Cirque du Soleil: Kooza!

Not too much has been going on the past two weeks. For one, I was really sick on Memorial Day (102 degree fever) and was mostly taking it easy all last week. I did manage to go to a volunteer appreciation lunch at Eastside Academy and lead a coffeeshop leader's meeting for my youth group girls. We went to a new coffeeshop, and, though I don't normally drink coffee, I had an Almond Roca Mocha there that was simply amazing (think toffee and chocolate).

This week picked up a little. It's the last two weeks of school now, and I have 4 students all cramming for final exams in math, each with a massive review packet to complete. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we had CG and youth group as usual. On Thursday, however, Kayle and I went on a special date for our 2nd anniversary: dinner and the circus! The huge park near our house is hosting Cirque du Soleil for several weeks (same acrobatic troop that has several shows in Las Vegas). Marymoor park now has a huge "Grand Chapiteau" big top tent set up, with lots of trailers and smaller tents surrounding it. Quite a sight! Overall it was a very impressive show. It featured acrobatics, live band and singers, clowns, and dancing, all tying into an overall storyline with memorable characters. There were about 2000 people in the audience, including some friends from church we happened to run into. The show started at 8pm, and we didn't get home until 11pm. Overall, we both considered the show well worth it and very entertaining. Here are some pictures from their website, since we were not allowed to take pictures during the show:



These performers were launching each other into the air by jumping on the ends of a giant teetor totter. Once two men jumped off a platform to launch a girl on stilts about 30 feet in the air, where she twisted and flipped before landing on her stilts onto a mat carried around by other people. Whoa.


These guys were balancing on a tightrope. One guy almost fell and made the whole crowd gasp. He managed to twist and grab the tightrope with his hands before doing a kip to get back up. At the end, they let the chair fall off the pole it was balanced on. It fell into a net that seemed very, very far below!


The contortionists were simply amazing. I've seen very flexible gymnasts and these ladies still boggled my mind. I'm really not sure if they have any bones in their backs.


This act made me (and half the audience) actually scream and shreik as they were performing. I was pretty convinced someone was going to fall to their death. These guys had something like a hamster wheel that allowed them to run inside and create momentum to make the whole contraption spin. It was enough that they ran and jumped around inside the wheels, but then they were standing, running, and jumping (and jump-roping!) on the outside of the wheels too. They could actually get about 2-3 seconds of airtime if they jumped while their side was falling. Truly terrifying to watch...


This part involved lots of dancing and running around on top of giant balls. That girl in the middle is standing on a ball on the head of another person also balancing on a ball.


This is just one of the main characters, a clown king who acted very much like Kramer from Seinfeld. He and his two assistants called people onstage for "magic" acts, which really involved making fun of the poor audience members they selected. Their portions were full of surprises and laughter, particularly when the king clicked a remote and made someone's seat in the audience raise up 10 feet in the air! (The lady in the seat seemed very surprised and jumped out of her seat as soon as they let her down.)

We look forward to a happy 2nd anniversary on Monday and hosting an Eastside Academy student for graduation weekend next week. We're also hoping that summer will finally arrive with sunshine and warmth, since we are still experiencing the springtime rainy blues. We miss you and love you!

Angie and Kayle