Rating: 
Summary: Real talent at its best!! Beautiful!!
Review: Absolutely one of the finest displays of human physical ability. Saw this show in person and was mesmorized. The phsical displays of strength and agility were amazing!!
I am not an artsy person and thought I was going to be dissapointed when the show started because of the initial mix of metaphoric artsyness and symbolism. But, as the show went on it was truly one of the best perfomances I have ever seen.
I was sincerely awed! Competitions such as the olympics in which we watch in fascination and marvel at flips and spins on balancing beams seem to pale in comparison to some of the performances performed flawlessy on a daily basis in this Cirque performance (as well as others). With sincerest respect for the Olympics and all the athletes involved, the people who perform in Varekai and other Cirque productions truly reflect some of the finest physical perfomers in the World!!
Great Job Cirque!!
Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable
Review: Cirque du Soleil goes over the top with this offering. I am using this DVD as a a part of a unit on visual musicality with my music classes. Truly spectacular performances abound from the top down (no pun intended.) The comic relief is really comic, the music dazzling and the acrobatics are astounding. I plan to see this show in Pittsburgh this Spring. I can't wait!!! The DVD is worth the price and more!
Rating: 
Summary: Atención MEXICO y Latinoamérica
Review: Compré este DVD en una tienda de discos en México (perdón Amazon!) y desgraciadamente a la edición (R4) para Latinoamerica le faltan 5 de los 8 ¨extra-features¨ que se prometen en la portada de esta edición.
Es una verdadera pena que este tipo de espectáculos se vean empañados por una edición tan mediocre; la misma no tiene mucha información técnica, los extras no son buenos.
El Cirque du Soleil sigue tan bueno como siempre pero este no es uno de sus mejores espectáculos.
Sugiero que compren Saltimbanco, Alegría y/ó Quidam.Muy mal por Columbia Video y la producción de SONY.
Rating:
Summary: IF I COULD, I WOULD GIVE IT 10 STARS
Review: Ever since i saw Allegria live, I have been a huge Cirque fan. I have seen every show expect Mystere and Varekai. I plan on seeing Varekai live when it comes to my city this upcomming summer. I know I may be spoiling the whole thing by buying the DVD but I wanted to see how good it was. I must say that Cirque Du Soleil really did their best work with Varekai. All the acts are amazing. Even the clowns are funny, since they arent wearing lots of clown make-up or have a big red nose. The guy is hilarious.
The acts are the best I have ever seen. In Body Sakting the performers seem to have so much fun.
Icarian Games shows strength, trust and amazing abilities.
Even Cloud caught my attention with the wonderful music.
I own every Cirque CD there is and the music in the DVD is the best of them all.
To finish such a fine show with Russian Swings was the best idea. U can see how much the audience loves every act.
Every act is beyond anything that is amazing. The DVD has such good quality to it, and the extra features are brillent as well.
I advise any Cirque fan to purchase this and go see the show live, believe me it is worth every penny.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Of Cirque
Review: Having seen Zumanity since I saw Varekei I am reminded again of how much I love this show! Sitting in Reve Rouge the last nite they were in Chicago I held my breath the entire show. So well put together the acts blend toghether seamlessly. I do have to applaud the music which I have been listening to non-stop. It really sets the mood for the beautiful job the artists do. By far the best Cirque show out there, DVD is worth it with all the extras, but the show is best live!
Rating: 
Summary: Cirque du Soleil Varekai
Review: I am obsessed with CdS (Cirque du Soleil) no doubt. I have seen Varekai (Live and not live.), Alergria (not live but I'm going to when it vists NYC), Quidam (Not live.), Cirque Reinvent (not live.), Saltimbanco, O and Mystere this winter, and Dralion (not live). If I could I would give it 4 and a half stars. I love it no doubt but there are some problems:
First the sound is horrible. It starts off too soft and all of the sudden it gets so loud it hurts my ears and then gets softer again. Also there is a half second skip at the end of the Body Skating act but luckly the music is over by the time this happens. Overall I'd give it 4 and a half stars
Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable video, terrible audio drop-out problems
Review: I cannot say enough about how excellent (even beyond most of the other great Cirque DVD shows and products that have been released) this DVD is from a video, showmanship and technical aspects viewpoint. However be warned that this DVD recording either on transfer or in original recording suffers from consistent and annoying audio dropout in several places which will clearly reduce your enjoyment potential if you care about the auditory experience. I bought several of these DVDs from Amazon and another online competitor in an attempt to find a consistent soundtrack. All of the DVD's lose serious audio volume (dropouts) in the same places (at least its a consistent problem). I know the problem isn't my player because it happens in the several machines we have tried it on. However despite this I still will keep the DVD and recommend it because it is such a greatly produced and otherwise enjoyable video. But be forwarned when you hear the sound quality fade. On audio it gets 1 star and on everything else it gets a 5.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing, incredible, breathtaking....
Review: I got this DVD for Christmas and I can't stop watching it. My favorite of any Cirque show I've seen period. It's portrayed amazingly well on DVD, unlike other Cirque shows I've seen through DVD. The show alone would be worth the price of this DVD, but what's awesome about this is you get an entire DVD of extras! In-depth interviews, Meet The Artists, A preview of the Fire Within Series, The documentary "The Making of an Angel"...it's great! I love this show! I'm driving with my parents 11 hours away this January to see Varekai. It's that good and I'm absolutely in love with it. The acts are amazing and I love that it actually has a story line...and the story line is fabulous.
Icarus falls from the sky into the world of Varekai inhabited by strange creatures--some that want to help him on his journey to regaining his mobility and ability to fly again, and some that just want to weigh him down. And, on this Journey, he finds love, a caterpillar girl. But the creatures wanting to cause him harm, take his love away from him and put her in a cocoon. And, at the end, she comes back at the end as a beautiful butterfly and they finally are able to be together.
And, of course, this being Cirque, there are amazing acts to go with the story line:
Flight of Icarus: Beautiful. This is where Icarus struggles in a net that holds him captive. Anton Chelnokov expresses his emotion so well on this act, it's breathtaking. One of favorite acts on in the show. I nearly started crying just watching it on DVD.
Icarian Games-- Amazing! An act where one man juggles another with his feet. This is the first time I've ever seen foot juggling and it's definitely a sight to see. Another one of my favorites.
Water Meteors--Really fun to watch! An act where three young boys do tricks with what is called a water meteor. They're so talented! I can't see how they never hit each other in the head with one of the meteors or drop them. lol A wonderful act.
Triple Trapeze--This is the act where the Caterpillar girl, Olga, Icarus's love, is taken away from him. It's a test of his love for her through the temptation and beauty of these beautiful spider creatures. 4 girls do a sort of ballet dance on a big trapeze with three parts to it, hence "triple trapeze". This act is beautiful. The strength that these girls must have to hold each other like this for that long of time is astounding.
Gorgian Dance-- Three men do a Gorgian dance...a sort of competition. It's really fun to watch and they look like they're having so much fun. Involves dancing, sword fighting, and fire. The boys of the household will like this act. lol
Body Skating-- Acrobatics performed on a slippery surface making it look as if they were 'skating'. This act is so much fun!! It seems like such innocent fun and the outfits are so amazing!! The music of this act is my favorite. Very upbeat and you can tell the singers are having a fun time. I watch this act sometimes just for the music. And when Icarus goes down the "drain"...I love it! LOL
Acrobatic Pas De Deux--A man and woman perform acrobatics with a feel of romanticism. This is an impressive act, but not really my favorite. I usually just skip over this one. The performers do a wonderful job, though!
Solo on Crutches-- A performance of the Limping Angel on crutches, "fighting" what has Icarus's wings and is trying to hurt him. Not my favorite act, but it definitely has a lot of meaning to the story line. Seeing as the Limping Angel is crippled and doing all these things, it inspired Icarus that he can walk again.
Aerial Straps--Two twins perform an aerial act with straps. One of my favorite performances....one of the best performance I've seen from Cirque period, actually. It's amazing how much strength these men have.
Juggling--I love this juggler!!! He has so much energy jumping around and smiling all the time. He juggles everything from pins to vollyballs, to sombrero hats, to ping pong balls with his mouth! I love this act!
Hand balancing on Canes-- This is where Olga, the caterpillar girl, comes out of her cocoon as a butterfly. She hand balances on canes and also does some of her act on the floor. I love this act. It's really sensual and beautiful. Olga Pihkinko expresses emotion of her character so well. This act Icarus's love performs inspires him to walk again. And they finally get together after all the obstacles that were in their way.
Russian Swings--Acrobatics using two Russian swings. This is an awesome act! How high they could go, risking their lives....it's amazing. This act is performed in celebration of Icarus and Olga finally being together and getting married.
An amazing show with amazing music. The costumes and make-up are spectacular, and The characters are wonderful. My favorite would be Icarus, Olga, and The Skywatcher. I have to say, John Gilkey does an amazing job at portraying craziness. lol If I could give this DVD 10,000 stars I would. Buy this DVD! If you love Cirque, I know you'll love this!
Rating:
Summary: I give it a 5 because of the DVD features
Review: I have seen all of the Cirque shows- some in person, all on video. Without a doubt, Quidam is my favorite. Varekai comes in a close second, tied with Dralion. Interestingly enough, a LOT of what's in Varekai are acts from Dralion and Quidam. It's obvious they would put Olga's hand balancing into the show, since that's her forte', but the hand Acrobatic pas de duex- I recognize a lot of those moves right out of Quidam. Just about all Cirque shows have some sort of arial strap act (which honestly bores me), some sort of trapeze act (which I can never get tired of), some sort of hand balancing act, and a juggling number (also love them). They really did a great job at the music, and the costumes (especially in the body skating) are fantastic. Regarding the clowns, the guy is really funny, the girl (can't think of her name) brings nothing to the act. Hopefully she'll mold into a more interesting character role later. Don't get me wrong- the things I pointed out here don't make this less than an excellent show, I'm just pointing them out because this is a review. The acts are flawless and incredible, and the music and costumes are fantastic. Anyway, I gave this one a 5 because they FINALLY figured out what the DVD format is good for- extras. There's an entire second disc of extras! They packed a lot of great stuff in there- personal interviews with some of the talent (I find it amusing when John Gikley says he doesn't consider himself a clown), and making-of featurettes, multi-angle performances, etc. Bravo on the DVD features!
Rating:
Summary: Varekai: one of the better things i have seen
Review: I haven't seen any show live, but i've watched Quidam and Journey of man on DVD, A behind scenes from La Nouba, also Alegria and Dralion in tv... and Varekai by Hbola.
Varekai doesn't seems like a circus, the plot is quite original, the performances are superb: like the aerial straps act by the twin brothers dressed like birds, The Icarian Games, The Triple Trapeze (A new kind of trapeze, it's longer and can suport almost 3 or 4 performers), The juggling act is amazing (The performer can juggle even with golf balls in his mouth, also with mexican hats), The water meteors are three chinese kids that juggle a chain with two metal endings in each side, amazing, The Flight os Icarus (Aerial act, with a net), The hand balancing act by a girl called Olga from Quidam, The clown acts are funny and original (two of them: the first a magic act that goes wrong all the time, and the second the guy trying to sing and search the spotlight that moves constantly)... And the rest of the characters of the forest within occurs the whole history are wonderfully created. The closing act wonderful.
The stage (A forest made with copper pipes and the lightning are wonderful ) and the lightning are amazing.
The Costumes and the Makeup... not seen in other shows.
The music its outstanding (The CD music it's different, not like the show. Some people doesn't like it, but I think it's one of the most fantastic melodies i've ever heard)
Varekai is an excelent show because it has an unique energy, It brings elements of many cultures, is very aesthetic, and compiles amazing acts. This show begins a modern era in Cirque du Soleil.
The best show in my opinion is Varekai and very closely is Quidam.
(I love the Banquine and the Visversa 'statue' act from Quidam)
I recomend you this three DVDs: Varekai, Quidam and Journey of Man.
¡Ojalá vinieran por Latinoamerica!
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