Cirque du Soleil’s Totem

A few days before Christmas, when we should have been Christmas shopping, my husband and I shipped the kids off to the grandparents while we went downtown to see Cirque Du Soleil’s Totem. Ahh, a date night!

We ate Ted’s for dinner (bison burger!) and then made our way to Atlanta and the big purple and yellow striped Cirque tent. (Wait. Maybe it was a yellow and blue tent. I was so in love with it, I think it was purple. I’m a sucker for circus stuff.)

We sat down (after ordering a popcorn and a ridiculously expensive water in a souvenir water bottle) and lo and behold, who sits down on our same row? Becky! Like my best friend Becky. My sisterchick, Becky! I was so excited I may have jumped the seats in front of me to get to her.

Anywhoo.

I had these grand plans to write this really awesomely thorough review of the Totem. I’ve been to Cirque’s La Nouba in Orlando and I know how amazing it is. I was really excited to compare the two and have some really good insight into it.

So, when Totem was over and Les and I were walking up the stairs to exit the beautiful stripey tent, I said, “How in the world am I supposed to write about that? What will I say? Something like, ‘OMG! YOU SHOULD TOTALLY SEE TOTEM! IT WAS SO AWESOME!'” Because literally, that is all my mind could come up with.

Cirque is really just an amazingly creative, dramatic circus. There are jugglers, clowns, strongmen and acrobats. Only they aren’t just jugglers, clowns, strongmen and acrobats. They are so much more!

With every new act, I would say, “This can’t be as creative as the last act.” And then it was!

When each new performer came out I’d say, “Oh, they can’t be as good as the last performer.” And they were!

Every time there was a scene change I’d say, “How will they do this for an entire 10 minutes and me enjoy it?” And they did–and I did!

Do you see how imbecilic I sound? How do people write reviews about Cirque? Holy smokes. It’s magical and dramatic. The costumes are breath-taking. There is not an ounce of cheese in any act. It’s romantic. The creativity is insane. It is like nothing you have ever seen. I cannot describe it. Words fail.

So, I’ll leave you with a few pictures that I clearly did not take but Cirque let me borrow.

If I had a favorite act, it was these unicyclists. Their costumes were stunning.

This guy? Oh, he’s just balancing on his head. On top of a two-story pole. Which is also balanced on top of someone’s forehead.

Oh, and this girl is just doing flips off a guys’ hands. No biggie.

And this is a juggler. Clearly.

There was a definite evolution, circle-of-life vibe throughout the whole show. But honestly, that pales in comparison to the astounding talent of the performers. If Cirque passes through your town, collect your pennies (it’s gonna take a lot of ’em) or return a Christmas gift because you’re going to want to see this show.

At the end, You’ll walk out of that stripey tent and say, “Amanda was right. My mind is numb with the awesomeness I just saw.” And then you can thank me by sending me a Cirque souvenir. Or tickets to the next show, whichever.

Have you ever been to Cirque?

I was invited to attend Totem by Cirque du Soleil as a member of the media. They will clearly never invite me to write for them again as I cannot string two words together to showcase it’s amazingness. All photos were taken by and belong to: Pouya Dianat/Cirque du Soleil.