Magic & Voice: from ‘acrobatics’ to ’variety arts’
Every year the superb acrobatic acts are a highlight of the Spring Festival Gala, and this year was no exception. In China Media Group's 2023 Year of the Rabbit Spring Festival Gala, the acrobatic act "Forge Ahead", performed jointly by the China National Acrobatic Troupe and the Beijing Acrobatic School, showed the wider audience set after set of astonishing high-difficulty moves that fused parkour with bicycle acrobatics, and drew a flood of praise.
Another act by the China National Acrobatic Troupe — a women's bicycle act that is a match for the men's bicycle act at the Spring Festival Gala while being quite different in style — appeared in the troupe's popular production "Magic & Voice", staged on 23 and 24 January at the Taihu Theatre of the National Centre for the Performing Arts. As a work of comprehensive stage art, "Magic & Voice" possesses not only the "technical height" of thrill, risk, wonder, difficulty and humour peculiar to acrobatics and magic, but also embodies the "beauty of art" that comes from fusing many contemporary means and forms of stage expression, showing the exploration, innovation and contemporary aspiration of the China National Acrobatic Troupe as the "national team of acrobatics".
Unlike most acrobatic productions, "Magic & Voice" brings together grand illusions, comedy magic, close-up magic and traditional Chinese conjuring in a single show, deftly blending acrobatics, vocal mimicry, drama, dance and other artistic means with cross-genre stage elements to create an artistic feast in which the ancient and the young, the traditional and the modern flourish together. Director Fan Yupeng's well-paced staging further lets the audience enjoy layer upon layer of magical experience and feel, as though they were there, a mysterious and fantastical journey brimming with "magical delight".
In the show, "Secret Realm", the animal magic act that is the speciality of Golden Chrysanthemum Award-winning magician Hu Linglong, sets several upgraded and reworked magic techniques against a stylish stage design of deep forest trees and birdsong in a secret realm, the two setting each other off as the act portrays a fairy-tale life in which people live in harmony with the natural environment and with birds, immersing the audience in beauty and ingenuity. In intangible-heritage magic such as "Rings of Wonder" and "Three Immortals Return to the Cave", Hu Linglong, fourth-generation inheritor of the intangible heritage of Gucai Xifa, works in perfect understanding with An Na, giving "magic power" to everyday objects around us: all manner of things produced from a bucket, fine wine appearing from an empty cloth, iron rings taking on new shapes. Magic acts such as "Body Illusion", "Blades and Fans", "Shadow Crossing" and "Aerial Escape" are full of thrills that leave people open-mouthed and hearts pounding, yet in the end bring relief and delight.
The classic act "The Pretty Huadan — Group Diabolo", steeped in the flavour of old Beijing, and the dynamic, stylish new acts "Breaking the Wind — Bicycle Acrobatics" and "Enigma — Ball Skills" dazzle the eye with thrilling, high-difficulty acrobatic technique, ingenious staging and refined costume, make-up and visual effects.
Watching the show live is a completely different experience from watching it on television or online. There is carefully staged comic business that has audiences young and old roaring with laughter; the performers also invite spectators onto the stage so that they can experience the wonder of close-up magic at first hand; and the production draws on a new fusion of science and technology to magnify its visual effects, heightening the inner astonishment felt by the audience as they search for answers, thereby achieving the goal of "a perfect theatre experience for audiences of every age".
As a national-level acrobatic performing arts company, the China National Acrobatic Troupe carries the mission of its time and the weighty task of innovation. The acrobatic stage productions it has launched one after another — "Magic & Voice", "Calling 4921" and "Dreammaker: Secret Realm" — each have a style of their own, and this Spring Festival it also released the "Super Rabbit Says Happy New Year" series of short videos on short-video platforms. In all these different ways it is making acrobatics, an ancient art, no longer merely "acrobatics" but "variety arts" that bear the mark of the times, bring together many means of expression and attract contemporary audiences, shining with an ever more captivating light.