Cirque’s astounding acrobatics

By John Benson

Some crowds will come back year after year to see the show.

After more than 30 years managing The Golden Dragon Acrobats, which features talented performers from the People’s Republic of China, Bill Fegan is still amazed at some of the new routines coming out of Asia.

The latest spectacle acts as the cornerstone of The Golden Dragon Acrobats’ new show “Cirque D’Or,” which comes to Youngstown for shows Thursday and Friday at the Chevrolet Centre.

“One of the new acts is what they call Chinese Ballet,” said Fegan, calling from Raton, N.M. “It’s not like our ballet, but a girl is on her toes and she leaps up and lands on the outstretched palm of a boy.

“Yet she’s standing there on one toe. It’s pretty amazing and something I’ve never seen before. It’s just incredible and almost impossible.”

For decades, the Chinese Acrobats have been known for a variety of physical activities ranging from simple tumbling and leaping through hoops to climbing up 30 feet in the air on a stack of chairs and balancing with one hand on the top. Other acts feature talented performers doing acrobatic feats with everyday items – plates, cups, saucers, tables – as well as girls spinning plates on long sticks and backbreaking contortionists.

“These kids start training at 7 or 8 years old and the first thing they do is learn how to walk on their hands as well as we walk on our feet,” Fegan said. “Then they develop their individual skills. It’s all choreographed, and it’s very physical.”

Considering the Olympics return this year in Beijing, China, Fegan is hoping the idea of seeing the Asian country’s ancient art of acrobatics firsthand won’t be lost on the public.

“We haven’t heard too much about that connection but we certainly feel this is the year to show any Chinese culture in our country,” Fegan said. “And the Chinese acrobats and Chinese opera are the two things that we know about other than the Olympic athletes.”

The ancient art of Chinese acrobatics began in China thousands of years ago. In fact, many historical records provide evidence for the development of Chinese acrobatics as far back as the Xia Dynasty (4,000 years ago); however, the art form did not become widely popular until approximately 2,500 years ago when it began to capture the attention of the country’s powerful emperors.

Fegan said that today The Golden Dragon Acrobats have captured the world’s attention.

“It isn’t a circus, but it is a circus act,” Fegan said. “We have nothing like it in our country, except I’d say the closest thing is some of the very fancy college cheerleading teams do some of the pyramids and balancing. That’s kind of as close as we get to it, and there’s little of that in our acrobatic show but it certainly isn’t a total thing.”

Fegan said the outfit is unique and thus finds an audience wherever it plays.

“Even if it weren’t different people would come because it’s always so much fun,” Fegan said. “It’s so amazing. We have towns that do it every year, 10 years in a row because the audiences want to see it again and again. It’s like going to see the circus every year.

“You go because you know there will be elephants, trapeze acts, but still you want to see it because it’s spellbinding in many cases. We like that terror that goes through us. So it’s just family entertainment and something you don’t mind seeing over and over.”