You know you've seen a good acrobat show when a small Chinese man juggling flaming batons nearly falls 60 feet to his death, but such is the nature of a Chinese acrobat show. In a country of more than 1 billion people, and my assumption is that over half are qualified acrobats, gymnasts, or entertainers, what is the life of one juggler in the name of entertainment?
Obviously, this is not quite how we see things in the west, but to the magement of the show, this seems to be the nature of the game.
I'm not saying that this was not a well-run, professional production, I'm just saying that the overall lack of safety features for stunts performed many feet in the air added a whole new element of excitement to the show, giving it an overall quality which cannot be reached in a western production.
In case you didn't quite pick it up, our Thursday night was spent at "Era: An Intersection of Time"--a Chinese acrobat show at the Shanghai Circus World. A nifty video is available at www.era-shanghai.com if you're more than curious. This show was billed "If you miss this, you miss Shanghai" so we had to go! If you've ever been to Cirque de Soleil in the states, this show was very similar in the many fantastic stunts and contortions; however, the performers of "Era" demonstrated a quality of heart and genuineness that remains to be seen in the perfectly polished gloss of US performers.
We saw just about everything you could imagine at Era: plate-spinning, contortionist, mini-motorcycles in the cage of death, jumping through hoops, trampoline and balancing acts--you name it, they had it! Sabrina says her favorite part was not so much a particular act as how the multimedia and costumes told a story of the "old" and "new" Shanghai/China; positioning old fashion and styles with new and trendy. John liked that they didn't get it perfect every time. At one point the show broke into a West Side Story-esque "Sharks" vs "Jets" style fight scene--great! And when two male acrobats knocked a ring off the stage while trying to jump through it, the "referee" of the skit made them stop and do push-ups for interrupting the flow of things. Overall, we enjoyed how much fun the performers seemed to be having. This was not difficult to see since we had front row, floow level seats! Sabrina just prayed the whole time that nothing on fire was flung out into the audience and no one's guide wires broke!
If anyone was headed out to Shanghai, we would make "Era" a "you can't miss it" attraction. That may be rather unlikely, so we will keep our adulations to a minimum. It was just nice to see a show where the troupe took risks and trusted each other completely while having fun and engaging the crowd.
This is Sabrina's last weekend here, so we will wrap up our joint adventures soon. . .
Obviously, this is not quite how we see things in the west, but to the magement of the show, this seems to be the nature of the game.
I'm not saying that this was not a well-run, professional production, I'm just saying that the overall lack of safety features for stunts performed many feet in the air added a whole new element of excitement to the show, giving it an overall quality which cannot be reached in a western production.
In case you didn't quite pick it up, our Thursday night was spent at "Era: An Intersection of Time"--a Chinese acrobat show at the Shanghai Circus World. A nifty video is available at www.era-shanghai.com if you're more than curious. This show was billed "If you miss this, you miss Shanghai" so we had to go! If you've ever been to Cirque de Soleil in the states, this show was very similar in the many fantastic stunts and contortions; however, the performers of "Era" demonstrated a quality of heart and genuineness that remains to be seen in the perfectly polished gloss of US performers.
We saw just about everything you could imagine at Era: plate-spinning, contortionist, mini-motorcycles in the cage of death, jumping through hoops, trampoline and balancing acts--you name it, they had it! Sabrina says her favorite part was not so much a particular act as how the multimedia and costumes told a story of the "old" and "new" Shanghai/China; positioning old fashion and styles with new and trendy. John liked that they didn't get it perfect every time. At one point the show broke into a West Side Story-esque "Sharks" vs "Jets" style fight scene--great! And when two male acrobats knocked a ring off the stage while trying to jump through it, the "referee" of the skit made them stop and do push-ups for interrupting the flow of things. Overall, we enjoyed how much fun the performers seemed to be having. This was not difficult to see since we had front row, floow level seats! Sabrina just prayed the whole time that nothing on fire was flung out into the audience and no one's guide wires broke!
If anyone was headed out to Shanghai, we would make "Era" a "you can't miss it" attraction. That may be rather unlikely, so we will keep our adulations to a minimum. It was just nice to see a show where the troupe took risks and trusted each other completely while having fun and engaging the crowd.
This is Sabrina's last weekend here, so we will wrap up our joint adventures soon. . .
posted by Sabrina at 6:01 AM
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