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Bending over Backwards
The audience at the Chaoyang Theater was restless at a recent performance. When the lights finally dimmed, there was a shriek of joy.
A new acrobatic show called Flying Acrobatics by the Deyang Acrobatics Troupe from Sichuan province, Southwest China, is something special. All 59 performers have graduated from the Acrobatic Training School, where students begin training at age 5. The troupe has won wide acclaim and has toured
more than 40 countries and regions.
Acrobatic performers from Sichuan province will stun Beijing audiences with their amazing skills.
It's not often you can see a man balancing upside down on one hand atop a half-dozen chairs stacked frighteningly close to the edge of the stage, or watch a girl contorting her body into leg-splitting poses, holding candelabras on her hands and feet.
Directed by Li Longyin, with choreography and costumes by Shaga Ayi and Wen Ge, the one-hour show begins with a mysterious sacrificial ceremony. Birds symbolizing freedom hover in the sky and a tribal king walks slowly to the center of the stage. As the light catches the glint of pointed,
gold-encased fingertips, the row of bodies is transformed into a wave.
The high-energy dances and acrobatics, enhanced with dramatic lighting and spectacular costumes, pay tribute to the history and culture of the Sichuan people. Folk melodies were played and a number of beautiful traditional handicrafts such as porcelain, dragons and lions were used as stage props.
"Sichuan is rich in natural and cultural legacies. Absorbing the spirits of the sun, the sky and the earth, the place is marvelous," says Li Longyin.
Li had planned to travel around Sichuan before producer Zhou Xiaoheng, who leads the Deyang Acrobatics Troupe, persuaded him to join the show.
Li says that the color gold, which features so prominently in the production, is a reference to Sanxingdui, a prehistoric site near Chengdu, capital of Sichuan.
In 1929, a farmer found a piece of jade while digging a ditch. That was the first clue leading to the discovery of an ancient kingdom, which once lasted some 1,500 years but disappeared mysteriously about 5,000 years ago.
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