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Acrobats’ feats still a thrill
By Dan Craft
dcraft@pantagraph.com
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So just how amazing are the Golden Dragon Acrobats, who'll be here Jan. 26, leaping, bounding and generally thumbing their noses at gravity?

The troupe's manager, Bill Fegan, has been putting them in hundreds of venues around America for 30 years now, including the upcoming Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts show. Even so, "I still sit in awe ... I still don't believe that they're doing this."

And Fegan is 80, which means he has been sitting in awe for a long time now.

"I've seen hundreds of performances," he admits. But the thrill isn't gone. And, he suspects, never will be.

So let's don't talk retirement, OK?

At least not as long as China keeps turning out crop after crop of brilliantly conditioned acrobats who can contort their bodies into configurations and climb atop one another and over assorted objects 30 feet into the air -- among dozens of other feats that require going out on every limb of the human body.

In case you wondered, the reason Fegan is doing the interview instead of one of the acrobats themselves is simple: They're all from China and none of them speak English.

Or at least enough English to navigate a garrulous Midwestern reporter's queries.

That's OK: It was Fegan who founded the Golden Dragon Acrobats in the mid-'70s.

And if the performers did speak good English, audiences might be tempted to question their authenticity.

No questions need be asked, assures Fegan: Every last acrobat comes from China, where they were trained from childhood onward.

This is something that has been going, as they say, for quite some time. As in, oh, around 25 centuries.

Though some historical records suggest that the art of Chinese acrobatics extends as far back as 4,000 years, it didn't become all the rage, so to speak, until around 2,500 years ago.

That's when the emperors, began to sit up in their thrones and take notice, says Fegan.

The actual birth place for the art form was "the farm houses of peasants, where it was a kind of a winter activity," says Fegan. Making do with the objects at hand, from chairs to plates, "they began playing with household stuff, and that's how it got started. They developed their skills in the winter and when spring came, the came out and performed in a community festival."

Word got out.

"After awhile, it became very popular and was used as entertainment for the emperor at court," Fegan says.

And, now 25 centuries later, it's onto bigger fish: The Golden Dragons now command a truly royal seven-week performance on Broadway each year.

The 22-member troupe headed to Bloomington-Normal next weekend ranges in age from around 17 to the venerable age of 31.

Venerable, at least, in the world of Chinese acrobats, whose window of opportunity is no different than that of a world-class athlete or dancer.

Though Fegan originally imported most of his performers from Taiwan in the troupe's early days, for the past decade they've been coming straight from the training schools of China.

"In selling them, it does appear that people, for some reason, would rather they come from China (than Taiwan)," he adds.

Regardless of which country they come from, the acrobats have all been training since around the age of 8, and they all spend about two years touring stateside until the need to return home arises. So the ranks are constantly being replenished with new blood.

"These kids learn to walk on their hands the same way we learn to walk on our feet," Fegan says. "Then they develop other skills as they move forward."

After being accepted into the Golden Dragon Acrobats ranks, each performer is allowed to cultivate his or her special skill.

Speaking of "his and her," the membership is divided equally along gender lines, meaning there will be 11 men an 11 women on the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts stage.

Some of the things we'll see them doing on Jan. 26, 2007, will have their roots in routines those original peasant acrobats were doing in say, 221 B.C., during the Han Dynasty: spinning plates on poles, leaping through hoops, balancing a 30-foot tower of chairs and humans, etc.

But, adds Fegan, they've all been refined and made even more challenging over the centuries, which is why, after witnessing hundreds of performances, he can still sit in an audience with his jaw on the floor.

"The tower of chairs is the most requested act when somebody books us," he admits. "So we always have some permutation of that."

Simply put, it involves one man stacking six chairs atop a table, which achieves the 30-foot height. At the peak, a performer does a one-hand stand and revolves.

Despite the apparent huge risk involved, Fegan says he has only witnessed it go awry once in 30 years.

"We were in a tent outdoors when a big wind came up and blew the chairs down. He (the acrobat) fell with them and was taken to the hospital, where he had 17 stitches put into his face. That night, he was back on stage doing it again. Amazing."

Another act that pops Fegan's eyes is one of the female contortionist, who twists her body around in bizarre configurations while balancing six towers of glasses filled with water -- on each of her hands, atop her forehead, in her mouth, all while "writhing around stage and so forth."

In all the years of the routine's twisting and turning, "I've never seen anyone drop anything."

What Fegan has seen are the lavish visual accompaniments of the florid costuming and choreography that, he says, are unmatched by any of the other three or four Chinese acrobatic companies that tour stateside each season.

Not only do the shows attract regular folks, he adds, they're also hot tickets among celebrities whenever they turn up on Broadway and elsewhere.

For example, Tom Cruise arrived with his entourage/family one night recently.

Luckily, notes Fegan, the performers weren't told beforehand. If they had, that 30-foot chair tower or those six towers of water-filled glasses might have come tumbling down.

Fegan agrees: The laws of gravity are sometimes more easily overcome than the pressure of mega-stars in the audience.

At a glance



What: Golden Dragon Acrobats

When: 8 p.m. Jan. 26

Where: Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts, 110 E. Mulberry St., Bloomington

Tickets: $20 to $32.50

Box office number: (866) 686-9541

Take a look
The Golden Dragon Acrobats from China bring their gravity-defying extravaganza, including this routine involving metal hoops, to the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts at 8 p.m. Jan. 26.
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