Theater Reviews

Apr 25, 2000 - Golden Dragon Acrobats: Too Much of a Superlative Thing

By Jack Neal

The superlative Chinese Golden Dragon Acrobats performed in Reno Monday night (4/24/4000) as the last program in the 65th season of Washoe County Community Concerts.

It was a dazzling night for Nevada's oldest continuous performing arts series. A colorfully costumed, astonishingly talented cast of 20 some athlete-artists presented a one-gasp-after-another show before a packed house at the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts. What a vibrant way of confirming that at 65, and the senior citizen of promoting performance arts in Nevada, WCCC is alive, well and raring to go into its 66th season without any signs of slowing down.

My only complaint about the Chinese Golden Dragon Acrobats as an entertainment package is that this very fine troupe loses its grip on rapt audience attention with segments that are just a tad overlong in reaching fruition. Much like listening to Uncle Joe's umpteenth telling of some long distant escapade, too little, rather than too long, is still an apt proverb for performers. Pacing comes under the auspices of producer and director Danny Chang, who does an eloquent job in all respects with this show save a trim here and a tuck there.

But beyond excess, what a polished and astonishing show it is. Beautifully and richly costumed, costume designs by Angela Chang, with simple but exotically attractive sets, the troupe moves elegantly and dangerously through what its does best and that's amaze and entertain.

Miss Chang's choreography is another of the production's pluses. Under her guidance the cast's movements are not just entrancing to watch, they blossom time and again into lovely montages of sculpted color that are breathtaking.

But as breathtaking as the show is in movement and appearance, there is nothing more breathtaking than the strength, skill and devil-may-care attitudes of the performers who make it all work. For those of us who find navigating stairs a socially challenging experience, these young performers are especially damaging to one's self image. They twist their bodies into skeletal contortions that seemingly defy all laws of physics and human anatomy. They build multi-level, sky-high human pyramids, pile more people on a bicycle than any younger generation has ever crammed into a Volkswagen, balance spinning plates on flimsy little wire poles while hanging from some daredevilish pose on a trapeze, and do just about everything that seems utterly impossible for the human body to do except turn inside out and at times it appears they do that too.

Nearly all the ancient and not so ancient arts of show business are touched upon in the bags of tricks the Chinese Golden Dragon Acrobats parlay with such abandon into a marvel of visual wonders, including charmingly presented magic and a death defying tower of chairs. The entire show is wrapped in a lush new age musical underscoring (based, no doubt, on centuries old Chinese folk tunes) that's as comfortable to hear as the show is daring to watch.

The 23 men and women who star in this extraordinary experience all deserve star billing. But, sadly, names other than Danny and Angela Chang are merely listed in the printed program with no reference to what it is individuals do. That's an omission an acrobats union could quickly solve.

The Chinese Golden Dragon Acrobats is an invigorating, glittering show with length and anonymity being the only drawbacks in an otherwise delightful evening.

For information regarding the Washoe County Community Concerts Association's next season and upcoming events call 775-786-7300.