Cirque du Soleil: La Magie Continue (2001)

    I turned in my paper today.  I'm just thankful it's over.  I even managed to watch at least a movie for you guys, even though it's really more of a performance.

I love Cirque du Soleil.  I try to see one per year live and I own several others on DVD.  There is nothing like them in all the world, as far as I know.  La Magie Continue was the second full-scale production of Cirque du Soleil, back when they were struggling Canadians and not global phenomenons.  It originally premiered in 1986, and was a financial flop.  I guess somebody repackaged an old recording because this doesn't even look like something filmed in 2001.

It's easy to look back now, in light of all their success, and say that you can see the seeds of what would become an amazing troupe of performers, but I'm not going to lie.  This is bare bones stuff.  They just didn't have the money to really blow people away, but there is no denying the amount of talent their people have.  There are a couple of juggling acts, a contortionist, a trapeze artist, and a group of tumblers, plus a performance by a trio of Chinese "Meteor Jugglers", which I have just learned from Circopedia is the proper name for somebody who spins two bowls of water attached to a rope while doing acrobatic tricks.

The show only runs about 50 minutes, which feels really short especially for a Cirque show.  I would say give it a watch if you're interested in seeing the origins of Cirque du Soleil, otherwise, I would probably watch one of the newer ones.