First of all: the core strength.
My goodness. It’s consistently jaw-dropping what Cirque du Soleil acrobats can do with their bodies and balance and flexibility. Just had to get that out of the way.
Kooza, now playing in San Francisco through March 17 before heading to San Jose in April, is a classic Cirque du Soleil show in all the good ways: dazzling tricks and feats of strength, accompanied by a live band performing world music mashups, and interwoven with some old-fashioned clowning.
Kooza was the first Cirque du Soleil show I ever attended. It was 2009, and I used my grad student discount (speaking of discounts, if you’re not picky about seat selection, you can almost always find discounted tickets on Travelzoo for select Cirque du Soleil dates). I remember the excitement, even before the show started, of being in a big-top tent.
![Three clowns in colorful clothes make funny faces.](https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/11_0398-1-800x534.jpeg)
Cirque du Soleil and I go way back, to before that first live show. I first saw their acts on TV, when they aired as HBO specials in the late ’80s and early ’90s, before they became the massive, world-touring extravaganza of today. Today, they give me all the nostalgic feels; my sister and I collect show experiences like my nephew collects Pokémon cards.