For the long weekend, I went to the Cirque du Soleil in Orlando, at Disney. It was wonderful and I have to recommend it to anyone and everyone. It is actually not a circus but a ballet. The whole thing from beginning to end was like a surreal experience, like a dream and how it changes abruptly from one thing to another, and from one scene to another.

There were acrobats, yes, who did daring stunts....but there were also very creative ways of jumping on trampolines, using them to jump up onto "buildings" and into the windows in the buildings. I think that is what impressed me the most. Another memorable scene was when the skillful little oriental girls came out with their spools and their sticks and cord. They had two sticks and a cord attached to one end of the sticks. They would take the cord and throw the spool up high into the air and catch it back again on the way down. They would throw the spool to each other, do flips while it was still in the air, and then catch it flawlessly. They never made a mistake. The oldest one could have been 10. It was simply amazing.

The man on the high wire almost fell to his [death-(not)?] discomfort, because he was supposed to do a back flip onto the same wire (and that has to be utterly difficult to do). He did succeed, he did do it a second time. There was a lead attached to his belt which would have "caught" him dangling in mid air had he failed to step on that wire.

There were men with tiny red "tu-tus." I have to say I did not like that. I don't think a man should wear a tu-tu. It looked rather feminine.

There was a guy who could do marvelous stunts on a regular looking bicycle.

Yes, it did have circus aspects, but there were no animals at all in this "circus."

I have a French friend who told me that La Nouba is an African regiment of some sort, that plays drums, and that the word evolved to mean a great party-bash.....and that is really what this Cirque du Soleil was....it was like attending a great celebration of song, dance, and acrobatics. I highly recommend it, and I really don't have the words to describe all that went on, because most of the time, many things were going on simultaneously, and it was really hard to "take everything in." It is almost like you would have to record it or buy the video to be able to really appreciate everything that was going on at the same time.

My hat is off to those little girls! You were amazing!