A Waking Dream of Mexico (LUZIA by Cirque du Soleil)
I am a fan of Cirque du Soleil. And as a fan of Cirque du Soleil, when I learned LUZIA would be performing in Southern California (Los Angeles and Costa Mesa), I knew I had to attend. So, did I attend? Why, of course!
So, I know today is their last day of performing in Costa Mesa but I didn’t watch the performance in Costa Mesa. I watched Luzia in Los Angeles, at the Dodgers Stadium. I am clueless as to how much the parking fee is at the Costa Mesa location but the parking fee at Dodgers Stadium was quite hefty at around $25 per car. Despite this exorbitant parking fee, I found it to be all worth it in the end. Seriously. LUZIA was just that good. And I suppose I should add that I somehow managed to snag a small discount when I had purchased my ticket, so the discount basically had offset that nasty parking fee, fortunately. (It all worked out!)
The setting was kind of cool since attendees didn’t actually enter a building or anything. You actually enter a tent in order to watch the performance. I don’t know about other attendees, but I found this to be cool simply because I felt like I was transported away from the ridiculous chaos of Los Angeles city life. This feeling of mine’s was kind of an interesting coincidence with the show in that LUZIA basically starts of by “transporting” a performer/attendees to Mexico.
The things each performer did was amazing. Best yet was how water play was actually involved in the show. I was thrilled about this simply because when I was in Las Vegas, I wanted to see O, a Cirque due Soleil show that can only be seen there in Las Vegas. However, tickets for O were sold out well in advance. I’m sure the water play in LUZIA is miniscule compared to that in O, but it didn’t change the fact that I was super stoked about it. Having seen Ka and Mystere in Las Vegas, I was expecting for Cirque du Soleil to not allow attendees to take any photos during the performance. However, I was wrong and I am glad they allowed attendees to take photos.
Everything about LUZIA was beautiful. While I don’t know enough about Mexican culture, I’ve been exposed to it enough to say the show did a great job of sharing Mexican culture. A good amount of Southern Californians, especially Angelenos have been exposed to Mexican culture in some way or another but for attendees that have very little (or no) familiarity with the culture, I think LUZIA will be a great and beautiful introduction to the culture. From the show, you basically get to see various aspects of Mexican culture from the eyes of one particular performer. (I don’t want to say too much because I don’t want to ruin the show for anyone that has yet to see it.)
If you’re still pondering on whether to see LUZIA or not, see it as you won’t be disappointed.
Links (should you need them):
Sidenote: It is a given that Cirque du Soleil performers do very risky things. With the recent passing of one Cirque du Soleil performer, I just want to say that I’m thankful that there are people out there willing to share their capabilities to the world while simultaneously risking their lives at the same time. I can’t say I understand because I’m not and never will be a Cirque du Soleil performer but what I can say is that I’m grateful to be able to see their art but also will be understanding if something not so visually pleasing is put on stage (or on the performer) as a preventative measure for safety reasons. I think no matter how skilled one is, at the end of the day, we’re all just human.