The Monte Carlo International Circus Festival, founded in 1974, is one of the largest and highest-level international acrobatic arts festivals in the world. On the evening of January 23, local time in Morocco, "Sail to Pursue Dreams: Wave Boat" created and performed by the Wuhan Acrobatic Troupe won the "Silver Clown" award at the 46th Monte-Carlo International Circus Festival, and also won awards from many international performances More than ten orders from merchants.
Wuhan Acrobatic Troupe's "Sail to Pursue Dreams - Wave Boat" competes at the Monte Carlo International Circus Festival. Xinhua News Agency reported
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Monte Carlo International Circus Festival. This year's circus festival has a total of 28 shows from more than 10 countries and regions, including China, the United States, France, Malaysia, and Uzbekistan, competing on the same stage to compete for the circus festival. The highest award is the "Golden Clown" award. The participating programs cover aerial categories, balance categories, comedy categories, animal training and equestrian categories, etc., with a complete range of categories.
Actors (front row in blue costumes) of Wuhan Acrobatic Troupe's "Sail to Pursue Dreams - Wave Boat" at the Monte Carlo International Circus Festival Awards Ceremony. Photo courtesy of Wuhan Acrobatic Troupe
The Wuhan Acrobatic Troupe participated in the competition with the innovative program "Sail to Pursue Dreams·Wave Boat". This program broke the single performance mode of the traditional wave bridge and added a high platform that can automatically lift to the props, creating a "high platform" A series of brand-new high-altitude performances such as "Wangqiao Leap Station Head", "High Platform Langqiao Three-Stage Standing on the Shoulders", "Four-person Continuous Flip", "Six-person Continuous Flip", "Single 180-degree Leap Across the Bridge", "Twin Body Three-Way Self-falling Bridge" and so on. Difficulty techniques have greatly improved the difficulty factor and viewing pleasure of the program. The "top" actors who completed difficult movements in the show are the eighth generation actors of the Wuhan Acrobatic Troupe, most of whom are born in the 2000s. Previously, "Sailing to Pursue Dreams and Waves" won the "Golden Chrysanthemum Award", the highest award in the Chinese acrobatics industry, at the 11th National Acrobatic Competition in November 2022.
The actors of "Sail to Pursue Dreams: Wave Boat" rehearse before the Monte Carlo International Circus Festival. Photo courtesy of Wuhan Acrobatic Troupe
This time in Monte Carlo, "Sail to Pursue Dreams - Wave Boat" won full applause in the two performances, and was surrounded by enthusiastic audiences after each performance. During the premiere, Vice Chairman of the current circus festival Pilz went backstage to congratulate the Wuhan Acrobatic Troupe on its successful performance. The only living founder of the circus program and a judge of the current circus festival, Alan Fohai, who is over 80 years old, said excitedly, Many Chinese acrobatic teams have come to Monte Carlo, and he has also seen many acrobatic shows from China. "The difficulty of the skills and the performance of "Sail to Pursue Dreams: Wave Boat" are something I have never seen before. It is great! "The judges also gave "Sail to Pursue Dreams - Wave Boat" a perfect score of 20 points.
Although it missed the "Golden Clown" in the final competition, "Sail to Pursue Dreams - Wave Boat" has still become the "hot meat and potatoes" that performers from all over the world are competing for. Chen Jian, deputy director of the Wuhan Acrobatic Troupe, revealed that the Wuhan Acrobatic Troupe has received invitations from eight international performers in the past few days, and has initially reached more than ten performance intentions in Europe and North America. The performance plan has been scheduled until 2026.
A group photo of the creative team of Wuhan Acrobatic Troupe's "Sail to Pursue Dreams·Walk Boat". Photo courtesy of Wuhan Acrobatic Troupe
The Wuhan Acrobatic Troupe has a close relationship with the Monte Carlo International Circus Festival, and has so far won three awards, one gold, two silver, in this top acrobatic event in the world. As early as December 1983, "Top Bowl" performed by Li Liping, a famous acrobatic artist, disciple of Xia Juhua, the "Queen of Bowl Holders" and an outstanding young actor of the Wuhan Acrobatic Troupe, won the "Bow Bowl Holder" award at the 9th Monte Carlo International Circus Festival. "Golden Clown" Award, this is also the first time that Chinese acrobats have won this highest award in the global acrobatic community. In January 2014, the Wuhan Acrobatic Troupe's "Flywheel Strings" once again won a "Silver Clown" trophy at the 38th Monte-Carlo International Circus Festival. Mei Yuezhou, head of the Wuhan Acrobatic Troupe, introduced that since its establishment 70 years ago, the Wuhan Acrobatic Troupe has won more than 50 gold medals in important international and domestic competitions such as the Monte Carlo International Circus Festival, the French Acrobatic Festival of Tomorrow, and the Golden Chrysanthemum Award of the China Acrobatic Competition. It reflects strong strength and superb artistic standards."These programs that won awards at the Monte Carlo International Circus Festival not only reflect the inheritance of traditional skills such as bowl topping by Wuhan acrobatics, but also programs such as "Flywheel String Technique" and "Sail to Pursue Dreams - Wave Boat" also incorporate scientific and technological means, through The innovation of props brings about the development of skills, which fully embodies the characteristics and spirit of Wuhan acrobatics' continuous innovation and pursuit of excellence. This is also the meaning contained in the name of the program 'Sailing to Pursue Dreams'."
(Source: Yangtze River Daily)
