Circus artists point to space as main challenge for development

The relatively massive scale of space required by circus performances is still a major challenge and can only be overcome by somewhat bypassing it, several local circus artists said yesterday.

A meet-the-press event was held yesterday for the Crème de la Fringe: Contemporary Circus Festival, an extended event in this year’s Macao City Fringe Festival. At the press event, artists who either curated or will perform at the circus performances for the extended event were asked by the Times how the challenges of developing circus arts in Macau can be overcome.

During their introductions, the artists revealed that a cyr wheel artist from Taiwan will perform for the circus festival. Cyr wheel art, which somewhat resembles the Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci, has a performer holding the inside of a metal wheel with diameter measuring up to 1.8 meters.

In Macau, street performances, such as busking, are strictly monitored and require prior application to the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) or the Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM), unlike in many other places, where anybody can bring their instruments to stage their performances.

As such, circus arts, which on many occasions involve large-scale instruments, can be difficult in Macau, a packed city in terms of both space and population.

Cita Kuong, performer at The Crow Clowns, one of the four events at the circus festival, suggested that the government could streamline its application process for venue use. Furthermore, she said that her troupe recently was seeking a venue for a performance, but the schedule was so packed. However, she believed that there are rooms available that the government will announce as part of the application process for venue use.

In addition, training space is also a challenge, as not many indoor premises in Macau have high ceilings and sufficient space for circus arts. Fortunately, a friend happened to have a studio that met the requirements of circus arts and offered it up for the performers to use for practice, Benson Kuong, artistic director of the circus festival, disclosed.

To overcome or work around the challenges with space, Benson Kuong said that the local artistic circus circle needed to instill more artistic and performing elements into their daily training and curations.

For example, he said, the circle in Hong Kong developed advanced skills in making performance tools, such as balls for juggling, in part because there was not enough space in the territory for large-scale circus performances.

On whether assistance from casino operators is among their plans – considering the talent cultivation and economic diversification aspect of Corporate Social Responsibilities – both Bobo Leong, curator of the circus festival, and Benson revealed that they had approached some operators, but Benson said that the operators needed them to produce a convincing portfolio before the discussing next steps.

They hope that this circus festival will help them achieve this. In fact, they have invited representatives from Sands China Ltd. to watch this circus festival.

On the culturally negative impression of clowns, Cita admitted that when she was young, she hated clowns. Nonetheless, she realized later that the quality she hated was the “horridly colorful presentation.” Now, working as a clown herself, she assured that contemporary clowns are more “aesthetically pleasing,” and parents should embrace the arts, should their children want to become one.

Contemporary Circus Festival will be on show at the Former Iec long Firecracker Factory over this weekend.