I'm running away to join the circus.....

....or at least thats what I wanted to do when I was six. You see, other children, when you ask them what they want to be when they grow up will tell you they want to be a teach, doctor, astronaut. Not me, I wanted to join the circus and be a flying trapeze artist.

My dream of joining the circus has long passed, but my love for the circus has not. Needless to say, I was ecstatic when I was selected to be a blogger for the Des Moines Civic Center's Cirque Dreams: Illumination.

The show started out with lots of hustle, bustle, and singing, followed by the magic that is Cirque. I was surprised to learn that Cirque Dreams and Cirque Du Soleil are not related, as I had previously believed they were.

One of my favorite acts of the night, was a man doing a not-so tight rope act. The strength it takes to control your body on a slack rope is amazing. Of course, Jon's favorite act of the night was the Women at Work performance. Four beautiful women hanging, swinging, and doing feats unknown to most persons in three hanging spinning cubes. By the end of the performance, all four women were in the same cube, connected together by their limbs. It was really rather impressive, and hard to describe by words alone.

Of course, the costumes and props were fun and at times had so much going on, that I almost missed them. Dancing fire hydrants, ladies in oversized hats, and ten foot tall dancing overalls were common place.

While watching Cirque Dreams, we were surprised that we had actually watched two of the performers before. Earlier this Summer, we went to Circus World in Baraboo, Wisconsin and watched two brothers, Maximilliano Laurino & Roberto Emanuel Laurino perform foot juggling. Thats right, one brother juggled the other by using his feet! Amazing!

If I were to change anything about last night, it would be two things: 1. Have more Male singing to balance out the Woman who sang throughout the show and 2. More bubbles in the champagne. During intermission we slipped away to enjoy a cocktail in the lobby. The champagne was slightly flat, but still managed to be quite tasty. Two very minor changes for an amazing show.

Jon and I had an amazing time and look forward to seeing more amazing performances at the Civic Center, soon! Cirque Dreams runs through the end of the week, go while you can!