Michael Robinson Chavez/Los Angeles Times/MCT

Performers float above the crowd at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles, California, during a performance of Iris by Cirque du Soleil that honors the craft of filmmaking on September 23, 2011.

Cirque du Soleil, a show usually acquainted with prime time stages like the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, stopped by the US Cellular Coliseum November 13th. The stop in the Twin Cities was one of many as the prestigious circus took time off to do a tour across the country. Being a headliner show in Las Vegas for over 15 years has allowed the performance to take traditional circus acts and put a modern, impressive, and unique spin to make the circus feel modern again.

The show began before the circus itself, with three elderly looking men in suits who instead of talking, communicated with crowd with a series of hand movements and grunts.  They went around the audience causing trouble for the unfortunate audience members sitting closest to the stage until finally the picked a victim to read the health and safety guidelines.

As soon as the instructions were read and the men in suits went away, the circus really started with a seemingly chaotic 10 minutes. Trapezes artists descended from the ceilings while costume dragons ran around the floor. A muscular man in two great steel rings fused together to form a giant orb that enclosed him came rolling on doing some impressive flips and moves to get the crowd warmed up.

Once all the acts exited the stage, a single man dressed in a red Japanese warrior outfit waiving a massive flag came front and center on the stage. Behind him 8 men dressed similarly carried out huge 12-foot long poles with loose translucent cloth in the shape of Chinese paper lanterns up near the top. They did a series of tricks that varied from doing back-flips to throwing and catching the great polls. All the tricks were done while keeping the polls upright .

After that, one single man came out onto the stage dancing like an animal on all fours. Another performer then dropped, seemingly out of nowhere and handed him a ball. He started doing tricks with this ball and more and more were added. He continued to do juggling tricks until he had a surplus of ten balls up in the air at once.

The acts seemed to one up each other and the next one was no exception. Industrial powered  trampolines were added to the temple set up behind the floor and high flying trampolines artists did their magic. Bouncing up to 30 feet in the air while doing flips, switching places with each other, and grabbing on to slim ledges put up around the set were just a couple of the tricks these performers had. This act was accompanied by two Latin singers which were unique to this act only.

The final act was a single man in two giant iron rings. The rings crisscrossed each other to form a giant ball which the performer stood in, he then proceeded to do many rolling and acrobatic stunts as well as spinning the giant rings on his open palm as the audience watched on. Although he was just one man, the movement of his act seemed to fill up the stage. This act specifically was a solo act and the performer was clearly the star of the circus. The final act did not disappoint.

Although the show was a prime example of Las Vegas quality show, the majesty of it all was lost as not even half of the US Cellular Coliseum was filled. The show was great, the talent was great but the crowd disappointed.