Dralion how long

It's not a magical trick inside a theater where you don't see anything, you don't know how that person flies. It's the magic of knowing at the same time - being surprised, but knowing how it's being done. Dralion is all about harmony, finding strength and making every piece of the show come together as one enchanting picture. Dralion was performed at Luzhniki Stadium from March 6 to Contact the author at artsreporter imedia.

Your donation to The Moscow Times directly supports the last independent English-language news source within Russia. Support The Moscow Times! Contribute today. By Olga Chetina. Fiery-haired Viktor Kee does a juggling act that is as notable for the display of every contour of his splendid physique as it is for his actual juggling.

A delegation from the Xinan troupe of China makes up the heart of the acrobatic chorus. Bamboo poles, teeterboards, a double trapeze, hoops and jump ropes are among the favored props. Each number from the Chinese troupe bursts with animation and energy, and on opening night the precision was impeccable—until the grand finale of the hoop-jumping, when two attempts to leap through the highest hoop yet, without making the hoops fall, were unsuccessful.

This small imperfection was a useful reminder that the spectacle is live, not canned, and that the excitement of the here and now—not cyberspace and market globalization—are why people keep flocking to the Cirque du Soleil. No longer the little Canadian circus that could, Cirque du Soleil, now a brand name, runs seven different productions simultaneously throughout the world.

Several are anchored for long-term runs. The colorful Chinese dragons appearing throughout, each performed by two humans working in wonderful unison, seem for a while to be purely atmospheric in function.

This kind of cultural juxtaposition is repeated many times, with, for example, an African dancer conjuring an act of young Asian acrobats diving through hoops as Gaelic-inspired music keeps the rhythm. The show revels in its inconsistency of time as well as place. The back wall of the stage provides a futuristic, golden grid, and at times performers climb all over it as if they were spiders preparing a web. At other moments, the show seems to take the audience back in time, using imagery more classical in nature.

What does remain consistent is the sense of festivity. The most remarkable of the acrobatics come from year-old Peng Rui of China, who contorts her body while balancing herself on one hand for a shocking length of time. Some of the other acts, however, are a bit underwhelming, although that could be because the show is still early in its run.

There are definitely some rough edges to be worked out in the double trapeze act and in the hoop diving, both of which, especially the latter, could eventually become crowd favorites. Another group of five Asian women also perform a ballet on light bulbs, an act that is beautiful to watch but seems intended to come across more impressively than it does. That the pageantry, rather than the acrobatics, is more the focus here points out both the strengths and potential weaknesses of Cirque du Soleil.

Already, the focus seems to have shifted somewhat from group to individual acts. Will the always-amusing clowning, the gorgeous design work and the grandeur be enough to attract the audiences if the acrobatics themselves are no longer as awesome? More than 18 million people worldwide have seen a Cirque du Soleil performance since its founding in Quebec in And she does this while balancing on one hand on a cane.

The act seems so effortless that audiences may not fully comprehend its complexity; the mirror images are seamlessly lyrical. The children flip and make pyramids and three-person-high columns—while hopping and jumping in and out of skipping ropes.

The set was designed specifically for this show. Performers disappear down trapdoors, and they float out of sight, at times, to the top of the tent. There are three huge concentric rings used for different purposes: to hang lights or projectors; as a catwalk for performers waiting to make entrances; and as a transport to move performers from one part of the stage to another. Costumes were months in the making, sewn of horsehair, hardware, emu feathers—even window screens.

The lively music is a mix of African drums, Hindu melodies, rock riffs and instrumental pieces from Andalusia, Africa and Central Europe.

Where else can one see a man play the cello while climbing up the instrument? Or a woman catapulted by seesaw to a chair balanced on five women standing on top of one another?

The two-hour circus showcase of dance, acrobatics and comedy is playing to sold-out crowds across North America. Rather, the show is about visual spectacle, choreography of the improbable and the near impossible.

The show also marks the return after a year absence of director Guy Caron, 50, a former circus school founder who was involved in the early years of Cirque and went on to lead circuses throughout Europe.. Caron and his associates searched remote parts of the globe to find troupes that were performing unusual and extraordinary acts.

In southeast China, for example, he found performers who could walk on a ball the size of a boulder and ride it for a distance; they soon became part of the show. How did he find such acts? Anything goes. Maybe Guy Caron thinks about a woman coming down from somewhere. In some instances — as in the case of a Chinese troupe who catapulted performers to high places — Caron modified the act to suit the production.

We decided to introduce a performer on stilts to the act. And we transformed everything: costume, light, choreography. But the basic of it was there. With other performers, such as the juggler, he presents the performance as it is, more or less. Although most of the show is full of fixed and precise routines, there are wild cards that make for an edgy and spontaneous experience for the audience — particularly the segments involving the four clowns who appear throughout the show with their street-style comedy.

One element has remained the same through time. The music hall and the circus are not the places devotees of dance hang out looking for revelations, which as a rule probably saves them disappointment, but every so often a revelation comes along. His act involves seven solid plastic balls, hand-molded by the artist himself, which he not only sends flying in arcs that amaze the eye but somehow also catches — no hands — on a shoulder, on a knee, on the back of his neck.

At one point, planted on his knees, he lines up five balls straight down his undulating spine. If the balls stuck in place, you would suspect Velcro or maybe magnets, but no. Kee releases them back to the pull of gravity, and they roll off to swirl once more.

At the same time, he dances a solo, both sinuous and angular, that climbs steadily to the ecstatic. Somewhere on his family tree there must be a serpent, maybe the one that tempted Eve. Kee worked the moves out with the help of his former wife, Galina, a jazz dancer with an act of her own involving swinging bowling pins.

Currently she is appearing at the Moulin Rouge in Paris. A reviewer who caught Mr. Still, the question conjured up the right associations, if Nijinsky had been a juggler. Built on the lines of an Art Deco diver, he stands 5 feet 10 inches and weighs pounds, with no waist to speak of his jeans are size 28 but broad, square shoulders and robust thighs to match. He warms up for each show with two hours of practice and gymnastics.

This act is normally an all-male act simply because of the strength required to pull off this act. However, Cirque du Soleil took it a step further and made the act an all-women one. One of the more curious things about this act is that none of the performers look extraordinarily strong.

They are rather small and of slim build. If you were to see them out in public, you would never guess they were a part of this show. A word of caution, keep your tylenol handy; this act is probably the most charley horse inducing acts in the show. You will wince and clutch yourself in pain when you see some of the stuff those girls do.

One such pain inducer is when a girl flies through the air, lands in a chair that is balanced on the shoulders of another girl, who is standing on the shoulders of a girl balanced rather precariously on stilts.

You have been warned. Double Trapeze 3 stars : This is by far one of the most disappointing acts in the entire show. The only reason why I didn't go lower than 3 stars was because it wasn't mediocre enough. It dwells on that middle ground between excellent and just plain painful. Normally under most circumstances, I am an absolute sucker for aerial acts.

There is something about watching people soar through the air and just barely being caught by the porters. The problem with this act is not really the performers; They're capable and they get the job done. The problem with this act is that the crucial sense of danger is missing. The flyers have cords about their waists.

Now while I don't want them to fall to their death or anything like that, the sight of those cords completely kills the sense of danger. In this act, five girls dance en pointe on light bulbs. This is a wonderful act with good music, perfect lighting, and graceful performers. However what keeps this act from getting the perfect 5 stars is its length. The act ends just as it apparently was getting warmed up. I heard somewhere that a live performance of Dralion is two hours long.

This video is an hour and a half, leading me to wonder if maybe some of this act was cut out. It is completely and totally critic proof.

The act begins with the haunting "Miracula Eternalis" sung by Erik Karol. During this song, male and female couples perform a beautiful ballet in which the females soar above their male partners. The way the lighting is set up makes the performers almost appear to be ghosts. Finally, the silk fabric descends and the beautiful act involving a male and female couple begins. Words cannot truly express the beauty of this act, so I'll quit now. While they may not be on par with Francesca Gagnon or Mathieu Lavoie, their voices balance out nicely with the eclectic score.

Karol's voice is a real surprise.