Cavalia - Under The Big Top

Cavalia is a fresh mix of equestrian and performing arts, multimedia and special effects. Conceived by Normand Latourelle - one of the founders of 'Cirque De Soleil' and often labeled as an equestrian ballet, the show combines acrobatics, dance, aerial stunts, live music and equestrian arts on a 50 metre stage, under a big white top. Needless to say, I was a little excited, and K and I purchased tickets to this horse extravaganza, which we attended over the weekend in Dockland, Melbourne.

After reading all the media hype, and hearing how visually stunning the show was, I was chomping at the bit, ready to see all the horse breeds I've loved since I was a little girl - performing on stage live.

However, the show fell flat, and it did not meet my expectations that I had in mind. Although the stage sets, and designs were visually appealing, the repetitiveness of horses galloping around in dizzying circles in an overheated big top, didn't really suffice as entertainment for me.

When we arrived at the venue, everyone had to walk through the food and beverage and merchandise tent. I'm a sucker for soft horses - but I wasn't about to pay $40 for stuffed horse no bigger than a handbag with a C stitched on it's bum. K said it looked like something you could get at Kmart. Other merchandise was priced between reasonable and outlandish.

We headed towards to entrance of the big top and waited for about 15 minutes before being let into the corresponding doors on our tickets. We bought tickets in the medium expensive range at approx $125 each, and were seated in Row Q. We could see the entire stage, and had a good view.

The aspect of the seating arrangements really bugged me and still does. Located behind us were Rows S to Row U. These rows were advertised on the booking website as the cheap seats, and came with an obstructed view. As we were near the doorway, we heard many people come in, take a look at their seats in this row, and COMPLAINED to the usher they had an obstructed view. This happened several times and they were moved CLOSER to the stage, as close as Row G, which I googled on the website and it's a $345 seat! Now I'm not a huge complainer, but I think this was grossly unfair on people that had forked out good money, only to have cheaper seat buyers, be moved closer. K and I actually wrote an email whilst we were waiting for the show to start to Cavalia explaining we weren't happy.

People also insisted on being 30 minutes late to the opening of the show, and not arriving back at the correct time when the interval had finished. I dislike interruptions a lot.

After what seemed like a long time, we were wondering 'will it start soon?' and it did - for a 10 minute quiz on the show itself, which seemed a little pointless if you had already checked the official website out. Right from the start, the visual effects during the show, outshone the horses. If I wanted to see holograms of geldings running in a field, I'd go bush. If I wanted to see a mare give birth, I would have watched a David Attenborough documentary.

I was hoping for more of a story line - since the show has been advertised as a 'relationship between human and horse throughout history'. But there was no story line, and nothing relating to history.

In 90 minutes, I saw a few undeniably impressive moments, where a man/woman harnessed six horses at a time, and ride the rearmost two, with one foot on each horse. Or the same rider leap over a bamboo pole whilst horses galloped underneath.

Otherwise, the show fell short for me, even being a horse lover since I was a little girl, it wasn't enough in terms of show quality. Sure the atmosphere was amazing, beautiful even, but it took a lot away from the point they were trying to get across between human and horse. I was quite bored half way through due to the repetitiveness of the scenes.

Visited on: July 27, 2013
Overall Quality: 3*
Price: Between $74 for cheap seats, and $300 + for Premium seats including a stable tour.
Value For Money: 3*
Would I recommend It? If you're a die hard horse lover, and are prepared to pay the price for a lackluster show, go for it. Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend wasting money on this show.