As circumstance would have it, someone at work asked if I would be interested in watching some Cirque du Soleil DVDs a few weeks back. And he handed me a bag of them.

Now, I have always been interested in Cirque… because I have never liked the idea of them. Firstly – I’m not a big circus-guy (though I have known circus-people). Whenever I would go, I was there for the animal acts. The rest I could take or leave depending on how spectacular the acts were. Second – Cirque became HUGE! They almost have as many franchises around the world as Starbucks. Could that really be a good thing? Of course, their production of Love in Las Vegas was just amazing – the performances adding so much to the music, which was already so dear to my heart. But maybe that was a one off…?

So I have spent the past weekend watching Cirque DVDs. I began with Midnight Sun, a one night only event from 2004 where Cirque celebrated the Montreal Jazz Festival and took over a few city blocks. It was quite a spectacle and the music was fantastic! The acts we good, too. Later I went on line to find that the performance was sort of a greatest hits of Cirque and that true fans HATE Midnight Sun. Something about it not being intimate or passionate enough. Well, in front of 200,000 on the streets of Montreal – what do you want? Next was Quidam (I think from 2000). I really enjoyed this. Very postmodern in style – sort of a surrealist painting coming alive – but rooted in a story and characters from the real world (mostly). Grogeous to look at and listen to. The acts were very impressive and… moving. Then I watched Alegria, whose beautiful title tune had closed the Midnight Sun performance. Again, the music and songs where wonderful. But you began to see that under the costumes and impressionistic sets and heavy makeup, you were just watching acrobats, tumblers, jugglers, a contortionist, a strong man and clowns. Very traditional stuff done with a greater sense of style. That is to take nothing away from the acts. The girl with the hoops and the gymnastic work was quite enjoyable and that one clown is the snow was heartbreaking. I also watched Varekai… which is where they lost me. This show focused mainly on the weird creatures that inhabited some fantasy land. The line between gymnastics and stylized dance were totally blurred. It was all very low key and no real “wow” acts and… I got bored.

The music being always perfect, I downloaded the Cirque du Soliel “Best Of” CD from iTunes. But I would still go see one of their other shows- particularly the ones in Vegas. And there are worse ways to spend 90 minutes. It was also quite surprising to see that they are touring the Deep South for the next six months. Even Mississippi and Alabama. Considering the cacophony of countries that make up their troupe, that has to be a good thing.

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