Let’s get ready to tumble!

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The Peking Acrobats perform.

The musicians of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra have been pulling off dazzling feats of dexterity, co-ordination, stamina and breath control since September.

This weekend, they’ll close their 2010-11 season by showcasing the gravity-defying stunts of the Peking Acrobats in three pops shows.

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(SUPPLIED PHOTO)

The 18-member troupe of athlete-artists performs astounding displays of tumbling, balancing, strength, agility and pretzel-like flexibility. Based in Los Angeles, the elite performers are from the People’s Republic of China, where the acrobatic tradition dates back more than 2,000 years.

"The show is thrilling, it’s spectacular, it’s graceful and beautiful," says Cynthia Dike-Hughes, vice-president of IAI Presentations, the California producer of the show.

"We remain true to the Chinese acrobatic art form. We add some 21st-century bells and whistles to it — some special effects and wonderful lighting — but by and large, what we strive for is to remain pure in the art form."

The Peking Acrobats started performing with classical ensembles when they teamed with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra in 2003.

They’ve gone on to perform their hoop diving, unicycle and bicycle stunts, pagoda of balanced chairs, plate spinning, lion dance and other feats with orchestras such as the Buffalo Philharmonic, Cincinnati Pops and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

The WSO advertised that it would be the first Canadian orchestra to present the acrobats, but recently discovered that the colourful troupe did Edmonton Symphony shows earlier this week.

It’s part of a continent-wide trend of pops shows with visual spectacle and multimedia elements. The WSO, for instance, has previously shared the stage with Cirque de la Symphonie and Video Games Live.
Dike-Hughes says marrying the circus-style show with highbrow music broadens the base of the orchestra audience.

"It brings people who might not ordinarily go to a symphony concert, (such as) families and seniors…. We’re adding something that’s a folk art, that’s more accessible to a wider audience, to the symphony concert."

The acrobats bring along their own six-member ensemble that plays traditional Chinese instruments, such as erhu (two-stringed "Chinese violin") and pipa (four-stringed lute). The WSO’s accompaniment will include works by Ravel, Rimsky-Korsakov, Richard Rodgers and Ryuichi Sakamoto.

There’s no full rehearsal between the two groups, just a partial run-through for WSO resident conductor Richard Lee to learn the visual cues.

Symphony musicians may start out skeptical about the assignment, but don’t stay that way, Dike-Hughes says. "They’re in awe. They may not have been so thrilled that they were backing up the Peking Acrobat… but they’re blown away by what the performers can do. They become very respectful of the performers and very honoured to work with them."

Membership in the troupe is a way of life for many of the performers, who range in age from 16 to 25.
"The Chinese acrobatic tradition is very often, even today, handed down from generation to generation," the producer says. "Many of the performers come from traditional acrobatic families. Their parents were acrobats and their grandparents were acrobats."

Nonetheless, they’re typical young people who like to play soccer and badminton in their off-hours. They also like tech gadgets that keep them connected to family and friends in Asia.

"They’re like normal college-aged young people, with the exception that they’re extremely talented and extremely disciplined," Dike-Hughes says.

"Of course they all have iPads and iPods…. They spend a lot of time texting and emailing. I had one of my technical people tell me that the performers have better computers than he does."

alison.mayes@freepress.mb.ca