The New Shanghai Circus

My wonderful wife, Kim, treated me to to a terrific weekend out of town for my birthday. She surprised me with hotel reservations in one of our favorite cities, Spokane.

We had some good meals, did some shopping, went on a couple of little adventures (discovering new areas, as we love to do) and generally had a freakin' great time!

The highlight of the weekend was the New Shanghai Circus, who performed at the INB Performing Arts Center in downtown Spokane and that's what this blog is about.



The women performers of the New Shanghai Circus



The New Shanghai Circus is actually based out of Branson, Missouri, but don't let that give you any pre-concieved notions that this is some kind of second-tier act. While a relatively simple producion--no big set-pieces or elaborate stage designs or live musical acompaniment--the acts themselves were top notch and, in some cases, simply astounding.

With nothing more than simple props--plates spinning on sticks, soccer balls, chinese yo yos, bowls, hoops, incredibly tall unicycles--the acrobats performed incredible feats of balance, strength, flexibilty and gymnastics. Several times throughout the show, collective gasps of amazement drifted across the rapt audience.



The girls insisted that I pose with them!

 It all seemed to be very authentic. As I was watching,I had the feeling that these skills may have been demonstrated in similar fashion hundreds of years ago before the royal courts of China.

Some of the standout performances: women on eight-feet-tall unicycles peddling with one foot while tossing bowls on their heads and heads of the other cyclists with the other; a woman balancing on one hand while going a series of amazing poses for what seemed like an eternity; male acrobats jumping (in a variety of ways) through a series of hoops that were raised higher and higher; and, of course, the prerequisie tightrope walker.

Here is a link to a preview of the show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2PvjRt_AH4

We absolutely loved every minute of the show. If the New Shanghau Circus is ever nearby, I heartily recommend it!