I don’t even know how to start this blog because the fact that I don’t even know what to say should say it all… if you know me you know that is rare. Voltas theme is street sports and the spirit of adventure, being authentic rather then superficial, and that freedom is the ultimate achievement.
Ok, so Brendon and I were invited to host the start studded red carpet for the premiere of Volta, the traveling Cirque du Soleil show. If your not familiar with the brand Cirque Du Soleil they are known for their amazing performances. They have everything us normies wish we could do, acrobatics, stunts, synchronized everything and they are actually in the business of making real magic. If you go to their brand website their motto is evoke, invoke and provoke. They want to invoke the imagination, evoke emotions and provoke the senses. Lets just say you can expect that times 100 for all the cirque shows you attend.
Volta is a traveling cirque show and has everything you would expect from a cirque show and more. The music, the stunts, the performances and the story were all so beautiful and unique to the brand and exciting. I literally cried and laughed and had vivid dreams about the world that Volta created for me.
Back to being invited to the show, I am no stranger to a good Cirque show, after all I have self proclaimed that I am Vegas. So I have seen all the cirque Las Vegas shows more then once. However, I had yet to see a traveling tent Cirque show, I loved the experience. You won’t miss out on the non-traveling experience it is just as magical and far more intimate. Any time I am invited to something or asked to work with someone I go deep into Rachel the researcher mode. I read everything I could find out about Volta, about the performers about the show. I dug deep into finding videos from other shows they had been in, for the main character Waz this is his second Cirque show. I learned about the costumes, they are all hand made in Canada for each performer. They spare nothing, every detail means something and has a purpose. The beads on the free spirits are a material that won’t injure them in their acrobatic performance, the gold scales on Mr. Wows costume represent a dragon scale and make up the hard outer shell of Mr. Wow. The lighting and music is perfectly synced. The composer is Anthony Gonzalez of M83 who merges electric synth pop and classical music, the violinist even comes into the audience as if preforming only for you. The stage is built in real time y’all, as in each show they build a full out skate park for the BMX athletes. Oh they have BMX athletes! I WAS BLOWN AWAY by this! They have parkour athletes, a performer who uses her hair as a medium to float around the stage. There is nothing supporting her but her hair! The show is street sports that represent freedom mixed with current styles of our expression which are always evolving as a culture yet stay classic and grounded in our human experience. In other words it “WOWs” you! I highly recommend seeing the show.
The red carpet hosting was fun, we got to interview the actors of the show, I fan girl out alot. We were able to interview our friends walking the carpet and celebrities. However, the moment for me that made my hosting experience was discovering what gave me my moment of freedom and allowed me to let my guard down. See the show is about a game show contestant who is rejected by the audience for not being up to their societal norms. The price of fame wares on the main character and he lovingly looks upon his childhood and journey to where he is now. Along the way there are “free spirits” who guide him to become free and breakthrough to realize what he was ashamed of is actually what makes him so unique and beautiful on the inside. He’s ready to share his gift. I had the privilege to ask numerous people and also ask myself what was my moment of freedom throughout my game show contestant journey? I self reflected on when I knew that it was ok to be different even if I had become ostracized from the group. For me on big brother 12 no one liked me because I was different the fans, the house guests, maybe production and I wasn’t sure what I was doing at the time and I so desperately wanted to fit in to have people like me. I can go deeper into that at a later blog, but what I realized was that I should just be me flaws and all and someone will like me, and most importantly I have to like me. Well, I had my person on the show that helped me realize that, Brendon who loved me as a human just for being me. For being loud and being a little wild and standing out he didn’t care that I wore sequins, had bright red hair extensions and a backstory for days. He accepted me as me mess and all and that felt good. Sometimes we need the free spirits and the partners to accept us as us, sometimes we need people to be our people so we can truly realize how unique we are.
I learned alot from this show, and I hope that I can be someones “free spirit” to guide them to their freedom and their place where they know its ok to be unique even if that means different.
We are all different and the only “normal” is defined by being like the crowd … think about that!
I also felt that after self reflection on my 10 year journey on reality TV that I can now be more real. I have always been a person that has tried to make sense of these experiences and where my journey is going and why and I applaud Cirques’ Volta for Evoking emotions in my 3 hour experience, for provoking all my senses including inspiring me, and for invoking my imagination, making me realize I can be unique I can dream big and giving me the opportunity to self reflect in such an impactful way.
More Photos of the Premiere – Voltas’ Facebook Page
mama on the go! 