A fantastic funeral procession, involving flying angels, an upside-down bicyclist, acrobatic bed jumping juveniles, and a downpour of rubber chickens; this is Cirque de Soleil’s Corteo. Corteo, and Italian word for a ceremonial procession, is a delightful acrobatic journey through a clown’s dream of his own death, and the fantastic parade that entails his funeral. Located within a set of towering blue and yellow circus tents set up in the parking lot of The Forum in Inglewood, this show is a part of tour throughout North America.

Walking into the main event tent, immediately I realize just how small the area inside is. A large circular stage with entrances unto it on two sides divides the audience into two crescents wrapped around the stage, the stage draped with an opaque painted curtain. Minutes before the show even starts, a man and woman proceed with a coffin through the walkways in the audience, while mourners tear through rows of people with tears squirting from their shrouds and covering the crowd. Because of the separated audiences, the exact same scenario is repeated on the opposite side, and can be seen through the opaque curtain easily. But this is only the prelude.

The show begins and one can’t help but be transported into the dream of this clown’s wonderful funeral. Act upon act of fantastic acrobatics, with a tightrope walker walking up the rope at an angle, jugglers juggling in all sorts of formations from side to side to a criss-cross formation, and a beautiful dance of sorts which takes place not on the ground but instead in and on three giant chandeliers as they spin and the dancers spin and climb within them. By far, the most remarkable act of skill and strength was a not-so-standard trapeze act, in which there were no bars, but instead strong men swung and flung the would be trapeze artists to and from, from one man to another across the stage.

If you prefer the more innovative tricks, then imagine men and women spread-eagle within human sized metal rings, rolling around in concentric circles on the stage, never missing a mark; a dance where the dancers flipped head over toe opposite each other while spinning about one another as if in a waltz. For the musically inclined, Corteo offers a variety of beautiful songs in which you’ll find both raging choruses as well as solo singers, as always all the while accompanied by the sounds of a truly fantastic circus.

Corteo is a show of amazing technique, music, and visual beauty, both powerful and humorous, and will not loose your attention for a moment. And neither will the little woman who floats above the audience attached to gigantic balloons.