![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
velessaYesterday evening my friend Kim (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
greenanimal) and I went to see Cavalia in San Francisco. It was fun and full of surprises!
As you may or may not know, my mom is a radio game addict. Not only that, she's really lucky as well. She plays the games constantly and wins constantly. So far her biggest prizes have been a new car and a couple of trips to Mexico, with about a zillion other smaller things in between.
Anyway, about a week ago my dad heard one of the stations were giving away Cavalia tickets, so he told my mom about it, she started listening for that contest, and won the tickets a couple of days later. Yeah, that's pretty much how it goes with her. She gave the tickets to me and Kim because as two horse girls she figured Kim would appreciate the show more than she would. I didn't know what Cavalia was other than some sort of horse show; I was expecting something like a typical Lipizzaner exposition. Kim, on the other hand, was *really* excited to go, so I asked her what it actually was, and she said it was more like a Cirque du Soleil show with horses, which sounded much cooler than what I'd been expecting.
So I picked Kim up when she got off of work and drove up to San Francisco, only getting minimally lost when trying to find the big tent in the Giants' parking lot where it was being held. The show was at 8pm, but we got there about 6:15pm. I figured we'd get there early then go find something for dinner. Even as early as we were, there were a few other people already there, maybe twenty or so, so we followed them. They were going past what looked like the main entrance to another entrance a littler further away. Since no one seemed to be at the first entrance, which said it'd open at 6:45, we just waited with the others at the second one, which said it would open at 6:30. When it did, we walked in and the girl took our tickets, looked at them, then handed us badges on lanyards and started telling us about all the amenities in the tent: gourmet buffet items, hosted bar, desserts during the intermission, a free gift at the merchandise area, and autographs from cast members and a stable tour after the show! We were rather surprised, but figured that must be part of why the tickets cost so much in the first place (they're about $130-250 each). So we helped ourselves to the food and drink (fancy stuff like lamb and shrimp and raspberry goat cheese salad and such) and sat down to eat.
After a while we noticed it really wasn't all that crowded in the tent and started wondering about our tickets and whether or not we were really supposed to be there. I figured if that were the case we would have been turned away at the door, but we weren't. We looked up the tickets online and found out there were different color levels (gold, silver, yellow, green, etc.), but the most expensive ones were for the area we were in, Rendez-vous. I snooped around and other people's tickets had "Rendez-vous" in huge letters printed on the ticket, but in that space our tickets were blank and said "KOIT radio" in tiny print instead. You had to show your ticket in order to get the free gift (big color program), so I went over to the merch area and showed it and asked about whether or not it counted, and the cashier there assured me it did. So, score! We basically got $500 in tickets and VIP treatment for the show for free!! =D
For the show itself, our seats were about halfway up the rows in the far left of the right hand section, so a pretty good view. The other Rendez-vous people were all over the place, so there didn't seem to be a particular section that went with the priciest tickets. The show started with some trivia about the Cavalia horses being projected on the curtain, things like the proportion of horse breeds and ages and whatnot in the group. If I remember correctly they have 52 horses, average age of 8, all male (23 of them stallions and the rest geldings), and mostly Quarter Horses and Arabs with the rest being a mix of Spanish, Andalusian, three drafts, a warmblood, and a few other things.
The show was very entertaining, but to be perfectly honest, I was more impressed with the acrobats and trick riders than the horses themselves. They did a number of scenes that involved horses and tumblers/acrobats doing various things together. I liked the girls doing work on the ropes/bungee cords and sort of flying over and next to the horses the best. As for the horses, they did a lot of stuff I've seen many times and am kind of jaded to I guess. I suppose it's really impressive to people who don't know horses and haven't seen a lot of the various things people can get them to do, but to me it was just decent. For instance, I spent 14 years working at a barn that specializes in vaulting and held international vaulting competitions. The simple vaulting stuff they did in this was nothing new or interesting to me. The trick riding I saw a few times a day, everyday for a month when I worked at the horse unit at the state fair. There was a relatively simple drill pattern performed that most of the audience ooohed and aaahed over but was something any of us could have (and probably have) done. There were a few horses that did some of the more interesting upper level moves like piaffe and passage and one canter pirouette, and a few tricks like bowing and the Spanish walk (actually one of them did the Spanish walk backwards, that was pretty cool and something I hadn't seen done before). The big group of horses at liberty round penning without a round pen in a line together and all doing a few moves together is always cool to see and one of my favorite things, too. But I mean, the horses were fun to watch and all, I just didn't find most of what they did with them as cool or amazing as what the human acrobats were doing. Couldn't take photos or video, so I don't have anything to show from it.
After the show we went back to the tent and kind of milled around, not sure what was going on. I noticed a table in the middle had two of the girls from the show, the singer and one of the acrobats, so I went over there and got them to autograph my program. I was surprised to find they spoke English (most of the people in the show are French or French-Canadian) and complemented the one girl on her singing; it was really good and the only real vocal part of the show. The songs were in French so I don't know what she was saying, but it was pretty. ;)
The singer has the red streaks in her hair
We continued to hang out wondering when we'd be taken to see the stable. While waiting we made a stop at the restroom, and when we came out there was a big group of people being led away, so we just joined up at the end of the group (turned out we cut in line and skipped another group still waiting in the tent, oops), and no one seemed to notice or care, so we followed them through another tent to the stable tent and wandered around in there looking at all the horses. They were all in stable blankets and busy eating hay and didn't particularly show any interest in all the people looking at them. They had all these rules like no touching or flash photos or even clicking sounds on your cameras! As if the horses are spooky. *eye roll* But I suppose they don't need to be blinded by a zillion flashes in their faces every night. I got some pics, though nothing great.
Me and Kim
greenanimal) and I went to see Cavalia in San Francisco. It was fun and full of surprises!As you may or may not know, my mom is a radio game addict. Not only that, she's really lucky as well. She plays the games constantly and wins constantly. So far her biggest prizes have been a new car and a couple of trips to Mexico, with about a zillion other smaller things in between.
Anyway, about a week ago my dad heard one of the stations were giving away Cavalia tickets, so he told my mom about it, she started listening for that contest, and won the tickets a couple of days later. Yeah, that's pretty much how it goes with her. She gave the tickets to me and Kim because as two horse girls she figured Kim would appreciate the show more than she would. I didn't know what Cavalia was other than some sort of horse show; I was expecting something like a typical Lipizzaner exposition. Kim, on the other hand, was *really* excited to go, so I asked her what it actually was, and she said it was more like a Cirque du Soleil show with horses, which sounded much cooler than what I'd been expecting.
So I picked Kim up when she got off of work and drove up to San Francisco, only getting minimally lost when trying to find the big tent in the Giants' parking lot where it was being held. The show was at 8pm, but we got there about 6:15pm. I figured we'd get there early then go find something for dinner. Even as early as we were, there were a few other people already there, maybe twenty or so, so we followed them. They were going past what looked like the main entrance to another entrance a littler further away. Since no one seemed to be at the first entrance, which said it'd open at 6:45, we just waited with the others at the second one, which said it would open at 6:30. When it did, we walked in and the girl took our tickets, looked at them, then handed us badges on lanyards and started telling us about all the amenities in the tent: gourmet buffet items, hosted bar, desserts during the intermission, a free gift at the merchandise area, and autographs from cast members and a stable tour after the show! We were rather surprised, but figured that must be part of why the tickets cost so much in the first place (they're about $130-250 each). So we helped ourselves to the food and drink (fancy stuff like lamb and shrimp and raspberry goat cheese salad and such) and sat down to eat.
After a while we noticed it really wasn't all that crowded in the tent and started wondering about our tickets and whether or not we were really supposed to be there. I figured if that were the case we would have been turned away at the door, but we weren't. We looked up the tickets online and found out there were different color levels (gold, silver, yellow, green, etc.), but the most expensive ones were for the area we were in, Rendez-vous. I snooped around and other people's tickets had "Rendez-vous" in huge letters printed on the ticket, but in that space our tickets were blank and said "KOIT radio" in tiny print instead. You had to show your ticket in order to get the free gift (big color program), so I went over to the merch area and showed it and asked about whether or not it counted, and the cashier there assured me it did. So, score! We basically got $500 in tickets and VIP treatment for the show for free!! =D
For the show itself, our seats were about halfway up the rows in the far left of the right hand section, so a pretty good view. The other Rendez-vous people were all over the place, so there didn't seem to be a particular section that went with the priciest tickets. The show started with some trivia about the Cavalia horses being projected on the curtain, things like the proportion of horse breeds and ages and whatnot in the group. If I remember correctly they have 52 horses, average age of 8, all male (23 of them stallions and the rest geldings), and mostly Quarter Horses and Arabs with the rest being a mix of Spanish, Andalusian, three drafts, a warmblood, and a few other things.
The show was very entertaining, but to be perfectly honest, I was more impressed with the acrobats and trick riders than the horses themselves. They did a number of scenes that involved horses and tumblers/acrobats doing various things together. I liked the girls doing work on the ropes/bungee cords and sort of flying over and next to the horses the best. As for the horses, they did a lot of stuff I've seen many times and am kind of jaded to I guess. I suppose it's really impressive to people who don't know horses and haven't seen a lot of the various things people can get them to do, but to me it was just decent. For instance, I spent 14 years working at a barn that specializes in vaulting and held international vaulting competitions. The simple vaulting stuff they did in this was nothing new or interesting to me. The trick riding I saw a few times a day, everyday for a month when I worked at the horse unit at the state fair. There was a relatively simple drill pattern performed that most of the audience ooohed and aaahed over but was something any of us could have (and probably have) done. There were a few horses that did some of the more interesting upper level moves like piaffe and passage and one canter pirouette, and a few tricks like bowing and the Spanish walk (actually one of them did the Spanish walk backwards, that was pretty cool and something I hadn't seen done before). The big group of horses at liberty round penning without a round pen in a line together and all doing a few moves together is always cool to see and one of my favorite things, too. But I mean, the horses were fun to watch and all, I just didn't find most of what they did with them as cool or amazing as what the human acrobats were doing. Couldn't take photos or video, so I don't have anything to show from it.
After the show we went back to the tent and kind of milled around, not sure what was going on. I noticed a table in the middle had two of the girls from the show, the singer and one of the acrobats, so I went over there and got them to autograph my program. I was surprised to find they spoke English (most of the people in the show are French or French-Canadian) and complemented the one girl on her singing; it was really good and the only real vocal part of the show. The songs were in French so I don't know what she was saying, but it was pretty. ;)
The singer has the red streaks in her hair
We continued to hang out wondering when we'd be taken to see the stable. While waiting we made a stop at the restroom, and when we came out there was a big group of people being led away, so we just joined up at the end of the group (turned out we cut in line and skipped another group still waiting in the tent, oops), and no one seemed to notice or care, so we followed them through another tent to the stable tent and wandered around in there looking at all the horses. They were all in stable blankets and busy eating hay and didn't particularly show any interest in all the people looking at them. They had all these rules like no touching or flash photos or even clicking sounds on your cameras! As if the horses are spooky. *eye roll* But I suppose they don't need to be blinded by a zillion flashes in their faces every night. I got some pics, though nothing great.
Me and Kim
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-01-01 09:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-01 01:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-01 07:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-01 07:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-01 07:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-01 07:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-01 08:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-01 09:45 pm (UTC)