Review of Cavalia's Odysseo

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Odysseo. It was created by Normand Latourelle. It was a show that includes two of my favorite things: horses and circus. I thought it was such a fun show to be at. It was such an interesting and awesome concept to have horses being adorable, people doing tricks off of the horses, people up in the sky on a lyra, and people doing crazy backflips all in the same show. I felt like the entire experience of the show was really enjoyable.

I really liked the "Village Celebration" in act one. It was so fantastic to watch. They had people (Anton Savytskyi, Maksym Ovchynnikov, Pavel Skyba, an Lucas Altemeyer) on stilts jumping over hurdles. And they were doing these flips that were so awesome. How high they would get off the ground was just so crazy. Even though they had these flexible jumping stilts, I still thought it was impressive not just because they were on stilts but because it was clear that it took a lot of practice. The acrobats (Alseny Bangoura, Sékou Camara, Mohamed Sylla, Mohamed Conte, Alseny Sylla, Alhassane Sylla, Younoussa Sylla, Michel Kamono, and Balla Moussa Bangoura) also were so amazing. The amount of backflips they would do! It was amazing; I don't know how they did it without getting sick on stage. I know about spotting, but how fast they were doing them was just out of this world. It was crazy. They created such an awesome relationship with the audience. They responded to applause so genuinely and that made the audience love them even more. They had another number as well called "The Call of Africa" and they did this whole call and response singing and had the audience singing and clapping along. It was so awesome because they did all of their acrobatics and the audience applauded for them for like five minutes. Also, the "Village Celebration" included horses (Utah, Drago, Quetzal, Quartz, Melchor, Motion, Fadista, and Tutor) and their riders (Amelie Bauza, Jérémy Gutierrez, Steven Paulson, Benoit Drouet, Jonathan Gil Delgado, Arnaud Attou, Batraz Tsokolaev, and Guillaume Dubrana), and it was so cool. The horses were also leaping over the hurdles. It was cool to see how people in stilts, people not in stilts, and the horses could all jump over the same hurdles.

They had this huge carousel that was lowered from the ceiling in "Carosello." They had these poles with fake horses on them. The performers (Altemeyer, Moniz Gmach, Uys DuBuisson, Elisa Penello, Samuel Alvarez, Julissa Panus, Ovchynnikov, Skyba, and Savytskyi) would hang off these poles and they would hang off of them upside down and sometimes they used no arms and it was just mesmerizing. They also would do tricks together; one would hold the other by the hand and they would be responsible for the other not falling. It was cool how the carousel was rotating the entire time so you could see what everyone was doing. I also really liked "The Angels" which was all done on silks. The performers (Jacqueline Ward Kehrwald, Panus, Penello, and Karolina Melska) were carried in on horses (Juglans, Licenciat, Bello, and Gavilan) and they were lifted up off the horses and became these angels. They had long wings that hung down to the ground; those were the silks. That was another time they used rotation but this time it was from the sky. They were so high off the ground that you were kind of worried for them, but they were angels, so I guess they probably wouldn't fall.

"The Great Adventure" was so amazing. It was this dancing horse named Omerio with a woman (Elise Verdoncq) on his back. At first all you see is a silhouette of them on the hill. And the horse dances and it was so majestic and pretty. And then the lights come up and you see them. The entire thing was like a flood of beauty. (That is the cheesiest thing I've said on this blog, but it is also true.) You see they had flooded the front part of the stage in the dark, and it was so beautiful. And Omerio went down to the water and started doing the same tricks he had been doing on land in the water. And then they had these white horses (Gus, Frosty, Nezma, Gee-Gee, Chief, Bravas, Shake, Pearl) run through the water and it was so beautiful to see their manes flow and the splash of their hooves in the water. It was so glorious that it made me and my mom almost cry. It was really pretty.

People who would like this show are people who like mesmerizing acrobatics, dancing horses, and human carousels. This is such an amazing show to see. I really enjoyed being there and I hope a lot of people get to see it.

Photos: Cavalia