Cirque du Soleil's "O"

Even before we set foot on a plane this was the show we wanted to see. We'd been told by Jo's friend Carolyn that this was a brilliant show so we booked tickets online and our budget was good and allowed us excellent front row seats.

This is one of SEVEN Cirque du Soleil shows on the Vegas Strip and it's at the Bellagio Hotel. They are all themed and this is the only one to have a huge pool as the centre piece which means this show can't travel around the world as the stage & pool have been specially designed and built for it's home in Vegas.

Now, for some reason I was picturing a huge 'fish bowl' type arrangement but in hindsight this was completely preposterous!! Jo and I were whinging about our seats (how precious) thinking that we wouldn't be able to see anything in the 'tank'! This is why I'm not the Art Director for Cirque du Soleil. Once the huge red curtains fell away we were greated we a huge stage with a large swimming pool that's at floor level but can change shapes and depths in seconds and we could absolutely see everything.

Jo and I looking forward to the show...

Being at the front certainly had it advantages, we could see every detail of the performers costumes and literally felt part of the performance with the water about 3 metres away. Now, if you haven't seen a Cirque du Soleil show before, them I'm sorry as my description just won't do it justice and your paltry imagination wouldn't even come close to the reality.

The show contained 8 ex-Olympians including synchronized swimmers and divers. It's more than contortionists, better than gymnastics, not just acrobatics but a magical dream-like performance of diving, dancing and much more. This show tested your peripheral vision to the max as while you were watching one amazing performance you missed the man at the back who'd been on fire for the last 5 minutes!

Our favourite part was when there were three large 'swings' set up each with 3-4 people standing on them and they would take it in turns to do massive leaps off the swing and dive into the pool below. We could've watched for hours but the show came to and end with all the performers taking a bow standing on the stage and the stage lowers to form the pool again and they wave goodbye to us as the water seems to steam with dry ice until it turns dark. Fantastic show!