The charm of the equestrian circus performance, Circo Ma鈥機eo, wooed an audience of all ages, at Affinity Place. The show, in its first official run in Canada, was held on June 1, in the afternoon and evening, with 2,000 guests showing up to watch the two performances.
There was never a dull moment, as the troupe performed an assortment of acrobatic maneuvers, on and off horseback, with up to three people at a time posing, contorting themselves and leaping on and off the moving animals. Many of the stunts involving the horses were done while standing on horseback, while the steeds, themselves, trotted and galloped around.
Performers also did a number of routines involving fire tossing, dangling from a mock chandelier and the manipulation of whips and other props to the sound of enthusiastic applause throughout the night.
To the delight of many of the young people in the crowd, performers with the show encouraged children to come down to the ring to ride some of the horses around, for a hands-on activity during an intermission. A bevy of children descended on the ring, eager to hop onto one of the horses and go for a trot.
鈥淚t was a pretty darn good turnout for a smaller community,鈥� said Stu Larson, provincial shrine circus event chairman, with the Wa Wa Shriners. 鈥淭o raise funds, we approached the local businesses, and asked for them to help out. That鈥檚 how we paid for the children鈥檚 tickets. Just like in all the big centres, that鈥檚 how we鈥檙e able to get children into shows for free.鈥�
The Wa Wa Shriners organize events, such as Circo Ma鈥機eo, to give back to communities that offer the pediatric organization support in its efforts to provide a litany of medical services for children.
Larson said he considered the event a success, adding that he never heard a single negative comment from any of the guests, beyond some people saying they wanted more notice.
Larson said one of the important things for the Shriners was holding a circus without exotics animals involved, which broke a tradition the organization has had for the last four decades.
鈥淲e made the decision early this spring, to depart from having exotics at our circuses, after some contractual differences making us unable to go forward,鈥� said Larson. 鈥淥lissio Zoppe, the owner of Circo Ma鈥機eo, and I are old friends, from many years in the entertainment business. I ran into him and told him, 鈥榃e鈥檙e looking to make a move to a non-exotic circus.鈥欌��
Larson noted another reason for the departure from a circus featuring exotic animals was on account of a great deal of pressure from organizations and people encouraging them to stop featuring exotics in their shows.
Larson said of the Estevan shows,鈥淭he community embraced us, and there was a bunch of smiling faces at the end of the day.鈥�
