Amazing feats of agility
The Taiwan Acrobatic Troupe delighted their audience with their spectacular feats.
IN near pitch darkness, a man with a heavily- painted face emerged from the wings after a few young ladies took to the stage. He circled the floor to announce his dramatic entry, and the audience was mesmerised by his antics right from the start as they try to literally keep up with his appearances..
He was quite the master of disguise, keeping everyone in rapt attention as he put on one new face after another. All it took were some moves and turns, and sometimes the wave of a handheld fan for a new face to appear to astound his spectators. Well, this face- changing artiste is showcasing a 300- year- old Sichuan opera tradition where performers change their faces to depict different characters with the swipe of a fan, a wave of the hand or movement of the head.
I lost count of the vividly coloured masks this opera performer put on so seamlessly as I captured his performance on my camera. A woman from the audience was actually invited onstage to literally stare at the performer to catch his movements as he changed his face, but he was just too deft and quick.
The juggler was the other crowd pleaser that night. You couldn’t help but admire how quick he was with his hands. He could juggle tennis- sized balls in mid- air or bounce several on the floor and catch them all with his bare hands. He could also juggle with metal rings. He defied gravity throughout, and did not fumble even once.
These performers were part of the Acrobatics Troupe of the National Taiwan Junior College of Performing Arts which performed in Kuala Lumpur recently.
Presented by the Taipei Economic and Cultural office in Malaysia, the performances combined acrobatics, theatre, dance and magic shows. They showcased the skills of the performers and introduced traditional acrobatic routines.
Mesmerising acts
When teasing clowns came onstage, one of them was dressed as Old Master Q ( or Lao Fuzi), a popular Chinese comic strip character. His task was to make people laugh but he also had a few tricks up his sleeves.
He pretended to be a bumbling elderly man to keep the audience in stitches. But when a batch of eggs slid into water- filled glasses without breaking, he fooled everyone. Then, it was revealed that rubber eggs were used.
There was also a performance using martial art rings. Slim and pretty acrobats spinned the metal hoops or rings, and danced with them. When they slipped the rings around their bodies and churned them up and down, the audience was utterly amazed at how the rings appeared to cling onto their bodies like-magnets.
The opening act after intermission saw performers on their knees bathed in red light. In this sombre mood, the men performed their ritual before a hunt. They were psyching themselves up as they jabbed their spears in the air. Next, acrobats swiftly took over the stage, frantically waving big flags. It was a show of energetic moves.
Comic relief took the form of a challenge issued to an acrobat to leap over a line of four people lying on the floor, one of whom was a male volunteer from the audience. When two volunteers were in “the body” pile, the audience laughed when one acrobat doubted the act was possible. They thought the acrobat was bluffing, but he actually abandoned the challenge, much to the relief of the two volunteers.
There was also a plate spinning routine. It was a marvel to watch as the female acrobats kept their balance while keeping the plates spinning. There was much spontaneous applause in appreciation of difficult feats, such as when a performer continued spinning her plates while mounted on another performer’s shoulders.
But there was more to come. She then stood astride on the shoulders of the two performers, while spinning her plates, of course. It was a stunning display.
There was also romance woven into the act when the lead female acrobat stood on an elevated bench, arched her body backwards to pick an artificial flower with her mouth while her hands were busy spinning the plates. She then dropped the flower to the waiting male suitor. Other interesting acts were the Chinese diabolo or yoyo performance by female acrobats. You could see the yoyos flying, leaping and tumbling but the acrobats always catch them. The ladder climbing act was a show stealer too. With buff bodies, strong men showed off their strength and teamwork as they executed their techniques at building a human ladder, climbing higher and higher.
The acrobatic troupe’s performance was part of Taiwan’s initiative to promote cultural interaction between Taiwan and the South East Asian countries.