Story by Caleb Yeoh
CIRCUS Circus was the opening show of George Town Festival (GTF) 2014 and was more than enough to wet everyone’s appetite for this month-long festival of culture and the arts.
There were no clowns nor elephants on bikes, but Circus Circus left the audience, mind-blown and in awe, with a completely modern twist to a performance which embodied art, culture, dance, music, drama and theatrics all into one serving of taste and class.
Collaborative performances of the four different acrobat and dance troupes had everyone at Dewan Sri Pinang glued to their seats, with their mouths left open and their eyes, tired from trying to not blink so much.
The four troupes were Wrecking Crew Orchestra (Japan), Race Horse Company (Finland), Bunditpatanasilpa Institute (Thailand) and Shanghai Starlight Acrobatic Troupe (China).
Kicking off the night was Wrecking Crew Orchestra. All the lights in the hall were killed and out from the black of night, the dancers appeared on stage as their glow light suits were turned on, moving to the sound of a remixed version of Kanye’s ‘Stronger’.
It was a dance performance of a different nature which gave off a futuristic and robotic feel, going to the beat of some good ol dubstep as the dancers were only outlined by the neon colored fluorescent ribbons on their suits.
Then came Race Horse Company, a five-man team who bounced on big red balls, which was truly not an easy task.
Performing hand stands to full 180 whole body turns and frontward to backward flips while bouncing on and off big red balls showed full body muscle control, athleticism and coordination.
Next was a soulful shadow play by the Bunditpatanasilpa Institute, where the lead male dancer opened up with a couple dance with his own shadow. The feel of the music and the strong, controlled environment the dance created had the whole hall mesmerized by this rich aspect of Thai culture.
The dance was later joined by the rest of the troupe whose water-like movements formed shadows of various sites in George Town. Their silhouettes created a church, a mosque, a Hindu Temple, a Buddhist temple, the cable cars at Penang Hill and even the Penang Bridge.
Lastly was the Shanghai Starlight Acrobatic Troupe who wowed the audience with their physically impossible acrobatic movements, bending their bodies and the very laws of the human body.
Coming to town for its fifth year in a row, GTF has attracted international acclaim. So much so that The New York Times wrote an article about it, naming GTF as a “major Asian arts event”.
To view the NYT article, head on to