From January 30 to February 1 of 2020, the 41st "Le Cirque de Demain” International Circus Festival was held in Paris, France. The Guangzhou Acrobatic Arts Theater's "Gymnastics on Vertically Moving Slack Wire" program was invited to participate in this competition. The team was led by Ms. Wu Zhengdan, the general manager of our theater. After months of careful preparation, they overcame many difficulties and continued to pursue excellence. After two rounds of fierce competition in the finals, the program finally lived up to expectations. More than 50 acrobats from 18 countries competed fiercely. In the end, with a total score of 927 points, a huge advantage exceeding the second place by 53 points, "Gymnastics on Vertically Moving Slack Wire" won the highest prize - the Presidential Prize of the French Republic. Glory for the motherland! Glory for Guangzhou! Glory for the Guangzhou Acrobatic Arts Theatre!
The "Le Cirque de Demain” World Circus Festival in France was established in 1977 and is one of the three major high-level international acrobatics events in the world. Different from the tradition and classic of the Monte Carlo International Circus Festival in Monaco, the "Le Cirque de Demain” World Circus Festival in France pays more attention to innovation,and aims to provide a platform for young acrobats from all over the world to show their talents. Since its establishment, the Festival has attracted more and more outstanding acrobats with their exploration spirit, innovative ideas and open attitude. During the competition, Tang Zhe walked like a hero on a vertically moving slack steel wire with a height of seven meters. He performed wonderful skills such as "single-handstand balancing" and "inverted unicycle skills" and won thunderous applause from the audience. His hard work finally achieves today's good results, which is gratifying!
Tang Zhe, the performer of “Gymnastics on Vertically Moving Slack Wire", left his parents at the age of 5 to come to the Guangzhou Acrobatic Arts Theatre and began training for the program at the age of 9. Over the years, regardless of severe cold and heat, thanks to the guidance of the theater leaders and his acrobatic teachers, Tang Zhe has always been training hard, day by day, year by year. His efforts is rewarding. The program performed by him won the gold award at the 10th China Acrobatics Competition of Golden Chrysanthemum Awards in 2017 and the 10th Guangdong Lu Xun Literature and Art Award in 2018. He also won the honorary titles of "Guangdong New Century Star" in 2017 and"Yangcheng Youth Cultural Talent" in 2019.
The Guangzhou Acrobatic Arts Theatre formed a new leadership team in early 2019. Since the new leadership team took office, the theater has re-adjusted the personnel, finance, and assets of the theater, which has greatly improved the daily operation and management, and the enthusiasm and initiative of the performers have been greatly boosted. The new leadership team focuses on creation of high-quality acrobatic drama programs, talent introduction and training, as well as marketing. In 2019, the theatre created a new acrobatic and magic theme show "Set Sail", it has been warmly welcomed and praised by the audience.
At the same time,the theater has launched the creation of the new acrobatic ballet drama "The Butterfly Lovers". At present, the main creative team has been set up, and according to the requirements of the chief director, the individual programs required in the new drama are designed from the aspects of acrobatic skills and expression. The script of the new production has also been written. After the resumption of the Spring Festival holiday, the contract with the lead team will be signed, and creation of the new show will be officially off the ground.
In terms of talent introduction, after the new leadership team took office, according to the actual needs of the theater, 17 excellent talents were introduced, including 6 acrobats, 3 acrobatics teachers, 8 administrative and marketing personnel, and all the talents introduced fully exert their advantages in different positions, and strive to contribute their own strength to the construction of the theater.
In terms of performances, a total of 136 performances were completed in 2019, including 5 performances of the large-scale martial arts acrobatic drama "The Legendary Swordsman", 74 performances for public welfare purpose with none or low profit, 11 performances of international cultural exchange visits, and 46 other performances. The number of performances throughout the year increased by 65 from 71 in 2018.
General Secretary Xi Jinping once said: "Only by being national can lead to be international". Chinese acrobatics are beautifully shaped, delicately expressed, coupling hardness with softness, not only giving people a beautiful enjoyment, but also conveying a positive, tenacious and hard-working spirit, which is also the enduring mystery for Guangzhou Acrobatic Arts Theater thriving on domestic and international acrobatics stage.
