“The longest journey begins with the first step,” said Confucius, the great philosopher who even inspired us to make a circus programme dedicated to him with the Shandong Acrobatic Group.
That long journey that we covered during the last twenty five years with nearly 2000 Chinese Circus artists, was a beautiful journey in which we implemented new steps with each new programme that have given the current Chinese circus a new, additional dimension, in terms of appearance, lighting, costumes, choreography and content!
Our first encounter with the Chinese Circus was actually the beginning of that remarkable journey. We dined in Wuhan on 4 November 1986 with Ms. Xia Juhua, the legend who is now 75 years old and who was leader of the Wuhan Acrobatic Group. She was, and is, therefore one of the most important women in China in the context of culture. She was one of the most famous Chinese acrobats even at a very young age. They called her the Queen of the Pagoda Bowls. She was honoured all over the world. Mao, who attended her performances often, was one of her big admirers. She also worked on the acrobatics film “THE SWALLOW SPREADS HER WINGS IN THE SPRING”.
She has always strived to get acrobatics recognised as an art, in the same way as ballet, classical music and theatre. This dinner was a special encounter and the beginning of a new orientation for the Chinese Circus in the world. I was excited about the group’s physical performances and wanted to bring this programme to Europe. However, Ms. Xia’s face tensed up when I suggested performing this programme in a tent. “A tent,” she said, and she pronounced it as if it were a dirty word. “We perform programmes only in the theatre. A tent is an insult”.
I said “but circus belongs in a tent in Europe. The round shape creates a special atmosphere and intimacy. The ring is a magic circle and, outside China, actually the cradle of the classical circus for 200 years.”
It was clear that Ms. Xia was not used to contradiction and that this was a huge cultural difference, but, during the tasty dessert, I knew how to convince her to try it once on our tour.
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