Last weekend, the boys and I, along with a friend of Douglas’, went to the Big Apple Circus here in NY. It’s the one I mentioned last week. It’s at Lincoln Center in a wee big top, so all the seats are good seats … it has a really intimate feel and as they say, no seat is more than 50’ from the ring! We had seats in the 5th row (full disclosure: they were comped tickets for Mom Blogger night) and had a (mostly) great view. Of course the most broad-shouldered family in the place sat in front of us, so Fynn spent most of the time on my lap, and D and his friend swapped seats a few times to share the best viewing angle.
The show, titled Dance On!, was fairly a typical circus blend of humor, acrobatics, and animals. There was a Grandma character that the boys got a real kick out of, as well as a clownish buffoon guy who greatly amused Douglas with his antics. They liked the crazy acrobatics, but probably not as much as I did, as they had little sense yet of how difficult the moves were. There were the seemingly spineless ones who could bend in every possible shape, dancers who climbed and hung off a pole in the middle (not pole dancing mind you!) and a lot of rope-twirling manoevers that seemed impossible to choreograph.
The show was longer than I expected, and at the intermission they prepped the arena for the animals. There were great hopes pinned on the appearance of big cats, which I gently dampened, as I was pretty sure they weren’t on the agenda. (D’s friend is a huge tiger fan.) They brought out goats, miniature horses, and dogs in all combinations. The kids liked it, and found goats riding on horses quite funny, as well as dogs jumping through hoops being rolled by the goats. I’m not a big veteran of circuses, only 
having been to a few in my lifetime, but I struggled a wee bit with the ides of making animals act like humans … something I’d never really pondered before. I didn’t end up condeming it in my mind, as they were happy seeming and enjoyed their treats, but it did feel unnatural. Then again, what is the point of a circus?! We certainly came away happy, amused, amazed, and full of great memories!
The whole experience was laid out well, with plenty of room to sit and eat beforehand, easy access to fairly plentiful bathrooms, and almost no hawking of souvenirs which I truly appreciated but still managed to get sucked into! As I mentioned earlier, it didn’t really end well, but that was thanks to tired boys+sugar, and had nothing to do with the show itself. I’d gladly go again, but being the frugal one that I am, probably not without the discount code that’s valid up until the end of the show on Jan 9th. It brings the seat prices down to anywhere from $15 to $45 bucks, for all but the very front row or a few mysterious VIP seats. Hope some of you can take advantage of it!