Kenyan Cirque Du Soleil

The other day a few of my friends and I went to see a show that was being advertised as a drama/acrobatic show, called Tunaruka Tukilala.  It was a bit shady because we kept calling the venue to get tickets and they never seemed to know what we were talking about. Maybe it was cause I kept calling it “waka waka  hey” show or because the auditorium was just being rented for the show and no one knew anything about it. Considering Tunaruka Tukilala doesn’t just roll off your tongue. Actually as I was pulling up to the gate on show night, I told the guard, “We are here to see Shakalaka Zulu”. He laughed and then pointed me where to park.

The show was held at a giant Hindu temple auditorium, Oshwal Center.  The place was nice! Giant community center joint.  All the old Indian folks hang out there – so cute. The old women all had their saris on with giant white tennies all over that place. I guess that’s the sporty look. One of our friends that was with us is Kenyan Indian and he thinks it’s funny too so I’m not being culturally insensitive!

The show was supposed to be a story about street children.  All speaking parts were in Swahili so the show could have been about the difficulties of selling shower curtain rings to people allergic to water and I honestly wouldn’t have known.  Okay that’s not entirely true – though the dancing and performances were somewhat difficult to interpret yes, there were many parts that I did catch on to what they were getting at.

Wow, I remember it being quite fragrant when the girl next to me opened her wings. I found these girls before the show running around by the ticket counter so I asked for a photo. It was funny how excited they were to take a picture with ME. I was like..you guys are the ones that are famous actors. They thought that was funny. They all wanted to see their picture in my camera..they looked and giggled.

Overall the show was Okay. I think I expected too much out of it. The live music performances were really good – the main singer was awesome. There were some flow problems  and there were some parts where all the sudden they would start blaring 90’s house music out of no where and then these girls would come out and dance to the house music. Then it would go back to sort of surreal acrobatic stuff. Some dancers looked really really good and some you could tell had never had a bit of formal training in their lives.

And actually what I thought was the most incredible thing about the show was knowing that these dancers/actors have not had all the training and schooling, etc that most people hitting a stage at home would have had. These guys and girls just probably worked hard at learning their parts and dances and went out and did their best.  The acrobats were likely self taught ..you see them all the time performing at hotels on the coast..and even on the beach, they practice their routines and then just go sell their act.  So, that is amazing to me. Making something out of nothing. I love it.  Here is the photo recap:

My bird girls.

Jumping through hoops

The singer lady was INCREDIBLE. Really really amazing.

Loved her dress. It was awesome.

I just wanted you to see this girls bun. Cause I had to look at it for 2 hours straight.

These people could dominate a Texas high school cheer-leading competition

        

And that was it. We left and walked across the street to eat our weight in Chicken Tikka at Hashmi's.  Wow, I love chicken tikka. But that's a whole other story.