ERA——“时空之旅”

So last Sunday I had the pleasure of seeing the Chinese Circus. The performance was called ERA. One of my friends organized the occasion and about 10 of us from school ended up going to the show.

When we arrived at the performance center, the building looked like a giant igloo, almost similar to the old center where the Philadelphia Eagles have their pre-season training. Or it looked more like taking the Epcot circular ball thing and cut it in half:

To summarize it, the performances consisted not of your regular Barnum & Bailey acts, but instead a romanticized assortment of various acrobatic, physical, throwing and bending feats. The first part of the show had a semi-transparent circular enclosure. People in costumes biked in circles around the enclosure. Some wore bicycle helmets (shock of all shocks!) and the costumes were bright and tight- very reminiscent of the 80s.

Following this was a multimedia show with the viewpoint of a man bicycling through town. He then entered the stage biking carrying a large wagon behind him. On the wagon was a giant pot, which he opened. Then four women did walking handstands out of the pot toward offstage. The man wore a black vest that was a bit too small (and showed his belly and love handles), and he wore beat up baggy pants. Then male acrobats entered from nowhere, set up rings and started to dive through the rings are regular (and irregular intervals).

Other acts included a male and female acrobatic duet where there were two ribbon-type things hanging from the ceiling. They danced together and performed amazing feats. There were also other acrobats on stilts standing on a see-saw where two/three people would jump off, land on the opposite side, and propel the person on stilts into the air. The person on stilts would then flip and land (somehow) elegantly on the ground.

Other women acrobats:

The man with the black vest and pants also did a routine where he was throwing a large heavy ming dynasty (blue and white) designed pot. He would throw it 20 feet into the air and catch it without breaking. He also used the back of his neck to catch the falling vase. The beginning of the show also had a woman throwing bowls to a man balanced on a piece of board that was on a rolling cylinder. He would then catch it, balance a bowl on his foot, throw his foot up and catch the bowl on his head. He then took two bowls (with the first bowl still on his head), balanced them on his foot, threw it up into the air, and had the two bowls land on the bowl already on his head. He did this until about 15 or so bowls were on his head, followed by a drinking glass. Then he tried (3 times, but with no success) to get a spoon to balance in the glass that was in the stack of 15+ bowls. It was crazy.

My favorite acts were by far the last performance of the first act and the last performance of the second act. The first act had this strange wheel contraption with men inside the inner wheels to propel it forward, followed by a variety of men on top of the inner wheels, walking, doing cartwheels, walking on their hands, walking blindfolded, etc. There were at least 7 times when these men almost fell. They could have seriously hurt themselves but it was mind boggling how amazing they were.

The end of the second act consisted of a metal cage and motorcycles driving inside of it, in formations, and around the cage 360 degrees (both vertically and horizontally!!) This last picture will give you a better idea:
Yes, those white and red lines are people on motorcycles driving around inside the cage. There were 6 of the motorcyclists driving in there at one point. Simply dangerous and breathtaking.