as five unicyclists juggle metal bowls at a considerable height, in an astounding display of agility, balance, synchronised control and physical grace.  Gasps are audible as the performers up their act and begin tossing the bowls with their feet – sometimes over their shoulders – before catching them on their heads without using their hands.

In this act, 10 artists performed incredible feats of strength, balance and acrobatic movements.
The jumpers are launched into the air and fly weightlessly across the sky, leaping from one bar to the next with astonishing agility in a thrilling evocation of the human desire to escape the earthly confines of gravity.

Whilst the trailer is impressive, this show has to be seen live to be believed!