The acrobats in the New Shanghai Circus are supernatural body stewards capable of jaw-dropping, human-defying, entirely enthralling, and beyond incredible physical feats of strength, balance and grace.
We were fortunate last Friday to be part of the Klamath Falls Ross Ragland’s audience to this fantastically skilled troupe, as they tour the country and Canada, performing exceptionally honed maneuvers from the ancient Chinese tradition of acrobatics.
From their website:
"The Shanghai Circus performance includes balancing feats from ropes/wires, chairs, bicycles, balancing each other; tiny women folding themselves into narrow drums, men leaping and tumbling through hoops, and lots more.
Climbing to the top of a tall stack of chairs. . . the spinning of plates on the end of a long bamboo stick . . . balancing small wooden benches on the head . . . flipping bowls with feet..."
The precision and poise is extraordinary. They’re human rubber bands. They’re highly trained, well supported and dedicated mega-athletes.
The troupe’s leader, Mr. Lizhi Zhao, was recently honored as a “Patron and Partner of the Arts,” and is highly respected both in China and the United States.
More from their website:
President and CEO of the company, Mr. Lizhi Zhao, has become highly respected both in China and in the United States. He is a strong leader, an avant-garde entrepreneur, and the spiritual core of the company.
As the visionary who brought the Chinese acrobats to the American entertainment market, he has inspired other Chinese performing troupes with his new concepts and experience.
He has been recognized by the Culture Ministry of China for promoting cultural exchange between China and the United States.
Mr. Zhao has been published in numerous newspapers and magazines in China.
From their website:
Question: What do a compass, wheelbarrow, spaghetti, gunpowder, paper, silk cloth, porcelain and acrobats all have in common?
Made in China
My tweenage daughter has a whole world influencing her that is essentially beyond my control….this is the reality of parenting, but it still stinks. I want to put my adult brain into her child body so that her knowledge base can be broader, but it’s not possible.
She casually asked me recently why everything was made in China. She had been opening the package of something we had just purchased from the store. Possessing the quick wit of her kin, she followed with, “Geesh, I bet even people are made in China!”
My tolerance for racism is zero. My parents taught me to avoid idiots, not people.
One of my deceased uncles was a raging racist and probably a member of the Archie Bunker Club – San Diego Chapter - but, he was a cop, so it’s easier to sympathize with the unfortunate reality that cops see the worst of us at our worst.
A recent article, I Want to Tell You Lies: a dedication to emergency services personnel, says it all.
It’s one planet, one people; no borders. Period. This has always been my position and will always be my position. My Aquarian (spiked with Jupiter in Sag) hippie roots will always show!
Both of these signs detest inequality of any kind.
“Because they work harder than anyone else; as a people, they’re very industrious.” I replied.
If you don’t like everything you buy being made in China, then make it yourself.
We all have strengths, both personally and collectively. Why do we hold these against one another? And, as a nation, how do we spend our downtime?
Answer: They were all invented in China.
Downtime
For thousands of years, as the Chinese winters passed and the farmer's crops lay dormant, these souls would keep themselves occupied by using common household objects and challenging their bodies to a wide spectrum of balancing maneuvers, juggling tricks, and physical feats requiring literally hundreds of hours to perfect.
At the annual harvest festivals, the townspeople would publically perform the skills, tricks and stunts they’d been practicing all winter. Individuals earned rank and stature in the community relative to their acrobatic prowess. This tradition has developed over thousands of years through elders teaching the next generation.
From their website:
It was during the Han Dynasty, more than two thousand years ago, that the Chinese saw the first acrobats, magicians, and jugglers.
Acrobatics, with amazing skill of strength and impossible balance, developed out of the annual village harvest celebrations. Chinese farmers and village craftsmen, with relatively little to do over the long winter decided to spend their time improving their societal positions by becoming acrobats.
They practiced the art form with just about anything they could find around the house and farm. . . cups, saucers, tables, chairs, plates . . . Even their own bodies, with which they formed human walls and pyramids. Every year in the fall the village's peasants would join in the village to share in a celebration of a bountiful harvest . . .a sort of Chinese Thanksgiving.
It was at this time that the common people would show off their skills by performing fun and exciting feats of daring and strength using household tools and common items found around the farm and workshop.
Building on the traditional performances, today's artists have added new techniques and spectacular stunts thrilling audiences around the globe. Highly skilled, rigorously trained, and superbly talented, these performers follow an unbroken tradition since 700 BC.
The current troupe trains as much as four hours a day while on tour performing; plate spinning itself is practiced an hour every day by the women to refine eye-hand coordination, and develop focus and concentration. Can you imagine?
These acrobats are a divine display of the human body.
Great expectations
As a fifty-something fitness instructor, it’s important to maintain realistic expectations. When I Zumba with people half my age, it is rank enough for me to be able to stay in the pack and complete the workout!
Zumba is such a blast…it’s the happy exercise; you just can’t Zumba and not have fun.
Downtime is Zumba time!
My beautiful and born to Zumba friend, Veronica, teaches Zumba in Chiloquin, at the Elementary School.
For the month of February, she is offering free introductory classes every Tuesday and Thursday, from 5:45 p.m. to 6:45 p. m. For more info, contact her at 541-783-3493.
Ronnie’s first love is Disco; her Disco parties are famous! Somehow, she manages to creatively, with typically, imaginative Piscean flair, Zumba it up, Disco Fever style!
As I watch with captivating absorption these supernatural body stewards, and remember the legendary Jack LaLanne, I am inspired to forget my age and just “Move that body, shake it, shake it!”
If Chinese acrobats can do it, so can I! And, if not, well, then, this is why everything is made in China.
Great slideshow: http://www.bransonshows.com/activity/AcrobatsofChinafeaturingtheNewShang...
Thank you for reading. Your comments are appreciated. Feel free to subscribe and share me. Namaste and blessings for all. For more info on holistic astrology, please contact me at: kimberlycarson49@yahoo.com.
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