Hold your breath... the circus is here!

The first time I watched a circus in nineteen-forgotten, I held my breath for so long while the trapeze artists were swinging above our heads that I almost turned blue from asphyxiation. I heaved a sigh of relief only when the two artists safely connected with each other in mid-air, thanking heavens that neither of them missed a beat, otherwise…

Last Christmas Day, we trooped to the Araneta Coliseum to watch Splendide: The Grand China National Acrobatics Circus and I still gasped in childlike awe at the acts that took my breath away and, although I kept my fingers crossed praying that the artists would land where they should, how they should (read: flat on their feet and not on their faces), I enjoyed the show without turning blue.

I could use all the clichés to describe the acrobats — poetry in motion, grace under pressure, style under stress, death-defying and, that’s it, breath-taking. The Chinese acrobats were all that and more.

The show opened with what may be aptly called Feathers Dance with the performers dressed in bright pink, swaying this way and that way in perfect synchrony, forming a kaleidoscopic wonder to cap the act. What a fitting intro! Applause!

Next came the ballet, with the couple dancing as if they were boneless, as if their bodies were made of rubber and not flesh, making you wonder how many years it must have taken them to train and rehearse their precise tandem movements.

Like Spider-Men swinging on two poles, not missing a beat

The Chinese are known for rigid discipline and they train their athletes early on, when they are kids and their bodies are flexible, and I guess the acrobats went through the same process. Still, you are amazed: how do they make everything appear so easy, so much like a piece of cake, so very sisiw, as if they’re doing it all their waking hours that it has become a natural routine with them?

There’s the guy who performed on a portable staircase, juggling first two balls, then three, then four, then five, until he was preoccupied with, believe it or not, nine balls, not one of them falling (hmmm, one did, but that must have been part of the act perhaps to show that the balls were not tied to one another), his hands moving faster and faster, his eyes alert, his body looking so relaxed even as he went up and down the stairs and then turning and twisting. Easy does it? You try.

As the girl on a round swing swang high, higher, higher, higher — hanging by her legs, by one arm — you prayed to all the saints in heaven that she would swing downward safe, with all her bones intact, because, no, there wasn’t any safety net to catch her. (Trivia: Jackie Chan missed the net during a shoot in Czechoslovakia and landed on his head when he jumped from a window, with the wound requiring several stitches and now, with Mr. Chan going around with a hole on his head. I should know. When I interviewed Mr. Chan in New York for Rush Hour I back in 1998, he let me touch that “hole” and it felt soft like a newly-born baby’s bumbunan.)

The “Yoyo Act” was a delight to watch, with a dozen girls dancing around the stage swapping yoyos with one another and, again, not a piece falling.

After the 20-minute intermission during which the crew prepared the set for more eye-popping acts, I spotted female acrobats going around selling souvenirs (photos, DVDs, etc.), mixing with hawkers of popcorns, drinks and sandwiches from Gaita Fores’ Café Bola.

12 female bikers cap their act in peacock formation

The second portion opened with half a dozen male acrobats climbing up and down two poles like Spider-Men, like werewolves, sometimes going down head first and jumping from one pole to the other. You wondered (again): are they insured (for how much)? How many times have they fallen during training? Have they broken any bone, sprained a tendon?

What to me was the, here’s that adjective again, most breath-taking was the Bicycle Act that started with two female bikers, joined by 10 others, exchanging bikes while speeding and, stretching your disbelief some more, with the 11 bikers discarding their bikes and, one by one, hung on to the remaining biker, all 12 of them together in peacock formation. Absolutely awesome!

Was there an orthopedic doctor in the house? I didn’t think there was any need for one.

To the Grand China National Acrobatic Circus, this: Applause, applause, applause!!!

Go watch Splendide. No clowns (except for an emaciated Santa Calus in the “Feathers Dance” as if to symbolize the recession from which the world is having a hard time recovering). Only high-flying acrobats to make your day. It’s worth your time and your money.

(Note: Splendide: The Grand China National Acrobatics Circus runs at the Araneta Coliseum until Jan. 2, 2011. For tickets, call Ticketnet at 911-5555.)

(E-mail reactions at [email protected] or at [email protected])