A Circus of Their Own : Martha’s Table Pre-Cirque du Soleil Festivities

By Punch Pulse Correspondent Lindsey Clark

What could be more exciting than seeing Cirque du Soleil’s Michael Jackson IMMORTAL World Tour? Seeing it TWICE. I was lucky enough to attend the Martha’s Table pre-show reception before my second viewing of the show on Sunday – held at the Dewar’s Clubhouse in the Verizon Center – which made seeing it again all that much more enjoyable.  The reception offered guests a variety of activities from face painting (which my grown sister indulged in, of course) to photo booths to fantastic live music to circus acts and a build your own nacho station (I should probably not admit that I was more excited about that than my sister was about having her face painted), and it was great to see such a big crowd out supporting such a great cause.  Martha’s Table assists over 1,000 Washington area people a day who are faced with the effects of poverty by providing educational resources, daycare, family support services, food, clothing, and long-term solutions – and at the reception we were treated to a short film that was recently created about the organization and its outreach programs.  I was almost ready to go home after the reception, but we had a Cirque show to see!!

I have to say I felt like the show was much better the second time around (this may be because I had a much better view!), and Pamela posted a great review of it if you didn’t get a chance to catch it while it was in town.  Cirque du Soleil never fails to deliver – and I’ll admit it wasn’t quite was I was expecting from the show, but it was certainly a fun, entertaining, and often moving homage to Michael Jackson’s life and music.  The focus was much more on dance and music than on aerial arts and acrobatics, but that wasn’t necessarily a negative thing, as I noticed that pretty much everyone (Clark sisters included) was dancing in their seats for most of the show.  Like Pamela mentioned in her write-up, the show made me realize how much I actually MISS Michael Jackson’s music and how sad I am that he’s not around anymore to keep creating, but considering his influence on music and dance (not to mention his inspiration for shows like this!), I don’t think he’ll be forgotten any time soon.  Or, actually, ever.

Martha’s Table has a variety of volunteer opportunities if you’d like to get involved with a great local organization – proceeds from sales of IMMORTAL tickets purchased through the organization went back to Martha’s Table.