Later, as the plane rose over Las Vegas, he peered down at the city. And it's the experience that most thrilled and has had the longest memory for Walter and the rest of us. Walter has loved movement and dance since he began studying with Tucson's Orts Theatre of Dance several years ago. The custom-built theater at the Bellagio has a pool that changes shapes from round to angular, sizes from big to small and depths from 25 feet to zero. Hydraulic lifts allow the pool to become, noiselessly and within seconds, a standard stage floor.
Cast members look as though they are walking on water one moment, being swallowed up by it the next.
The pool's glass-like surface never seems to be ruffled by high divers breaking it, synchronized swimmers moving it or acrobats skimming it. And it is blissfully silent as the international cast of 75 moves effortlessly from air to water to land and back again. And that it does. All the magic of theater, the power it has to create illusions and provoke emotions, is packed into the 90-minute show. Much of that is due to the fluidity of the trapeze artists, the twisting moves of the contortionists, the amazing language of silent clowns and the dance-like moves of divers, fire eaters and synchronized swimmers.