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Features / Archive
18 November, 2009 12:58:04 | in entertainment
La Tarumba, Hechicero: The Circus is in Town
Clowns, horses, acrobats, trapeze artists, popcorn, hot dogs, sodas and excited children; what does all that add up to? The Circus is in town of course. I can remember the excitement I felt as a child growing up in the rural Midwest of the USA whenever that announcement was made. Here were all these exotic animals and performers doing things I had never even dreamt about, performing for my entertainment.Of course every child in those times dreamt of running away and joining the circus at one point or another. To have this glamorous and thrilling life for ourselves little dreaming of the hard work and hours of training that go into making the acts look graceful and effortless.
As I watched the performances of this great Circus, La Tarumba, all of these memories came flooding back into my mind. I wondered as I saw the wonder and amazement on the faces of the children sitting near me in the audience if the same thoughts were running through their minds.
The show lasted about 1 and ½ hours with a 15 minute break at the half way point. The acts included horsemanship and trained acts, tumblers and acrobats, a trapeze act, clowns and other truly astounding feats of skill all accompanied to music played by a very talented group of musicians.
The Paso horses performing in the show were well trained and displayed a connection with their trainers that showed respect for the animal and that they were well cared for. The animals were beautiful and included a Palomino, a Clydesdale, three roans and a black gelding. The trainers had them performing an assortment of tricks for the audience’s pleasure, bowing, counting and complicated turns with twirls. In addition to the acts without riders, there were several performances with riders.
Both young men and women demonstrated their skills in acrobatics on horseback as the animal trotted around the ring. High jump splits, flips and having the young lady standing on the young man’s shoulders astride the horse while he trotted around the ring wowed the crowd and elicited ohhs and ahhhs with enthusiastic applause from all. In addition to this, there was a performance of riding involving three horses with beautiful saddles and their riders. There was one trick involving the horse and rider that goes against a horse’s natural instincts that was incredible.
The clowns and comedy acts were delightful and well timed. The audience laughed heartily at their antics and actually there was a lot of comedy interspersed throughout the show. Some of the acrobats doubled as clown acts which gave the performance a more acrobatic twist than the ones I have seen in the USA which I actually thought it was an improvement. The costumes of the clowns and acrobats were colorful and suited the shows very well.
For me the acrobatic acts both on the ground and in the air were the highlight of the show. I am sure that if you quizzed the audience you would get a wide range of differing opinions on this. I am certainly not taking anything from the other performances but the amazing physical prowess of these young men and women thrilled me to no end. They stacked people as a group standing on each other’s shoulder in a couple of spots during their performance four people high. In another the base performer had a person on his shoulders and that person had another on his, a feat of strength and balance that defied gravity. There were no spotters and a fall could have easily resulted in serious injury. They performed the usual hand springs, front flips, back flips, tossed each other in the air and then caught them till you were dizzy from trying to follow all the startling feats they were doing at once.
There were acts involving a tall pole and a rope hung from the top of the circus tent that astounded everyone. Using strength and flexibility the performers thrilled everyone with these props that were death defying. The young lady on the flying trapeze threw herself about the swing while soaring so high that her feet nearly touched the top of the tent.
All of the acts were top notch and you could see the hours of practice they must go through every day paying off with a smooth and exciting performance. These young men and women are artists of the highest caliber. The crowd was truly appreciative and the applause at the end of the show was long and enthusiastic. The wonderful thing about the circus is that it transcends languages and borders.
This is the 25th Anniversary of the La Tarumba Circus and they perform throughout the world. They are based here in Lima and have workshops for young people ages 3 to 15 who might be interested in becoming a performing artist. They also offer workshops for young people and adults ages 17 and over in Acrobatics, Theater, Percussion, Dance and Trapeze. I must also note that all but a one of the photos accompanying this article were not taken by me. They do not allow photos with or without flash to be taken during the performance. They offer a beautiful program for three soles, it is well worth the price.
To read more about La Tarumba, its classes, and their upcoming performances, click here.
The Paso horses performing in the show were well trained and displayed a connection with their trainers that showed respect for the animal and that they were well cared for. The animals were beautiful and included a Palomino, a Clydesdale, three roans and a black gelding. The trainers had them performing an assortment of tricks for the audience’s pleasure, bowing, counting and complicated turns with twirls. In addition to the acts without riders, there were several performances with riders. Both young men and women demonstrated their skills in acrobatics on horseback as the animal trotted around the ring. High jump splits, flips and having the young lady standing on the young man’s shoulders astride the horse while he trotted around the ring wowed the crowd and elicited ohhs and ahhhs with enthusiastic applause from all. In addition to this, there was a performance of riding involving three horses with beautiful saddles and their riders. There was one trick involving the horse and rider that goes against a horse’s natural instincts that was incredible.
The clowns and comedy acts were delightful and well timed. The audience laughed heartily at their antics and actually there was a lot of comedy interspersed throughout the show. Some of the acrobats doubled as clown acts which gave the performance a more acrobatic twist than the ones I have seen in the USA which I actually thought it was an improvement. The costumes of the clowns and acrobats were colorful and suited the shows very well.
For me the acrobatic acts both on the ground and in the air were the highlight of the show. I am sure that if you quizzed the audience you would get a wide range of differing opinions on this. I am certainly not taking anything from the other performances but the amazing physical prowess of these young men and women thrilled me to no end. They stacked people as a group standing on each other’s shoulder in a couple of spots during their performance four people high. In another the base performer had a person on his shoulders and that person had another on his, a feat of strength and balance that defied gravity. There were no spotters and a fall could have easily resulted in serious injury. They performed the usual hand springs, front flips, back flips, tossed each other in the air and then caught them till you were dizzy from trying to follow all the startling feats they were doing at once. There were acts involving a tall pole and a rope hung from the top of the circus tent that astounded everyone. Using strength and flexibility the performers thrilled everyone with these props that were death defying. The young lady on the flying trapeze threw herself about the swing while soaring so high that her feet nearly touched the top of the tent.
All of the acts were top notch and you could see the hours of practice they must go through every day paying off with a smooth and exciting performance. These young men and women are artists of the highest caliber. The crowd was truly appreciative and the applause at the end of the show was long and enthusiastic. The wonderful thing about the circus is that it transcends languages and borders.
This is the 25th Anniversary of the La Tarumba Circus and they perform throughout the world. They are based here in Lima and have workshops for young people ages 3 to 15 who might be interested in becoming a performing artist. They also offer workshops for young people and adults ages 17 and over in Acrobatics, Theater, Percussion, Dance and Trapeze. I must also note that all but a one of the photos accompanying this article were not taken by me. They do not allow photos with or without flash to be taken during the performance. They offer a beautiful program for three soles, it is well worth the price.
To read more about La Tarumba, its classes, and their upcoming performances, click here.
tags : Tarumba circus horses trapeze artists acrobats Lima Peru
3 Comments
# Jessie Kwak says :
18 November, 2009 [ 03:24 ]
18 November, 2009 [ 04:00 ]
4 December, 2009 [ 02:59 ]
# Jessie Kwak says :
18 November, 2009 [ 03:24 ]
Great descriptions! My husband and I went to see this when we first arrived in Lima a few months back, and the part I loved most was the interplay and the tension between the different Peruvian cultures: Afro-Peruvian, Andean native, and Criolle.# Maritza Ingar says :
There were two bands--an Afro-Peruvian drum band and an Andean jazz-fusion group--and the way that they alternated and complemented each other drew the storyline along. The acrobatics were great, but the music was just amazing!
I thought that Hechicero finished in Septemeber. Is the production still playing, or are they on to something else now?
18 November, 2009 [ 04:00 ]
Fabulous!!!!!!,excellent work.# La Tarumba says :
4 December, 2009 [ 02:59 ]
Thanks for all the comments and the wonderfurl article!
Our Hechicero season has finished but you can have the music!
The soundtrack CD is available in our headquarters... you can write to tienda@latarumba.com
We have just open a 25-years photographic exhibition at the Centro Cultural de España, it would be open until Dec 23rd.!
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