All heart does not make a good acrobatic show.

I recently brought my mom to see Traces at the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place. She is a little hard of hearing and she finds American English accent hard to understands, so I thought an acrobatic act with very little or no speaking and singing would be perfect.

The show Traces' slogan is "No wires, no net, all heart". Considering that there were no wires and no net, the acrobatic acts were not that spectacular. Sure there were acts that required a lot of training but it was more like a side street performance than an acrobatic/circus act. Perhaps I expected more but to give them credit, I did find the act involving a big metallic ring quite entertaining along with the act with them jumping from one pole to another like monkeys. Some acts with chair balancing, ring jumping, juggling and tumbling were indeed somewhat entertaining but definitely not original. Seen it. The other acts with dancing, singing, comedic lines and skateboard were lame. One can not almost tell if they made a mistake cause there was no recognizable synchronized choreography. The set was chaotic and akin to an abandoned industrial warehouse. No costume of any kind that would be interesting to speak of. On the plus side, they were all young and very pleasing to look at.

I say 2.5 stars out of 5.