Last Saturday, my friends Arlyn, Armar and I found ourselves excitedly making our way under these majestic white tents which had been erected beside Marina Bay Sands.
We made our way into the tent and found ourselves climbing several sets of metal stairs whose appearance prompted Armar to comment that we looked like we were about to be experimented on like the kids in The Maze Runner. It was no easy feat to climb those in high heels, even though they were wedges. I could only imagine how even more difficult it would be for someone in stilettos.
I sighed in relief when we finally reached the top, where a woman was on hand to point out our seats to us, which were here:
Not a bad location, right? We had bought gold or category 4 tickets.
And that’s the last of my pictures because we were not allowed to take photos or videos during the event.
But here is a video from Youtube:
And this is the official description of the show:
Conceived by Normand Latourelle, one of the co-founders of famed Cirque du Soleil, Cavalia is a fresh mix of equestrian and performing arts, multimedia and special effects, innovatively integrating acrobatics, dance, aerial stunts and live music.
The show – often labelled as an equestrian ballet – combines advanced technology and the fundamental relationship that humans have developed with horses throughout time; enabling us to build bridges between cultures, to expand civilization and now to produce the purest form of art, one created through kindness, patience, and love. A show unlike any other, Cavalia celebrates the relationship between humans and horses, virtually reinventing the equestrian arts.
Delightful, thrilling and poignant, Cavalia is a harmonious celebration of beauty and nature encompassing imagery that whisks the spectator’s imagination around the earth over land and sea by displaying a vast array of equestrian and performing arts. Supported by state-of-the-art multimedia, Cavalia is an epic adventure, a fantastic demonstration of horsemanship that transports the audience into virtual environments.
The horses cavort with the many artists in front of a constantly changing digital background projected onto a 60 metre-wide screen. Each image projected on the immense cyclorama is first hand-painted and then finalised by graphic designers. To project these breathtaking backdrops, Cavalia uses 20 projectors as powerful as those illuminating the grandest movie theaters. This method of set design is unique to Cavalia and allows the audience to be immersed into dream-like environments.
My verdict? In a word, it was breathtaking. Literally. There were several moments when I had to hold my breath for fear that one of the acrobats would fall to her death due to a wrong move or because a bitter ex lover had decided to get revenge by sabotaging the equipment. I know. I watch too many detective shows.
I love horses and acrobats and circuses so this was quite possibly the best show I had ever witnessed. I’m saying “possibly” because Voyage de la Vie was also quite mesmerizing.
I had several favourite moments – when a lady rode a horse while standing up on its back, and not just standing but doing other poses and even dancing a little bit. I mean I can’t even ride a horse while seated without a guide helping me, so this was seriously amazing. Also when several riders galloped across the stage doing all sorts of crazy stunts and poses on the horses’ backs. There were a couple of laugh out loud scenes with one of the horse riders, and I’m a sucker for comedy, so I laughed heartily.
I also loved some performances that had nothing to do with horses, like when acrobats with six pack abs made complicated pyramids or graceful lady acrobats “danced” or should I say kind of flew all over the stage using mere swathes of cloth to suspend themselves from the ceiling. It was a truly enthralling spectacle.
Actually there were a few scenes which did not really need the horses to be there at all, and all they did was just run around and show off their horsy handsomeness (if such a term even exists). Of course, there also instances that focused on them, like when their trainer showed how they could gallop around the arena, one after the other, or come together and lay their heads on each other’s backs, like a group hug that I wanted to join.
One minor pet peeve of ours was why they let latecomers come in. The seats had very little leg room, so whenever someone seated inside the row came in, those already seated had to get up to let them in. About 10 minutes into the show, a couple of late comers in our row arrived, so we had to get up for them, which made us miss part of the show, which, quite frankly, was irritating. I don’t care if they paid for their tickets, they should never have been let in once the show started! It wasn’t our fault they were late! They knew what time the show was supposed to start, the least they could have done was show up on time! Okay, rant over.
Ok, not quite, just one more thing: the popcorn was slightly burnt.
Aside from those two minor details, though, everything was awesome!
And oh yeah, I lied about not having any more pictures. I had to take a pic of the final curtain scene because by then, everyone else was doing the same! 😛
P.S. Here is a picture of me with a beautiful white horse!
Okay, so it wasn’t a real one because we didn’t buy the VIP or “horse lover” tickets which gave you the opportunity to visit the horses in their stables, but still!
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