Cirque Shanghai Bai Xi: One Hundred Amazing Acts will perform at 7:30 tonight in Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium. The global performance company International Special Attractions Ltd. (ISA) is producing the traveling show.
Accompanied by music, martial arts, dance and what appear to be "limitless skills," the 18 performers display incredible strength, balance and precision throughout the performance as they spin plates and more, according to ISA's press release.
Matt Cochrane, ISA's performance manager, said kids absorb so much entertainment from YouTube, Facebook and television that it's hard to separate illusions from truth.
"Here you're going to watch a live show with real people. There's no tricks and no cameras here," Cochrane said.
The performance of acrobatic dexterity dates back more than 2,000 years to the Han Dynasty and has been passed from generation to generation. Executive Producer Haiping Ge, with the help of John L. Steenhoven, adapted the show from ancient Emperor's courts to today's stages across America.
Cirque Shanghai began practicing in China in 1996 by putting a contemporary spin on ancient art forms practiced in China. The company has been working with Chinese acrobatic troupes for 15 years now, and this new production began touring during the
2011 season.
Overall, though, acrobats need both training and personality, Cochrane said. The group ends each performance not behind a curtain, but by rushing off the stage into the crowd.
"They have to have a stage presence," Cochrane said. "We encourage them to have fun."
The production is reinvented annually to heighten the thrill for audiences. Cirque Shanghai: Bai Xi debuted in Chicago in 2007. The show ran for 90 days during the summer and drew in over 147,000 audience members.
The revamped show includes westernized music that Cochrane said will excite younger audiences. Although the performers are from Southern China, their ages - which range from 15-years-old to 22-years-old - allow college audiences to relate to them.
One of the youngest acrobats will dance pointe, Cochrane said, adding she'll be atop another performer's head as he walks around the stage while doing so. This is just one of the 100 acts promised by performers.
"The audience just falls in love with them," Cochrane said.
Amongst the classic plate-spinning hide new acts not seen the last time Shanghai came to Athens in 2007.
"I think everyone will enjoy it," Cochrane said. "They've had all standing ovations everywhere they go."
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