Shanghai Circus opens New Year on Broadway

NEW YORK, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Circus traditions in China date back more than 2,500 years.

Trick horse riding performed during the Western Zhou Dynasty was gradually expanded to include other acrobatic arts as evidenced by terra cotta figurines of performers that have been found in the tombs of early rulers and nobles.

The New Shanghai Circus, performing at Broadway's New Victory Theater through Jan. 12, draws on these ancient traditions, particularly on the Hai style of acrobatics that originated in the Lunar New Year harvest festivals of the Han dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.). This included tumblers, contortionists, plate-spinners, jugglers, and balancing acts.

The current repertory of the 20-member company, whose members are mostly from Nanchong and Mongolia, includes some modern additions, such as unicycles pedaled by acrobats as they perform a bowl flipping act, bicycles used in balancing acts involving up to a dozen riders, and archery feats, a Mongolian specialty.

But many of the acts are the same ones enjoyed by audiences ever since the circus, originally restricted to the imperial court, emerged as popular entertainment in the Song Dynasty about 1000 A.D. Traveling circuses performed wherever crowds gathered -- markets, city squares, temples, and opera houses -- and for the past 10 years the New Shanghai Circus has been touring the world.

The two-hour show for audiences of all ages opens with a traditional lion dance with two of those fearful but adorable beasts powered by acrobats hidden beneath elaborately festive costumes. This familiar feature of Chinese New Year celebrations in Chinatowns around the world -- accompanied by pounding drums, clashing cymbals and wailing flutes -- creates a special excitement.

The rest of the evening is devoted to daunting derring-do, much of it male, such as intricate group contortions, diving and somersaulting through hoops at gradually increased heights, and aerial acrobatics and headlong falls performed on leather straps that look like ribbons suspended from colorful lanterns secured to the stage ceiling.

Another hoop act has a woman hula hoop virtuoso spinning almost a dozen rings around her waist, arms and legs.

In a lovely demonstration of combined athletics and art, a woman contortionist manages to create a "pagoda of candles" with the aid of two acolytes, balancing lighted candles arranged in candelabra on her hands, feet and forehead while lying prone on her stomach. Two other women performers created a "pagoda of bowls" by using their feet to flip bowls in ever-higher stacks atop their heads.

The young women who spin plates atop slender bamboo wands never let one slip in the course of performing all sorts of contortions. One is able to keep eight plates spinning while bending backward from an aerial perch to pluck flowers from a bouquet with her teeth while the audience actually holds its collective breath. There is only one word for it -- incredible!

It's a word that also applies to the skill of a strongman in shooting out lit candles with arrows from his medieval-looking longbow. Other archers display their ability to shoot out flames by arrows shot with their feet, bend powerfully resisting longbows made of metal around their bodies and handle heavy halberds -- acts that must have delighted Genghis Khan centuries ago.

For variety's sake, two women roller skate atop a 6-foot wide table, performing whirlwind turns and leaps with as much ease as though they had the entire Rockefeller Center rink at their disposal. For a finale, a group of martial arts specialists demonstrates a whole range of awesome maneuvers that will thrill devotees of this ancient Far Eastern specialty.

Adding to the exotic aspect of the performance is a range of Chinese costumes in brilliant, clashing colors and a backdrop of misty photomontages depicting one of the central reception halls of Beijing's Forbidden City, the Great Wall, ornamental lily ponds arched by bridges, and other postcard visions of China summoning up a world of wonder and delight.