Considered to be China's most celebrated acrobatic company, the performers of the New Shanghai Circus have stunned audiences everywhere they perform. Celebrating the exotic wonders of China while showcasing dramatic interpretation of ancient dances, the show combines extraordinary and inventive feats of strength and skill, control and balance. Bring your family to the show that presents a line-up of favorite acts such as Diablo (Chinese Yo-Yo), Bicycle Tricks, Pole Climbing, Plates Spinning, Human Top, Chair Stack and more!

"The audience should take a nerve pill before they come to the show" - Audience member.

the FCA board unanimously reaffirmed our commitment to presenting a family show – a program easily enjoyed by the whole family and offered at prices that were affordable so families can come enjoy it together. We budget these programs at a loss and hope to make up for it with money donated to our Education Partnership appeal.

Two years ago, we struggled to find a good family show.  Concerned that this not happen again our first decision for this year was to bring up the New Shanghai Circus.

In keeping with the rest of this season, it’s big. Really big. Come see the 23 performers coming to town with the Circus.

The past few years have seen a broadening of our outreach activities and thus, to the message in our appeal. In addition to our low cost family programming and ticket donation program we have added rural, social service, military and expanded on our education outreach, bringing residencies into the schools in addition to our bus-in school shows at Hering. Throughout this time, there has never been a wavering from our focus and commitment to family programming and we thought now would be a good time to confirm this.

The Circus, and the opportunity for us to donate tickets to it, will be here in a very short time. What we can do is directly affected by what you do. We know we can count on you to give generously.

Donate now.

This will be one BIG FAMILY SHOW!

A brief history of China:

China, one of the world’s oldest civilizations, has written history going back 3,500 years. Located in eastern Asia, China is the world’s largest nation in population and third largest in area. Only Russia and Canada have more territory. What do spaghetti, wheelbarrow, compass, gunpowder, paper, silk cloth, porcelain, and acrobatics have in common? They were all invented in China!

Ancient stone carvings, earthen pottery, and early written works trace the ancestry of today’s spectacular acrobatic acts to long ago eras. During the Han Dynasty (202 BC─220 AD), more than two thousand years ago, Chinese saw the first acrobats, magicians, and jugglers. Acrobats, with their amazing skill of strength and impossible balance, developed from annual village harvest celebrations. Farmers and village craftsmen, with relatively little to do over the long winter, decided to spend their time improving their societal positions by becoming acrobats. Cups, saucers, plates, jars, tables, chairs – articles of daily use found around the house and farm were used for practice. With their own bodies, human walls and pyramids were formed. Then, during the villages’ fall harvest celebrations, common folk showed off their skills by performing fun, exciting feats of daring and strength.

Building on traditional performances, today’s artists have added new techniques and spectacular stunts thrilling audiences around the globe. Highly skilled, rigorously trained, and superbly talented, these performers follow an unbroken tradition since 700 BC.

Chinese Acrobatic Skills.

Hoop diving has its origins during the harvest time when field workers used a tool shaped like a large tambourine. These large hoops with a woven mesh bottom were used to shake and divide the grain from the leaves and stems. It became a tradition to challenge each other to see who could dive through these hoops and to see how many or how tall a stack they could dive through.

Similarly, the pottery maker would learn to juggle and spin his wares. Spinning a pot to make it uniformly round and smooth is a natural action of the potter; however, when the potter adds a few tricks of juggling and tossing high into the air, he becomes a local hero performing a thrilling feat.

Some traditional Chinese acrobatic acts derived from the lifelong skills of the village peasant, river sailor, and local craftsman are these – climbing to the top of a tall stack of chairs, – spinning plates on the end of a long bamboo stick, – balancing small wooden benches on one’s head, – flipping bowls with one’s feet, – climbing tall poles with long leather straps.

Before they were school-age, children learned skills from their fathers and grandfathers; therefore, the acrobatics tradition passed down from generation to generation. Like traveling European gypsies, the great Chinese acrobatic families entertained city rulers and villagers at ceremonial carnivals and public theaters. Today, only a few brothers and sisters of the old, famous acrobatic families remain. They have now organized China’s traditional entertainment into professional acrobatic troupes with formal academies for training young, promising entertainers and internationally award-winning, performing companies. Still today, China has an annual competition for the acrobatic academies with acrobats representing troupes from around the nation to win the important Gold, Silver, and Bronze Lions.

Obviously, immense athletic ability and a keen sense of timing are vital to becoming an acrobat, but so is an appreciation of oriental philosophy. The skill of “Qigong” or “spirits from air”, a semi-religious study of the form of breathing and movement, is very important to acrobatics. Qigong teaches one to use the mind and body together in perfect harmony with each other. While all early acrobats were well founded in the Qigong tradition, a thorough knowledge of Qigong is not a requisite for acrobats performing with modern-day circuses.