On Sunday evening, we went to the circus with some friends. In Almaty, the circus has a permanent home in a building constructed specifically for it. It seems rather small compared to the big arenas where we watched circuses at home in Canada, but it allows us to get much closer to the action. There's only one ring in this circus and the seating is fairly steep so that every seat has a good view. If you look closely at the poster on the side of the building, you will see that Kazakh shows tend to integrate Western cartoon characters (Spongebob Squarepants, Shrek, and Kung Fu Panda were a few of the stars this time ). Shortly after this photo was taken, as we were all jostling to get through the one open door into the building, Karla's wallet was stolen from her purse! Needless to say, Karla's enjoyment of the circus was significantly soured.
The circus was made up of a series of smaller acts, including some things that we would expect in a circus at home: gymnasts, a trapeze artist, firestick jugglers, trained poodles jumping through hoops. The stereotypical Russian act, the dancing bear, was also there, although his trainer and his assistants were also quite entertaining. Unlike circuses at home, there were a lot of dance numbers in between the acts and the dancers were mostly wearing costumes that revealed a lot more than what we'd expect at home. But all in all an interesting night. By the end of the story, the Santa Claus figure arrived on the scene and put everything to rights.