Cirque Niagara

As part of our trip to Niagara Falls (more on which later), we took the boys to see Cirque Niagara‘s presentation of “Avaia” tonight. I wanted to jot down a few thoughts before I forgot them (the incessant din will do that to me.)
In summary: great show, and well worth the money.
The show bills itself as a spectacle for all ages, and it really is. The show is somewhat similar to Cirque du Soleil in many respects: the loud music, the physical prowess of the atheletes, and the motif of two or three clowns who tell a story of their own that’s basically orthogonal to the main story.
“Avaia” is unique because it incorporates horses, and lots of ’em (the brochure says 19, but I wasn’t counting). The human acrobats are outstanding, but the men who do stunts while riding are really something to behold. There’s knife throwing, a couple of sword fights, women balancing 20′ in the air on long poles, a foam rubber shotgun, and more. The boys were completely enchanted, and I think this is something they’ll remember for a long time. (They don’t allow any photography, so you’ll have to take my word for it.)
We sprang for seats in the “red zone”; we ended up in row 2 of the center stage section. These were fantastic seats, and I thought they were well worth the money. The Cirque promoters have plastered Niagara with signs offering free kids’ tickets, but that offer only holds if you buy the $39 obstructed-view adult tickets. However, the arena is small enough that the view wouldn’t be very obstructed so it might be a good gamble to take. Matt was awfully surprised when one of the clowns went running up the aisle right next to us; his facial expression was priceless! Speaking of which: kids 5 and under get in free if they’ll sit on your lap. The 4 seats we bought were actually bench-style seats that were wide enough in total
to hold the five of us fairly comfortably, except that they have narrow pitch and little padding– be forewarned.
All in all, this will probably be one of the highlights of our trip. I highly recommend it.