Tingle the Senses

For Christmas my parents bought us tickets to "Spectacle Obscura," a sort of Gothic burlesque vaudeville performance of acrobatics, aerial arts, and magic tricks. The show was held in an old church that had been re-purposed into a clothing boutique downstairs and a cabaret upstairs, complete with chiquely mismatched furniture, ironic historical furnishings (paintings, old books, wall sconces), and wet bar. Natch. The center of the room had been cleared for a tall, four-legged stand from which various apparatuses could be suspended: ropes, scarves, hula hoop, etc. My only complaint was that the building was drafty and cold, such that I ended up wearing the stiff tablecloth "throw blanket" from our settee for warmth.

E., N., and me. One of us had recently gotten a haircut.

Photography was permitted without flash, but the room was so dark and the performers always in motion, so they were hard to capture on film. They were quite talented and enjoyable to watch. Even the magician was good--until his closing act, when a conceit for involving the audience was poorly planned and nearly backfired. In the car on the way home we agreed that the "volunteer" was a confederate, but we still couldn't figure out how the trick had been performed.

Contortionist. Later she "jumped rope" with her arms--
i.e. rotated them completely in their sockets. It hurt just to watch.

From this photo you can see how high this acrobat was.
Also the flying couch suspended from the ceiling.