KURIOS Captivates Variety Kids

At Variety – the Children’s Charity one of the ways we bring joy to Aussie kids is through fun and exciting events. Often for a child with additional needs or sensitivities, outings can be stressful and upsetting for both them and their family. We do our best to host and facilitate inclusive and exciting opportunities for families to get out and about to create special memories for kids who might otherwise miss out.

Our friends from Cirque du Soleil reached out to us recently to invite some of our Variety families along to see their brand-new show KURIOS. Safe to say the show is a hit as confirmed by Variety Kid, Noah!

Noah’s mum wrote to us after we sent the family along to check out the show. Here’s what she had to say…

“A huge thank you from our family for the most amazing experience at Cirque du Soleil.

Noah has ADHD, dyslexia and anxiety, and has had a bit of a rough start to the year, as the grade 3’s are practicing for Naplan testing. The complexity is too much for Noah, who has to work really hard to decode the simplest of words. It has made him really anxious, and although he is working with a private tutor, reading is very difficult.

He was lucky enough to be involved in the Variety SHINE Intensive Program this January, which he just loved, and wanted to spend the entire holidays there.

When I picked him up from school yesterday, I told him that his friends at Variety had heard how hard he has been trying, and that they had a very special surprise for him – to see a performance by Cirque du Soleil. We have been to a regular circus show before, which he liked and when I told him this would be the best circus he will ever see. He was super excited.

After school he had his weekly session with his specialist tutor, and she could not believe how well he was reading and how he was blending his sounds. He was so proud of himself for being selected for a prize that it propelled him to work even harder. I couldn’t believe it. He often struggles to read a simple sentence, but he was able to read 3 sentences at a time and persevere to sound out the words that he would usually give up on – so lovely to see!

Straight from his tutor, we made our way to Flemington to the big top with a stop off at McDonald’s on the way. Noah had decided he ‘needed’ to bring his stuffed monkey and Mandy the blue toy poodle doll to also watch the show, so that they could learn some tricks!

As soon as we saw the tent, he became even more excited and took in everything around him.

Once the show started he was mesmerised and could not wipe the smile off his face. He was clapping and cheering the whole time.

He loves watching people do parkour on the internet and said that he thought the performers were even better than the parkour people he likes.

His favourites were the lady who rode the bike in the air, the trampoline with the guy who did a giant zombie flip and the invisible circus – which he giggled his head off at!

His sister Ella is 12 and loves drama and acting. She is in an intensive drama/performance program at school where she is learning about different types of performing. They have just learnt about mime, and she couldn’t believe that she was able to pick out the different styles of performing all mixed together in Cirque du Soleil and how every part of the stage was used. She couldn’t wait to go to school and tell her teacher all about it.

The performance was so wonderful and it had Noah captivated the entire time. He did not have any trouble with focus, and his usual in-attention and fidgeting was replaced by wonder and amazement. As a family, we would not usually do something like attend a performance, as Noah is usually bored at half time and starts talking/can’t sit still. Seeing him have such a great time and seeing how much he has talked about it since has made me realise just how much he enjoys shows, how it has sparked his imagination and the joy it bought him.

He selected a pair of steampunk goggles from the gift shop and has not taken them off since. He wore them home, to bed, all morning and they are currently sitting in the car, so that he can put them on the second he gets home from school.

Noah has also come away from the performance wanting to learn how to ‘wolf whistle’ so that we can go back again, and he can wolf whistle loudly to cheer the performers on… and has also been practicing since the crack of dawn!

Once again, we cannot thank you enough for including us and please pass on our sincere thanks to the amazing team of KURIOS.

Here are some photos from last night – also featuring the stuffed toys, who didn’t want to miss out!”

We want to give a huge thank you to the Cirque du Soleil team for enabling some of our families to share this incredible experience.

To find out more about KURIOS, head to Cirque du Soleil’s website.