My kids once had a gymnastics teacher who was training to be a Cirque du Soleil acrobat. He would take a ribbon that was hanging from the ceiling and spin himself up it as if gravity had no effect on him. It was freakishly amazing, a description I’ve heard about all Cirque du Soleil shows, though I’ve never had the chance to see one myself just yet.
Now though, we can all get a chance to see their spectacular performances — on that sleek rectangular box you’ve got across from your couch.
Beginning tonight and running through December, PBS will air Cirque du Soleil-Flowers in the Desert on your local PBS channel. I can only assume that my own PBS station is waiting to air it later in December since it isn’t shown on their two-week schedule, and I will be seriously bummed out if I miss this. (Hear that WGBH?)
What makes this two-hour program sound so cool to watch is that it touches upon almost all six of Cirque du Soleil’s shows that are currently running in Vegas. I consider this a sort of Whitman’s Sampler, allowing me to figure out which one to narrow down at the ticket booth someday, instead of muttering O or Ka? to myself.
Given the PG rating (not sure why) and that the length of the program goes well beyond the attention span of the average six year, I assume that my nine year-old will find this cool to watch, but my younger two will probably leave after a few minutes to practice their feats of daring in the other room.
But fear not — PBS leaves out Zumanity, the oo-la-la, R-rated Cirque show, making any “how’d they DO that?” questions a little easier to answer. –Christina
Check your local PBS listings for Cirque du Soleil – Flowers in the Desert which starts airing November 27 and runs through the end of December.
