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The audiences have spoken, and the verdict is in: This year’s Cirque de Chine production is the best show that Smoky Mountain Palace has offered to date. Cirque de Chine showcases the talents of some of China’s most amazing acrobatic performers, who deliver a fast-paced, two-hour spectacle that can best be described as breathtaking thanks to mind-boggling feats of skill, gorgeous costumes, and music and lighting cues that heighten the impact of each act.
And that’s high praise indeed, considering that this year’s award-winning troupe has been able to follow in the agile footsteps of last year’s company, the China National Acrobats Troupe. This year’s group of performers, however, has been up to the task, delivering to Smoky Mountains audiences a theater experience that is unlike any other in town.
The show is divided into more than a dozen segments, each of which features a different acrobatic feat. For example, there are traditional acts such as the Chinese yo-yo, in which the talented ladies on stage show off not just their performance skills but a stunning array of costumes as well. Elsewhere in the show, male hoop divers take split-second timing to the extreme as they hurl themselves through the air and dive through moving hoops. You’ll also marvel as one young lady is catapulted through air from a springboard and onto the shoulders of a fellow acrobat standing three people high above the stage.
One of this year’s new acts—Face Off or Mask Changing—is a form of Chinese expressionist theater that is documented to be at least 300 years old and has rarely been performed outside of China. Leaving audiences at a loss as to how to explain what they’ve just seen, the act creates the illusion that the costume mask being worn by one young lady transforms into another mask, without being touched and in the blink of an eye. Of China’s 1.5 billion inhabitants, fewer than 200 performers have mastered this skill, and they are sworn to silence when it comes to the illusion’s secret.
“It has to be seen to be believed, and even then you won’t believe what you have just seen,” says Jackie He, general manager of Smoky Mountain Palace.
And that just scratches the surface of the marvels that await audiences who see Cirque de Chine. This year, the Jung Jo Drums all-girl ensemble is back after spending 2008 preparing for and participating in last summer’s Olympic games in Beijing. The precision and craftsmanship that these ladies have brought with them back to the Smoky Mountain Palace stage have made them a crowd favorite.
“After two successful seasons showcasing Chinese acrobats, this year’s version of Cirque de Chine has proven to be exciting and entertaining beyond expectations,” says He. “It has helped reinforce the opinion that our show is one of the best theatrical productions west of New York and east of Las Vegas.”
Also adding to the theater’s reputation is the fact that it was recently appointed as the United States office of the Shanghai Federation of Literary and Art Circle (SFLAC). Overcoming competition from Washington, D.C., and New York, the Sevierville-based theater was recognized by SFLAC for its role in helping showcase Chinese art and culture in America.
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