The Phoenix Circus accommodates stars of the Circus of Beijing

The Phoenix Circus is of return for the festivals of end of the year. This time still, he proposes a show who will fill with wonder small and large, with “Stars of the Circus of Beijing”, heading “the King of the Monkeys”, drawn from one of the 4 most famous novels of China.

The Phoenix Circus was created in 2000 by Alain M. Pacherie under a capital without internal structures, considered as the big top of the world with 6000 seats.

Whereas the animals are done rarer in the traditional circuses, the Phoenix Circus present of the more modern numbers based on tales and old legends, African, cuban or Asian like this year, the adapted show of the “King of the Monkeys “of Sun Wukong interprets by Stars of the Circus of Beijing which make their great return.

Since its creation, the capital accommodated more than 6 million spectators filled with wonder by artists come from the 4 corners from the world to make live the legends of their countries.  Thus the most beautiful numbers of “Gypsies followed one another”, of circus in Freedom with Fuerza, of Legends with Jubilee, of Lia Ya to the Jade Emperor, of the Most beautiful Numbers of the World with CirkAfrika, the Small Dragon in CirkaCuba and the circus of Beijing;

In China, the acrobats belong to the company since millenia, appreciated the powerful ones but also of the people. This is why a whole district their is dedicated to Beijing (the Bridge of the Sky) or to Shanghai (the High society) or to Wuhan. In this objective, in 1951, Chinese the Prime Minister Cabbage into Lay thinks of creating in Beijing a troop of prestigious artists, devoted to arts of the circus in order to make discover with the whole world the mysteries of the world circassien.  The school of the circus is as for it founded in 1995. Acrobats, contorsionists, equilibrists and jugglers, come for most between them from Guangdong, province of the south–east of China, constitute the best company of Chinese circus of all times. One finds them in competitions of the whole world where they are rewarded for their performances. In spite of that, during years 70/80, the company sudden of the crises and Alain M. Pacherie repurchase the brand for Europe by setting up the artists who compose it with the row of Stars to make the distinction between the pre era and post crisis.

For this opus, we are in the presence of a troop originating in Zhejiang of an average age of about twenty years, whose main character “the King of the Monkeys” is interprets by Yuan Tian, a 20 years old artist integrated in 2005. In 2017, it is selected to contribute to the World Festival of the Circus of Tomorrow (Olympic Games of the Modern Circus). Following this performance, Alain M. Pacherie integrates it into his creation, the King of the Monkeys; for the numbers of balance on the head or the jump of the cerceaux one.

“The King of the Monkeys”, drawn from the famous Chinese novel “the Peregrination towards the West” of Wu Cheng En, is one of the four most famous novels of the Empire of the Medium;  he reports the history of Sun Wu Kong, otherwise called, the King of the Monkeys, born into 646 from our era, in China, in the mounts of the flowers and the fruits. Facetious and undisciplined, there will undergo the supreme sentence to remain locked up five hundred years under the Mountain of the Five Fingers. At the same time, the Tang monk, friend of the emperor must go to India in order to find there the sacred texts, which it must translate into Chinese. Thus it sticks the services of four disciples (the King of the Monkeys, the Horse–Dragon, the Wild boar–Pig, as well as the Inattentive Dragon) with whom it will live fantastic adventures during a travel filled of unexpected meetings.

During a show of practically two hours, 50 artists dressed in 300 splendid costumes evolve in sumptuous decorations at the time of 14 numbers evoking the history of this monkey left a stone egg resulting from one from the rocks from the Mount from the Flowers. Of monkey, he became immortal king then. The successive numbers evoke the travel of the monkey and his/her companions in India but also in China with the various tables whose cerceaux one and the jump of the swallow which skims water (this discipline is used in the training of the soldiers and is symbolic system in the celebration of the cult taoist), jugglings and antipodists (umbrellas, pagodas of glasses, plates, chairs, twin wheels, hats or carpet…), the whole intersected with scenes comic and full with humour without forgetting the games icariens, the lassos which make think of the crossing of the large plains, or fabrics air, disciplines created in France in the middle of the years 1990 and become a universal lifting technique that the Chinese use at the same time like straps and a fluid support to give an astonishing feeling of lightness to their evolutions. The final table gathers all the protagonists of the travel of the monk around the King of the Monkeys.

There remains still a little more than one month to go Lawn of Reuilly and to discover this splendid air and lifting show. The troop leaves then in round through France from January 24th to February 10th, 2019;

We will be able to also find the new show of the Phoenix Circus starting from November 16th, 2019 with the Wandering Circus of Mongolia which will invite us to join 50 nomads in the yurt built in the center of the track. It will be the occasion to discover an ignored circus, different from that of its neighbors: A travel in Mongolia located at the south of Russia and north of China!

Photos: BM / IMPACT EUROPEAN

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