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Print Edition> Lifestyle
UPDATED: December 26, 2009 NO. 52 DECEMBER 31, 2009
Midair Marvels
An acrobatic musical presents a new look for an ancient art
By TANG YUANKAI
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(COURTESY OF CNAT)

The audience watching a performance of Goodbye UFO at the Beijing Exhibition Center Theater on December 17 was stunned when acrobats on stage began to sing. Chinese acrobatics are typically performed silently and the musical addition was a whole new experience.

Goodbye UFO is an acrobatic musical that was produced by the China National Acrobatic Troupe (CNAT). The show blends music, drama, acrobatics and 3D technology.

Acrobatics have been part of Chinese culture for several thousand years and the country has won many international acrobatics competitions over the last two decades.

CNAT, founded in 1950, is China's acrobatics dream team. Since winning its first international award during the 1950s, the troupe has won dozens of gold medals during international and national competitions.

Most Goodbye UFO performers are talented young acrobats who have won national and international prizes. They are technically sophisticated in their art, juggling nine balls at a time or jumping through stacks of loops, in addition to dancing to the music and portraying different characters.

"These guys and ladies are incredible. They always make the impossible possible," Li Enjie, Chairman of the Board of Directors of CNAT, told Beijing Review. Acrobats are very smart and can perform feats that ordinary people cannot, Li said. Acrobatics challenge human intellectual and physical limitations and require performers to have wisdom, strong bodies and rigorous training.

Marrying fashion with tradition

Goodbye UFO is a science fiction story that promotes environmental protection. It is set in a future world polluted by industrial waste created by humans. An alien is dispatched to Earth to collect the garbage and has many amazing experiences while here. He falls in love with a girl who is an environmentalist and helps Earthlings clean their planet. Eventually he decides to stay here.

Goodbye UFO's director Liu Chun is an experienced acrobatic choreographer. He has directed Canada-based Cirque du Soleil's show in Shanghai. He directed CNAT's show Reverie in 2003 and was one of the directors of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics last year. Under his guidance, thousands of soldiers with no experience on the stage thrilled the Games' audience with a rendition of the show Silk Road.

 
SPLENDID: A scene from Goodbye UFO (COURTESY OF CNAT) 
When he learned that Goodbye UFO promotes environmental protection, Liu was excited that acrobatics were given a chance to reflect current social issues and to take on social responsibility.

Early this year, he began training young acrobats for the production. It was a challenge for these brilliant acrobats to learn how to sing, dance and act.

Goodbye UFO aims to express through acrobatics the notion that love and hope can change the world, Liu said. "In fact, acrobatics are an art of expression, and are capable of expressing the feelings of modern people," Liu added.

Various traditional acrobatic techniques have been skillfully blended into the show, such as hoop diving, pole climbing, tossing diabolos, body contortion, high-wire walking, plate spinning and ball juggling. One highlight of the show features performers holding pyramids of glasses with their limbs, foreheads and mouths, while they roll, bend, twist and turn. Another scene depicts the romance between the alien and his environmentalist girlfriend by showing them clinging to a silk ribbon and dancing in midair. The climax focuses on diabolo juggling in complete darkness—all the lights in the theater are turned off for five minutes and fluorescent diabolos are tossed into the air, glittering like stars.

Stylish and futuristic costumes and unconventional props are a feast for the eyes. The stage, meanwhile, is bathed in metallic and dreamy lights. Aliens are dressed in dazzlingly cool clothes. Many props are made from recycled waste like old jeans, tins, trashed metals, plastics and newspapers to illustrate the theme of environmental protection.

Modern technologies are also used. A 60-meter-long curved screen is erected on the stage to simulate the vast universe and UFOs. The screen is taken apart and reassembled to allow performers to interact with the electronic images displayed on it.

Meeting market needs

At Goodbye UFO's premiere in Beijing, audiences burst into applause, laughter and tears.

"I never expected that acrobatics could be so attractive and avant-garde," said Yi Nan, a 25-year-old Beijing professional. It was her second time to watch acrobatics in a theater. She said that her impression of acrobatics from her first experience of seeing it was no more than clowns somersaulting and tigers jumping through burning hoops.

 

 STYLISH: A scene from Goodbye UFO (COURTESY OF CNAT)

But some acrobatics lovers had a different impression. A senior member of the audience told Li that he preferred "pure" acrobatics to the hybrid of acrobatics and musical. Li gave him a DVD of Splendid!13, a show that seems to be more to the liking of many seniors.

Splendid!13 was produced by CNAT last year. Its premiere was a huge success and won accolades. Although the show featured 13 traditional acrobatics stunts, it was cast in a new light by combining modern fashion with tradition, said Sun Lili, Vice General Manager of CNAT.

While CNAT used to produce a single program targeting all audiences, it now creates different products for different age groups. The troupe meets market needs with innovation, said Li.

Li came to CNAT in 2001 as its head and found a struggling organization. Although the troupe performed in more than 100 countries and regions, it had difficulty appealing to domestic audiences. The old cultural management system hampered the growth of China's cultural industry, Li said. The acrobats were poorly paid, and some of them immigrated to other countries.

In June 2003, the Central Government held a meeting about reforming the national cultural system. Officials decided the reform program would be launched in 35 organizations in nine provinces and municipalities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and Zhejiang.

In 2004, CNAT started planning for the reform. In December 2006, it was converted from a government-funded NPO into a company. Producers realized that their rice bowls would only be filled if they got the public interested, so they started tailoring their programs to the audience.

Li realized it was imperative to expand the market, improve the quality of CNAT programs and boost its brand image. The troupe invited outside talent into its management team to produce quality programs, including Zhang Jigang, Chief Director of the Beijing Paralympics Games' opening and closing ceremonies, and famous film director Feng Xiaogang. Zhang directed the show Pagoda of Bowls for CNAT. The show won the Golden Clown Award, the top international acrobatics award, at the 28th International Circus Festival of Monte Carlo.

Li was also the general manager of the Beijing Performance and Arts Group Co. Ltd. The group, founded in May 2009, is a state-owned cultural corporation consisting of nine enterprises including CNAT. It has also done the marketing for Goodbye UFO.

Commentators thought Goodbye UFO not only demonstrates CNAT's creativity in letting acrobats become actors to narrate the story, but also testifies to CNAT's insights into the market and its marketing skills.



 
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