I LOVE CIRQUE!  Cirque du Soleil is one of my favorite things!  The love affair started last fall when we saw Amaluna at the National Harbor in Maryland under the Grand Chapiteau.  Then came Varekai in Fairfax at the Patriot Center in July.  When I found out that there was a brand new touring show based on the movie Avatar, I knew that one would be on my to-do list.

As luck would have it the show, called Toruk – the First Flight, held a handful of preview shows on its way to the official premiere in Montreal on December 21st.  One of the two fit my schedule so we hopped in the car and headed north to Allentown, PA.  I had only been to Pennsylvania one other time in my life that I recall (to Hershey Park) so it was neat to see some new sites on the drive.  I will say that the road system in PA is very different than VA and I’ll take our roads here any day.  🙂

The show was at the PPL Center and had a full audience.  I absolutely loved this performance.  It was visually stunning, as the Cirque shows are, but this one was truly a breathtaking experience.  The set was largely designed around projections on the floor which really made the scenes come to life.  The forests turned to a believable river, then lava, desert, you name it.  Coupled with the sounds and lighting, you really felt immersed in the particular environment that the show was trying to convey.  The performers were top notch and the puppet work was brilliant.  I was swept into the story from the moment it began until it was over.  Should the show come back to our area in the future, I would definitely see it a second time.

I should note that I liked the Avatar movie when it was released a few years back but I was not a die hard fan.  Disney is building an Avatar ‘land’ at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Orlando and there are a few movie sequels on the horizon so the Avatar buzz is coming back around.  Toruk definitely stirred up interest in the Avatar franchise for me that didn’t exist before.  Bravo!