Hilary Booth... of course!

Well, I've clearly watched LoTR and X-Men too many times. I was watching the other Cirque DVD I had taken out from the library, "The Journey of Man". I was nicely listening to the lovely voice of the narrator, stopped and realized "Sir Ian!" Indeed, when the credits finally rolled around, Ian McKellen was listed as the narrator. Some voices are more recognizable than others, I guess.

From searches online, I determined the source of my frustration with "Journey of Man". The film was originally released as an IMAX movie, not as a filming of the stage production, like the other one I watched. The whole production was very high end, but the scenery and backdrops tended to distract me from the Cirque acts. I loved the acrobats dressed as statues on the swimming pool. They had an amazing amount of strength and leverage and control.

The next two episodes of "Fire Within" reaired on Bravo, showing what happens when the new people arrived at Cirque. Imagine being poor Gareth and Ashley trying to learn an ancient form of acrobatics in a couple of months and then seeing the people you're supposed to share the stage with doing full twisting whatevers all over the place. Oleg and Tatiana reminded me oddly of a pairs routine with their lifts and twists.