Last night for my partner’s birthday we saw Cirque du Soleil‘s Corteo. It struck me as a costumed gymastics exhibition, not a circus. That’s a good thing in my book, as my stereotype of circuses is not good–pure cheese. I was impressed by the performances, even moreso that they were done without injury. For some reason I found the jugglers’ take on playing catch particularly entertaining–with many objects in the air between performers at once. Maybe because it was about the only performance I could personally attempt, fail miserably at, and not become a quadriplegic in the process.

The musical accompaniment was tolerable, but I couldn’t help imagining from the start what the people who did Crash Worship or similar might do given such a troupe–add fire, cacophony, remove stage and seating. It would be great fun, but probably injurious.