Saltimbanco

Last week I had the honor of attending Saltimbanco, one of the Cirque du Soleil shows. I won four tickets from a contest on Twitter. It was held at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa. I took my ten year old daughter, my Mom and a dear friend with me.

The title of the show is from the Italian “saltre in banco” which means to jump on a bench. Of course there are many acrobatic acts that include jumping, but they are truly spectacular. The theme is urban life where imagination, magic, comedy and creativity rule.

From the start of the show until the end my group and I were enthralled with each act. I loved hearing my daughter laughing and applauding in earnest. I can’t count the number of times we were amazed to the point of saying, “aahh and oohh”. I was tickled by watching an older gentleman in the row in front of us who would put his hand on top of his head in shock when one of the performers would do something unbelievable.

The acts including juggling, trapeze artists, Chinese pole acrobats, Boledeadoras, and clowns. None of these are ordinary in any sense from their costumes to their abilities, from their stage presence to their showmanship. And the music! The show has a live band which covers rock and roll to classical music. The vocals are hauntingly beautiful. The language is made up but along with the body language, squeaks, whistles and other sounds of the characters you just seem to get it.

I wasn’t allowed to bring a camera to the show so please take a look at the trailer at the official site which also includes photos and samples of the music.