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Ovo – Cirque du Soleil

Opening set of the Cirque du Soleil show, Ovo. The audience sees a giant egg that fills the backstage area. Two tall flowers with bees sway under lights that look like hibiscus flowers.

by Kim Davis

Stand In the Traffic: A Himalayan Adoption Story by Kate Saunders shows a Kathmandu street from a high vantage point. And it displays the Sarton Prize as a finalist in the memoir category

I was invited to attend Ovo, a Cirque du Soleil show that is currently traveling around Texas. It is another instance of the cool stuff that can happen when you get to know and work with interesting people. The most important part of the publishing journey, for me, is the relationships I’ve formed. It is truly delightful to be able to meet up at conferences and events, but perhaps even more fun is spending time with you all outside of our books and our “work.” This past weekend, I had the pleasure of joining one of our 2020 authors, Katie Harris and her family. You will know her as Kate Saunders (her pseudonym), author of Stand in the Traffic: A Himalayan Adoption Story.

If you’ve read Katie’s book, you’ll know that she has a son. Her real son is called Jesse, and he’s the same guy from the book, except now he’s grown. When he was a little boy, he took a journey with his mom to Kathmandu to adopt his sister. They stayed there for a year due to unforeseen circumstances… Katie was too young, as an unmarried woman, to adopt a child, but nobody explained this to her before she arrived in Nepal. She and her amazing 6-7 year-old boy stayed in that foreign country for a year. They survived a little revolution and had some incredible experiences while they were there.

https://www.cirquedusoleil.com/ovo

So, back to Cirque du Soleil!

It was a magical evening. Katie invited me (Kim) to attend one of Jesse’s shows while it’s in Texas. He is one of the Chinese pole performers. My school friend, Shelley, joined us at the last minute along with Katie’s mom, Rhonda, and Dr. Douglas Constance from the SHSU Sociology department. It was fantastic to reconnect with all those people. I didn’t know Dr. Constance before, but we laughed like old friends anyway.

And Jesse was wonderful. It’s great to finally meet this guy along with his fearless girlfriend who is a trapeze artist! Jesse is also fearless in his act as he hangs onto that pole by just his ankles, then drops to inches above the floor. Here are a few photos from the evening.

Me, Katie, Rhonda, Shelley, Jesse, and Nancy (I think!)
The whole cast taking a bow. They need 20 18-wheelers to travel with that massive set.
This is Jesse’s Crew, but I didn’t get a good still photo of the Chinese Poles. I got good video…
Nancy (?) is a trapeze artist!
This “spider” is a contortionist.