If you’re looking for a fun and unique way to spend your weekend, you might want to check out the Cirque Italia water show. This is not your typical circus show, but a spectacular fusion of acrobatics, dance, music and water effects. You’ll be amazed by the talented performers who defy gravity and dazzle you with their skills. You’ll also enjoy the stunning visuals created by the 35,000-gallon water stage, which, thanks to 27 computers controlling it, can transform into a fountain, a waterfall, a curtain and more.
Cirque Italia’s “Water Circus Gold” comes to life under a big white and blue tent at Smith Haven Mall in Lake Grove, Long Isnad, from October 5 to 15.
Cirque Italia is the animal-free, human talent-only entertainment company, which was founded in Italy in 2012. It has long blended its high-caliber production values (dazzling lasers, lighting, and its “Wheel of Death” contraption!) with reverence for the history of the European circus scene. The 17 performers spanning 10 countries, from Argentina and Brazil to Ukraine and Romania, deliver an unforgettable visual and narrative experience.
This year’s theme features leather jackets, poodle skirts, muscle cars, and Elvis and Little Richard blaring from the jukebox as the show tells the story of a 1950s-obsessed boy, dressed up as Alex the Clown, who goes to sleep and dreams of living in his favorite decade. Waking up in his own vivid dreamscape, he’s guided through the 1950s by grown-up Alex the Clown.
Behind the makeup and red nose is Alex Acero, 39, of Brazil, who has been performing as a clown, ringmaster, juggler, trampoline and trapeze artist with Cirque Italia for seven years. A third-generation circus performer, Acero’s grandparents on his mother’s side were circus entertainers and his parents met at a carnival and are still actively performing to this day. Circus performing is in his blood.
“I grew up watching the circus…some kids want to play with trucks, not me. I wanted to be a trapeze artist, I wanted to be a juggler. This is our way to play,” Acero said. “I’d wake up and see elephants, tigers, lions, and camels around me. That was my childhood!”
Acero said of Cirque Italia, “I’m working at one of the best shows in the United States”.
Now for the big question: “Everybody asks if we get wet, we don’t. We work around the water. It’s like a huge pool and we have a little stage in the middle.”
In the third act, when Juliette Carballo, a 17-year-old contortionist, is suspended from the ceiling inside a plexiglass ball, Cirque Italia introduces the water. As the ball rises, a portion of the stage lifts to the top of the tent, revealing a steady waterfall from the platform’s underside. A moat now exists where the stage once was. Two fountains shoot water into the air around the ball as Carballo dangles with no safety. So, the answer is, no, you won’t get wet.
Cirque Italia will be performing shows October 5th through October 15th in a Big Top stationed in the parking lot at 313 Smith Haven Mall in Lake Grove.
For more information and to purchase tickets starting at $10 to $50 (depending on availability) call 941-704-8572 or visit www.cirqueitalia.com.
