Thursday April 14, 2005

During the last half of my Level 4 adult class (that I started teaching two days after my arrival in Changsha), a new student attended. She introduced herself as Lei and I asked her if she was a student at the university. She said no……..then proceeded to tell me what she did for a living. With some translating through the other students we found out she was an acrobat. She had a friendly and outgoing personality. During breaks she performed parts of her act to the amazement of her classmates.

Because she didn’t have the benefit of the full 16 classes she did not advance enough in her English to pass on to the next level. She assured me she would be back. In March she returned to repeat Level 4 with Marrie as her teacher this time. (I was teaching a business class at that time). The first night she saw me passing her classroom she ran out and hugged me and jumped up and down. She told me she is going to Istanbul, Turkey in May for six months with her acrobatic troupe. The class will finish just in time for her departure.

Last week she invited Marrie, Doug and myself to a preview of their show! We really didn’t know what to expect. I was envisioning “Cirque de Soleil” in a huge arena with a sellout crowd. My experiences in China told me that things never turn out the way you expect them and to stop dreaming!

Thursday night, Lei and her friend Joe met us at our school at 6:30 pm. We hailed a taxi and arrived at the “Acrobats of Hunan Province” compound – an apartment complex complete with a small auditorium where they live and practice. It is a full-time job for many of the older members of the troupe. Lei is 20 and been a member for 8 years. As a senior member she has travelled to Japan, the USA, Australia and Indonesia.

We were led into the auditorium where the acrobats were practicing their acts. Two girls with long whips were putting out candles and knocking the corks off wine bottles. Another girl was laying on her back bouncing basketballs up an ascending frame into a basket about ten feet above her.

We wondered if this was it………..we were the only people in the audience. We were told they were doing two shows, one that night and one the next night for foreign members of the embassies. That sounded impressive. But what about tonight? Turned out it was a full-dress rehearsal with the lights, costumes and music. Wow………we had front row seats!

Just before the show a group of children arrived for the special showing. Altogether there were less than 50 people in the audience.

Lei pointed out the three men who were her bosses. They were watching for every little detail of timing, lighting and sound. I asked her if I could take pictures and she assured me it was ok. Because of the limited amount of people in the audience it was so obvious when my flash went off. I didn’t want to throw anyone off their performance so I didn’t take too many and took them very quickly. That with the constant movement of the performers made for poor quality pics but I still want to put them on here. Just a warning that they are not the best.

The lights dimmed, the curtains closed and the music blasted from the big speakers. Strobe lights flashed around the stage……………and the show began………

In true professional style with glittering costumes and fast-paced music a group of male dancers started off the show, followed by diabolo jugglers, the whip acts and floor acrobats doing flips, cartwheels and somersaults.

The male ensemble performed on two vertical poles. They climbed the poles in mere seconds then bounced back and forth and threw themselves downward to be held only by the pole between their legs. They released their thighs and slid down the pole only to stop about three feet from the floor of the stage. The strength and endurace it took to climb the pole and suspend their bodies horizontally was incredible.

An all girl act juggled golden balls with their legs and feet to the timing of the music. Then the hoola hoop act began of which Lei is a part of. (Terribly blurry - sorry!) Each girl worked with a dozen or more glittering hoola hoops, swinging them around their waist, necks and arms.

Next came the stainless steel rings. They bounced them around and around until they came upright and then they were inside the ring rolling around the stage. (See picture below) At times four of them were going at once and not bumping into each other! The bigger ring held one member in the middle with four others around the outer rim. Incredible!

The best part of the act for me was the girl/boy act using only material suspended from a silver ball that was raised and lowered as they swung high into the air with only the material looped around their arms or waist. I have seen variations of this act on “Cirque de Soleil” and it is amazing.

The show last 90 minutes with various acts and dances. After the show Lei came to greet us with another member of the act, then invited us onstage for a picture. We waited for her to change back into street clothes and she and her friend Joe accompanied us to a local restaurant for drinks.

It was an incredible night that I will not forget. This troupe are future “Cirque de Soleil” performers. They range in age from 14 to early 20’s. When you see these shows in the future you may be watching someone who worked for years practising their art at the “Acrobats of Hunan Province” student complex. Look for Lei, the sweet, charming, bouncy personality with a knockout smile!

Look for another entry coming soon: TIC - This Is China!