Canberra is a small city of some 300,000+ without a significant performance venue, apart from outdoor venues including the football stadium (Canberra Stadium). So because it is so small and because we have limited venues, we often miss out on the big entertainment tours. I am pleased to say though that Cirque du Soleil is currently in Canberra in their Big Top on the side of Lake Burley Griffin near the National Library of Australia and Questacon (Australia's National Science & Technology Centre).

The show that has come to Australia is "Dralion". This is a quote from their site:

Dralion is the fusion of ancient Chinese circus tradition and the avant-garde approach of Cirque du Soleil. The show's name is drawn from its two main symbols: the dragon, representing the East, and the lion, representing the West. Dralion derives much of its inspiration from Eastern philosophy with its perpetual quest for harmony between humankind and nature.

I am not going to try to draw some spurious parallels with some aspects of project management here - it would be a disservice to the athletes and performers that form the Cirque du Soleil acts......and they were just fabulous!!!

The trampolinists were amazing! The acrobats diving through the rings - precise! The dragons ....cute! The costumes just dazzling. The live music haunting, sensual, piercing and eerie!

This was the third Cirque show for me, having seen "Varekai" in Canberra a while back and "O" in Las Vegas when I was there presenting at an IEEE Conference at the University of Nevada.

If you get the chance to see a Cirque du Soleil show ...take it. They are different to anything else you will see.