Las Vegas - Cirque du Soleil

Posted by admin in Las Vegas, Nevada on 04 14th, 2008 | Read Comments(2)

The astounding Cirque du Soleil is a world famous acrobatic act… and still so much more. If you have an image of an old time circus with clowns and acrobats, be prepared for a shock. Cirque du Soleil has all this and much more but in a form that you have never seen before.

With dozens of artists – tumblers, fire-eaters, clowns and others – the show has many of the traditional entertainers but that’s already where the similarities end. The difference is immediately visible the very moment you see the entertainers. Carefully crafted makeup and costumes, it has to be seen to be appreciated. Deep blue or orange suits with tie-dyed designs, Chinese red capes and kaleidoscope makeup are only the beginning of a wonderful experience.

The performers are the best acrobats from all over the world. Displaying their talents inside huge arenas that seat over 1,600 they astonish audience members with their skills. But those skills are in service of the most unusual, individual and innovative choreography you can imagine.

Whether it’s the Aerial High Bar act making death-defying leaps that seem as if they truly can fly or the Alexis Brothers with their amazing tumbling the shows never let up for a moment. For 90 minutes at the Mystere Theatre, the audience is agog with wonder as they watch how the show unfolds. At the MGM the KA show dazzles the eye. The O performance is as wondrous as its title signifying ‘everything’.

One of the highlights of the Cirque du Soleil are definitely the dancers. Combining traditional movements from their native countries with modern twists and turns that surprise at every step, the artists leave you with something to remember for a long time after the show has already ended

But the show isn’t all just traditional high wire acts, comedy or dancers in new costumes. Every show has its own theme that weaves and tangles and then resolves like a complex detective story. It might be necessary to attend a show several times to unravel all the mystery that’s packed into the performance.

Performances can be crowded. Once an insider tip, Cirque du Soleil has taken the center stage in Las Vegas and became an important part of the whole ‘Vegas experience’. Like many shows in Las Vegas, ticket prices are a bit high but a web search might yield a discount with one of the many available Las Vegas Vouchers.

Well worth the price, the Cirque du Soleil is an unforgettable theatrical experience. Don’t miss seeing it in the Desert City of Lights. Whether O, KA or Mystere, or any of the several other shows that are brought forth over the months and years, Cirque du Soleil will always leave you guessing what’s next and asking for more.

         

Las Vegas - The MGM Grand

Posted by admin in Las Vegas, Nevada on 04 9th, 2008 | No comments yet - be the first one!

MGM has a long and glorious tradition as an entertainment company. After its foundation by Marcus Loew in 1924 it became on of the leading film studios in Hollywood. MGM was always known for having a large variety of stars and also of putting them in one big movie like “Grand Hotel” in 1932 with stars such as Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford. But in the last decades of the previous century, the company branched out to other forms under the lead of Kirk Kerkorian. The MGM Grand is one excellent sample.
Completed in 1993 and located on the Strip – a four miles long boulevard filled with the largest casino, hotel and resort properties in the world – this 30-floor hotel covers almost 7 acres and houses over 5,000 rooms. In addition, the site offers a 380,000 square foot convention centre, the CBS Television City in Las Vegas and one of the largest casinos in town. At over 170,000 square feet you’ll find more games than anywhere else.

If you’re in the casino you should grasp the opportunity and enter the Lion Habitat. Behind glass walls you can observe lions lounging on an artificial savannah so close that you might think you could reach them. They’re changed on a regularly basis and have a permanent home at the owner’s ranch about a dozen miles outside of Vegas.

Watching the lions is free and you can take a picture (without a flash of course) with the animals in the background, then walk over to the gift shop and buy something to support them. A portion of the proceeds goes to preserve these majestic creatures.

The perception of Las Vegas and the MGM Grand in particular, changed over the past 20 years. The city came a long way from its gambling image to a city which offers all kind of sources for family-friendly amusement. The MGM Grand carries that theme to its pinnacle.

There’s the elegant La Femme production that celebrates the ‘artistry of the nude’, with 13-ballet trained dancers. The show is in the tradition of the Crazy Horse in Paris and is equally tasteful. It’s also possible to do your own dancing at the MGM recreation of the popular New York Studio 54. Undoubtedly tamer than the original, it offers plenty of opportunities for getting a ‘high’ in a drug-free way.

The world famous Cirque du Soleil offers its dazzling hire wire show KA at the MGM. Combining world-class acrobatics with epic-scale theatre, KA tells the tale of Imperial Twins on a journey to fulfil their destinies. If you want to narrow down a Cirque du Soleil performance to just one source, it would be an Asian theme. It offers an array of martial arts moves elegantly combined with the troop’s world-renowned acrobatics.
The hotel itself is a form of high-wire entertainment for guests. After the First World Hotel in Malaysia the MGM Grand is the largest hotel in the world if it comes to rooms. Besides the over 4,000 regular rooms, there are 751 suites but that’s not where it stops. The Skylofts are 51 luxury rooms within the hotel that offer butlers, catering and every form of pampering imaginable. But there is the small matter of the fee – between $800 to $6,000 per night – to contend with. Better bring some lion-sized plastic.