So! Because I am a lucky fish, I was given two tickets to see Circque du Soleil’s Dralion at the Grand West arena. The show draws inspiration from the East, fusing ancient Chinese acrobatic art with more traditional circus acts.

If I had to sum the experience up in just a few sentences, it would be something like this: OMG, it is AMAZING! Don’t even think about it, just empty your wallet and go. You’re going to freakin’ LOVE it!

To get an idea of what you’ll be in for, check out the ‘trailer’ here:

The show runs for about two hours with a 20 minute intermission and time flew by in a flash. I spent pretty much the whole evening on the edge of my seat in a full on trance, clapping until my hands were numb with pins and needles.

So, what makes it so darn special? Well for one, there’s no Boswell Wilkie big top schmooze, oh no. Circque du Soleil like a magical journey to another world with unbelievably creative costumes, killer special effects and and a killer soundtrack that whisks you off on a magic carpet of emotion. The performers never walk across the stage, they glide and dance.

As far as the action goes, a lot of it’s full on death defying. To give you an idea, many of the trapeze artists aren’t strapped into a harness. It’s just a girl holding onto a hoop suspended high up off the ground doing insane acrobatics. If she lets go or makes a wrong move, she’s going to plummet to the floor of the stage and there’s no net or foam mattress to save her.

Out of all the acts I saw, my favourite was the trampoline show. I tried to write a paragraph to explain it but I just can’t get the awesomeness of it across; you just have to see it. I also adored the (super hot!) juggler. Being a jaded old cow I never thought I’d be awestruck by a juggling act but it was absolutely enthralling. Oooh and I LOVED ‘dralions’; basically a giant Chinese dragon-inspired costume worn by two people.

At one point, they stand on giant balls and walk them up and down an angled plank. Do you know KNOW how ridiculously difficult that is to do? I can barely walk down an incline in wedges. How on earth are these people doing this? My God! The only part of the show that was a bit ‘oh, I’ll check my twitter feed now’ was the clowns. I’m not big into slapstick anything. Kids, however, will love it.

If you’re looking to be amazed and entertained, love a little mystery and magic and enjoy watching shirtless hot boys with killer abs in teensy tiny spandex outfits you need to make a plan to watch Draglion. I was utterly enchanted and am sure you will be too. Once it was over and the crowd was exiting, all you heard was ‘Oh my God! That was amazing!’ and ‘Wow, what a show’. Nobody walked out of there going ‘meh, it was okay’. Circque du Soleil is a magical night out.

Love, love

Leigh

Dralion is running at the Grand West Arena in Cape Town up until the 17^th of this month. The show then moves to Jozi’s Coca Cola Dome on the 21^st of March. Tickets cost between R275 and R440 and can be bought via Computicket.