Dralion

Ann and I saw Dralion, one of the newer shows of Cirque du Soleil, this weekend in Rotterdam. This is the third Cirque du Soleil show we’ve seen (O and Varkai being the other two). As with the others, it’s a fantastic display of creativity and ingenuity of what can be done with the human body. Seeing a Cirque du Soleil show is like the Olympics, you know you are seeing people who are the best in the world at what they do. These people are performers, and they live to display their talents.

Dralion’s best acts (I thought) were the aerial pas de deux which was like a balet in the air, the hoop jumping, and the gravity-defying trampoline act. The trampoline act was amazing. I’ll give it away because you really don’t understand until you see it, but one performer would repeatedly fall from about twenty-five feet in the air onto the trampoline, be launched right back up, run up the side of a wall, and finish standing exactly from where he jumped. You just can’t imagine it until you see it.

Dralion was not as strong thematically as Varekai or O, although it did have a very consistent Asian acrobatic theme throughout. The music (all performed live) was just as fantastic as the other shows we’ve seen, but some of the acts lacked the creativity that the other shows demonstrated.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still the best live entertainment you will ever see, and well worth the price. I will see any Cirque du Soleil show at least once, and I would recommend that anyone who goes to Vegas do whatever is necessary to see O at the Bellagio. It is the most fantastic show, of any sort, I have ever seen. Hands down.