Behind the Good Beginning for 2017 International Exchange of Chinese Acrobatics
Reviews of China’s Excellent Achievement in the Three Top International Circus Festivals
41th Festival International Monte Carlo
The Acrobatic Program Lasso by Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Acrobatic Troupe
Group Photo of Award Winners, Jury and Distinguished Guests
Stage Photo of the Program Icarians & Headstand
On the occasion of celebrating the traditional Chinese Spring Festival, Chinese acrobats set off on their journey to Europe to participate in the three top world circus events in France and Monaco, namely the 41st Monte-Carlo International Circus Festival (MCICF), the 38th “Tomorrow” World Circus Festival (TWCF) in France and the 6th “New Generation” Circus Competition for Young Artists (NGCCYA) in Monaco. Their excellent achievement of one golden prize and two silver prizes has made a good beginning for the international exchange of Chinese acrobatics in 2017.
Representing the top level of traditional circus, new circus and circus competition for teenagers and youngsters in the world, those three circus festivals have become the global sanctuaries in the hearts of acrobats and circus artists. Such constant achievement of excellence as one golden prize and two silver prizes made by Chinese acrobatic programs in those festivals has further enhanced the prestige and influence of Chinese acrobatics in the international arena and aroused the public’s curiosity to know the reason and secret of such success.
Constant Grand Prize Winning Expanded International Influence of Chinese Acrobatics
From January 19 till 29, the 41st MCICF took place in the Principality of Monaco. As the first international circus festival in the World, MCICF was initiated by Prince Rainier III of Monaco in 1974. Thanks to the variety and large-scale feature in participant programs as well as great support from the royal family (Princess Stephanie of Monaco as president of MCICF), MCICF is reputed as “Olympiad of Circus” by professionals in circus and its prime prize “Golden Clown” as “Oscar Award of Circus” as well. Ever since 1981 when China participated in MCICF for the first time, altogether 14 Golden Clowns have been achieved among the total 41 sessions of this annual festival. As the year 2016 coincided with the 40th anniversary of MCICF, all the golden prize-winning programs of previous sessions from all over the world witnessed a reunion. 39 programs from 17 countries such as China, Brazil, Ethiopia, France, USA, Spain, Germany, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Canada and Uzbekistan presented a geographic coverage of five continents and involved aerial acts, ground acts, animal acts, comic acts and magic, among which there were lots of outstanding programs as prize winners in MCICF and other international circus festivals.
At the invitation of the organizing committee of MCICF, China Acrobats Association (CAA) recommended two wonderful programs from Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Acrobatic Troupe (XPCCAT) to the competition and show of this session of MCICF. During the competition and performance of MCICF, the program Swanmen—Human Pyramids adopted lyric and melodious arrangement in music and integrated some elements of dance into such human stacking of high difficulty as group hand balance in triangle, ground hand balance, ground hand balance as decorated arch and trio hand balance with single arm. In every and each performance and competition, this program would invariably win the unanimous recognition and applauses in standing from royal members, jury, guests and audiences in Monaco. The other program Lasso demonstrated a group of lively youngsters who held lassos in hand and painted a beautiful outline with such technique as rolling lasso, fancy lasso and double erects lassos. Their adorable images of sunshine, self-confidence and perseverance won heartfelt cheers of the entire audience. Finally, both programs of excellent artistry won Silver Clown prize, and Prince Albert II of Monaco, who attended the opening ceremony and award evening, conferred the performers from XPCCAT with precious prize.
From January 26 till 29, the 38th TWCF took place in the Phoenix Circus at Paris, France. Initiated in 1977, TWCF has witnessed its 38 sessions so far as an annual festival. From the year 1981, China has participated in TWCF for 35 years in succession and is commonly recognized as the main winner country by international circus community. Ever since 2011, CAA has recommended some selected acrobatic programs as China’s representative and won excellent achievement consecutively. For this latest session, 24 outstanding programs from 22 countries including France, Switzerland, Argentina, China, UK, Germany and Iran made a geographic coverage of four continents and involved such categories as aerial acts, ground acts and comic acts. Among this essence of New Circus art, plenty of programs had won prizes in other international circus festivals.
As CAA recommended, two excellent programs Icarians & Headstand and Antipodism from Zhejiang Folk Art & Acrobatics General Troupe (ZFAAGT) participated in the latest session of TWCF. Since TWCF stresses on innovation, an all-round innovation was implemented in the respects of structure, technique, music, costume and props of both participant programs so that unique technique of high difficulty as well as profound deposit of Chinese culture were fully illustrated. In particular, the program Icarians & Headstand drew its plot from the folkloric legend White Snake Lady, introduced oil paper umbrella, intangible cultural heritage of China, as leading props and adopted original accompaniment as well as contemporary make-up of Peking Opera elements. Six umbrellas and one fan were thrown and juggled on actors’ shoulders and tops of their heads, and such a breakthrough in both technique difficulty and traditional cultural essence of distinct locality won spontaneous acclamation and applause from the organizing committee, jury and whole audience of TWCF and became the silver prize winner among other programs.
From February 4 till 5, the 6th NGCCYA was held in the Principality of Monaco. Initiated in 2012, NGCCYA is the second international circus festival created by the royal family members from Monaco (Its president is Princess Pauline Ducruet, daughter of Princess Stephanie of Monaco who is president of MCICF) in order to provide a platform for the most excellent young acrobats in the world to showcase their talents. This annual circus festival has witnessed success of 6 sessions so far. NGCCYA has gathered excellent artists in acrobatics, circus and magic from all over the world and demonstrated advanced skills in competition. Ever since 2012, China has participated into NGCCYA and achieved outstanding scores on many occasions and for the first time, won golden prize in the 4th session in 2015. For the current session, 19 teenager and youngster programs of excellent quality from 11 countries such as Monaco, Germany, France, Russia, China, Chile and Switzerland were invited, including aerial acts, ground acts, animal acts and comic acts. As CAA recommended, the excellent program of Barre Russe Holding by Class of Xinjiang, Shanghai Circus School (SCS) participated in this NGCCYA. This program is originally choreographed by SCS and involved trainees from Xinjiang Acrobatic Troupe under the sponsored training of SCS. Barre Russe has its source back to Russia and becomes the repertoire in the international circus thanks to its high demand of technique, great difficulty and strong sense of appreciation. As all the trainees from Xinjiang can sing and dance in a perfect way, this program was specially equipped with the musical accompaniment as well as national costume of distinct feature in Xinjiang ethnic groups to highlight the theme of “Eagles in the Snow-capped Mountain”, which was proved to be a good choice in the performance. During the competition, four youngsters of Uygur ethnic group, though for the first time in the international arena, presented a graceful and unrestrained performance and fulfilled a series of skills of high difficulty such as two “duo double somersaults”, three “1080 degree somersaults with twists” and one “triple full-back somersault”. In the two competitions and award performance, before actors responded to the curtain call at the end of their performance, Princess Stephanie and Princess Pauline Ducret would invariably lead the jury, distinguished guests and all the audiences to applaud while standing for quite a long time, which became an exclusive award during this session of NGCCYA. With a stable presentation and excellent performance, this program won the only golden prize as it fully deserved this honor, and it was the second time that Chinese program had won the golden prize in NGCCYA. Both honorable Princesses jointly conferred the prize to the winners from Class of Xinjiang, SCS at the award ceremony.
Adherence to Innovation is Core Source of Prize Achievement
Ever since 1981, Chinese excellent acrobatic programs have participated in the above three international circus festivals for years with numerous awards and prizes. Thus China has become one of the countries who have won most awards. Such success lies in outstanding performance from Chinese actors and actresses as well as the significant influence out of constant active exploration and timely endeavor by Chinese acrobatic circle.
Great support from Ministry of Culture and local governments of all levels has provided powerful safeguard and stimulation for Chinese acrobatic programs to participate in the international circus festivals. All the preparatory parts for international participation from program choreography, preliminary preparation and stimulus system to daily training and talent recruitment mainly rely on the financial support and working guidance from governments of all levels. In an overview of the global circus development, Russia and DPRK, as big power and golden medal dominator in acrobatics, mainly boast on those companies funded by government, which undoubtedly prove to be their national key factors to ensure a stable harvest of golden or silver prize in various circus competitions.
The in-depth reform on cultural system with the development approach in adherence to marketization is the constant motivation to present excellent programs for participation, which was testified through those typical programs in the three festivals. The two programs by XPCCAT had completed two months’ commercial performance tour in Germany soon before their participation in MCICF and would continue their commercial tour in Switzerland only one month after MCICF. As to the two programs by ZFAAGT, they had experienced years of commercial tour in Europe and thus achieved familiarity in the eyes of those European agents of performance. All those excellent Chinese acrobatic programs have achieved recognition from local audience and experience in the international market, and fulfilled unceasing improvement in accordance with the marketing requirement. In this sense, their outstanding score in the top circus arena in the world is a natural result.
More importantly, adherence to innovation is the core source of constant excellent programs in Chinese acrobatics. No matter in MCICF with emphasis on technique or in TWCF with advocacy in innovation, those conservative programs without innovation would eventually lose their charm and get eliminated by the tide of time. Though the program Swanmen—Human Pyramids by XPCCAT and the two programs Icarians & Headstand and Antipodism by ZFAAGT had participated in many circus competitions and acrobatic performances, a brand new theme, art expression and breakthrough on technique difficulty were presented in this year’s sessions, which gave European audience a refreshing surprise. As to the program Holding by Class of Xinjiang of SCS, the complete originality was fully demonstrated in acts, techniques and artistic expression on theme, which showed a totally different artistry from the traditional Barre Russe. In the course of innovation, the unique element of Chinese culture was integrated into the acrobatic technique and art expressions, which gained recognition from jury and audiences. In the three international circus festivals of this year, jury not only admired the high difficulty of Chinese programs but also amazed at their music, costume and art design.
Besides, school education has played an increasingly important role in fostering excellent acrobatic talents and creating wonderful acrobatic programs. Different from the traditional system of fostering actors in acrobatics, the excellent Chinese acrobatic program in NGCCYA this year was the outcome of full-time Class of Xinjiang of SCS. As pupils of SCS for seven years, the four actors in this program have undertaken general knowledge classes as well as daily acrobatic training. School education has not only brought them from a group of kids who have no ideas about acrobatics at all into excellent young acrobats, but also greatly enhanced their cultural temperament and learning capability. As SCS offers such courses as music and dance to better pupils’ artistic sense, its pupils, capable of elegant gestures of dance in addition to acrobatic skills of high difficulty, succeeded in sufficient presentation of amazingly beauty in Chinese acrobatic programs.
