REVIEW: Cirque du Soleil creates stunning images, heart-stopping moments

By Diana Nollen

CEDAR RAPIDS - Cirque du Soleil's “Alegria” is every inch a celebration of joy.

Just as the producers promised.

This expanded spectacle opened Wednesday night (3/10) to the gasps, cheers and applause of more than 1,700 people at the U.S. Cellular Center. It continues through Sunday, for a total of eight performances.

“Alegria” had been the Montreal-based troupe's most successful touring show, designed for intimate big-top settings. This past year, it was redesigned to fill the vastness of arenas with dazzling sight and sound.

The result is two hours of pure magic. The costumes are exquisite in detail. A thousand buttons and jewels adorn the two singers' costumes alone. Every person, every character, every performer stepping onto the massive, sloping stage is a wonder to behold.

Arrive a bit early and you'll be treated to The Nostalgic Old Birds moving through the audience about 10 minutes before the start of the show. They are a gorgeous presence throughout the show, strutting about in highly stylized form, as the most formal sort of clowns. The more traditional tramp clowns, with shadow beards and bulbous noses, provide the high jinks to let you laugh and breathe before the performances that stop your breath and your heart.

All of the feats are amazing, from the sheer power of the hand balancing and the fluid finesse of the contortionists to the dizzying whirl of the performer spinning around the stage in a giant silver wheel. But it's the death-defying acts that stir you to the very core.

You can't help but emit guttural sounds as the synchronized trapeze artists twirl themselves high above the stage. Midair is the playground, too, for The Flying Man, who leaps and swings and swirls via elastic bungee-type cords and the aerial high bar performers who do what gymnasts do, just way up high and leaping off the bars into the grip of burly trapeze catchers. I nearly had a heart attack during all of these acts. The woman next to me buried her face in her husband's shoulder. We laughed afterward, but not during. We saw the safety lines, we saw the safety net, but still, we feared for their lives and ours.

Closer to the ground, but no less dangerous, are the Power Track and Russian Bars.

The stage floor opens to reveal an X-shaped trampoline, known as the Power Track. Take the tumbling runs from gymnastics' floor exercise and add megabounce. This lets the acrobats do multiple twists, turns and tucks in the air, catapulting over each other and the occasional Old Bird.

For the Russian Bars, picture three balance beams with bounce, held in hands or on shoulders. Then hold your breath as the performers leap backward off one bar and land solidly on another.

Behind all this action are magnificent musicians and singers, joining forces with all the other elements to create a circus to the maximus.

FAST TAKEInformation: www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/alegria/default.aspx

What: Cirque du Soleil presents “Alegria”

Where: U.S. Cellular Center, 370 First Ave. NE, Cedar Rapids

When: 7:30 tonight, March 11; 3:30 and 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 12 and 13; 1 and 5 p.m. Sunday, March 14

Tickets: $42.25 to $92.25 at the U.S. Cellular Center Ticket Office, all Ticketmaster outlets, 1-(800) 745-3000 or www.ticketmaster.com