“Viva Las Vegas”: that’s what every kid wants to hear when they’re a baby, right? Ever since I was two and a half years old, my parents and I have taken road trip vacations to Las Vegas, NV practically every year up until the present day. Now, there is not much for a baby to do in Las Vegas besides sleep, watch Barney in the hotel room with their mom, vigorously kick in the hotel swimming pool to get from point A to point B, and sleep some more after said vigorous kicking. However, once I reached the age where I could comprehend more than simple shapes and colors, my parents and I went to watch my first Cirque du Soleil show.
Cirque du Soleil is a major organization originating in Quebec, Canada that provides theatrically imaginative, contemporary circus performances all over the world. The organization has numerous branches of contrasting Cirque du Soleil shows that range from dramatic and quaintly ominous to upbeat and thrilling. My earliest memory of Cirque du Soleil was about ten years ago and I remember holding my mom’s hand with excitement as my dad scanned our tickets. As I took my seat between my pillars of protection, I was boggled with a sense of suspenseful delight in what I was about to watch. But, all I remember is one distinct memory: the lighting suddenly turned an eerie green as a Medusa figure emerged larger than life from the stage. Her head was piling with venomous snakes and they overflowed into the audience. As they slithered past my feet, the Medusa actress let out a cackle of taunting—at least, that’s what my five-year-old self thought. In retrospect, it was not scary, I was just a dramatic child who had a rocky first exposure to this equally dramatic art form. I was so scared of this sequence of projected, fake snakes cumulated with the intensity of the lights and sounds coming from all directions, that I slowly began to cry. My mom promptly picked me up in her comforting arms as my dad opened the doors just enough for the three of us to exit the theater.
We did not get to see the actors bow and curtain close at the end of the show as my parents, bless their hearts, did not wish to have another potential scare for me. Looking back, however, I think that show created a sense of intrigue within my little young heart of the world of Cirque du Soleil. From that point on, every year we’ve come to Las Vegas, we research what Cirque du Soleil shows are happening at the hotels and I have been blessed enough to watch many shows in Vegas that elevate this brilliant art form. Over this Thanksgiving break, my parents and I stayed at the Bellagio Hotel in Vegas where “O”, by Cirque du Soleil, took place; it tells the marvelous story of waters’ infinite duality to both provide life and whole-heartedly overwhelm humanity. I could go on and on about the complexity of the show’s structure and the labyrinthian unity that sprung from the death-defying stunts of the performers with the elevating live music that provides a show of artistic interpretation, but I will save that for another time.
On a different note, we watched a second show, “The Beatles LOVE” by Cirque du Soleil at the Mirage Hotel; this performance was completely on the flip side, providing an upbeat, whimsical journey of eye-catching, larger than life stunts set to the music of the timeless band, The Beatles. One notable song of the show was the “Octopus’s Garden” sequence where a playful ocean floor setting emerged on stage, with a man in an eccentrically wobbly octopus costume at the center, high above the stage, floating in the air. Then, more performers emerge from the stage’s ceiling in jellyfish ensembles and move around to the song as the ocean floor’s “conductor” brings out more sea actors to dance along with him. All the while, actors in the aisles wave glowing ribbons overlooking the audience to mimic the whimsy of the ocean movement.
Cirque du Soleil is an art form of unspeakable imagination and a performance means I hold dear to my heart. I wish someone could have told that little girl, so scared of the Medusa performer, that under the emerald display of crawling serpents, was a fellow human being who acted as a vessel to demonstrate this eccentric, breathtaking display of artistic talent.
Photo Credits: Minji Chang
