zumanity

After spending 1 day back in Seattle doing random errands and re-packing, I'm now in Vegas visiting my parents who decided to get a vacation home here. Within a few hours of arriving, I was already at a casino with the family and gambling at the blackjack table. Ha ha--you win some, you lose some. I think overall, I've lost $20 by now. Last minute, we decided to check out a new Cirque du Soleil show called Zumanity at the New York New York Hotel & Casino. I absolutely love Cirque du Soleil and have already seen a bunch of their shows: Alegria, Mystere, O, Saltimbanco.....there are 3 here in Vegas I have yet to see: Zumanity, La Reve and KÀ...and I'm going to see all 3 while I'm here! So last night, I saw Zumanity, which is their only adult-only show. Instead of being filled with child's fantasy, dreams and performers in colorful costumes of storybook creatures, this show focuses on the burlesque, cabaret side of eroticism. Most of the costumes in this show involved leather, thongs, feathers, jock straps and tiny pasties. Instead of seing a fantasmic, alien-like creature doing a balancing & flexibility act with hanging rope, in Zumanity you see a near-nude lady turning the act into that of self-masochism. It was definitely interesting and a different side of Cirque. There were still some amazing performances of contortionism, spinning 20 hula-hoops while being suspended in the air and even a cool act involving 2 Asian women, flexibility and a mini fishbowl-like mini-pool. With the performers being near naked, I loved seeing the muscles of these amazing athletes at work, particularly those of the contortionists. It was fascinating to see the raw performance, unhidden by the flare of the typical Cirque costume. The only thing I wasn't wowed by was that I felt like there weren't as MANY performances as there are in a typical Cirque show. What happened to the 20 people bouncing around on crazy trampolines or the 6 people bouncing up and down on bungee swings. In a way, I have a soft spot for the awe felt by the more elaborate productions.