What I liked
Wonderful artistry and storytelling. World-class circus skills. Bilingual storytelling. Though I was not surprised it was so moving, I also found it surprisingly funny!
What I didn't like
Some of the people in our group wanted to know what happened in that ten years when Junru took a break from circus. What made her come back and want to redeem the skills she’d forsaken? In a longer version of the show, perhaps this could be explored. We also thought the show should travel more widely so we can recommend it to more friends around the country/world.
My overall impression
I cannot recommend Junru’s extraordinary one-woman show more highly. As someone who writes and makes films about Chinese contemporary circus artists, I was astonished to see how she evoked both the cost of the grueling training that made her into a world-class hand balancer and her own journey towards using those skills as her artistic medium. Watching Junru embody the ghosts of her past—her father and mother and coaches and even her younger self—made me laugh first, then cry. In allowing them to possess her body, it seems she was able to exorcise them. A soulful show with multi-generational appeal. Six of us went together, three adults and three 13-year-olds. Another adult writes: “I was grateful to see the artist find her own voice after the trauma of coerced artistry. Has she redeemed acrobatics for us? Can we enjoy the beauty and amazement we feel while watching her perform knowing what she and acrobats like her were forced to endure? I don’t know. I was crying too hard.” A teenager writes: “It was incredibly moving and she perfectly captured how she was forced to grow up through her body.”
