Chinese Acrobats (long)
Alright, so I don't write very much. This ought to balance accounts a bit. This past Saturday, I and my ladies went to go see the National Chinese Acrobat Troupe perform over at GMU. Following is a description of the show. Oh, and before hand, Rh recommended Red, Hot, and Blue. Went there. Had the dry ribs since antuvschle had been talking about them recently. Pretty good. Anyway, here is the review...
The Fu Hsing Chinese Acrobats Troupe was founded on July 1, 1980, as approved by the Executive Yuan of the Republic of China. With the merger of the National Fu Hsing Dramatic Arts Academy and the National Kuo Kuang Academy of Arts, the troupe's name was changed to the National Chinese Acrobatic Troupe of the Republic of China on Taiwan.
The first set was two ladies in a large transparent ball on a small platform. They did various bends and posturing. Outside the ball, various other ladies, with a mask on the back of their heads and one in each hand, also postured, though in a less acrobatic fashion. One thing that I found odd in several places during the show was that a lot of the people seemed to be more just dancing or posing than doing anything particularly acrobatic. Another was the orchestrated music which didn't seem Chinese to me and, at times, varied between something like Steve Miller Band's Space Intro and some of Queen's more orchestrated numbers. Anyway, this set did little for me.
The second set was a lady hanging from two silk banners hung from above. She did various trapeze type things. Competent but not too exciting.
The third set was more like what I expected. Bunch of guys doing jumps and rolls and such. Then they brought out a flaming hoop and jumped through that. Then several hoops in parallel with blades around the edges and flaming. Things were looking better. Did that for a bit, then blindfolded one guy and let him jump through and be caught by another blindfolded guy. Nice set.
Next there was a bunch of ladies with 'floral plates'. In each hand, they held three long, thin wands. At the end of each wand was a plate, which they kept spinning. Presumably there was a bit of ridge on the bottom of the plates, since some of the angles that they held the plates were pretty steep. And then two couples came out and danced. Well, that's exciting. But then you notice that the flower ladies are not just posturing but rolling around or passing the sticks behind their backs or such all the while keeping the plates spinning. Fairly nice once you realize that the dancers, despite their brighter costumes, are not the point.
Next was a group balancing poles that were about two and a half times their height on one hand or on a foot or on their heads and moving it between those three. And a portion of them were passing a pole from head to head. All very nice. Before leaving they tossed in what almost amounted to a geek act. Two guys with thin metal wands (over a yard long) tried to shove them through a third guy only to have them bend instead. Then they brought out a trident, shoved it into a piece of wood to prove it was real, took off the wood and stood it pointing up, and balanced another guy on top of it horizontally. Not a mark on him.
The last thing before the intermission was people on bikes doing varying balancing things. Did not really add anything to an art that has been in this country for years. Though managing to balance about ten people on one was reasonably impressive.
Directly after the intermission, they started with drumming. Three drums along the back. Nice large stuffed Chinese lions leaning on the outside drums and laying on the middle one. Drumming was nice. Oh, wait, those aren't stuffed. The lions were two people each in a costume running and prancing around. A couple of one person smaller lions also appeared. The bigger lions went down to the audience and played a bit. If you have small kids, spring for the orchestra seats.
Next was foot juggling. Juggled a cylinder, check. Juggled a table, check. Both done competently. As with a lot of the rest of the show, they would do something and you would think, that's ok. Then they would go at least one better. One better here was juggling a paper umbrella. Looked tricky with the asymmetrical shape and the really thin edge. Spun it around the axis, the turned it ninety degrees and flipped it that way. Very good. Then brought out a pole. Hmm, just a long thin cylinder...well, until they put a person sitting on either end and the rotated it. Nice bit of work.
Next piece of juggling was called diablo. Ok, this isn't what I thought was called diablo, but is still familiar. Basically, you have a large (say 6" diameter) butterfly yo-yo with the string removed. Tie each end of the string to a stick. Balance yo-yo on the string. Hold the sticks. Then you can roll the yo-yo up and down the string, toss the yo-yo up in the air, catch it. I've seen lots of amateur jugglers playing with these. These did have some nice toss, spin in a circle, then catch routines, but still just competent. Well, except for the two drops. The first gal just basically cleared off the stage after. The second one went through her whole sequence again and did it right. Nice recovery. Ok, but then they started winging them around between themselves across the big stage. I'm still not a big fan of diablo, but it was pretty well done.
Ok, bring out a chest-high stand. Place four champagne bottle on top at the corners (oh, and they clinked the bottles to show they were glass). Place a chair so that the four legs rest on the bottles. Have a guy stand on the chair. Ta-da! Well, ok, he takes another chair, places it upside-down, so that the front edge of the seat rests on top of the first chair's back. Climbs up to the second chair. Ta-da! Sets a third chair so that the four legs balance on the second chair's legs. Climbs up. Ta-da! Next two chairs follow similar pattern. I'm not sure they really add much to the challenge besides a slight increase in precision, but it does put him higher. By now the chairs are being handed up on a pole. Ok, this leaves the fifth chair right-side up. The sixth chair is placed with the back legs on the front edge of the fifth's seat and leaned back to rest. By the way, the guy is a ham. He makes a show of leaning on the seat and having it slide off, then catching himself. Ok, places the chair and does a hand stand on top of it. Sits in the V of the sixth chair. Makes a show of pulling out a rag, mopping his brow, wringing out the rag. Steps back to the fifth chair. Flips the sixth chair over (front legs on edge of fifth's seat, then leaned forward). Does another hand stand, plus some other slow motion parallel bar time moves all on just his hands. Ok, I'm not sure about all the detail of the seventh chair. I think is just resting two legs on the sixth and he supporting himself with one hand on each. And at some point he was supporting himself with just one hand. Dunno. But it was pretty cool.
The next set was more relaxing to counterbalance the tension of the last. You know how walking through the streets of India and all the fakirs around doing various tricks? What, you haven't been to India? Hmm, neither have I, but you get the idea. It was like walking down a street in China with all these entertainers doing various types juggling. All low key, but different things going on wherever you looked. Balancing and spinning china bowls, small and large. Spinning spears bounced on arms. Four and five ball. Spinning weighted cloths. More. Plus there was a sewn together costume of two wrestlers. You knew that something wasn't right by the way they threw each other around. First I thought it was one guy, with the other a fake. Then I switched people. Neither was right. It was one guy with his legs being one guy's legs and his arms being the other guy's legs, with from the torso up being fake. Didn't figure it out until he stood up and grinned. The whole thing was nice variety without anything being outstanding. Just a melange.
Then a magician came on the stage. I think his name is Lo Jih-Hung (aka Dante Law) for those of you up on your Chinese magicians/entertainers. He was pretty good, reminding me of a Chinese Harry Anderson (magic and comedy all in one). He did several minor things which I'm not going to go into. He did grab one guy from the audience. The mark and one of the assistants held a cloth between them. Lo dumped uncooked rice onto it. Ran a scoop a number of times through the rice, slowly turning the rice into puffed rice (I think...might have been pop corn). Then proceeded to have the mark join him in eating some. Then stuff's the mark's pockets with it. Then, when the mark is about back to his seat, returns his wallet to him. The big trick was the magician put a person in a basket, shoved swords through it, removed them, pulled person out intact. Except that there was a cloth over the basket as the person was put in. Then the cloth was taken off stage with someone obviously hiding behind it. Then after the sword bit, the cloth was brought back with someone apparently behind, but was dropped half way and no one was there. Drapes cloth. Removes lid. Steps in basket to show it is empty. Puts lid back. Raises it with cloth. Removes cloth. New person standing there. All well done. Oh, and likes firecrackers.
Then they closed with some human pyramid stuff and one person holding half a dozen all hanging off him or standing up. What you would expect from acrobats, but pretty low key after all the rest that we had seen.
During the curtain call, they came out waving small U.S. and Taiwanese flags [the red Taiwanese flag, that is] and then, after they were all on the stage, handed them out to the people in front.
All and all a very good show and worth seeing if you have the chance.
The Fu Hsing Chinese Acrobats Troupe was founded on July 1, 1980, as approved by the Executive Yuan of the Republic of China. With the merger of the National Fu Hsing Dramatic Arts Academy and the National Kuo Kuang Academy of Arts, the troupe's name was changed to the National Chinese Acrobatic Troupe of the Republic of China on Taiwan.
The first set was two ladies in a large transparent ball on a small platform. They did various bends and posturing. Outside the ball, various other ladies, with a mask on the back of their heads and one in each hand, also postured, though in a less acrobatic fashion. One thing that I found odd in several places during the show was that a lot of the people seemed to be more just dancing or posing than doing anything particularly acrobatic. Another was the orchestrated music which didn't seem Chinese to me and, at times, varied between something like Steve Miller Band's Space Intro and some of Queen's more orchestrated numbers. Anyway, this set did little for me.
The second set was a lady hanging from two silk banners hung from above. She did various trapeze type things. Competent but not too exciting.
The third set was more like what I expected. Bunch of guys doing jumps and rolls and such. Then they brought out a flaming hoop and jumped through that. Then several hoops in parallel with blades around the edges and flaming. Things were looking better. Did that for a bit, then blindfolded one guy and let him jump through and be caught by another blindfolded guy. Nice set.
Next there was a bunch of ladies with 'floral plates'. In each hand, they held three long, thin wands. At the end of each wand was a plate, which they kept spinning. Presumably there was a bit of ridge on the bottom of the plates, since some of the angles that they held the plates were pretty steep. And then two couples came out and danced. Well, that's exciting. But then you notice that the flower ladies are not just posturing but rolling around or passing the sticks behind their backs or such all the while keeping the plates spinning. Fairly nice once you realize that the dancers, despite their brighter costumes, are not the point.
Next was a group balancing poles that were about two and a half times their height on one hand or on a foot or on their heads and moving it between those three. And a portion of them were passing a pole from head to head. All very nice. Before leaving they tossed in what almost amounted to a geek act. Two guys with thin metal wands (over a yard long) tried to shove them through a third guy only to have them bend instead. Then they brought out a trident, shoved it into a piece of wood to prove it was real, took off the wood and stood it pointing up, and balanced another guy on top of it horizontally. Not a mark on him.
The last thing before the intermission was people on bikes doing varying balancing things. Did not really add anything to an art that has been in this country for years. Though managing to balance about ten people on one was reasonably impressive.
Directly after the intermission, they started with drumming. Three drums along the back. Nice large stuffed Chinese lions leaning on the outside drums and laying on the middle one. Drumming was nice. Oh, wait, those aren't stuffed. The lions were two people each in a costume running and prancing around. A couple of one person smaller lions also appeared. The bigger lions went down to the audience and played a bit. If you have small kids, spring for the orchestra seats.
Next was foot juggling. Juggled a cylinder, check. Juggled a table, check. Both done competently. As with a lot of the rest of the show, they would do something and you would think, that's ok. Then they would go at least one better. One better here was juggling a paper umbrella. Looked tricky with the asymmetrical shape and the really thin edge. Spun it around the axis, the turned it ninety degrees and flipped it that way. Very good. Then brought out a pole. Hmm, just a long thin cylinder...well, until they put a person sitting on either end and the rotated it. Nice bit of work.
Next piece of juggling was called diablo. Ok, this isn't what I thought was called diablo, but is still familiar. Basically, you have a large (say 6" diameter) butterfly yo-yo with the string removed. Tie each end of the string to a stick. Balance yo-yo on the string. Hold the sticks. Then you can roll the yo-yo up and down the string, toss the yo-yo up in the air, catch it. I've seen lots of amateur jugglers playing with these. These did have some nice toss, spin in a circle, then catch routines, but still just competent. Well, except for the two drops. The first gal just basically cleared off the stage after. The second one went through her whole sequence again and did it right. Nice recovery. Ok, but then they started winging them around between themselves across the big stage. I'm still not a big fan of diablo, but it was pretty well done.
Ok, bring out a chest-high stand. Place four champagne bottle on top at the corners (oh, and they clinked the bottles to show they were glass). Place a chair so that the four legs rest on the bottles. Have a guy stand on the chair. Ta-da! Well, ok, he takes another chair, places it upside-down, so that the front edge of the seat rests on top of the first chair's back. Climbs up to the second chair. Ta-da! Sets a third chair so that the four legs balance on the second chair's legs. Climbs up. Ta-da! Next two chairs follow similar pattern. I'm not sure they really add much to the challenge besides a slight increase in precision, but it does put him higher. By now the chairs are being handed up on a pole. Ok, this leaves the fifth chair right-side up. The sixth chair is placed with the back legs on the front edge of the fifth's seat and leaned back to rest. By the way, the guy is a ham. He makes a show of leaning on the seat and having it slide off, then catching himself. Ok, places the chair and does a hand stand on top of it. Sits in the V of the sixth chair. Makes a show of pulling out a rag, mopping his brow, wringing out the rag. Steps back to the fifth chair. Flips the sixth chair over (front legs on edge of fifth's seat, then leaned forward). Does another hand stand, plus some other slow motion parallel bar time moves all on just his hands. Ok, I'm not sure about all the detail of the seventh chair. I think is just resting two legs on the sixth and he supporting himself with one hand on each. And at some point he was supporting himself with just one hand. Dunno. But it was pretty cool.
The next set was more relaxing to counterbalance the tension of the last. You know how walking through the streets of India and all the fakirs around doing various tricks? What, you haven't been to India? Hmm, neither have I, but you get the idea. It was like walking down a street in China with all these entertainers doing various types juggling. All low key, but different things going on wherever you looked. Balancing and spinning china bowls, small and large. Spinning spears bounced on arms. Four and five ball. Spinning weighted cloths. More. Plus there was a sewn together costume of two wrestlers. You knew that something wasn't right by the way they threw each other around. First I thought it was one guy, with the other a fake. Then I switched people. Neither was right. It was one guy with his legs being one guy's legs and his arms being the other guy's legs, with from the torso up being fake. Didn't figure it out until he stood up and grinned. The whole thing was nice variety without anything being outstanding. Just a melange.
Then a magician came on the stage. I think his name is Lo Jih-Hung (aka Dante Law) for those of you up on your Chinese magicians/entertainers. He was pretty good, reminding me of a Chinese Harry Anderson (magic and comedy all in one). He did several minor things which I'm not going to go into. He did grab one guy from the audience. The mark and one of the assistants held a cloth between them. Lo dumped uncooked rice onto it. Ran a scoop a number of times through the rice, slowly turning the rice into puffed rice (I think...might have been pop corn). Then proceeded to have the mark join him in eating some. Then stuff's the mark's pockets with it. Then, when the mark is about back to his seat, returns his wallet to him. The big trick was the magician put a person in a basket, shoved swords through it, removed them, pulled person out intact. Except that there was a cloth over the basket as the person was put in. Then the cloth was taken off stage with someone obviously hiding behind it. Then after the sword bit, the cloth was brought back with someone apparently behind, but was dropped half way and no one was there. Drapes cloth. Removes lid. Steps in basket to show it is empty. Puts lid back. Raises it with cloth. Removes cloth. New person standing there. All well done. Oh, and likes firecrackers.
Then they closed with some human pyramid stuff and one person holding half a dozen all hanging off him or standing up. What you would expect from acrobats, but pretty low key after all the rest that we had seen.
During the curtain call, they came out waving small U.S. and Taiwanese flags [the red Taiwanese flag, that is] and then, after they were all on the stage, handed them out to the people in front.
All and all a very good show and worth seeing if you have the chance.