12nd Wuqiao Circus Festival

12nd Wuqiao Circus Festival

China Wuqiao International Circus Festival—CWICF, which is named after the famous birthplace of acrobatics—Wuqiao, Hebei, is a magnificent and comprehensive international meeting of circus. CWICF was held in Shijiazhuang, the capital city of Hebei province, only in odd years once every two years, generally in the last week of Oct. or the first week of Nov.

After more than 20 years of excellence in organizing, performance and prizing, CWICF is said to be one of three major circus festivals in the world, together with “Le Festival mondial du Cirque de Demain” in Paris and “Festival International du Cirque de Monte-Carlo“.

This year from 10.31 to 11.08, a few weeks ago, 12nd CWICF had just successfully taken place with 32 programmes by 200+ performers from 22 countries. I think all the programmes are amazing and deserve a prize, but only three of them are awarded the Gold Lion Prize. One is “圣斗-地圈” (means “Saint Seiya – Ground Hoops”) by China National Acrobatic Troupe, the other two are both performed by North Korea National Acrobatic Troupe (Yes, North Korea). Here, I provide you the video of two of these gold awardees. Hope you will like them.

《圣斗 地圈》”Saint Seiya – Ground Hoops”

From its name, costume, especially the scepter, we can know that they are trying to integrate the famous Japanese cartoon “Saint Seiya” into their art theme. They are trying to present the audience a dream world. However, I think the hoop part is worth much more appreciation than the cartoon theme.

Basically, as you can see from the video, they set up a three dimensional, ever changing dynamic, complicated hoop combination. These acrobats have to jump through the hoop sets in very accurate setup. Sometimes simultaneously jump in group, sometimes jump through hoops continuously. Even just to watch it is so complicated.

Here is an abbreviated version with better resolution: http://space.tv.cctv.com/video/VIDE1258519734465888

空中浪桥飞人 Dangling Bridge Acrobats

Note: the following video starts with a brief news report in Chinese language followed by a performance recording from a Korean source.

In this video performed by North Koreans, they combined classic acrobats with dangling bridges. I don’t need to talk too much here. You can tell from the video how fascinating their performance is.

Here is an abbreviated version with better resolution: http://space.tv.cctv.com/video/VIDE1258520078951885

Btw, I am a big fan of Le Festival mondial du Cirque de Demain, but I cannot find any video or archive on its website. Do you happen to know any source?