Cavalia as set up at Atlantic Station, Atlanta, Ga on Sunday January 3, 2010, the last day of the stand. It opened on October 27, 2009 and played to near sell out crowds for two months and a week. A creation of Normand Latourelle, it has a certain Cirque du Soleil flavor. After all, he was once connected to Soleil. However, unlike Soleil it is an animal show and calls its exhibition tent the "big top."
I found it very good. I caught the Oct 29th evening show, and the audience ate it up - -packed house. The price of the four seats I bought, with junk fees added, cost $356. And those were just the middle priced ones. The higher ones gave the ticket holder the privilege of a tour of the horse tents.
They have a huge concessions tent with the likes of a small box of popcorn costing an arm and a leg. There are tables all around at which to sit and drink/eat. They were doing a big concessions business.
The show uses some 60 horses from 12 breeds. The performance consisted of dressage, bareback and Roman riding, and liberty acts, in some of which the horses are in the arena without any trainer. For some numbers a circus ring is formed.
There were also acrobatic numbers, including one of those Russian barre things - - where two guys hold a flexible pole on which another vaults into the air does somersaults and lands back on the pole.
I had the strange feeling that I was seeing a recreation of John Bill Ricketts' first circus performance in 1793. The bill for his show was like what we see in Cavalia.
As for staging, it is breathtaking. The arena is 160 feet wide on two levels. The back curtain or screen is 210 feet wide. It displays subtle, ever changing scenes and special effects to suit the mood of each act. There is even rain and snow. The live music fit the show perfectly.
From Atlanta they go to Miami. |
8 comments:
Would anybody like to take a guess what the nut would be on this show??????
85 semi's, all those horses and tents, WOW.
Great photos and Richard your expert description and details of the event.
Harry
Yes Richard, but did any of the horses do the side-pass?
Last horse show I saw about 35 years ago and all the biggies were there,
John Herriott, Trevor Bale, Albert Ostermaier, Gaylord Maynard, Benny Cristiani, Tony Smaha.
And this feat was attempted by one and all.
Rain and snow in the show?
Heck, there's rain and snow in Sarasota, too.
Hey Mike we better stop whining
I just got an angry call from the
Sarasota chamber of turism saying
they were going to shut down my
internet connection
Maybe Thursday I can uncover my
recently planted horticulture
I would love to chip in to be
able to get spellcheck on the blog
(or at least postedit)
Great set of pics. Too bad you are having an almost northern winter.
Bob Kitto
They played Dallas two years ago. Great show, the thing that puzzled me was they made a small pond and then it disapeared?
Harry,
I don't see any tractors, but there are may be 85 trailers. I would think that they are moved by contract tractors. Doesn't make any sense to let tractors set for 2months, when you can hire them for a lot less that owning them.
Also the rental is a direct write off on the taxes instead of having to depreciate them over many years.
That would have a significant effect on the nut. Used trailers can be bought very cheaply and once they are painted, they look great.
Bob Kitto
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