Acrobatic

The acrobat show was lots of fun.

It was general seating, so I chose seats for us that would leave an empty chair in front of Penny. It left me sitting behind a very tall man, but since I was leaning over toward Penny anyway to hold her hand in the dark, it didn't matter too much.

Unfortunately, after the intermission, something happened on that row and the man ended up moving down one seat to sit right in front of Penny, and his wife in front of me, so Penny and I wound up leaning together to watch the show between their heads. Ah, well.

The pacing could have been better -- they did most of the surprising and fascinating acts in the first half, and what was left for the second half was less stunning, at least visually. (With the exception of the guy who built a tower of chairs, starting from the orchestra pit and ending with a hand-stand that had his feet literally touching the ceiling -- that was pretty damn cool.) And they couldn't figure out what the tone should be. For the first half, it was "the mysterious orient", but then they tried to introduce an element or two of humor in the second half that was cute, but didn't quite fit.

The actual acrobatics, though, now... that was awesome. Contortion and juggling and flips and dives and body-pyramids of every sort. The "ballet" bit was striking in its simplicity -- I've seen ballerinas in arabesque en pointe before... but this one did it on the top of her partner's head.

The foot-juggling was fun -- parasols are traditional, and then they moved on to clay pots, chairs, and kitchen tables. (They climaxed with the tables, but I wondered if the pots or chairs might actually be more difficult, as they were less symmetric.) There was a woman doing sleight-of-hand and quick-change masks, which was great.

Yay, acrobats! I had fun.

During the intermission, I bought Penny a little bead charm in the shape of a duck or a chick (she named it "Chicky-Wick-Nick") and a Chinese yo-yo for us to "share". Penny figured out how to work the yo-yo pretty quickly, and gleefully flung it at Matt after we got home.

Of course she's tired today -- we got home a solid two hours after her usual bedtime last night -- but she's refusing to admit it. And she kept Chicky-Wick-Nick clutched in her hot little hand right up until we got to school and I made her put it in her backpack. (I tried to convince her to attach it to her backpack or med-kit zipper, like it's meant to be used, but she flat refused. I figure in a week or so, when the love affair has cooled some, I'll try again.)