THE BALLOON MAN

New Shanghai Circus will test your notions of what's possible

 

Young Chinese performers will twist themselves into seemingly impossible contortions and fly through hoops with what looks like the greatest of ease during a show in Longview on Saturday.
from: tdn.com
By The Daily News
Jan. 31, 2013
Longview, WA--Young Chinese performers will twist themselves into seemingly impossible contortions and fly through hoops with what looks like the greatest of ease during a show in Longview on Saturday.
The New Shanghai Circus’ performance will include traditional Chinese acts such as placing performers atop a stack of chairs and forming their bodies into various pretzel shapes.
Chinese acrobatics grew out of traditional rural life in China, where workers fashioned show-off acts from everyday objects like hoops, chairs and plates.
These days, Chinese children start training at acrobatics academies when they’re 7 or 8.
The New Shanghai Circus has a stage show in Branson, Mo., along with this traveling troupe.
According to a news release, the show will include elaborate Chinese yo-yo tricks and one performer playing with a hula hoop while riding a unicycle on a slack wire.
A New York Times review of a 2007 Shanghai Circus performance said, “The two-hour show moves at a brisk pace, hopping from one talent to the next, including human pyramids of pretzeled bodies, balancing acts on wires and a memorable roller-skating duet.”
The New Shanghai Circus, which last performed here in 2005, performs to recorded music — both traditional Chinese and pop. It is not to be confused with the Peking Acrobats, who were accompanied by live Chinese musicians playing traditional numbers during their shows here in 2003 and 2007.