Cirque's Allegria Lands in Cedar Park for Eight Performances

 A mind-boggling, heart-stopping, awe-inspiring and downright funny show opened in Cedar Park Wednesday night at the brand new Cedar Park Events Center.  It's familiar to millions of people around the world since it made its world premiere in Montreal in 1994, but I had never been to a Cirque du Soleil performance.  This one - Allegria - dazzled the audience's imagination and helped brush the cares of the world away for more than two hours.

Allegria is a Spanish word that means happiness, joy and jubilation.  The cast is comprised of fewer than 100 people (96 to be exact) with musicians, contortionists, trapeze artists, clowns, and highly trained athletes who can do amazing things with their bodies.

Speaking of bodies, a couple of acts really stood out to me and a lot of audience members who randomly passed me inside the Cedar Park Center talking about the hula hoop girl and the guy with the upper body Hulk Hogan would rival.  First, the hula hoop girl.  She made spinning about a dozen or so hula hoops around her entire body look easy.  But she didn't just do it around her middle.  No, the hoops were up and down her body, even when her head was flat to the ground, there were hula hoops spinning around her feet.

The man who made my arms hurt lifted himself with one arm onto a stand, paired with another stand, which he used to leap back and forth (with the rest of his body high above his head!) on the stands.  Shortly, another pair of stands appeared on stage, but this time the stand stood above the other.  He hopped to and fro from one stand to the next, using them like a child uses a swing.

Sheryl-Lynne Valensky, Assistant Artistic Director for Cirque du Soleil's Alegria, gave ACS a backstage tour of the catering area where the performers eat, the rehearsal space behind the curtain, a costume location where hand painted, face molded masks hang waiting for their performers to pick them up, and the washing area.  Cirque's Allegria carries every single piece of equipment with them, right down to the washers used to clean the costumes after every night's performance.

Valensky said the diet theme this week is Cajun.  They don't feed the performers McDonald's, according to Valensky, because their diet is above that.  It's important for the performers to eat healthy and stay fit.

The exclusive backstage pass will be posted soon!  Check back for the video podcast on Cirque du Soleil Allegria!