Cirque du Soleil !!!

Kathy wanted to see Cirque du Soleil because she had seen a documentary on TV about them and their struggle to get through the pandemic and survive, and what it took for all the practice performers had to go through get back in peak condition.  I bet it has been five years or more since we have seen any kind of show or performance at all.  They were performing at the brand new UBS Arena which is not far from Kennedy airport, so we were curious to see the new facility.  The  Cirque du Soleil performance was astounding and beautiful and funny!  What a night!  This is one performer doing a one-hand handstand on top of a metal structure.  All of these performances were physically demanding, if course, but the extra part was how absolutely beautiful their movements were.  PLEASE be sure and click on each photograph to see all the details in a larger sized image.

The theme this year was insects, and these costumes were brilliant.  These green men had extra parts of Praying Mantis-like legs on the backs of their legs and when they walked, it was such a strange and amazing thing to see!

I decided to bring my little SONY "toy camera" as I call it and I hoped I would be allowed to bring it in to the arena.  Good thing I brought that camera.  There was a list of things you could not bring into the venue, and one of them was "No professional cameras with interchangeable lenses."  Whew!  Dodged a bullet on that one.  I was astounded at what I was able to do with my little SONY.  I was amazed to see that I got the exact millisecond when the man on the top had flipped his partner around in a circle and was about to catch her hands after she complete a complete rotation!  And this is up in the air with no safety net!

This was both beautiful and amazing...  This woman is up in the air being connected to a steel cable from above, which was connected to all of her hair!  Just unimaginable, and yet so beautiful.  Oh, and get this!  Remember the part about no cameras with extra lenses, like a telephoto lens that would bring you closer to the performers?.  Part way through the evening, I decided to try something.  I had brought my Nikon 10x40 binoculars.  I experimented with holding up the lens of my little camera to one side of the binoculars, and I ended up with something like a 200mm telephoto lens!  It was not perfect, but it got me this photograph!

Near the end of the evening a whole bunch of guys in these green suits were up on the top of the tan curving wall you see, and suddenly two of them just leaned back and fell down toward the floor.  We all gasped and then suddenly we could see them hit a trampoline and disappear down into it, only to re-emerge flying upward with enough speed to go all the way back to the top!  Here some are falling, and some are on the way back to the top from a rebound from the trampoline.  It was unbelievable!

Two women performers holding on to heavy bands of material perform together.  There was something about this performance of these two women, that was so incredibly beautiful, it brought tears to our eyes from the grace of their movement.

This is one of the curtain calls, and you can see the some of the amazing variety of costumes that were on the performers during the night's show.

And as we left this amazing show, I turned and did a quick shot of the entrance to the arena.