Other than the fact that it was freezing cold (18 degrees, according to K's car thermometer), the whole thing was amazing! They had a lot of the same acts as the Ingenioso show we saw last summer, but it was all still breathtaking. The scale of the show was somewhat limited this time, by the size of Powell Hall, but in some ways that made it even more intense. The tightrope act, for example, was set up right between the first row of seats and the stage. K got us really good tickets (probably the 8th row or thereabouts?), and they were right in the middle. I think it's because she didn't want to be picked as a volunteer, but she swears it's only because they were the best seats. As a consequence of our great seats, we were both pretty certain that the tightrope walkers would fall in our laps. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The theme of this winter circus was "The Floating Palace." It was based on a real-life circus showboat that used to run up and down the Mississippi river before the Civil War. The story was that the boat, toting a few stowaways, left from St. Louis, but the true love of one of the passengers didn't get on. For the first half of the show, he's longing for her. Then she gets on the boat at one of its stops, and for the second half, they're enjoying their new-found love. Aww, isn't that sweet?
Anyway, the performances were pretty cool. There was one lady who could twirl a dozen hula hoops at a time, most of them somewhere between her neck and her knees, but also on her wrists and hands as well. Some members of the St. Louis Arches were there. It's kind of a tumbling/gymnastic group, I guess, for kids aged probably 5 through 18 20? There were the boyfriend and girlfriend of the story, who do some amazing things hanging from pieces of cloth attached to the ceiling. We saw the Duo Voltart, the Elliaire Duet, Vince Bruce (a Brit!), ADAMO (the boyfriend and girlfriend of the story), and more!. There were dog tricks too, although I think they weren't allowed to bring horses into Powell Hall. And of course there were the tightrope walkers, the Wallenda Family.
We had to do a little investigation to get the full story of the Flying Wallendas. The playbill had this blurb about them:
K and I re-read this business a few times, but despite the reference to "the scene of the Wallendas' greatest tragedy," we couldn't figure out what the tragedy was. Wikipedia + Blackberry to the rescue. What I learned is this: when the Wallendas were performing their seven-person chair pyramid at the Shrine Circus in Detroit in 1962, one of the walkers faltered causing the pyramid to collapse, and three members of the troupe fell to the ground. Two were killed. One was paralyzed from the waist down.Thankfully, none of the Wallendas fell into our laps, although if they had lost their balance, they probably would have - we were that close. But let me tell you: it is incredible what these people do while standing on a wire. They rode bikes. Two of them rode bikes suspending a bar between them, which had a chair on it, which had a girl on it! Another two of them were on foot with that same bar suspended between them, and the pater familias was standing on said bar. Then they stop. And right before my very eyes, the guy standing on the bar (which, let me remind you, was being supported by two guys standing on a wire - a wire!) crouches down and does a head stand. No sh**. I couldn't believe my eyes. And then he came out of it too! Without falling to his death! I watched the whole thing mouth agape.
And I guess what makes it so breathtaking is that he, or any of them, really could have died. Every night these people perform their acts, they are literally taking their lives into their hands - or in the case of tightrope walkers, feet. (Okay, maybe not the guy who trains the dogs, but you get my point.) All this suspense was heightened, of course, by the presence of the live music. Live music, even if you don't know or aren't crazy about the particular song or piece being performed, is so much more powerful than recorded music. You can feel it in a way that you miss when you're listening to a CD of a studio version. So to have these people walking or twirling in the air above our heads, with the live symphony setting the scene, was really pretty cool.
[PSA: In fact, this show (the President of SLSO informed us), was part of a series called Live at Powell Hall, so there are opportunities to see other events with the backing of live music.]
Another thing that was neat about seeing them at Powell was that, since the building is much more acoustically proportioned than, say, a circus tent, you can hear the performers talking to each other during the routine, which we couldn't last summer in the tent. Kind of neat to get another detail of what's going on.
Then, to cap off the evening, we got back into the car right as our current favorite Pink song was on the radio! So we totally rocked out all the way to the highway.
Thanks, K!
[In researching for this post, I discovered ADAMO on Circopedia. Circopedia? Really? I guess there's a website out there for everyone!]
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