OPENING AT MAGIC MOUNTAIN : CHINESE ACROBATS GET A TASTE OF AMERICANA

When China’s Chongqing Acrobatic Troupe arrived at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia for its first U.S. engagement--which begins today--the athletes were feted on what they considered a most exotic dish: franks and fries.

This 13-member group--part of a company known in China for innovative group efforts in stacking bowls, bicycles and bodies--poked some fun at the doughy buns and rubbery meat. Were they planning to demonstrate the fine art of multiple hotdog stacking?

“First they’ll have to figure out how to eat them,” answered Peifen Lu, the troupe’s representative. “They don’t have that much time, since there are four shows a day.”

Performing at the Magic Mountain TDK Showcase Theatre until Sept. 1 (except Fridays), the Illustrated on Page 1

Chongqing acrobats still will be able to explore some nuances of American life, stationed as they are so close to Bugs Bunny World and Animal Farm.

Sensing this irony, Lu--a woman with a wry sense of humor--said she hopes the talents of the acrobats will prove at least as challenging, and as humorous, to Americans as some of the standard American iconography seen (and eaten) at Magic Mountain seems to the Chinese.

“You call it culture shock,” Lu said with the help of her interpreter, Ning Han. “We call it a kind of cultural show and tell.”

Lu acted as a cultural emissary during rehearsals, introducing performers as if each were a living symbol of China.

Seventeen-year-old Huang Fang performed headstands on a pagoda of glasses.

Another young woman, Peng Hai-Tao, climbed 10 stacked chairs with the dexterity of a frisky and nimble cat zipping up a cluster of fragile tree branches. At the top of the chairs, she smiled. Lu pointed to this example of emotional expressivity as if it were the answer to the world’s problems.

While the troupe’s brash, colorful costumes and loud, taped sound tracks and the frenzy of the 11 vaudeville-like acts may strike onlookers as circus effects dressed up in modern production values, Lu said nearly every act and almost every movement can be traced to ancient rituals.

For centuries, Chinese acrobatic troupes performed balancing acts as a method of finding balance amid the forces of nature, in good luck and bad, during harvests and on happy occasions such as weddings, Lu said.

Chongqing tour producer Mark Wilson said the troupe might even reveal something about the way performers live in a socialist society. Political reform and influence from the West are changing the way the troupes are run, and in the future the Chongqing Troupe may handle its own business affairs.

Lu said the acrobats have seemed somewhat “more creative” in the last five years, and more solo work has been cultivated instead of the traditional ensemble pieces. Of course, group work still predominates as well as what Wilson called the socialist spirit of cooperation.

“That’s why this group has come to Magic Mountain,” he said.

There are also plenty of high jinks to thrill children, and Magic Mountain spokesman Scott Piazza predicted that the Chongqing acrobats will appeal to American audiences as much as last year’s Peking contingent, the most successful performing attraction in the 15-year history of the family theme park.

Lu refused to speculate about the reception of her troupe but seemed most proud of the seven women who perform the art of chair stacking; it is the only group in China to use an all-female team.

“Maybe this can serve as a role model to American girls,” she says, “or to people all over the world who face challenges.”